bigwavedave

Thanks @RCrobar Yes, the purpose in asking is for ridding crappy snow. I've got old knees that are maybe a bit more sensitive to it. I'm more interested in the Gecko style plate, but any firsthand reports of a plate on Contra might be useful info. I love my Sidewinders on most conditions, although I have one board, a 180 Coiler Rev, set up with geckos for when my 67 yr old knees start complaining about a rough ride. Love how the Geckos work on that board. Really doesn't change how the board handles, just mutes out the bumps and ruts. Bruce made a plate for my daughter years ago. May have been a one-off prototype, I don't know if he made any others. Hoping some of those steak sauce slurping ice-coasters will chime in if conditions ever return to "normal" for them.

As you know, that's the way a Thirst works too. And like you suspected that it might have the same effect on a Contra that I experienced with my Thirst. As we all know the nuts that hang out here will put a plate on anything. @JRAZZ I do have a couple of Contra AT's I suppose I could try with the Geckos. It's just too friggin' cold out right now.

My thinking was that with the tight part of the sidecut being in the middle that the Geckos are going to modify the mid flex of the board making it more difficult to tighten up your turns. That's what it felt like to me. Whereas on a regular sidecut board I didn't notice much change other than the muting of rough terrain.

Geckos work great on my Coiler Rev, really great. Love it when I want to keep riding in rough chop. Feels like they were made for each other. And Bruce did endorse using Geckos on a Coiler on their website. You know, he made that board to pair with them. But, I know you're just kidding. New knees aren't cheap I'm sure someone here is going to try putting a plate on one. Just curious to hear some actual feedback. How did it change the ride? Does it pair better with your SG?

Just wondering how Bruce's "mid-tight" sidecut works with a plate. Gecko style or whatever. I didn't really like the way Gecko's changed the feel of a Thirst ride. I liked them much more on my traditional sidecut boards. Wondering if it's simply the mid-tight sidecut or something to do with the Thirst asym core structure.

UPZ m28, 312 shell MS shell size C Got them used with the 1st gen liners which were not great. The newer liners (past 2 years?) are supposed to be much better.

I set my boot/bindings up using equidistant heel/toe method. I was unaware of the MS centerline (or simply ignored it), but I just checked the centerline on the MS boots and they are over the center of the binding disc. So, with MS boots, both methods may get you to the same end result. The centerline on MS boots could be a good place to start. I usually find I tweak the setup after seeing how it rides and looking at my tracks provides clues. I'm looking for a balance between edge pressure control and avoiding bootout.

What do you mean by "trench digger risers"? 2 extra pairs of cant discs that are not pictured?

Feb 7, 2021 The polar vortex has closed a number of hills. Big Snow closed today. I wonder when was the last time that happened. Spirit closed today. I was surprised they were open yesterday. We'll see if they open Wed. Giant's Ridge is closed through Tuesday. It was -23F this morning at my St Louis River hut. It's been several years since we've had sustained subzero temps day & night, but here we go. I think I'm gonna need more handwarmers. Will trade pandemic TP for handwarmers. WNW winds not so good for lake effect for Big Snow (Indianhead), but the Porkies have reported about 2' over the past several days and the Keweenaw should get some all week.

I ignore the center mark on boots and place the toe and heel equidistant from the edge of the board. Seems to work for me.

Yeah, my XC has gotten a lot of love this year...hard snow and ice or low vis and fog. Love the lively snappy turns it does. The do anything board. Sorry for the threadjack Ohob. Back to selling a great board!

Haven't ridden them both in the consistent deepish powder of 6-8" or more where they should distinguish themselves from an all-out carving board. Rode them back to back on some soft groom at Spirit the other day. They both carve up soft groomers very similar to my other Thirst carving boards. As you might expect the 169 PCjv makes turns somewhere between a 162 SF and the 171 XC. Whereas the 181 PC had some of that big turn-across-the-hill Cadillac ride of the 185 8rw, although it was happy going edge to edge, feeling more like the 175 Super. It feels to me as if they have a softer ride in chopped up, rutted up conditions. Not sure if it's the softer board flex, a swallowtail effect, or my imagination. Will keep my eye out for the opportunity of a powder day comparison. Came close the other day at Indianhead.

