Gremlin

I'm around Stowe and would be happy to meet up. With the local I'm blacked out till the 1st. You're not kidding about the hordes. The acquisition has been atrocious for quantity and average quality of skiers and riders.

Yellow all around on the bindings.

Waist on the Tinkler? Insert width?

Everything is still available. I'm out of town through the end of the month so the earliest I can ship is December. Boots are marked 279/299.

*Whoosh* Happens to us all at some point I suppose. Serves me right for letting myself feel clever.

Both your first and second point are spurious. Any slope will have more available terrain and cross fall line access with only a single course posted on it as opposed to two. A wider course will almost always allow for greater choice in line. I agree that particular course doesn't appear the most inspired, but what of that is due simply to how it was laid on the slope available? I also wonder at the institutional knowledge behind the layout with an immature sport. Ski racing seems to be sufficiently captivating to dominate most of the airtime. I strongly dislike trying to watch two separate courses at one time. It's not possible to focus on the subtleties of each run simultaneously. I'm not sure why you think single format is less approachable. Assuming it is though, why should that be the goal of competition; especially high end? Shouldn't the purpose be to push the competitors to their maximum, and display all their available skill? F1 and MotoGP are about as unapproachable as it gets, but they're both the pinnacle of sport in their respective fields. Amazing to watch as well, with large audiences. I do wish SuperG was still run. It looks like so much fun, and is closer to my style than either current format. Interesting to watch two of the greats struggle to keep the edge cutting cleanly. I wonder what sort of configurations they were running.

I know the pictures are crap. They're the best I can currently do. RC-11 9.5-10 $300 Used maybe 8-10 days. In good shape, no liners (you weren't going to use flo's anyways). Currently missing a cant disc because one fell off my other pair. Will be replaced before they ship. Left top strap is a little frayed on the edge from the way the buckle catches it. TD3 Sidewinders $375 Yellow urethane all around, two 3° cants, one 0° cant (not pictured). Minor cosmetic damage to the toe and heel pieces, and the tops of the cant rings. Two 4mm screws because I lost two. Donek AF plate $200 The edge under the rear heel on this peeled up ~3/16 from skidding out. I epoxied and clamped it, result is pictured. If anything that edge might be ever so slightly turned up, no difference otherwise. When I received it the hardware wasn't able to be set-up as pictured on their website. I removed the threads from the sliders, and made two threaded plates. Those plates are ~1/16 proud of the delrin (as pictured). I doubt it matters, but I can make them flush before I ship it if you'd like.

Get yourself some footbeds. Anything that doesn't hurt and is a more accurate contour is an improvement. I recently forgot the generic pair I was riding at the time and spent two runs confused as to why I was floundering. Upon their replacement, ability was restored. After that I finally caved and sought out a custom set from the eminent @Beckmann AG. One of the best things I have ever done for my riding. The more control you have through the bottom of your foot, the more freely your larger joints can provide support and absorption since they're no longer tied up in the act of keeping the board on edge. Check out his brief explanation of footbed posting here. I'd also suggest giving his set up guide a read if you haven't. And thanks again for the Cateks. They've proven to be excellent for my needs.

I see you rotating your upper body out of your heelside turn. Your back knee looks pinched in behind the front as well. 6° heel and no toe lift seems odd to me. What's your stance width? Footbeds? Any canting?

I'd missed or forgotten how loaded with info the ec thread is. Guess my initial skim didn't take well enough. The ledges are certainly significantly smaller. I've been considering ways to make them both larger and more resilient. I think it would be possible to make a secondary ledge that screws into the hole the rear metal bit is, covers and expands the existing ledge, and is pinned or bolted through the sides back into the heel. Fill those gaps in the sides with epoxy, and it might be pretty solid. Not quite as light and probably not skiing them again, but respectively that's not my primary goal and I don't care. For the front something that bolts though into the pin holes might work, and could even be removable on the uphill. I wonder if several strategic lugs could be removed and appropriate pieces screwed up into the sole. Not sure how thick it is, probably not very. Despite being thin and light the plastic seemed pretty friggin stiff when I was handling them. I was told from all the carbon. Curious to hear anecdotal comparisons. Nothing clever from me addressing the rockered sole. Custom matching binding blocks?

@pokkis, your reservations about riding these outside of powder seem to be mostly due to bail fitment. Correct? How is the lateral stiffness on these? I handled a pair in the store and they seemed pretty rigid. @Beckmann AG, as to your comments about using the cuffs vs riding through the feet. I would figure with a sufficiently heavy rear spring these could be made to ride closer to typical hardboots. Do you think that's the case? A pair of these with a stiff spring setup for the hard snow go-fast, and a soft setup for the trees and pow would be everything I could ask for. Additionally, what rate of die spring are people finding success with for spring systems? I'd like to make myself a set without needing to buy an unnecessary range for experimentation.

Because they're good at it. Excellent thread everyone.

