bigwavedave

Head intec step-ins $120 shipped CONUS cant shims and one heel/toe lift and all screws. Center discs have extra holes to fit Burton 3 hole pattern. These look similar to Blax carbon bindings. (I think Blax was bought out by Head) The center discs appear to be carbon fiber. These are much stiffer than F2 RS. More on par with F2 Titaniums.

F2 Intec RS $120 shipped CONUS one heel/toe lift and cant shims, mounting screws. Screw slots of the center discs were modified slightly by previous owner to also fit Burton 3 hole pattern. I used them on both 4 hole and 3 with no problem. Other than that they appear to have little wear. I used them on my little used powder boards.

Intec Heels $30 shipped CONUS I bought these used. While the outside of the heels show wear, the internal parts are in working order. I never had the small plastic clips for attaching the handles and used a wire loop tie around the end of the cable. Might not be a bad idea to get replacement cables and handles, as I understand this is what typically fails. ($29) https://www.donek.com/product/f2-intec-cable-set-handle/

@DRUPI

Well, it stopped raining and then we had a skiff of snow. A quick check of the webcam--lots of empty chairs and an hour of night riding left...and it's still 35°. So quick up to the hill for some really fun surfy, slushy turns on wide open, empty 4pipe under the lights. Tried out the Backlands with newly installed DGSS springs (3 days from Italy, thanks @DRUPI!) Thought I'd try them on the 169 PC swallowtail. My, oh my, what a fun ride. Felt like I was doing GS sized turns, taking up ½ the width of 4pipe, putting my whole body into the turn and having to get real low. I think I had to work harder to drive the board in these softer AT boots. Everything was all tracked up, but soft enough to slice right through it all. @Lurch The heelside springs in the dgss soften the bumps nicely on heelside turns compared to the Phantoms. They also have more forward flex. I'm using the green (soft) springs. Don't think I need to try the stiffer blues. They're not as easy to walk in as the flickable walk mode Phantoms. So far, I'm really liking how these boots feel, nice forward flex and responsive lateral stiffness.

The storm was almost all rain here and there was a little freezing rain and sleet too. It's been in the mid 30's all day. A short fat bike ride for me today. A good day for a sauna. Maybe I should cut a hole in the ice. Fortunately cold weather is moving in, but there are no snow storms in sight. It might take a couple of grooming cycles to restore things on the hill. On the other hand the river and Spirit Lake should have a good surface for ski or even skate sailing when it re-freezes. With luck, we'll get some north winds when it gets cold next week and generate some Lake Effect snow inda U.P. and Indianhead.

Found a picture of ACSS. That's what you have. I don't see how you can adjust forward lean with those. I believe you can with the DGSS. Why don't you have them installed on both boots? Carving on easy runs is fun. I can do it all day, but it's more work to get real low without speed. Easier to get low on steep runs because, if you're carving right, the snow will come to you. Turner has some gentle terrain. Typical of blues anywhere.

Duluth forecast went from 12" to 2" and ended up all rain! Maybe it will work out better for you guys in Maine and Quebec. There's still some hope for a little Lake Effect for the U.P. on the tail end.

I don't have a solution, but I have always suffered at altitude over about 9-10 thousand ft. I found info online from a Colorado altitude research project and they determined that there is some genetic component. You have to have a himalayan gene or something. It doesn't necessarily correspond with your level of aerobic fitness. If I exerted myself (snowboarding/hiking) I would feel all the altitude sickness symptoms of headache, nausea, etc. No matter how much water I drink. Tried the medication for acute symptoms. It works okay, but it makes you pee a lot. Even after a week or so, I still feel "off" at higher altitudes. After many years the best solution for me is to stick to mountains below 9,000 ft, or maybe try spending a month or more to acclimate. I heard Coca leaves are supposed to be the best remedy. Ha! I just googled it and it looks like you can order them online!

They look similar to the compact DGSS (maybe ACSS?) spring replacements, but they are different from the ones I had, which also attached to the boot at the top, in that hole. Maybe they are homemade? where did you get them? Come with the boots? Looks like you have a lot outward cant boot cuff on the left. Is that on purpose? You should check the ankle pivot cants, maybe start from a neutral setting. When you "carpet carve", put your feet in the boots (without liners) and see if your legs are equidistant from the sides of the cuffs. You can use the boot cant discs or the binding cant discs to balance things. Also, make sure you use threadlock (the blue stuff) on all screws on those boots as they will come loose.

