Jack M

85 in a 65, but that's not a very interesting story. The interesting story is from back in my stupid newbie squid motorcyclist days - don't try this at home kids. About 6 years ago I was riding my motorcycle down a four lane (two each way) boulevard with several stop lights. I was approaching a red light in the right lane when a dude in a BMW M3 zooms past me in the left lane and comes to an abrupt halt at the light. I pulled up next to him and could tell he thought he was hot stuff in his M3. At the green light, he tore away so I decided to give chase just to let him know he wasn't the fastest/coolest/manliest guy on the road that day. Being on a bike I immediately caught up, but rather than pulling away I just stayed right with him, as if to say "I could drop you if I felt like it". This continued for the next 5 lights, at supra-legal speeds. At the 6th light, I look over and we exchange a "hang loose" hand gesture, ending the duel. I was still in the right lane but had to make a left turn. So when the light turned green I took the hole-shot and cut left in front of him. So I'm laughing to myself in my helmet and cruising on home towards my apartment, when the siren came on. A cop had been following us the entire time. I parked the bike, took off my helmet and got out my papers. The cop read me the riot act, grabbed my stuff and went back to the car. A moment later he comes back and says "what the hell is going on here?" My registration had expired, but the sticker on my plate had not. I explained that for some reason the clerk at the DMV had given me the wrong sticker, but the cop suspected the plate was stolen. Then he pointed out that my insurance card was expired, and I explained that I had just gotten a new one in the mail and that I could bring him to my apartment around the corner to show it to him if he wanted. To which he replied that my street was across town. "Oh yeah, I just moved." I said. "How long ago?" "6 weeks." "You're supposed to change your address on your licence within 30 days - that's another fine! Don't move, I'll be right back" he said and walked back to his cruiser. A second later he comes storming back, drops all my stuff in my lap and exclaims "get out of my face before I throw the book at you!!" Apparantly he didn't want to deal with the reams of paperwork I would have required! I know, stupid stupid stupid. Live and learn, right?

Ahem. Well then... sure, if you have a 20mph tailwind that never dips below 20mph, and is perfectly aligned with your direction of travel, then yes, a 180mph bike might do 200mph - neglecting the other frictions that increase with speed.

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Air drag increases as the square of speed. That is, if you double your speed, you quadruple your air drag. So to go from 180 to 200, you're looking at a 23% increase in air drag alone. Then there's rolling friction of the tires, and mechanical friction, all which increase with speed. A gentle slope and a tailwind aren't going to make up for all that.

Wildcat class of '96, CEPS. I remember that Linklater event, but didn't go. So were you in that lame snowboarding club with me? F1 - you mean the Michael Schumacher show? Here's my summer avatar - The Doctor, aka Valentino Rossi

for Aprilia's replacement for the RS250, which is rumored to be a 4-stroke v-twin 450, that will weigh basically nothing.

Friggin' Mass-holes! If it's called "tourist season", why can't we shoot them?!? Ayuh!!

Burton Fires have a spring with adjustable pre-load. It works fine.

No "minor modification" buys you the double-ton.

Any Donek/Prior/Coiler freecarve ~171 with the wider waist option. Carves ripping turns which is what we need 98% of the time. Not too long - can be taken in the trees, moguls, trail sides, etc. 19-20cm waist - wide enough for crud, slush, and mellower stance angles. I haven't ridden such a board in powder, but I'll bet it'd be fine with the wide-ish waist and if you scoot back in the inserts. Although my Madd 170 will be my only board this year, aside from an old '96 Burton Custom 164 that I reserve for powder and rock days. We'll see how the skinny waist performs off piste...

Totally. I also think rails and jibbing is artificial, contrived, and destructive. But I can see how a skater might want to get that same rush in the winter when he can't skate the streets. I used to think the same thing about Halfpipe, that it was stolen from skating and would never be as cool or require as much skill. I think the Pipe-dragon has fixed that situation. I don't think inverted 900s 15 feet above the lip are possible without bindings...?

