Jack M

Width and angles sound good assuming several other factors (height? boot size? board width?). Sounds like maybe your bindings are flat or only canted inward? A good "default" stance setup is toe lift under the front foot, and heel lift under the back foot, and no cant. Experiment from there. What bindings do you have? If F2, remove the inward cant shims that came pre-installed. F2s only come with one lift. Order another one from Donek. While you wait, you can try putting the one lift under your back foot heel or front foot toe. Also, don't try to get your rear knee behind your front leg. That's 90s technique mimicked by Craig Kelly fans. Your knees should be separate and independent. Some reading: http://alpinesnowboarder.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/canting-and-lift.pdf

i-carve cannot publish prices because they sell at a discount. Ivan was away on vacation (snowboarding, yay!) and had bad cell reception.

Sugarloaf got a multi-day total of about 30" out of that big storm a couple weeks ago. For real, I live there. The recent warm up has taken a severe toll but I would say we are still in better shape than before that storm. It did not rain as much as I thought it would. But the situation is still disappointing. There used to be like 2 feet of snow on our roof, now there is none. We are back to riding groomers only. There was a freeze last night so anything that was not groomed is closed. Several trails that opened after the storm are closed again due to bare spots and will need snowmaking to reopen. And forget about the woods until we get another 2 feet of natural. There is always "The January Thaw", which has happened for as long as I can remember right around New Year's. We always recover and move on to good times. Except in recent years it seems we can get a thaw at any time throughout the entire winter. Could be global warming, could just be a change in the jet stream that gives us wet swirls from Florida.

Absolutely. Metal construction, decambered nose, a sensible waist width, 5cm longer, probably 10+cm longer edge contact, go for it. That old Madd doesn't owe you anything.

Pretty darn sure there isn't room in the MS design to accommodate Intec heels. They had said they were working on a new step-in system that would work with their existing boots without modification, but that was a few years ago and I think they've lost interest.

Maybe not. I was using Power Wraps in my T700s, and I just transferred and molded them to my new UPZs. Too tight. I should have gone to Intuition Plugs.

That is an obsolete complaint from when the tongues did not hinge at the toe. Yes. Well, the boot heel is shoved forward under your actual heel, so you have to move your heel bail in. I went from 3/3 to 6 front 3 rear when changing from Deeluxe to UPZ. I left it that way when going to MS which have a heel design that is closer to UPZ than Deeluxe. I went from a 28.5 Deeluxe to 28.5 UPZ and it was good. However UPZ is lower volume so I should have gone to a thinner liner. Bottom spring is the forward spring. This is the opposite of BTS.

Corvette SUV? This concept looks like a damn Hyundai Veloster: https://www.motortrend.com/features/2025-corvette-suv-brand-ai-renderings/?sm_id=paid%3Asm_id%3Afb%3Amtoo%3A22%3AOOtraffic%3Aarticle%3Am18-65us%3Amt&fbclid=IwAR1k6Wxh-QhPFL8Y1ZCiV-O99uq0Ry41f-BYpH3t0gymw2cikC_bAkuHBc8_aem_AbLX_R5XPiXfMaPKpHhfhqEqfX7l64WwfZ59gCi95wX1ut5wYHERi5swJQHLo74qJvcSBuaTTPpNQjnqaUzP_Orh7EkvuyvkBkzAXJdGMhZSr8ae_ldM6FtkOMLAvoLV45I

Nah. As lonbordin says, it's the same UPZ molds, just 4 buckles and redesigned tongue. The cuff and tongue are stiffer than the RC. If MS didn't exist, this is what I'd get. I was very happy with the heel hold in my RC10s. I don't notice a difference in that department with my .951WCs. Both have much better heel hold than T700 for me and others.

I think UPZ is the second most popular boot on World Cup. Out of the box, the non-RCR models are softer than T700 both forward and laterally. Getting stiffer tongues and Intuition liners fixes this. Many people report better heel retention in UPZ than T700. I don't know much about the 425.

I’ll just say if you’re bending over to mess with buckles every run anyway, going back to standard bindings is really not a big deal. Bonus: no more step-in icing issues around 32°F.

No.

I’ll accept the risk, I’m sick of straps. Makes me feel like I’m 13 again, and not in a good way.

When I switched to MS I had to remove the outward canting I was previously using on my back foot. If you are using outward cant, maybe remove it. Maybe swap 6 degree cant disc from front binding to back binding. Or replace back binding 3 degree cant disc with a 6 degree disc. Remind me how tall you are, and your inseam? IIRC, stance width seems good.

