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I think the most important and frankly overlooked aspect of this unexpected success is trying to get a snapshot of the look on Bruce’s face when he opens his inbox to find 35,000 skidders from around the world asking him to make them a Coiler so they can carve better.

Here’s the difference board width makes: 18/-6 with 26.5 boots. Angle makes it look like more overhang than it is — board has to be like 85 degrees before toe or heel starts to scrape. Really versatile and stable stance and starting to work on getting the heelside comfortable

++Fortress

Interested, shoot me pm

400 USD?

@Jack M I feel this impromptu binding discussion should be in the existing softboot bindings thread in the lounge!! I upgraded my Flows to the Flow NX2 Fusion Carbons a year ago and agree with @crackaddict, they are a great combination of low overhang and stiffness. As I’ve previously noted, the plastic footbed is almost too stiff for me (I’ve had to try softer footbeds in my boots). And I have never quite gotten along with the Flow straps, although I’m slowly starting to get there…I feel the combined strap creates more pressure on the instep as opposed to higher around the ankle so they always feel looser than what they are compared to a traditional two-strap. The buckles seem to stiffen in the cold and are more difficult to release than others unless you’ve first released the highback, which itself can be stiff to release once you’re locked in. And I’ve never found the rear entry mechanism to be smooth as I have to release the highback and then loosen the buckles slightly (I often can’t pull my boot out just from lowering the highback)….plus you can’t forget to leave the rear highback down after you step out because it catches on lift lines and gates. All that to say I’d love to swap out the one-piece strap for a more traditional two-strapper and use them like that. I ride stiff Burton bindings for years and had no strap issues. But I am slowly getting used to the straps and the Carbon binding is stiff and so short that I’ve been learning to carve at super-shallow angles this year.

For what it’s worth I have three of these type of holders I installed in the garage this summer for the kids skiis. They do work really nice.

Congrats on now having to familiarize yourself with the Ad Standards Canada Influencer Guidelines! Get your #Ad disclosures ready…..

Yeah, risers get you some extra buffer. Depending on your riser height, for me it bought a bit less than 6-degrees of stance angle give or take. I tested it on my front lawn one summer. The real question here is whether you want a dedicated carving board for on-piste carving at high stance angles. As Jack noted, for that board you’ll be able to carve aggressively at minimum angles around what he suggested, possibly a bit higher depending on your snow conditions and how aggressive a carver you are. If that’s what you’re looking for I feel the Kessler name is top shelf. I think those angles are pretty high for regular riding and do not put you in a naturally stable all-mountain riding position. I feel you’re pretty much locking yourself in to on-piste carving at 18/36. That’s kind of what the board is for, so maybe you’re fine with that and have other boards if you want to do anything else. For me, demoing a 27cm waist board a while back was a revelation. Then I got a 283mm waist Coiler last year and I don’t even boot out at 18/-6 which I was trying out last week. It’s extremely versatile. I will say for downsides, I feel the wider boards seem to require more leverage and therefore lower-leg strength. I really feel it in my calves especially at the beginning of the year. And they get dinged more on the edges if your resort makes you squeeze through those annoying metal gates in the lift line.

That would actually be great content and cheesy af, I’d actually recommend it

Smooth riding, great stuff. What skwal board do you ride?

Wait a minute, are you saying you don’t use titanal fibre socks? Incredible edge hold on hardwood.

I will repeated my oft-stated personal opinion that the X-carve is too narrow unless you wish to use very high stance angles. For a waist width of 26cm and a large sidecut, I suspect you’ll likely be looking at rear foot in the mid-20s in order to avoid bootout. If you’re OK with running those high angles for a dedicated carving board, then you’re good to go. If you want to make low carves at stance angles closer to normal all-mountain angles (ie 21 degrees or less or duck), then that board is too narrow.

Yeah. They’re designed for the highest speed in the straightest line, base flat as much as possible. Ideally not carving and certainly not across the fall line. And the flex pattern certainly doesn’t contemplate riding anywhere but a BX course. I would personally recommend a longer-sidecut all mountain board before a BX board for fun all-mountain carving.

That’s merely an opportunity to lay out a ripping heelside right in front of them to toeside right around them along with a vicious Ric Flair WHOOOO. You needed to carpe that diem

I’m jealous. I try really hard not to look like a wacky inflatable car dealer tube man and you’re making it look effortless. We both know it’s because of your hero groom.

Just imagine what happens the first time you wipe out….

