I tried 4 buckles Zero CF in summer. They are very well built, compared to Head hardboots and extremely light. I rode them, they seem OK. You can ride them in ski or walk mode. Also forward lean has two positions. I kept front boot in first and back in second and it felt just right. I had just a couple runs in these due to extreme foot pain. But I decided to buy them at 50% off price. I immediately replace liners with my spare thermo mold Intuition; let guys to punch left shell, remold liners. After all that work I was still not able to wear them for longer than 5-10 minutes. So I started to cut foam out of liners. After several round of cutting they finally feel comfortable. I can wear only thin liner socks in those. I want to do some grinding or cutting on the top of the tongue. It also caused pain with original liner. I plan used them for backcountry boarding and resort hiking, where the snowboard hard boots are pain in the ass and actually pretty dangerous. About forward flex. I do not like stiff boot, I am riding Heads with soft tongues extra soft springs at BTS and cut out inside wings. ZZero are maybe bit stiffer in lock ski position in walk mode they are pretty soft. Entire boot is flexing. Also tongues are sliding forward and back when you flex the boots. This also helps. There plastic supposed to be stable to some degree with temperature change. I am pretty pleased with them. I tried a bunch of AT boots and like ZZero the most. And they are pretty “cool” looking. I cannot wait to try them after all that fitting work. Only what I do not like non step in binding with these. There are new UPZ ATB, which I would consider but there is only one vendor for North America and I can’t buy boot without putting them actually on my feet.