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Salomon Relay XLT Bindings - perception and sizing
I am posting this in the hopes someone might find it helpful. I
recently purchased some of Salomon's Relay bindings, the XLT versions. The sizing on these seems designed to work well with Salomon's F-series boots. The F boots are a low-volume boot. I have a set of '05 FBs, which have not changed significantly this year except in color. My size is a 28.5 mondo, which roughly is between a 10 and 10.5 in US sizing. This size is right at the limit of the XLT's "Medium" size binding, stated by Salomon to be the proper size to use for this boot. I am writing to confirm personally that the medium is the PERFECT size to use for the F series boots 28.5 and lower. Where many binding manufacturers say the boots and bindings are designed together, this seems really true in the case of these boots. A 28.5 fits glove-like into the binding, with perhaps an 1/8" or less gap between the boot and bindings. Additionally, the marketing behind the binding RE heel-hold seems true as well. The setup holds my heel and ankles more stable than any bindings I've ever tried before. If you have a higher volume boot though, you might need to go to the large if you are 28.5+, which would likely be almost every boot that is NOT an f-series salomon or DC linerless "Park Boot". A size 29 Mondo likely will NOT fit in the medium size binding, you'll need the large - don't think about trying to "squeeze it in", there just isn't the room. Construction of the binding seems very, very good, although I haven't ridden them enough yet to say whether they are long-term durable. Suffice it to say that they are one of the only bindings I've seen that impressed me out of the box; the finish and quality was very apparent. The Fast-in toe straps are, in a word, incredible and frankly every binding company on earth should emulate it. The time savings in not having to thread the toe ratchets if fabulous. In fact, although the flexible heelcup works exactly as advertised, the fast-in toestraps were the biggest pleasant surprise. Kudos to Salomon on what should have been an obvious improvement to strap bindings, yet wasn't. It's so easy that it's almost like having a single strap system. The toe straps are convertible, so can be used as over-toe capstraps or traditional over the foot-top straps. The ankle strap is quite comfortable and adequate to the task. Ratchets are smooth and aluminum, although they aren't as smooth as Burton or Ride ratchets. Still, no complaints; they haven't given any trouble. The footbeds are very nice, and easy to remove and adjust w/o tools. Similarly, the disks are well thought out. The bolts are held in by a sliding plastic retention system that frees you from the worry of losing bolts while mounting; the disks also allow for infinite toe-heel adjustability. Very well made and well thought out. If you ride a lot, you'll definitely notice a more skate-like feel out of these bindings; especially on press-style tricks there is much more flex allowed in the ankle than in other bindings. Similar to Flow binding's use of a metal cable to link heel and toe, the Relays use a similar system and transfer power very effectively on heelside edging. Toeside behaves much like any binding except that the heel hold is stunning on these (this may because of the tight boot/binding fit though as much as the "3-D" hold system the marketing talks about). I am not an aggressive carver/freerider, so I cannot help you there as far as that side of riding is concerned. They turned fine for me, that's the most I can say. Between the XLT's and the Pro version of this binding, there really isn't much difference. Other than color (white vs black), the use of titanium parts, some CF in the highback and a slightly different base material, there isn't a big difference. So, If you like black/ don't care, save 80 bucks and pick up the Pros - then use the extra cash for an extra day on hill or some backstocked F series boots. In 10 years of riding, I have never used a product produced by a ski company, but last year in an attempt to find the perfect boot, I tried on the F's and was amazed at the comfort level. I bought in, despite my earlier prejudices, and rode them at Windells this summer; they could as easily have been an apres-ride sneaker as a snowboard boot. Now, these Relays seem set to blow away my perception of the binding side of the business as well. Other companies are really going to be playing catchup if Salomon can keep cranking well-researched items like these. |
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