jim_s

Yeah, I plan to work with a level and an angle measure, just to be sure I get it all down. I do CNC machining and 3D Printing as a hobby, so part of me is itching to make some custom heel/toe shims, but I'm mostly hoping that the stuff that comes with the bindings will work. (I think it comes with one set of lift and cant shims, is that correct? Guess I should have confirmed that w/ Sean when ordering...) [Edit: Just confirmed w/ Sean by phone - the bindings come with a set of cants installed, and a heel/toe set for one foot, so I should have enough stuff to at least get close to where I'm at presently, and have a template for building something else, if needed.]

LoL, yeah, my heel is nowhere near 3cm higher than the toe - I need to figure out the actual angles and measurements before I switch over to the new bindings later this week... :-) Ahhh, Ok - with your explanation, I now see that the lift blocks are already angled, so with one on each end, you do end up with coplanar surfaces on the heel/toe - that makes sense, and makes me feel much better! Thanks for the help and info!!

Interesting to hear you guys discuss this 'driving with the knee' thing (exactly what I call it to myself, too! :-) I've arrived a the same conclusion - when I think about driving with the knee - both pushing it over the board toward the snow, and even thinking about driving it around in the direction that I'm turning (so, I'm LFF, so on my toe side, I'm railing the board over w/ the left knee, and also thinking about swiveling that knee sort of down and back a little, as that's the direction I want the knee to go as the board carves, if that makes sense), I find that I get *much* higher board angles and deeper carves when I'm conscious of this. Works similarly on the heel side, but with the right knee for me. I just assumed this was some physical or mental oddity with me. <:-)

I'm finally replacing my venerable Burton Race Plate bindings with a new pair of F2 Titaniums. I presently run the old Burton 'Unicant' disk under the rear binding - the exact lift/cant angles of which I can't quote - just what I've arrived at over time, but I'd guestimate around 5-6 degree of heel lift, and a few degrees of inward cant. I'm contemplating the setup of the new bindings (arriving later this week), and can't find instructions/manual online to pore over. I'm wondering if you lift the rear, do you also need to somehow tilt the heel and toe pices forward, so they're co-planar at the angle of lift, or is there enough slop in the heel/toe-pieces and bales, that this is not necessary? I'd obviously cant the front and rear the same amount inward, just a question of if I set the rear at, say, a 5 degree lift angle, do I then also need to tilt the front and rear toe/heel pieces forward - so the boot is sitting flat on both pieces? I suspect the answer is 'No', and that I'm overanalyzing this, but its my lot in life, LoL...

Turns out there's a video, where Sean explains how to use the guide that Lurch linked to. (I hadn't seen that tool before, so was curious how to use it.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb1gDrYf0U

Narrow, for sure, and torsionally, it should have no effect. It extends significantly along the length of the board, however, and unless its made of a flexible material (or is sufficiently high above the deck), when the board is railed over and bent hard in a tight SL type of turn, I can't see how it wouldn't impede the flex of the board. (I run an old-style Burton canting disk - on my old-style Burton Race Plates - and I definitely suffer some effect from the diameter of the cant disk, which has a smaller footprint along the length of the board than the scraper we're talking about. ) Understand, I'm not trying to pick this apart (I'm highly unqualified to do so!), and I love the idea of a scraper - it just sort of gets my geeky wannabe engineering juices flowing. (I think most hard-booters fall into this category... :-) Great to see a new design, and I appreciate the discussion!

Not being at all critical here, just curious - it looks like that scraper might affect the flex of the board? (particularly on a tight-radius SL board)

I used to live up in the DC area, and always had a really good time at Timberline. (Canaan was always a bit too crowded, but Timberline seldom was - haven't been there in many years now! (Timberline is about 4 hours for me, vs about 3 hrs to Snowshoe - plus, I have a season pass for Snowshoe. :-)

I anticipate being up at Snowshoe on Monday or Tuesday - depends on the weather (possibility of some freezing rain on Monday.) I know its short notice, but if either of those days work for anyone, lemme know!

I'll second the sentiment - Dan was incredibly patient and helpful when I got my UPZs last year, and treated me very right in the whole process. I hope UPZ knows how well he represents them!

I'm just a few hours away, and try to get up for a weekday most weeks - would love to do some carving with another alpine rider!

Sorry to hear you got tossed by the MK, workshop7 - I'm waiting for that day to come - the way the little beast loads up, its inevitable, I'm afraid. Hope you heal quickly!

Wherein Jim pats himself on the back for serendipitously having chosen the black and white RC10's last year, before knowing that they'd so nicely match the MK he didn't know he was going to get this year! <:-)

Sounds like you made a great choice - I've read lots of very happy/good stuff about both the Freecarve and the Secret construction! I ride a lot of hard miles in fairly hilly terrain (road and MTB), and do a lot of slalom waterskiing, which helps loads with the core. But, at the ripe old age of 52, I am a little concerned about how sustainable of a long-term of an investment the MK will be for me. :-) It'll be good motivation to stay on the bike and the waterski right up to boarding season each year (thank Heaven for dry suits! :-) I made the mistake over the weekend of doing a hard 30 mi ride on Saturday, including intervals, and then trying to ride the MK all day on Sunday. At the 5.5hr mark (no lunch, I suspect that contributed, LoL), the quads completely locked up on me - I got in 2 more runs, and had to call it a day. Look forward to hearing more about how you like the Freecarve setup, as you get to know it better and better!!

