"cipher" asked
some questions about gear

Hi Cipher,
let me quote Tom who posted a few concerns about Flow Bindings a while back:

schrieb im Newsbeitrag
om...


let me begin by saying i'm a huge fan of the flow binding, but with a
asterisk. I'm a fan of the old design, not the new one.
I wore my old ones until the base plate literaly fell apart, so this
year i went out and bought a new pair. I really splurged and bought
the carbon fiber hi-back model and was excited about getting on the
mountain with it, until i actually got on the mountain.
On the old design the cable was attached a little higher on the high
back so when you flipped it up the pressure would keep the highback
up. on the new one they lowered where the cable connects and added a
slot on the high back that the plastic piece fits into and then is
held in place with two small strips of metal. When you go to the shop
take a good look at those strips of metal, push them in and imagine
how much force it would take to bend either one or both of them.
On my first day out on a black diamond run on an icy east coast hill,
i suddenly felt my back foot go loose when i looked down my back
highback had flopped down, my foot was out of the binding and i was
getting ready for a spill of epic proportions. At first I didn't
realize what was going on, but i couldn't get the highback to stay up.
luckily i was snowboarding with my friend who is a lot like Mcguyver
and he immedietly saw why the highback wasn't staying up took his car
keys out and bent the metal strips out enough so they caught the
highback. that worked for a run or two, but again the force from
turning (I'm no pro, but I do like to go hard, fast and steep) made
the metal strips bend and my highback dropped down again. Now I was
scared, I didn't want to get hurt, so I bent it out again with my keys
and carefully made my way to the lodge where i rented a pair of
convential bindings.
Looking back at the design it's striking to think that Flow would put
such cheap elements into such an important part of the binding. I
don't know what they were thinking, and yes i'm sure they tested the
hell out of this thing before they put it on the market, but still,
these skinny, cheap, pieces of metal are not what i want standing
between me and a bad fall. The one really intresting thing is that on
Flow's most expensive, hardest to find binding, the pro model, they
are still using the old design and not those metal strips.
And to add injury to insult, the new cable is not long enough, so the
highback doens't flop down when you release the highback, which is the
whole point of the flow design. if it doesn't flop down when you
release you can't step in or step out, so what exactly is the point in
having a step-in binding that you can't step into?

tom

and now on to Todd:

"toddjb" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
om...
If you buy flow bindings, strongly consider flow boots as well.

I rode a pair of Pro-S flows for 10 days with my "32" boots.
First off, the bindings fit awful with those boots and I could never
get them snug without foot pain...however, since I sold the flows I
also noticed a lot of damage to my rear boot at the heel. The friction
of the flow highback coming up and scraping the side of the boot each time
broke through some seams on the boot and scraped the heel up pretty
good.

If you can wait a year I heard a rumor that Ride is coming out with
a very cool flow like system next year. I haven't seen it but it is
supposed to have straps, but a highback that drops down. So, you get
the quick easy-in/easy-out, but the on-slope adjustments of straps...
and the top strap would rise up when you drop the highback so it is
easy to get your foot in and out. That's what i heard, who knows if
its true. Since I didn't like the flows, i think its worth waiting
to see what's out next season. If you don't like anything, you can
always buy a 03/04 model cheap on ebay.

-t

HtH and HF,
Simon