There's an article about setting up TD2s here. cool watch!

Bob is right on the money - the most important thing is that your stance angles work for your body. My only point is that the right advce for a newbie is to start with toes/heels as close to the edge as possible without hanging over, and to experiment from there. But Bob wasn't writing to the newbie.

What's the matter with talking freestyle here every now and then? If we want freestylers/softbooters to regard alpine as a part of the sport of snowboarding, shouldn't we acknowlege that freestyle/softbooting is snowboarding too? Or are we really doing two different sports? I dunno, but I don't think that the Bomber forum is in any danger of being overrun by freestyle/softboot posts!

Well, I don't think the footprint of the binding really matters, since in a rigid interface between binding and board, the board becomes the horizontal lever, and your leg is the vertical lever. So having your toes/heels close to the edge wouldn't give you any more leverage with which to tip the board up in a totally rigid interface. However the rider-to-board interface is not completely rigid due to boot flex, so stance angle does affect leverage slightly. Another important point about putting your feet across the board is that it does give you more leverage with which to balance yourself side to side. I think that may be the more significant benefit. Imagine you're an iron worker building a sky scraper. 50 stories up, are you going to walk along a 12" wide I-beam with your feet pointed straight ahead, or across the beam? Leverage does come mostly from your vertical lever (your leg), however if your toes and heels are very far inboard of the edges, you are losing balance leverage and you should try a less angled stance to see how it feels. If you prefer the higher angles, then you should consider a narrower board, because it will be easier and quicker to put on edge. (However board width also gives you some balance leverage.) Absolutely, the bottom line is whatever works for you and gives you the most range of motion without sacrificing balance. However the best and most succinct advice to give anyone who doesn't know how to set up plate bindings is still to put your toes and heels as close to the edge without hanging over, and adjust from there. It is the only concrete reference point. -Jack

That link is broken, but it looks like the event has been cancelled.....? FIS site

Oohhhhhh yeah. equilateral triangles, of course. However, I'm still interested to know <i>why</i> Prior's quadrax is 0,90,30,-30.

That was a joke, Todd works for Bose.

Hmm, where could I get some of those........ Todd?? ;)

These two statements appear to be contradictory.......? So is the 90 degree fiber (across the board) simply along for the ride? Is quadraxle glass a gimmick? Did you mean to say 0, 45, -45? I thought from your other post you weren't a believer in the 60/-60 (or 30/-30) fibers? BTW, this is really cool stuff, thanks for sharing.

can you elaborate on why this is?

I don't think so. It is true that torsion is strongest along the 45, but I'm pretty sure it also has components at 0 and 90 degrees and everywhere in between. 0/90 fibers resist some of it, as well as out-of-plane displacement. As reasoned above, I don't think the fibers running across the board are dead weight. However, Prior's quadraxle glass is 0,90,30,150. http://www.priorsnowboards.com/board_construction_wcr.php (they call the lengthwise direction 90 degrees) I don't know why it wouldn't have fibers running along the 45s. Anyone? Oh, my ideal custom - there are so many custom shapes out there, I don't feel the need to make a new one. But I'd want something tuned to my exact weight, and with a shiney metallic silver topsheet so I can be just like Shred Gruumer!

I thought this is exactly what Madd is doing....? Making a thinner board reenforced with carbon fiber? And people seem to enjoy riding them. I've never owned one, but I've heard of them lasting a long time..........? Any idea what's going on there?

I think you'll probably get used to it. Whenever my toesides get sloppy I try to concentrate on really dropping that hip into the turn and not bending at the waist too much. The hip-drop is actually easier with steeper angles. Check out this thread for a discussion on the "perfect" toeside (which happens to be photographed on a Madd!).

Perhaps I jumped on it a little prematurely, but Barry seemed to be asking about technique. And.... I love you too Kent! :D You should post a link to that video of you pulling your foot out of a binding - the carving preceeding the crash is really fluid. Pretty sure that was you in the clip I'm thinking of.