Update - went back to the store (Backwoods, highly recommended) and tried on the Photon in size 10.5. A little bit softer than the Ion. The softness was not the dealbreaker, but I could feel some kind of plastic thingamabob pressing on the top of my foot while flexing. I had a Photon on one foot, and an Ion on the other. Did not feel that with the Ion. I will mold my Ion liner and ride with my custom footbeds and hope for the best. Did not want to go up to size 11 with the larger shell and binding.

10" of snow before the rain. No lifts open today. Will snow again on the tail end of the storm. This will go better than anticipated, but it still sucks. Groomers could be decent by Christmas or Monday.

Sandy, what’s your mondopoint size?

Thanks svr2, very helpful. Maybe the Photon is the ticket, I like the idea of Boa instead of SpeedZone. I actually bought the Ion and X yesterday but they are still in boxes while I have these thoughts. In the livingroom, at size 10.5 without molding, and without my custom footbeds yet, my big toe is touching the end/side pretty firmly. I went through this when I bought my 10.5 Driver-Xs, figuring they'd pack out and it wouldn't be an issue. Well it never stopped being an issue, and on heelsides my front foot toe is jammed into the end of the boot. Not curled, but it's somewhat painful. Maybe the Photon's wider toe box plus molding the liner will solve this? Or should I just go with the 11? Kinda hesitant to increase possibility of drag. LOL, that absolutely influences me.

Mine definitely do not do that. I would ask @MountainSlope about it. As for your cuff fit around your calves, you could drill another hole to relocate the tooth rack closer to the buckle. Know what I mean? But don't do that until you sort out the clicking. Could be just a benign annoyance, or a warranty issue.

My 6 year old Driver-X's are falling apart. Also I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not a softboot carver. If conditions are good enough for softboot carving, they're good enough for hardboot carving which I prefer. SO, it's finally time for step-in bindings! Of course I do like to rail some carves when softbooting, so I figured I'd just get the Ion and be done with it. However the Ion has the same old speed lace system as my Driver-X, and I was hoping to get away from that and evolve to a Boa system. I believe the Photon is the next stiiffest boot (right?) and it has the Boa system. Will it be too soft? Photon riders, do you wish the boots were stiffer? Anybody tried both?

Welcome! I would say you want something longer than 160. Check out the Donek Flux if you want to buy American. Now O-Drives are also popular bindings for softboot carving, as are Flows.

Have you compared 166 Contra Gecko vs K168 Gecko?

If you want even shorter sidecut than the K168, a leftover F2 World Cup 163 is a bargain that works great. I haven't tried the Kessler 162. My new Winterstick 163 is working great too, but that's custom and has significant delivery lead time.

Welcome! For racing GS I think a stock 185 will be fine and the Allflex soft gs longitudinal cut will be good for your first plate (it's not that soft!). The Allflex spring plate is popular for SL in world cup. Several world cup racers use what looks like a non-spring GS plate for SL, but I've heard it is actually a special flat (no camber) plate. Stock Allflex GS plates have camber. I tried mine on my SL board and hated it, YMMV. If you don't want to spend a fortune on two Allflex plates, the Vist 17 plate is a bargain that works well for a first SL plate. For SL I'm tempted to recommend the Kessler 168 for your height instead of the 162, but I have no data on 6'9" snowboarders, sorry! Bindings, basically everyone uses either the F2 Race Titanium or the SG Performance Bindings which are stiffer. Personally I prefer Bombers which are even stiffer, but nobody uses them in serious racing. Get an extra lift kit so you can try putting one under your front foot toe and rear foot heel for more comfort. The bindings only come with one lift kit. Boots, UPZ goes up to mondopoint 30.5, Deeluxe goes up to 31. I prefer UPZ over Deeluxe. Your mondopoint size is simply the length of your foot in centimeters. Indeed you might need to go for custom boards if you can't get a wide enough stance width. I have a 32" inseam and my stance width is about 20.5". You can apply that ratio to your inseam to get an idea. If you're on a budget you could t-nut a stock board, but then it will have no resale value.

Cool. Equates to about US$1023. The beauty of MS's is that if you like the stock liners (I did), the boots need nothing out of the box. With Deeluxe you need BTS springs. With UPZ most people upgrade liners and I upgraded the tongues twice.