I was pleasantly surprised while skating on the new Mogema Python today. When the Mogema MG-R1 boot came out, I tested and switched to it immediately. As far as a low cut long distance boot is concerned I still feel the MG-R1 coupled with the Mogema M55-80 frame is the way to go. What I had hoped for since the MG-R1 came out, was for Mogema to take the good working MG-R1 and make a high cut version of it.
One thing I've learned from making customs is when you make a low cut boot, the lower heel from side to side needs to be tight and this tightness creates efficiency (for distance skating). But when you make a high cut boot, the lower heel from side to side needs to be somewhat loose (I've found no exception to this rule). Making a high cut boot with a tight heel makes it near impossible to get an outside edge.
Well for the first time since the good working MG-R1 boot was released Mogema has finally released the good MG-R1 design in a high cut loose lower heel design (loose lower heel design being the key words here). When I saw the boot I was expecting a high cut, tight heel boot. More companies than I can count have this type of boot and fail in my eyes to make them work but to my surprise Mogema actually made a loose heeled boot. The first thing I noticed was how light the boot felt. It weighed 15 ozs as opposed to the 17 oz boot I had been skating on (and working good at that).
You have to be careful though, as just because a boot weighs less doesn't mean it will perform better. Many times when building customs when I would use the same last design to build 2 boots around, building one boot lighter and the other heavier, the lighter boot didn't perform as good as the heavier boot. You need a certain amount of weight on a skate for outdoor skating to get good weight transfers (good weight transfers leads to good outside edges). Indoor, the lighter the skate the better (no weight transfers) but outdoor the lighter the skate the sooner you will pronate.
What I'm trying to say here is even though I've gained better performance from the lighter Python boot I didn't notice pronation setting in sooner because it was a lighter skate (which could have happened). Another thing I havn't seen until this boot came out was a good tight toe box combined with the loose lower heel in a high cut boot. I can say most if not all the other high cut boots on the market that have the loose heel have a carbon or plastic lip that comes up from the platform that encircles the toes.
I've asked the few companies who make loose heeled boots to go to a soft toe box, with no results. The fact Mogema has a soft toe box coupled with a loose heel I can now say Mogema has a one of a kind (well the MG-R1 is also a one of a kind). I change into a new boot once every one to two years so in the last 3 years I have only changed into a new boot twice. I test 10 to 20 boots a year only to be let down, so you can see I'm not swayed by (or get excited about) just any boot.
Well the Python performed so well I do believe I will be switching boots. I still have my lower cut MG-R1 with the M55-80 frame for longer distance skating but the Python is now going to take over as my sprint and interval boot (I enjoy interval training most). After I skated on the Python for 15 minutes, then put my old boot on that I had been skating on for the last year, it felt like I was skating in molasses (remember, the boot I've been skating on for the past year beat out at least 30 other boots to be the boot I was using).
I again went back to the Pythons and it was like I was shot out of a gun. Boot after boot that I test, once I'm done with the test I can't wait to get my regular boot back on but once in a very great while a new boot comes along that replaces my old and I think this happened today. I almost didn't want the Python to work as it's not a cheap boot but once I skated on it I knew with the performance I saw there was no way to go back to my old boot.
There was one problem though. The upper cuff of the boot did rub my ankles raw. I havn't had that problem in years. I'm going to watch it and see how many scratch and heal cycles it takes to toughen up the probably virgin skin it's hitting. Even with that problem, from the performance I saw today they're going to have to pry these things out of my hands to get them away from me.
