jburk

Anything on the Sunday evening meet-up?

I have a Superconductor, but also wanted something turnier. I was initially interested in the XC, but was wondering if the XC had a bit too much overlap with the SC; I wanted something more distinct. After talking with Mark some more, he built me an SF, but stiffer with a flex index around 0.4 (seems like most of his builds are in the low 0.2 range, my SC is 0.22). By the numbers the sidecuts between the SC and SF are pretty similar, but they’re entirely different beasts; the SC is as effortless as everyone says they are, but the SF is more demanding, and the harder/tighter you turn it the better it gets.

@daveo thanks for pointing out the shark teeth pad. All my Dakine pads are now missing the tops off of most of the teeth; they shear off in the first few days, then continue to work as well as new. But I will definitely try the shark teeth for new boards.

Stomp pads are still a thing, judging by some threads from last year I think at least half the riders use them. Dakine spike stomp pads seem to be very popular, use them on all my boards. Cheap, good adhesive, work well. Leashes, not so much. Search this forum by title for “leashes” and you should find last year’s thread on it. I’d guess about 1/4 of the riders use them on a full time basis. They’re mandatory in Montana apparently, and so everyone attending next month’s Montucky Clear Cut session will have to be sporting one.

Let me get this straight: are you saying that the FC170 is your rock board?

It’s the way that the heel on the UPZ boots is tucked under the boot that make the bail to bail spacing so much closer than for other manufacturer’s boots of the same mondo point size. IMHO, it’s a huge design flaw for the UPZ smaller sizes’ shells, and if any other mfr’s boots fit my foot I wouldn’t be wearing UPZs. MP 26 UPZs fit my feet, they’re just a pita to fit into bindings. And don’t get me started about the amount of boot ramp caused by the heel being tucked under, and the amount of toe lift necessary to counteract it… rant mode off

I’ll chime in here as a resident Thirst fan: if I was to pick a board from any manufacturer to spend my first season on, it would be the Superconductor. The biggest difference between Thirsts and other boards is that due to the WARP asym core, there’s no need for front to back weight shifts during the turn, so there’s less to work on as you sort out your technique. You ride centred and stay there. It’s this same lack of front to back shift that some riders find off putting when riding one of Marks boards for the first time. The K168 is a very highly regarded board by everyone who’s ridden one (as far as I know, I’ve never heard a single even slightly negative comment about one), but for a rider with no established technique and nothing to unlearn the Thirst might be better suited.

My 2 cents: board and boots are great choices, but go with the toe lever variant. UPZ 27 would (but barely) work with the M size Intec stepin version, but if you can touch your toes (or at least the top of your foot), you should be able to easily clip into the toe lever bindings standing up with a few minutes’ practice. Toe lever style (F2 Race Ti) mean you don’t have to buy and install Intel heels, and never have to worry about a heel cable breaking.

I was able to do that, it did work out. But in the end it wasn’t something I was willing to do to every pair of bindings I’d buy in the future, when I could use unmodified small toe lever Race Tis out if the box instead. And it just barely worked; I could center on some boards, but not others Stepins weren’t worth the hassle to me, not along with the other drawback: heel cables that can break, heel icing up making stepping in difficult, And there were a few times where it felt line both pins had engaged, only to find out two turns later that it was only one pin and my rear foot released mid turn. Pilot error on my part, but never happens with tie levers.

F2 Intecs have only ever been offered in two sizes, M and L, and the L doesn’t convert to a S unless this year’s model has a different base with two sets of holes for heel and toe. But I don’t think that’s the case, as the F2 site just lists this as the avail sizes for Intec Ti: SIZES M: 21,5 - 27,5 L: 28,0 - 31,0 I have UPZ 26, and tried the M Intec but found it was still too large, couldn’t get quite centered between the edges. Had to dump the stepins and switch over to Race Ti toe bail style in the the S size, it still has plenty of room for adjustment. Your friend with UPZ 27 may be able to get centered on Intec M size. But why not just get him in std toe bail instead? I’d say the S Race Ti would do the trick, and while the M Race would work as well, it doesn’t look like Donek stocks the M size.

Nope, never tried that. But I’d think that if you just stacked two tall wedges the bolt angle would exceed the “angle float” from the bell on the t-nut (acts a tiny bit like a spherical washer), and you’d be breaking t-nuts or bending the bolts in short order.

You can also take two of the opposing F2 canting wedges and stack them together to make a flat stack, then put that under the heel lift wedge. The stock long 36mm screws are long enough to support this, they’re meant to be used with the heel lift and a single cant wedge, the flat stack is the same height as the highest side of one wedge.

Is it being rubbed raw from friction, or is it the joint itself that’s painful? Guessing here, but f it’s not friction, a boot mod might not be the answer. Are you using a decent footbed, or the one that came with the liner? It may be that you pronate a bit, and loading the medial side of the ankle joint. Another thing is that your technique may have (probably has) changed since you started in hardboots last year. How much splay are you running between front and rear? You might just try rotating the rear enough to reduce the splay to half its current value and see if that does the trick.

Any chance of getting a snowfall report or conditions link in that page?

