Jack M

Sweet ride JRAZZ, but by "torture" I meant buying new toys that you can't use until next winter! Enjoy that bike, I'm jealous.

I think that would be wise. The change from softboots to hardboots is already a big one, compounded by the change in binding angles. Why add to that right away? Sure, the singular act of carving a snowboard on easy terrain (where one should start) in hardboots is similar to doing it in softboots - you may actually find it easier. However skidding and maneuvering and generally getting around in hardboots is harder, awkward, and less intuitive at first because most people new to hardboots are fighting the equipment and the stance during those moments. Adding a plate makes it even harder to skid and maneuver, so it will make the whole setup feel that much more foreign and awkward.

Where this will be your first season in hard boots I would highly recommend putting off the plate until at least a year from now. A plate is totally optional. You should get used to the new set up before adding something so dramatically different. That said, I had a great experience with the Donek AF plate. I like the Apex X plate more but it’s a lot more money.

Unboxing... They arrived late last night and I was finally able to try them on this morning. They feel great. I got just the right size, 28.0, which puts me at the end of the range for the "C" shell. I have a perfect one finger of space between my heel and the shell with the liner out and big toe touching the front. As far as I can tell without having a board to clip into, I'm glad I got the World Cup version. Straight out of the box, forward flex is much softer than my UPZs with gray tongues. It is very even and seems to be mostly controlled by the BTS-like spring mechanism, not by boot deformation. I foresee myself switching to the supplied stiffer yellow springs by lunchtime on day one. I can't tell lateral stiffness without a board. The boots are remarkably lightweight. This is striking while walking around and just holding them in your hand. This should be a welcome performance upgrade. The stock liner is moldable and seems worth a try. Can't wait to mold them with my custom footbeds and ride! I'm not ruling out switching to Intuition or maybe Zipfit though. Included in the box were stiffer yellow forward flex springs, thin flat sole shims to take up a little more space if needed, and eccentric ankle hinge carriers to change cuff cant. Boots came with centered carriers installed. School Bus Yellow. feeling good. The tongue hinge is slotted such that it slides forward a bit as you flex the boot. The sole board, which fits into the depression in the bottom of the boot, below. I think I will keep my 6 degree toe lift on the front foot. Very excited to try them.

I was already buckling/unbuckling my UPZs every run, so I figured what’s one more clip? I got some standards this past winter to see if I could tolerate them. I can. I will miss the step-ins, but I just have to try these boots! #yolo #midlifecrisis

Anyone else torturing themselves with a post-season/summer gear purchase? Aaaaaaaaugh! Bye step-ins... for now?

What year? Swiss or Austrian?

Yeah see that's a pretty nice used Ducati, which is higher on my list. Haven't tried that comparison, but 320 gets my audiophile poser juices going. Back in 2000 when iTunes was 128k I did A/B that with a CD and I could tell the difference easily.... maybe now 320 is good enough for my 45 year old ears. Agreed. The speakers are the instrument. Of course ideally the system should be balanced, but if you're going to cut corners, don't scrimp on the speakers.

Sweet Neil. In 2000 I worked part time for the summer at a boutique HiFi store, they had some cool stuff like Bryston, B&W, Magnepan, Rotel, Jolida, Genelec monitors, Transparent cables, and more. I lusted for a Bryston amp of my own someday. Still don't have one. So for now my home theater is a Denon receiver and Klipsch Reference speakers. Towers for the mains. It cranks and I wouldn't know its deficiencies unless you brought over another piece of gear and we did an A/B session. I bought the whole schmear at once, so price was a factor. At the mountain I'm loving a stereo pair of Sonos Play 1 on the mantle. Probably the best sound $300 can buy. Puts the Bose Soundlink Mini I briefly used there to shame, but they're not really comparable. I do love the Soundlink Mini for its intended use though. Amazing little thing. I have to confess my source these days is either Spotify or Pandora, both set on max quality, and they're pretty darn good. I can't remember the last time I played a CD or even a losslessly ripped file. I suppose I should do an A/B test there.

I missed this last year, but it just came to my attention: https://www.conwaydailysun.com/community/obituaries/obituary-john-g-howe/article_0adef3cc-7637-11e8-ab23-5706810e71c1.html I met him once at his home on a farm in Bethel in the winter of '97 when I was working with a fellow from Bates College who was starting a snowboard factory in the Bates Mill. He had a relationship with Howe I think through a college internship. We had a meeting with Howe to discuss snowboard design. Howe's book "Skiing Mechanics" was considered a bible of ski design, as it explained the physics of a carved turn, among other things. I really enjoyed meeting him. He was enthusiastic about our little snowboard factory and about snowboarding in general. His wife made us liverwurst sandwiches, which I surprisingly didn't hate. It was about 58 degrees inside their house. A couple years later I wrote an interpretation of Skiing Mechanics, relating it to snowboarders, for BOL. You can see it here: http://alpinesnowboarder.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Physics-of-a-Snowboard-Carved-Turn.pdf My friend from Bates made a snowboard version of "The Claw" ski and it worked very well. It was basically an isolation plate, laminated to the board with a thick (1/4"?) layer of rubber in between. The bindings only mounted to the plate, no screws or other metal mechanical linkages touched the board - a design I haven't seen since. I tried it and it was eye opening. I think it would be worth trying today (hint hint @Donek). He didn't pursue it for long however. He exited the snowboard industry after a few years and went back to medical school. Cheers to John Howe, a life well lived. We here have all benefited from him.