I second that pics of the rear spine and internal ankle are required before more judgment is passed. However, I'm intrigued in an option that (hopefully) allows an actual softboot ride using phantom bindings. I haven't tried softening AT boots, but would be surprised if they're anything but a sad approximation. Worst of both worlds for anything else though.

Yeah, those should be just about perfect then. What an asinine issue to have to solve. Even stranger that they'd go to the bother of putting in nice cork oil liners and have the sizes so far off. I can understand half sizes for whole size lasts, but without more volume to fill the shell?

I have 287 shells. They're listed at 9, so 9.5 liners might be too much. I just checked my flo liners and they're 26cm or so. Very strange that they undersize the liners by so much. I agree mine are too narrow, but I can't say if that's from them simply being too small. An update on my kydex shims: they're working excellently. Just wish I didn't need them.

The good: The kydex is a significant improvement. The bad: These liners are a non-optimal fit for my feet in these shells. Probably going to get a set of Flos in the proper size.

Bessey clamps would work well. Depending on board width and jaw design, a vice might also do.

Indeed, the notorious hacker Radical Edward. Nordica Doberman and green superfeet.

Had a funny and enlightening time on the hill today. I was all over the place and felt like a total beginner my first run. Couldn't turn out of my feet at all, had to rely on smashing into the cuffs to do anything other than skid. Get to the bottom, irately mulling over what could possibly be so wrong. Forward lean and buckles are all good, changed my lift and bail placement back from the used Il Moro's I picked up to try, angles are good... Footbeds are still in the other boots! Thankfully they were still in the van and the day could continue. I was amazed what a difference having a properly supported foot makes. I've know that it's important, but the lack thereof robbed me of all but my most basic control. Custom footbeds from @BeckmannAG have been on my mind, but just took a big step up in priority. Also, my previous problem of vertical volume resurfaced, in a somewhat different guise. I've been having recent problems with chatter on my toes and feeling like I'm putting in effort to keep my feet in good contact with the bottom of my boots. It was as distinct as it's ever been on some irregular gun snow today. I was taking advantage of the grip and was fairly committed for something that rough. Regularly, I felt my feet actually losing contact with the bottom of my boots. Pretty strange in the middle of a deep turn. Having tried and disliked full length shims under my footbed last year, I needed a new solution. Remembering some .120 kydex about, I made a set to sit in the boots under my liners. Carpet trials indicate they don't cause discomfort. At the very least they'll keep the toe of my liner from catching on the damn T-nut recesses. Tomorrow shall tell more of the story.

Foam liners wouldn't do much good in these shells then as I have almost no room on the sides. I was having trouble with my forefoot lifting or squirming when inverting/everting my foot. I tried out some different configurations of mousepad on top of my foot and in combination with some buckle tuning, seem to have eliminated unwanted movement sufficiently for now. It'll probably need to be revisited next winter when the snow is hard again, as corn doesn't highlight deficiencies. I like my forefoot totally locked in. A little toe wiggle is nice, but nothing more.

Thanks Lurch. However, Wolf was kind enough to sell me a pair of WCs. Edited title to reflect.

I've tried both using can foam into a bag above the toe and making a filler out of softer eps foam. Neither was serviceable. I do have some 1.5" neoprene that I wanted to avoid cutting up, but I'll try that next. I'm not sure I want to fill the bottom given how much I disliked the ~3mm firm neoprene already. I tried adjusting my bindings more than a couple times and wasn't satisfied. It could be that I was just missing it, or the change in shape highlights some footbed deficiency, but I'm liking reversible till it's good. Across the top of the boot is also far more rounded than my foot. I would like to try foam liners if they could do that much volume, but definitely not at that price in these boots. I despise the rc10 tongue.

Is having trouble filling vertical space in the forefoot a common problem in UPZs? My bare foot touches the shell on almost the whole perimeter but has ~1.3" above it at the end of the bottom shell opening while standing on my footbed. I would simply shim under my entire foot, but at my arch I only have ~.3" and they fit my ankle fine. While I could have an unusually thin forefoot, my arch isn't high at all and it seems unlikely I'm that much of an outlier. I took them to the local bootshop and they tried shimming underneath from just behind the balls of my foot forward. In addition to not being sufficient, it totally threw off my geometry so I quickly got rid of them. Anybody have ideas as to how to improve my fit?

Got a washer in there. Not sure why I was concerned about things fitting, it's just fine. Guess that's what a rushed look in the hardware store before work gets you.

Finally got to ride them. They feel great, so much better power and finesse transfer than the F2 Ti Race. The bails seem to be holding well. What do you have for a spacer on the kingpin? Something solid won't work currently as the length will change with adjustment of the set screws. I tried a steel washer and two neoprene ones, but they had too much give. I'm considering just omitting it until I get everything dialed in and then making some that length. The plate is beefy enough that it didn't give perceptibly without.