Andy Sandford wrote:
"Mike T" wrote in message
news:Pl9Rd.10010$uc.3889@trnddc01...
(I just sold my Cateks to Mike!)

Hoping to try them out tonight

Lonerider, why did you sell the Cateks? Just curious as I got a pair
recently - and love 'em!

Andy

Partially because I wanted to try a new pair of bindings The first
thing is that the big circular footprint of the bindings really stiffen
up the flex of the board, which maybe be fine for most boards... but it
made my Donek Incline (one of the stiffest boards in existence) even
stiffer and I couldn't control the radius of my turns like I used to
(tightening them on demand). Maybe if I start out on a softer board it
would able been okay... but I didn't like the way the flex felt on my
Donek.

Furthermore, the bindings are a bit jarring - like if you land
long/short on a jump... or more importantly if you are trying to lay
down deep hard carves in tracked out, bumpy, or variable condition
snow. So basically these two affects suddenly made me really tentative
on firm, steep slopes as I would have to make big side to side arcs
across the trail at high speeds in order to flex the board, where a few
small bumps would first start to tire out my legs, and then towards end
of the day pop me off my carves.

Finally... I'm just not a tinkerer... I didn't use the cant/lift very
much (1/1 and 1/2) and hated having to seatch for my "favored" stance
options, ontop of all that fiddling/tinkering, I didn't like having to
check and tighten all my bolts everyday (I know I should have put on
more locktite). Everything kept loosening on me and that got annoying
(yes I do the 1/2 turn trick with the kingpin and cant screws, I mean
the toe/heelstraps/heelcup/disc screws) and I was afraid of stripping
everything with the 4mm heads (Mike I gave you BOL 5mm screw
replacements that I had just gotten).

Overall... I liked the Catek Freerides... but they didn't work well
with the super stiff board I had, which I discovered when I put my
Burton P1MD (which were supposedly my "crappy" bindings since I got
them for $80, even though they sell for $260) on to my Donek. So until
I get a softer board in a year or two (Donek Phoenix) I decided to let
someone else try the Cateks. I might go back to the Cateks in the
future... and hopefully when they have refined the design a bit by
adding some damping material to the base-plate (either between
board/disk, or plate/foot) and order adjusting the heelcup so that the
top strap fits a little higher on the foot.

--Arvin