The fantasy we didn’t know we had….until now

I don’t agree with just getting an SBX board. They are not amazing carvers in my opinion. They are not designed for it; BX course aren’t designed for carving. They’re designed for banked turns that don’t ever go across a hill. You probably won’t find a BX board with a waist width above 26cm, either….

I honestly don’t think that’s it. I’m US 8-8.5 (~MP 26) which is likely just to the smaller size of the middle of the adult man Bell curve for North America, and I need 30+ degree angles to carve a 255mm waist without getting a lot of bootout. They just seem to prefer using high softboot stance angles.

Was able to make a few garage tweaks (adjusted cockpit lever angles, trimmed the bars a bit, adjusted sag, played around with some shifting options in the SRAM app) and froze my ass off for a little 45-minute ride this weekend. We’ve since got our first real snow (finally!) and I likely won’t have it out again til spring. It’s a bigger bike for me, but certainly does feel slightly lighter and more responsive compared to other 6-inch travel bikes I tried this fall, namely the SC Bronson and Specialized Stumpy EVO. It kind of feels like a Yeti SB130LR I was really looking at pretty hard as my next-best choice, although the Arrival has more rear travel. But it’s not a plush full suspension ride at all — it sits really high in its travel (I think my sag is around ~22%) and it feels really firm by nature. That’s unlike the Bronson in particular, but kind of in-line with the Yeti SB5 I was coming from and frankly just what I was looking for — snappy-feeling and maybe a little feedback-heavy when on the pedals, but the travel’s there when needed. The geometry on this bike is very modern compared to my older bike and the 29 wheels and slack head angle made the front wheel feel way more out in front than I’m used to in coming from 27.5. And I’ve always been a Shimano guy so the SRAM drivetrain also feels strange. It will definitely take me more time to adjust than I’d initially thought. Having said that my face was frozen in a maniacal grin after a bit as I kept struggling to slow down to the frozen-rock-hard conditions. This thing keeps wanting to head directly to top speed. I suspect it will be a really fun summer destroying the local trails. And surprisingly stealth camouflaged too….

Thanks for the review. I’m curious how one gets a Sinline in Canada and will put it on my radar to look at further. I’ve really been enjoying the older-tech Apex V2 plate for this season, but it certainly has a slightly higher stack height; and I know the new Allflex/Sinline design is supposed to be a step forward. Do they use the same insert pattern as Allflex? And is the Sinline lower profile than something like the Allflex H longitudinal plate? The Vision seems similar to the Allflex H-cut category, although the Vision appears to be slightly heavier (only 150g or so). Have you specifically ridden the Allflex H-cut as well? Finally, I do have a question that I hope you’ll take in the honest advertising spirit it was intended — do you receive any product or form of compensation from Sinline? Many thanks!

It just feels like that’s the design for the Japanese/Korean carving boards I’m seeing. They are designed for softboot carving use, and they are made ~25-26cm wide. Ergo, you have to run high stance angles to carve them or else you boot out. It’s not even like they’re giving you a choice of 27-28cm waist widths. Anyway, whatever, not my bag or my money, and the more the merrier from my perspective. It was fun to try the Yonex and have one guy on our lift look down and ask me about tennis racquets.

Interesting, I ran into a Japanese softboot carving group myself yesterday, and they had a Yonex as well as some Gray hammerhead boards. They were asking me questions about the wide Coiler, so we did some switching for a few runs. I’d never ridden a Yonex before. It seemed pretty nice for two runs. Those boards are so narrow for softboot carving, though. I’d say somewhere around 250-255 or so. They’re running angles in the 40s by necessity to avoid bootout. I continue not to understand why anyone would carve groomers in 40+ degree softies — all that effort just to approximate a hardboot setup. I don’t know what the Yonex boards cost, but it’s a head-scratcher to me that anyone would ship a Gray from Japan at something close to 3x the price they can just pick up a Coiler from Bruce down the road. I don’t know.

Wow, I’m really sorry to hear this. I met Dan in BC once many years ago and he was a real one. I will say that I am not exactly pleased with what has happened in this thread. No one needs to have anything announced if they do not wish to do so. But if that is the approach, then speculation is what naturally happens, and that is fine too. There is no need to retcon based on the incomplete information available to people at the time. I directed two people to UPZ this fall who reported back to me that it seemed I had sent them to a non-responsive company. I was embarrassed and assumed Dan was shutting it down. I’m glad that’s not the case, but there’s no need to cover up the uncertainty that happened in the meantime. Cheers to Dan. I hope he’s got a bluebird day up there somewhere.