I can't speak to the comments on the Coiler (though it sounds like the Nirvana would be really fun to try!), but as to the MK, AccousticBoarder nails it - without trying to come across as 'elitist', if you're not pretty seriously athletic, the MK could be a very hard board to ride for more than a few hours (heck, even a few runs...). If you're an endurance type of athlete, or just have legs of steel, and can drive the MK hard all day, there's probably not an alpine board out there that will net you more finely-carved turns in the course of a day than the MK. (And I say that having spent a decade on a super tight 8.5m SL board before getting the MK this season - the MK is in that same class.) If you love to turn hard, constantly, the MK is the board for you - just be sure your legs bring their 'A' game!! :-)

I'm running Intuition Luxury liners in a medium volume in my size 26 RC-10's. I'm a lightweight, so didn't want to stiffen the boots up further (such as with a wrap liner), but the stock liners were seriously uncomfortable, and left me with cold feet on even mild days. I tried both the low and medium volume liners. The low volume liners were just too loose for my liking, and I couldn't find a foot bed that would take up the needed space w/o causing pain under and above my foot. On the advice of Intuition and a bootfitter, I tried going with out a foot bed in the medium volume liners (adding a foot bed was causing them to be almost impossible to buckle w/o serious discomfort), and just relying on the molding, but had bad foot cramps w/o an insole. I ultimately went with Superfeet Carbon liners as they're very thin, but provide me the needed support under my arch. I'd rate the current fit as more toward a 'race' fit (I unclasp the lower 3 buckles between runs, to avoid achy feet, and they're *perfect* for hard SL-style carving on the way down, all snugged up!) I've been out on a number of single-digit-degree days, and while my feet eventually tend to get cold on the lift (toward the end of the day), I blame that more on my wimpy constitution than the liners. They're nice and comfy warm on all but the coldest days. Interestingly, the Intuition folks recommended the size 27 liner for my size 26 RC-10 shells, and that was definitely a good call - it fits tightly in the shell, its really a perfect fit on my foot. (The first few times out were uncomfortable, for sure - I was initially worried that I'd made a bad decision - but between 2-3 heat moldings, including after the addition of the Superfeet Carbon insoles, and just general wearing-in, I'm very satisfied with the fit, the warmth and the flex/performance.) I've got skinny feet, and often have problems with heel lift in boots, but this combination of liner and shell keeps my feet in place very effectively - zero heel lift!!

I can attest to the sound - its like a growl as you carve up the slopes! :-) (And its not a slipping type of noise - it leaves razor-sharp trenches. The harder and sharper the cut, the louder the growl! :-)

Yeah, I tried, but I simply wasn't able to hold my arm up during the turns, as the G's were so strong. ;-> I can't speak for others, but in my case, I'm just a regular guy, and I don't have anyone who follows me around with a video camera. :-) (And I'm of the wrong generation to even own a selfie stick...) I would think Donek would benefit from some increased marketing of the MK - when I was considering getting the MK, I searched high and low for video of people riding it, and found very little. (I trust Sean, though, and also talked to a few others who'd ridden the MK, so I went with their advice, anyway - great move, self! ;->

Ok, second day out on the MK, and I'm thinking I'm now done comparing it to my old beloved 158 SL board. The MK is a different board, and I think after today, I can safely put the SL in a corner somewhere, and give it a fond glance every now and then, but that I'm past the point of comparing/contrasting the MK with the SL, and of ever thinking of getting back out on the SL - the MK is a seriously kick-ass board in its own right. The conditions were nicer today (in western NY at present, so much better snow), and I got a few things figured out on the MK. A big one is that I found a sweet spot for keeping my torso forward in the turns, but not blowing the nose out. This sucker will crank a borderline-violent turn when you seriously rail it over and load it right, and the edge hold is literally better than anything I've ridden before - to include boards and skis. It also will make a much more stretched out turn (without skidding), by just not railing it over quite so hard, and letting it run a bit more freely. Speed control by digging tight/deep trenches is very effective. It responds really well to vertical weight/unweighting, and gives lots of pop between turns if you ask for it. I lost count of the number of people who stopped me at the top or bottom of the lift today, asking what the heck I was riding, and noting how incredibly awesome (and fun!) it looked - I usually get a few questions or comments, but it was really a bit overwhelming today, the interest in this little beast. I actually had 2 groups of people chase me down in the lift line, to ask about the board on the way up the hill. :-) Did a hard cycling session yesterday, and the legs were blown out after 5-1/2 hrs of pretty much continuous blasting down the hill today. Finally had to quit when the quads locked up on me while bending over to unclip the rear foot at the end of a run. This thing is a lot of work, but it is *totally* worth it. Hats off to Sean and crew on the MK!

