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#11
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Snow Board Bindings
Jeremy Holt wrote:
Hey guys.. i was wondering if anyone had some intel on what were the best bindings to buy overall and also what were the best coming out this year. i am heading to whistler for the season, so would like to get some good all round bindings. I generally like to stick with the powder as much as possible. Some that look good are the Burton p1's... Whistler has notoriously variable weather over the season and depending on what elevation you are at. You'll want an all-arounding binding that light (fun for powder), but sturdy (when you hit the ice/chop at lower elevations) and has rather few parts that can break. I have a pair of Burton P1MDs from a few years ago and they are a good freestyle binding that are really light so they ride great in powder. They are a little too flexy for faster freeriding in my opinion (I think the more recent P1s are stiffer). I broke the FLAD (on my lead-leg so it could *not* have been the chair lift), but Burton sent me a replacement highback for free (I bought it used so I didn't even have a receipt). They sent me a replacement set of screwdriver-less bolts. I also have ridden Salomon bindings (SP4, SPX6) and they are a very nice solid binding, medium weight and ultra-sturdy. I found the back heelcup part of the high back to stick out too much and would dig into the snow if I laid down a really hard heelside. (For those of you wondering if my setup - I was riding 18/6 angles with size 26cm feet on a 24cm waisted board, the bindings were centered so that I got a little bit of drag on both sides once I tipped the board past 55 degrees. Cranking up the anges to 36/30 would almost fix it. As would getting Palmer Lift plates). I really like the Nidecker 800s I have as well, they have a riser pad built in to avoid boot drag and the eva foam in it absorbs shock. The straps are big and beefy and the highback is pretty stiff. They only have 4-hole disks as far as I can tell and you can't use generics because the built-in riser pad raises it a bit. I personally don't like the harsher ride of metal baseplates like Ride or Catek - although both are very well made and super tough. If you are riding in powder that won't be a problem... but again the icy stuff at the lower elevations... Oh and don't worry about Neil, he's the resident hardbooter zealot - he makes a fool of himself promoting hardboots so moderates hardbooters like Mike T and I don't have to |
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#12
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Snow Board Bindings
Oh and don't worry about Neil, he's the
resident hardbooter zealot - he makes a fool of himself promoting hardboots so moderates hardbooters like Mike T and I don't have to LOL! Regarding soft bindings, it's been a while since I've tried anything but the Salomons, mine are SP6's from 01/02 I think. I like Salomons because the straps and highback are IMHO very ergonomically shaped. What I don't like, is that the heelcup position cannot be adjusted closer to the center disks or farther away. Unless the S, M or L size happens to center you across the board, you'll need to deal with being toeside or heelside heavy or turn your disks 90* and lose a lot of stance width adjustment. Perhaps they've fixed that this year. My wife has some 05-06 Ride Diva bindings that she likes - very adjustable, quite light, and they have some dampening to take the edge from the metal off. I suspect there is a "men's" version with similar features. Mike T ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==---- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---- |
#13
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Snow Board Bindings
I'm not sure that's actually bending the board, more that the board is being bent hard in the turn allowing them to get their knees together. In hardbooting it's not considered especially good technique - knees apart is better. Oh, he's bending it alright. I have tried it myself and it works rather well. I am not a great boarder, but some of the best recommended it to me. You can feel the difference (and awkwardness). I'm not convinced that would actually let him go faster. Longer running surface is generally better for glide, which is one reason why DH and speed skis are so long. Plus I'm trying to imagine keeping any kind of aerodynamic position while doing that, and failing... He is rated 240 something in the world standings at this point. I am with you as to the technique allowing for the board glide easier, or more likely, since he is so low at that point he has very little wind drag. My guess is the latter. The more you stand up, the more frontal area you present, the more drag you create. Chris |
#14
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Snow Board Bindings
Jeremy Holt wrote: Hey guys.. i was wondering if anyone had some intel on what were the best bindings to buy overall and also what were the best coming out this year. i am heading to whistler for the season, so would like to get some good all round bindings. I generally like to stick with the powder as much as possible. Some that look good are the Burton p1's... anyway, any comments appreciated.. Cheers J |
#15
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Snow Board Bindings