Love mine. Might be my favorite, a Cadillac ride with sports car handling.

In the past I discovered (with other boots like UPZ's etc) that I might have to re-adjust bindings (especially Bombers) after trying them in the cold. Then everything was fine for the rest of the season. I remembered another thing that helped start this off again this year. I loosen the 4 center disc screws during summer storage to prevent base suck. With Sidewinders the heel or toe block is often blocking one of those screws so I have to move the block out of the way which means I have to start over again next season with my settings. Guess I should start marking them as @lonbordin recommended to aid replicating the previous year's settings. I have sidewinders from all the iterations going back to a pair of prototypes from my daughter. They are all a little different and one can't simply measure the distance between toe & heel blocks between different generations and have the same fit.

I had the same thing happen again today. I rode 3 hours yesterday with no problems, didn't touch any settings. Today, it was -8°F, a bit colder than yesterday, everything was fine at the start, 2 fingers to close the bail, but by my third run I could close the bail lever with one pinky finger. On the verge of being unsafe. I was ready to quit for the day partly because of the cold, but also because the longest wire strap (over the forefoot) broke on my rear boot when I was buckling up before leaving the house this morning. I got to ride using the souls of my feet. I have the .951, not the WC, so supposedly a softer plastic formulation. Maybe they expand and contract more than the WC model. I start out with heated boots, ZipFit style, which shouldn't make a difference once the boots have cooled to outside temps.

Went out for a few runs this morning. As I was buckling my boots at home, the 2nd strap (over the forefoot) on my rear boot broke. Since I was all ready to go, I went anyway. Showed up at the express chair at 8:55 caught the first chair up and still made the first tracks on 4pipe. A beautiful sunny day, but cold at -8F with a 15-20kt west wind. The snow was hard and fast, the groom smooth. Compared to yesterday's 6" deep trenches at Indianhead, today's tracks were reduced to mere 1" deep grooves. Without another soul in sight I could make sweeping super G sized turns across the slope on the 8rw. It was surreal. My phone (camera) was dead by the second ride up the chair despite being fully charged and in a pocket that normally is warm enough. Since my rear foot wasn't held down in the boot, I found myself using the souls of my feet to pressure my edges. It's an interesting exercise worth doing. Felt sorry for the Atmore racers at the top of windblown Gandy.

Return of the polar vortex... Surprise, surprise, Spirit plans to be open Sat and maybe Sunday. The Atmore FIS race this weekend is likely the reason. Anyone going to come out and make some subzero turns on an empty hill? As I remember, the video below was made on a day that started out at -20F.

Headed over to BigSnow country last night as strong NW polar winds started cranking up lake effect snow. Indianhead got about 8" from the storm with additional lake enhancement. Lake effect will continue for a couple of days. Much of the snow was groomed in overnight with 1-2" of fine polar powder on top of a soft pillowy groom. Trenches were 6" deep, more if you weren't easy on your edge. It was surfy turns with a cushy powder bounce. Al, Doobs and I did a good job of trenching up the hill and called it a day after 2½ hrs when we all started feeling the bitter cold. The 181 PC swallowtail layin' down that 1st track...

PM'd

Pretty sure my toe and heel blocks aren't moving. I usually get that "crack" when I break a screw loose to re-adjust. In the past, once set I haven't had to touch them again. When I got the MS boots last year I had to do a lot of fiddling around to get get the heel/toe placement the way I wanted. They were different enough from the UPZ's to make it a pain. It's one reason I have a set of bindings for each board. I do think it has something to do with temperature related contraction and expansion and suspect that there's something about the Bomber/MS combination? I have several pairs of sidewinders and 2 pair of Race Titaniums and it only seems to be a problem with the Sidewinders. (I have a lot of boards, I ride them all, sometimes several on the same day it's called a quiver) My boots are warm when I put them on. Ahhh, I was hoping Jack might chime in. I figured you were using SW with your MS. The combination seems to allow little margin for error. Whereas the F2's can be a little loose or tight and still work fine. Maybe since F2's are plastic, they shrink and contract the same or similar to the boots?

