UPZ RC-10 First impression

[Ernie00]

I Posted this earlier this season and now with the review board up, I copied it.

UPZ RC-10 First impression

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Finally got a chance to ride tonight... it felt very good.

I was trying for the first time my new boots, coming from a much softer boot in the past 7 years I was a little anxious to test them. I had a set of Raichle AF600 with BTS and yellow spring.

First: They are not as easy to get in as my raichle, had to fight myself into the boots.. definitaly a good warm up. My AF600 I used to put then next to the truck and jump both feet at the same time in them. If I tried that with the UPZ I'd probably find my face smashed in the car next to me. Found a little later that putting the boot on Walk mode makes it a lot easier to get In and Out.

Once I was in the boot, they are pretty comfy for the first time around, no pressure point or anything and my narrow heel isn't moving. I was expecting them to feel a lot stiffer. They are stiffer but not to a point that it's disturbing me. I can still feel the flex (fwd and back) and I'm on the light side. I might try to see if they can be soften up a little with the thread on spring adjustment but by then end of my session (2 hours) I was very pleased with them. I'm able to put pressure on the cufs as I carve and still fell the boot flexing and playing with it. I think I need a little tweaking with them and should be perfect.

Gone are the shin bangs, every beggining of season I used to have crazy pressure points on my shins, to a point where I lost all hair on that part of the shin. Nothing now, felt very good.

Not sure how warm they are, felt a little cold but then again that might be just me and the first time out this year.

So far so good, can't wait to ride in perfect conditions. Tonight was a mix of ice, artifical snow being blown, crud and some moguls. Managed to find a few lines where it was possible to link 4-5 carves.

[Allee]

I bought the RC10's at the start of the 2009/2010 season, after two years of fighting to get Track 325's to fit.

First impressions out of the box - they were seriously industrial. Five buckles and a big, beefy booster strap. Getting them on to wear around the house the first few times involved about ten minutes of tugging and swearing - the asymetric tongue setup means you have to wriggle your foot in, rather than just flipping the tongue up like you do on the Tracks.

The first few nights I could only wear them around for five minutes, as any longer and my feet started to throb. They were REALLY tight, and I have very long, very narrow feet with a pointy heel. They're much narrower than the Tracks through the heel, and noticeably lower volume through the cuff and over the arch of the foot. As the liners are self mold, it's probably a really good idea to get some carpet time on these first, before you attempt to ride in them. The liner is stiff and takes some beating around before it starts to mold.

The first day riding was surprisingly good. I'm 5ft9 and 150lb, intermediate rider, I tend to ride pretty hard on the nose for a girl. The flex on these boots was surprisingly easy to handle. I ride in permanent walk mode, which would definitely help, but they never felt stiff or hard to handle. I did have a little bit of trouble adjusting to the top of the boot being taller and stiffer, thanks to the extra booster strap and buckle, but once that was dialed they felt great. So far I have about ten days on them, they've molded into very comfortable boots, and not having to worry about slop or heel lift has definitely helped my riding.

I ride these on a Donek Axxess, a Coiler PR, and a Madd BX and they ride great on all of them. I have found that with the boots being stiffer than the old Tracks, I much prefer a softer binding, so I'm running stiff board - soft binding - stiff boot as opposed to an all-stiff interface, but people who weight a little more probably won't have this problem.

If you're coming from Deeluxes, don't be tempted to crank the buckles on these bad boys. I made this mistake the first couple of days of riding, and my shins paid the price for it. Now I back the buckles off to just tight enough to hold, and still ride with no foot movement. The people I know who ride these boots rarely have them done up past the first couple of hooks, there's simply no need.

We haven't had a really cold winter here this year, so I've yet to take the liners out in "Alberta Special" weather (-20C and beyond). I suspect they won't be as warm as the Thermos, but that's a minor annoyance and the reason God invented the sticky heat pack.

I did install Intec heels on mine, and cheated with the T-nut thing. The holes in the bottom of the boot are recessed, and even if the T-nut is just sitting with its spikes on the recessed surface, it's still flush with the bottom of the boot. So I just got slightly longer screws and some washers, and let the T-nuts "float" there when I screwed them in - rather than trying to beat them down into the plastic. No issues so far, seems to be holding up fine. Again, if you weight more than me, this might not be a good idea, but it works great for a lightweight.

The only minor niggle has been that the screws holding the buckle teeth on come loose from the boot - as you take the boots on and off and wiggle these around, they'll loosen up. I'm going to Loctite mine, but I have to remember to check them for tightness before I ride.

All in all, very impressed. Highly recommended.

[Ernie00]

-20 C yesterday and the boots aren't as hot at the thermo after 3 hours my toes were very cold... ever run I had to unbuckle the 3 lower buckles to help.

But the flex stays very consistent even when super cold.

[CHAINSAW]

I just recently blew out my 2011 track 700s and thinking about getting rc10s. Do you know if they Are stiffer than the deeluxe track 700s?

[Hans]

You have the possibility to soften the tongue (3 different stiffness)

[Ernie00]

changing my liner to a thermo liner really soften up the boot with the stock tongue on them.

[Gcarve]

changing my liner to a thermo liner really soften up the boot with the stock tongue on them.

What color stock tongue are you using? How do you like the softer flex with the Thermo liners?

[Corey]

Likewise. I'm using the medium black tongue and an Intuition Alpine liner, they are softer forwards than the previous generation Deeluxe 700s. I needed to tighten down the springs a bit as I found it too soft.