Jeremy Holt wrote: Hey guys.. i was wondering if anyone had some intel on what were the best bindings to buy overall and also what were the best coming out this year. i am heading to whistler for the season, so would like to get some good all round bindings. I generally like to stick with the powder as much as possible. Some that look good are the Burton p1's... anyway, any comments appreciated.. Cheers J J, P1's rule! I ride woods & deeper snow at Jay. Medium flex and super comfy - don't know the bindings are there. Which is how Gary Fisher thinks makes the best bike - works so well you don't even think about it. |
#16
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Snow Board Bindings
Neil Gendzwill wrote:
Many recreational riders don't do a lot of jumping, but everyone has to turn. That's why I advocate hard boots for all-mountain riding, as I think they're an option most people aren't even aware of. I am a pretty new rider, I have never tried hard boots. With this in mind, my opinions may be way off. For general purpose recreational riding, I thought the main reason the soft boots were so popular is simply because they are comfortable. I can be in them all day, walk around, hike up the hill, even drive my pickup to and from the hill - all with comfort. Watching people in hard boots waddle around pretty much tells me that I don't want to try them until (if ever) I reach that level of competitive riding. $0.02 -- David Peacock - http://quasicanuck.blogspot.com/ |
#17
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Snow Board Bindings
snipped
For general purpose recreational riding, I thought the main reason the soft boots were so popular is simply because they are comfortable. I can be in them all day, walk around, hike up the hill, even drive my pickup to and from the hill - all with comfort. Watching people in hard boots waddle around pretty much tells me that I don't want to try them until (if ever) I reach that level of competitive riding. snipped That is the great thing about snowboarding - you can pick pretty much any type of equipment (from most any manufacturer) without being forced into a single solution for board, boots, or bindings. It appears as if skis are getting more limiting for that option with the integration of bindings with the ski. Look at all of the options we have with regular step ins, Flow and Cinch style step ins, standard straps, and hard boot setups. Personally, I have Flows, Burton P1 Carbons, Burton P1s with Burton Ion and Salomon Malmute boots and Burton Triumph and Fish boards with a Nitro Storm thrown in. Pick a snow condition and what you want to do, pick a setup, have fun, end of story! However, now that my oldest son is almost as tall as me, I think I will end up an option short of what I am used to! Really want to try the new Burton CO2 asymmetric bindings to see if the canted ergonomic highbacks make a difference. And its snowing out West! Check out the webcams! http://breckenridge.snow.com/mtn.cams.asp http://www.snowbird.com/ski_board/mtncams.html |
#18
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Snow Board Bindings
David Peacock wrote:
For general purpose recreational riding, I thought the main reason the soft boots were so popular is simply because they are comfortable. I can be in them all day, walk around, hike up the hill, even drive my pickup to and from the hill - all with comfort. That's certainly part of the "sell" of them. There's also a great deal of the attitude that snowboarding is not skiing, and so people reject equipment that looks too much like ski equipment. Also the equipment is so hard to find that 99% of people don't even know what it is, never mind consider that it might be an option. I agree that as a beginner, soft boots are probably the way to go. People have learned on hard boots but most of the hardbooters I know would suggest starting on softies - they are just more forgiving. When you start pushing yourself past the intermediate plateau, that's where I feel plates become a viable option. As Chris pointed out, there's a lot of riders that carve hard on softies too. It might be eventually that the soft equipment gets so good that hard boots are no longer an advantage - some people feel that point is already here, obviously I disagree. Hard boots still give you much more leverage over the board and let you pressure the edge more easily. If you like to ride a forward stance as I do, hard boots work much better. As soon as you push softies much past 40 degrees or so, the lack of lateral stiffness really affects how functional they are. From a convenience point of view, step-in bindings for hard boots work absolutely great, but they have yet to come up with one for softies that beats a good strap system. I love my step-ins! There are also issues of comfort and safety. A lot of high performance riders don't find softies comfortable as the bindings create pressure points when tightened for performance. I switched because of that pain and because at the speeds I travel I felt my ankles just weren't supported enough. I admit that I haven't been in softies for years and years so I don't have personal experience to back up whether this would still be the case for me. I have heard from quite a few people who have switched recently for those reasons, so clearly there are still comfort issues for performance riders. Neil Neil |
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