I've been having issues with my bindings going out of adjustment. Sometimes they're too tight and I can't close the bail and sometimes they're too loose. In the past with UPZ's if I set them up inside, I would often have to tweak the adjustment for outside temperature, but then they were fine for the rest of the season. Seems I've had way more issues getting it right since I started using MS boots. I've had times where everything is fine on the first run and then things gradually get looser or tighter each time I clip in at the top, until finally I have to stop and re-adjust them. After that they are usually okay for the rest of the day. And it's not that the screws holding the blocks are loose. It's driving me crazy! As far as I can tell it's not ice or snow on the bottom of my boots. Today I thought maybe the heel groove was getting iced up so the bail wasn't seating properly. But, I'm not sure if that's it because it doesn't seem to happen with the F2 Race Titaniums. Just wondering if anyone else has had similar issues? Or could it be that I have an unmanageable quiver of boards and bindings and can't keep track of which bindings have been re-adjusted?

Wondering if anyone has ridden both and how the ride compares. Does the plastic? stuff under the f2 titanflex have a similar shock absorbing quality as the TD3 elastomer ring? I ride with the yellow ones and they're just right. Thinking of trying this conversion kit for my F2 Race Titaniums if it softens the ride. https://www.truesport.store/index.php/product/f2-titanflex-modification/

Thursday 8:50am 2-3" snow and no freezing rain down by the river. It's a baby pow day! 1"-3" over groom on the hill. Fun day for soft turns with the swallowtail carvers. the 1st track on the hill Russ was there too! Indianhead supposed to get about a foot with some lake enhancement. Heading over tonight.

Woke up feeling pretty tired from 5 hrs of riding yesterday at GR. But, the sun was out, so drove to the top for 1st tracks. Someone laid down some tracks before me! Saw the culprit riding up the chair @jolsonas I was going down. Snow was a nice firm carvable groom everywhere on the hill. Started out on the 185 8rw and moved to the 179 Coiler rev with Geckos because the hill got rutted up pretty quick with 4 carvers on the hill. In addition to JO, I spotted Leighton on a new Donek and rode with @khoward who was on his (my old) 159 Generic SL. Never hooked up with Jim or Leighton. Rumor was that Jane was over in the park. Went right over to Gandy to lay down some early tracks with the 8rw... Ended up riding 3 hrs, til about 1pm. Funny how as soon as I started making turns, yesterday's fatigue melted away. We've got some interesting weather coming. Looks like Indianhead is gonna get some out of this storm. Us, not so much. I might hit the road...

Groundhog day 2021 Met up with boarder patroller Russ and ski patroller Bruce at GR today. They had 4" of snow recently to freshen things up. The forecast sun never appeared, but the groom was so nice and smooth that you didn't need to see where you were going. It was hard packed powder of the kind that your board makes a ripping zipper sound as it slices through the cord. No lines, few people, no worries, carving empty slopes from 9-3. This was on Cortina, a wide, moderate steep slope where untracked groom can always be found after noon... 2 skiers stopped to admire my ruts. "is that snowboarder actually stopping to take pictures of his tracks?" Grenoble often has jumps, but today it was just wonderful groomed rollers 200' wide and Helsinki Race next to it was equally satisfying. Got to ride the big boards! PS: Oh, limited indoor dining started yesterday, but no more french onion soup, no Castle Danger stout on tap. pps: saw a local guy, riding ski boots on a board. He was carving nice on softies earlier and donned his hard setup after we showed up.