Bufo V Machine

The Bufo V Machine lives up to its name, delivering quite well on the promised performance. It excels at smearing on steep features, with excellent sensitivity that doesn’t come at the expense of edging ability. Its compression molded, ribbed heel rand excels at hooking and the toe has just enough rubber for toe hooking and scumming. The shoe was also the easiest Velcro to put on. The receiving ends of the Velcro straps sported large patches for angling the straps precisely for an optimized fit. But this V Machine has an Achilles heel — in the toe. The leather of the outside tongue flap meets the toe box in an uncomfortable seam. That seam, while laminated to minimize its presence, caused serious irritation to our pinky toes, making the shoe less than optimal for long sessions. A few testers also found that the supple, unlined leather upper tended to bunch up in the arch when frontpointing.