I used Intuition Luxury liners and did not make the MS.951 stiffer.

Minnesota firm. Handcrafted. Better than ice.

I had that happen too when I had them on t700's. Out for 1st tracks this morning. Sunny and mild. jolson and khoward were there. We made a mess of the hill in short order. Looking forward to getting some fresh snow over the next few days. The surface is getting pretty hard. The best snow for carving is still found on ScissorBill, 4pipe and DoubleJaw.

We'll try and give the storm a shove in the right direction for you when we're through with it. We're hoping for some Lake enhancement on the tail end.

Paul Huttner, our local weather guru, sees hope for the remainder of winter! https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/01/12/pattern-change-ahead-colder-snowier-january-trend-emerging

Last week I rode with a guy who races snowboards in college league with UMD (seasoned cancelled this year). He competed in collegiate national championships at Lake Placid (IceFace?) last year. I think he said he got 9th? Anyone ever hear of college teams racing snowboards? There was a regional college competition here at Spirit last winter, although they didn't look very competitive. I saw only one carving board and it was an old Rossi Throttle. The guy I rode with last week was on a brand new 163 Donek FC and killing it. Too bad his race season was cancelled. The NorAm at Buck Hill, MN was cancelled in Dec. I think they're still hoping to reschedule for later in the season. I imagine it all depends on covid cases and deaths going down and hospital beds open. We're trending down in MN right now. Of course there are age groups all the way up through my age at USASA. Plus there's open class if you want to mix it up with a few FIS level racers that might show up for the cash prize. NorAm is a whole 'nother level, and if you move up to WC it's another giant step up. btw Robbie Burns coaches alpine racers with the G-Team in MN.

I originally set up UPZ's the same as I had my Reactors and Deeluxe--6° rear and 3° front. Then I started having front knee pain and came across this info about the UPZ extreme heel ramp. I simply switched to 6° front and 3° rear, and that worked for me. For spring replacement I would also recommend Drupi's DGSS spring system. Nice design with most forward flex, if that's what you like. @DRUPI

Intuition Luxury lace-up liners with tongue M28 (US 10) medium volume $100 plus shipping Bought these new. I used them for several days at the end of last season in MountainSlope .951 C shells. Spot molded heel pocket using hot rice method.

I used 6° toe lift on the front foot, and 3° heel lift rear with my UPZ's. I think it was just the opposite with the Deeluxe. I generally use no inward or outward cant at higher binding angles, but that's just me. It's a good place to start.

with this, a 6° cant disc https://bomberonline.3dcartstores.com/TD2-and-TD3-Cant-Disk_p_53.html

Yes, but I'm talking to Drupi right now about getting his system which looks better to me. I'm not as interested in the ability to unclip for walking/skinning and would rather have greater ROM in a progressive, graduated fashion for riding. I have to say that the boots worked pretty nice with the Phantoms. The boots feel great, a very comfortable fit. They're flexy in the right way, responsive and not just mushy, like my Raichle 323's. I really liked Drupi's dgss springs on my old UPZ's. PS: DGSS springs on the way. When I ordered them for the UPZ's, they arrived in 2 days...all the way from Italy.

I didn't think to take photos until after my alterations. In the picture below you see the lowest 2 lace eyelets--that was all they had, with very short laces. I sewed on the purple webbed lace loops and got longer paracord laces.

Went out for a couple of runs in flat light this morning. Test driving some used Atomic Backlands as a "softboot" setup for my Contra AT's. Although, I actually tried them on my 169 swallowtail PCjv and they worked great. Really nice boots. They will replace my poorly fitting Raichle 413's. I'll just have to give up step-ins. Since Spirit is closed on M & T I've been doing more hiking up and these superlight and flexy boots will be really nice for the walk up and the ride down. Went back out this evening for the last few runs before closing as crowds were dispersing. The snow was really nice and soft and made for nice carving. Lots of room for big carves. No ice, or I didn't feel it. Riding a used 176 Coiler safari AT that I picked up from xsculler. Very nice ride, buttery smooth, but I plan to pass it along to someone else. Just wanted to see how it rode after cleaning up the edges. Slight chance of freezing drizzle tonight, but I see some snow in the forecast for Thursday.

...splitting the mind in two.