I’ve got about 75 days on the non-carbon Travers (black with yellow cuffs). I ride them with the top buckle/strap tight, but without the ride mode engaged. I occasionally miss the “highback” feeling, mostly on a icy, chattery heelside turn that I didn’t execute the way I wanted to, but 99% of the time I love the soft overall flex and surfy feel. After a bit of a learning curve, they carve as hard as any boots I’ve ridden. I have OneBinding pucks on my solid and ride these with Dyno DH’s at the lifts as well as touring.

My last boots were TLT5s, which I also rode with the upper buckle closed but the tang/forward lean lock not engaged, so I’m pretty used to a softer set up. The Fischers are definitely softer than the TLTs, but more comfy for my feet in every regard.

After 75 days or so, I am seeing a bit of breakdown on the internal fabric gaiter portion of the boot, but they remain totally waterproof so far. Some of the threads have unthreaded, and I managed to pull one of the pull-loops completely off. I also have some minor seam failure on on of the liners. Duct tape is keeping it all from getting worse. Killer boots!

I have not played around with the forward lean since I ride them “unlocked” all the time, but the lock lever is really simple, and theoretically would be easy to replace with something longer, shorter, spring loaded, rubbery, etc. The uppers on the non-carbon model are also quite soft, so I haven’t even needed to trim down the lateral or medial edges of the upper shell like I did with my TLTs. I imagine they must suck as ski boots, but they’re as close to a perfect snowboard boot as I’ve seen!

It took me a while to find them, but I managed to get the non-carbons for $411 shipped from Germany last year. I was a little worried about the transaction, but it all went through smoothly. Here’s the site I bought them from:

https://www.3s-ski.de/

I understand that the carbon and plain black Travers boot are the same grilamid shell and cuff, just that on the sole of the carbon they laminate some carbon/aramid cloth laminated there to stiffen the sole and the liner is a palau liner which saves some more weight. I think the black cuff on the Carbon made folks think it was stiffer or fiber impregnated grilamid, it’s not, it is the same. Next year the lowers are sort of a greyish black with black uppers and only the small pulley part and the buckle are yellow, really not fruit boot looking at all. No idea if they are going to market the plain travers to the US. My guess would be no, if sales of the yellow carbon boot are strong here at $800-$900. It would probably only hurt sales of the yellow boot.

There are a few spots in the EU that will sell random sizes at $350 to 450 in the spring and they go pretty quick. The non carbon travers must wholesale at what, $200 US? $250? Competition on retail mark-up must not be too far off in this segment.

and sizing is big. I usually wear a 29, size 11. The 28 shell fit well, which was the same bsl as the scarpa alien that fit me (ouch) but I went big anyway in pursuit of the squishy thick liner approach

Pulling the trigger on these. Price dropped 20% from yesterday to today.

I’ll do the same as scooby2 and try a different liner hoping to add some more support, flex and warmth.

I have had success with intuition powerwrap liners. I feel the “wrap” adds a nice support/flex toe side from the friction in the wrap and the extra padding on the shin of the liner.

Thinking about it after having studied and tried the boot, the forward lean seems pretty good as-is. It’s more the heel side I think could use a little more.

Maybe a friction layer on the heel side between the upper part of the shell and the liner could work. Just to add friction, no mechanics. Maybe fixed to the forward lean lock pin and even combinded with some type of rubbery “magic cube” which compresses on heelside. Almost like a brace which could slip on when the upper is pulled all the way back.

About modding medially as is done on TLTs. You would have to cut into the gaiter to do that. Really don’t think this boot needs it like other boots do. Feels nice and flexy already. If anything, it’s the upper which needs atttention.

It is probably a good idea to find some real thin kiteboarding string or something that you can manually lace the boot up with to save a tour.

What a bummer! Do you have a pic?

I received my boots but not tried riding them yet.

I did try squeezing an Intuition power wrap liner in there, but it was very tight because of the gaiter. (Not sure if they are the MV og HV version.)

I think the boots will need some changes before I’ll be 100% happy with them.

– Ankle buckle. Just the shape of my foot I guess, but I miss some heel hold. Also after your boa-failure it feels risky to put all that load on the boa lock alone.

– Forward lean lock. As standard, it locks in at 14 degrees forward. I like to be able to stand upright in a more relaxed position, so I want something around 0-5.

I like the idea of riding them without the forward lean lock engaged. But worried about the high risk of ankle injury in a crash or bad landing, and .

Also going to stick a plastic tongue in to give the added ankle buckle something to push against.

Either that or use a narrow strap I guess.

Tested them on slopes this evening. Not a great fit for me this boot 🙁

With the forward lean locked in it felt stiffer than I would have thought, and with my heel feeling like it was coming out it was not a good ride.

With the forward lean unlocked it was even worse. Was using all the strength I have in my foot up towards the Boa to get some kind of feeling of control.

Worked noticably better in unlocked forward lean with the Intuition power wrap liners , but still had so much heel lift I felt I was coming out of the boot. To compensate I had to tighten the shaft buckle uncomfortably tight.

So I dunno. Cut my losses and find better fitting boot, or start modding.

Good thougths here. Although I recon if you are not willing to put in a little R&D time testing in the field, you may as well jump to #7 🙂

Like your idea about thinking of the cuff as a highback. K2 and others did that kind of thing in the 90’s with step in boots like the K2 Yak.

You would loose that medial/lateral stiffness which is so good for touring though.

Could you elaborate on your elastic strap idea?