I’ve been on F2 race Ti’s for a couple of seasons, and have about 10 days on a set of this year’s SGs. The new double T-nut in the toe and heel blocks means that you no longer have to disassemble the block to change sizes, another huge improvement over F2 and last year’s SG. Overall fit and finish of the SGs is head and shoulders above the F2s. Don’t get me wrong, the F2s are great bindings, but it’s like comparing a Chevy to a Mercedes. The machining on the SGs is top-notch, and other small things like the plastic center disks are easier to install & remove while having a much more solid feel when seated. Some might say all this is overkill, but if you’re going to own a binding for 10+ years, the price difference pales over time if you’re “detail oriented” like me.

This site is also good for a view of the whole process; for instance, you may not want to get into doing your base angles, but it’s nice to know about it for context. http://www.skituning101.com/?m=0 Read chapters 6 & 7 at least, base and edge tuning, will only take about 5 minutes. Broadly speaking, you’d use the file as a first step to either restore a badly damaged edge or change the angle altogether, and use diamond stones instead of the file to maintain and re-sharpen an edge that’s already set to a particular angle but has gotten dull, provided there’s no burrs from rocks, etc., those will trash a diamond stone and need to be knocked down first.

Think he’s moved to parkland (parkdale?) on hwy 35 just outside of Hood River. @Treebeard can give you the full details. Otherwise try the Mountain Shop in PDX, they did a decent job on my boots, but they’re always slammed.

i went back over my emails with the person from whom I bought the board before selling it to you, and I had asked him what the angles were but he said he couldn’t remember. He did seem I recall the base was 1*, but couldn’t recall the edge angle. I tested it by marking a short section of edge with a sharpie and passing a diamond stone over it at 2*, and it seemed to take the sharpie off evenly, so I went with the assumption that it was 2*; it always only took me a few light passes to get the edge back to decently sharp so I think it was a safe guess. Never touched the base angle when I owned that board, so can’t vouch for the 1* guess.

Inner and outer at the same mark is neutral, no cuff angling. You can also raise and lower the cuff by setting each side to 1/1, 5/5, etc. One notch difference gives a noticeable bit of cant, you’d have to be severely bow-legged or knock-kneed to go 3 or more different from side to side. Beckmann’s section on angling the boot cuffs has you taking the liners out, standing in the empty boots, and noticing if the cuff is closer to either the medial or lateral side of your leg. If you leg looks centered in the cuff, no canting needed. I’d recommend trying a single mark difference as the first adjustment if needed, it doesn’t take much. Once you get the side to side difference (1 notch, 2 notches, etc), you can also experiment with raising the angled cuff up and down to better match the profile of your lower leg. I only need 1 notch difference to get the angling I need, but my calves end really high up my legs (skinny lower leg), so I raised up the cuff so that the boot rides as far up my leg as possible to bring the top of the cuff up to the bottom of my calf. So my adjustments are something like 4/5; 1 notch difference, but with the cuff raised up. If you have cankles you may need to lower the cuff below the centered position. This is also not something that you want to just set and go ride without trying the boots on. Don’t rush this, if you don’t have time and are rushed to get out the door and on the hill, just leave everything centered at 3/3 and go ride. It takes a few iterations to get this right, and getting it wrong feels very wrong.

Beckmann has separate sections for angling the boot cuffs vs canting the bindings http://beckmannag.com/hardboot-snowboarding/hardboot-binding-configuration FWIW, I interpreted these as angling the boot cuffs is all about the relationship between the knees and ankles (bow-legged, etc) so that the cuff is aligned to the shin, while canting the bindings is about the relationship between ankles and hip joint, each adjustment addresses separate issues.

Bongo’s also almost entirely linear (side to side), and pretty tough for first foray, easy to fall. If you want to incorporate a bit of balance, these wobble boards are good for bringing the core muscles into play, require both side to side and fore/aft balance, and you can’t really fall off of them. After a while you can stand on them while watching TV and you end up balancing unconsciously, which is the whole point. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MTA1ZIX/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My 2 cents’ worth: if you’re in the CONUS and you can get everything you need from one vendor in the US, why not buy local, avoid having to have your items pass through US Customs, and be guaranteed a decent experience if you have to resolve a warrantee or shipping issue? Donek’s customer service is top-notch, and if I’m not mistaken (haven’t read every post in this thread) they have everything you need in stock. You might save $75, $100 or so by buying from EU, but that doesn’t seem like enough to offset the potential hassle. Edit: thought I saw that you’re looking at UPZ boots, The North American rep ships US orders from a US warehouse, so no border or customs hassles.

Sounds like good advice. If I ever do switch over from Intuition to Zipfits, I’ll just go the “throw them in the shell and mold them as you ride” route. Here in the PNW, it’s usually above 20F, and my feet run warm anyways (at least in the Intuitions), so it should do the trick.

I have a medium to high-volume foot in UPZ RC10s, and found that the Intuition Pro Tongue liner with a set of custom footbeds worked for me. Those liners have a 2mm sole and a 7mm removable foam insole. Tossed the insole, leaves lots of room with just the 2mm sole and footbed.

I read that leaving boots that have been punched near heat sources such as hotel room heaters can cause the punch to relax a bit and undo some or all of the change to the shell. Has anyone experienced this with heated boot bags? I have a fair bit of work invested in my UPZ RC10 shells, would hate to have to get it re-done if/when I ever begin to use one.