I didn't have those particular bindings, but I've seen them (long ago). IIRC, those are actually positioned correctly - the toe goes under the front bale, and then stepping down on the cross bar under the heel brings the lever up over the rear heel piece. (Double-check me on that - its been a long time - but that's what I recall about those bindings.) (Update: see http://www.alpinecarving.com/binding_model.html under the section "Older Bindings" - as noted by others above, it might be a good idea to replace them - the article notes that these tend to break and/or twist out, if you don't have a particular type of boot.)

The Burton Alp 64 is a great board! I spent several days on one out in Vail many years ago. I was totally in love with the board, and wanted to buy it, but realized that back East, I'd likely kill myself or someone else on it - was just way too fast and large-radiused for my local, narrow, crowded slopes. I ended up getting an Alp 56, which I also loved, and was far more appropriate for where I skied on the East Coast, but I still have very fond memories of the 64! :-) I nicknamed it 'The Red Sled' - it was an exhilarating ride!! You just need to find an old pair of Burton Shadow boots to use with it now!!! :-)

Oh, Ok - I was envisioning some high-tech, fine tuning dampener/stiffener type of thing! :-)

@Algunderfoot - what is the purpose of the blocks on the deck along the edges?

Thoughts from the first day on the MK today. (For background info, I've been riding a Donek 158 SL board for the past 10 years, as my one and only board.) - the MK rides a *whole lot* like my SL board - it shares that "Holy Crap, I can't believe I just ripped that turn, and it all held together!" attribute (I don't consider the MK a life-changing 'transformative' ride, as I've been riding a life-changing 'transformative' board for over a decade, but its right there in that same space!!) I will easily transition to the MK being my one and only board - in fact, I kinda made that move today, I think. :-) - the MK definitely holds a better edge than the SL, and today was a hardpack-bordering-on-boilerplate day - I'd have been sliding all over the place on my SL board, but the MK held an edge very reliably and admirably (there were a number of times where it would have happily kept edging right down the rock-solid hill, at ever-increasing speed, but I lacked the confidence in it yet to let it completely have its head) - the MK seems to have a narrower balance range - its easier to overload the nose if you're a bit ham handed (ham footed? :-) with the front foot, and while its surprisingly forgiving of riding the tail, it makes much nicer turns if you stay more centered, and are nuanced in weight transfer from front(ish) to rear(ish) during the carve. One of my habits from the SL board is to just dive over the nose into a turn, and let the board catch up (it always does!) - that approach doesn't work nearly as well on the MK, though - definitely requires more finesse. - the MK is a full 10mm narrower at the waist, and the edge-to-edge transition is noticeably faster (I suspect the narrower tail, due to the setback sidecut, might play into this, as well). Its wicked fast edge-to-edge! - the MK doesn't turn *quite* as sharply as the SL, but its pretty darned close (and this was only my first outing on it, in highly-non-ideal conditions - there were a few turns where it really ripped across underneath me when I stumbled on the right balance, pressure transition and vertical weighting, so I suspect that as my riding of the board improves, it'll tighten up further - it might yet match the SL board's super-tight turn radius) - the MK is faster than the SL board - don't know if its inherently faster from a materials perspective, but it handles speed more stably, and it tends not to hook on the tail like the SL board, so you don't bleed as much speed off at the end of your arc, before you're transitioning to the other edge and again heading down the hill. Its rather insistent in when it wants to transition from one edge to the other, and is definitely earlier than the SL board in this respect. I could see myself never reaching the top speed of this board, and I'm 100% Ok with that. :-) - the MK has good pop when you load it up - much like my SL board had back in its youth (its softened up a bit over the course of a decade) - to call it 'lively' would be understatement, but its not like a wild horse, either. If you load it, it'll pop nicely, but if you're more subtle, it makes smooth (but super quick) transitions - much like the SL board, the MK is a LOT of work to carve hard all day - the turns are tight, and the only thing it likes to do is turn - constantly. In that respect, I LOVE it! I was bouncing around in the parking lot like Tigger after the end of the day today - you get used to the dynamics of riding this kind of board, and the legs don't quite want to stop at the end of the day, despite being worked hard! I was honestly a little guarded in my expectations of the MK, having ridden such an amazing board in the 158 SL for so long, but it really is everything everyone says it is, and I'm very much looking forward to getting to know it better!! :-)

Yeah, its lonely in terms of other hard-booters, but I've got some strong skiers that I ride with, so it stays fun and social. Granted, I have to wait for them at the bottom of the hill, but that's Ok... ;-> (And on solo days, there are always the endless lift questions about the weird thing hanging from my feet...). I've also got a few soft-booting friends who have kinda caught the carving bug at little bit, and ride their soft-boot boards with a little more panache than they used to! :-) As BlueB says, its just a matter of hanging with the skiing folks, and the occasional like-minded soft-booter. Not everyone is enlightened, but it doesn't make them any less (ok, at least not much less...) human!