My 168 is my go-to board when it's icy and I want to keep speed down and get turns done in less space, so I like the flex. @Comapedrosa, if you find it too soft, I think you might have an easy time selling it here.

Having gone through that process, it's significantly more expensive. One of the reasons I did it was they don't have a stock board anything like the design I wanted (175, 10-14m). Unless you're outside the weight range of the 168 (65-95kg), there's nothing I'd change about it. UPM or Allflex inserts provide a more direct mount for the plate, with less torque on the hardware and board inserts. A nice thing about the Allflex pattern is you can remove and mount the plate without removing your bindings. This would be a big help if swapping the plate between boards, or for tuning. Aesthetically UPM is cleaner looking because all the hardware is under the plate. I think it's a slightly more direct mount, but probably not significantly.

The Apex is available in UPM, 4x4, or Allflex mount configurations. I went with UPM because I have 3 UPM boards. The Donek AF is UPM only. As mentioned above, I briefly owned another K168 with Allflex inserts for this test, for use with the Allflex and Vistflex plates. Bindings mount to the plate with usual 4x4 inserts.

About 2 years ago I signed us up for the Spotify family plan. My kids are locked in to Spotify due to its social networking features (i.e. all their friends are on it too), but I'm convinced that Pandora's radio function is significantly superior. Therefore I also have the minimum Pandora plan for when I don't want to curate my own playlist. That said, being able to play basically anything on demand is a revelation. Recently I've been exploring stuff that was popular or important many years ago that I just didn't have time to get into back then because I was busy listening to other stuff, and doing my homework. Anyone else doing this? Some of my recent personal discoveries that are probably old news to many other people: The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta - now on my list of "desert island" albums. I had never heard anything but the few singles off this album until now. I love drummers, Stewart Copeland is hall of fame. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magic - I was busy jamming out to Phish and Dave Matthews and other stuff like that when this was popular. Jane's Addiction, Nothing's Shocking - this and BSSM were inspired by pictures of the old Bomber factory which had these album cover posters hanging inside. Dire Straits, Communique - another addition to my desert island list. Just amazing. Van Halen, Fair Warning, Diver Down - DLR and SH are both legit IMO, but DLR came first. 1984 was the first album (cassette) I ever bought for myself. Steely Dan, The Royal Scam - got turned on to this when Kid Charlemagne came up in a Pandora station. Steely Dan, Can't Buy a Thrill - continuation of the above. Gaucho, Aja, Two Against Nature, Kamakiriad are other established favorites. Roxy Music, Avalon - actually been into this album for a long time, but revisiting it now. Another desert island disc. Earth Wind and Fire, September (the whole album) Pandora 80s alternative

I would be surprised if running Apex is Jason's only job. Apex serves a niche (plate riders) within our ridiculously niche sport. I'm not saying there's any excuse for taking way too long to respond or deliver, or failure to do so, but this market can't be compared with mainstream markets. Anyway, I had a great experience.

I have ptex tops on my Kesslers and Winterstick. I think it adds some dampness. Traditional topsheets, even "carbonium" aren't doing much of anything for you, they're just plastic protective covers. May as well get some functional value out of the layer that's covering your fiberglass or metal.

I bought a new Apex X-Plate last fall. I placed the order through https://www.apexsnowboard.com/x-plate/. I immediately followed it up with an email. Jason responded right away and I had the plate in short order. I would shop there again. There was a time that their website had been hacked and if you went to the http site and not the https site (or vice versa?) you got redirected to some spam site. Looks like that's been fixed. I love the plate. I'd recommend it to any advanced carver looking for "the next big thing" in their gear setup.

The K168 is really something special. It's a 10 without a plate, 11 with. I tested 4 plates this year for an article I'm going to write. I ended up keeping the Apex X-plate. If that's not in the budget the Donek AF is awesome too. Both give a nice increase in edge hold and comfort. The Apex is a bit more flexible so it allows a bit more pedaling and is more compliant. It's also lower to the board so once you get used to it it basically disappears. I entered the test fully biased to love the Allflex, but didn't like it at all on this board.

All “standard” (not step-in) snowboard plate bindings fit all DIN ski boots. Bomber, Catek, F2, Kessler, SG, Burton/Ibex/Carve Company, PHK, etc.

My custom 175 arrived with 0.5 base, 3 side. I hadn’t specified any particular angles, but I like it. Dig that photo.

Yes, you do. I would shop http://www.i-carve.com or http://www.apexsnowboard.com/ or http://www.all-boards.com.

Well, at that time we didn't know how deep the rabbit hole went, so it looked more like you were biting the hand that fed us. What can we say, you were right!

https://www.aspendailynews.com/news/former-red-brick-director-pleads-guilty-to-felony-theft/article_6761d098-7045-11e9-bfe0-6fbf2bb01005.html https://www.aspentimes.com/news/former-red-brick-director-admits-theft-pays-50k/

Friends, With the 2019 winter season winding down or over in the northern hemisphere, I'd like to share this update with you. Since we rolled out subscriptions about a year ago, so far we have donated $950 EACH to USASA and USSRT. Please give yourselves a pat on the back for helping support our fringe sport, at least here in the USA. Every little bit helps! If you are not yet a subscriber and would like to join the cause, please click the Subscriptions tab at the top of the forum. I would also like to thank everyone for making the transition from the old forums at BOL. This group of virtual friends is now nearly 20 years old! So glad it was not lost during Bomber's tumultuous change of hands. Thanks again! Jack

Fixed the links for you. Awesome riding, thanks for the free clinic!