felix

Well nothing against wisely used plastics. (I heard that on the Mount Everest excursions Stefan Gatts used boards and bindings together under 1.8kg - those boards were one use trash away directly afterwards however and fell into pieces while riding down - Marco Siffredi who didn't carry his own gear used heavier stuff of course). My Proflex binders with 3. straps had very stiff Plastic base as well - so stiff that they ripped several capboards open - but high quality very hard plastic providing better dampening than metal.however the heelloop is made out of Steel (no soft alu but proper stuff at the right place) and the highback is metal with gummi coating. - Oh bummer the weight around 1600grams each and thats without the canting shims (still much better than my VIST racing plates for my skis) But a heellop should be very thin so you achieve shorter length. Burton and Salomon heellops are awfull in that respect.

Can you compare lateral stiffnes to say burton race plates (non stepin)? I'm searching for the laterally least stiffest binding out there. Is F2 Intec Comp the way to go? Hows the profile of the binding considering that I like mine flat (no cant, no lift) just like the good old burton race plates (same low profile if possible)

Be beware the problems of a 3 strap binding namely that you loose all lateral loosenes which is in my eyes a very big advantage for freeriding or freestyle and sometimes even carving (depending on your technique). I only use a 3. strap on rare occassions (custom Proflex softboot binding with possibility to attach a 3 strap). Rather try to beef up your boot in other ways like by putting in a good tongue made out of plast material - Burton RAF inserts simply suck and don't stiffen up a boot at all IMO. Only Dee Luxe offered once great metal inserts for softboots that still fit their nerwer Spark boots. I still wouldn't rotate the highback on any non F2 (when rotating the heel loop it automatically cants - though only around 15° rotation possible) or non Head PX (around 30° possible) binding because you can't cant the highback which means that at 30° the highback will either twist - or if it is a very rigid highback it will cut into your boot. I'm not sure about Cateks. In my eyes most softboot bindings are just there for the bling bling factor but improvements for carving are non existent in the last 10 years. The bindings got better for freestyle perfomance but that was it. Heel Loops are now mostly out of plastik increasing overall boot lengt, same goes for capstraps that try to solve a problem that exists because people don't know how to close their bindings or ride a boot with non-existent forward lean with a highback that is strongly forwarded. Highbacks are incorporating materials like carbon instead of being rigid like some old very thick plastic highbacks that don't twist at all. Instead they should just beef them up with titanal. And the padding of the 2. strap sucks - why don't they use thermoflex material like on the old Proflex bindings that once molded gave better hold than any Flow.

Both factories where F2 are produced are in Austria. Elan in Carinthia the other I think in Salzburger Land so you can't tell. The parent company of F2 - Boards and More (owning several brands) is Austrian too. Originally only the P50 and P60 Powercores where produced at Elan and everything saying Lightcore wasn't but it might have changed.

Hang Loose in Vienna carries both Head and Dee Luxe boots. They might have as well a small supply of UPZ boots, not sure if they still have some burtons leftover.

Than they must have changed their producer. Until 2 years I can say for sure that Elan only produced F2 raceboards while another big factory produced F2 (as well as Duotone, Forum and many more) sooftbootboards. I'm not sure if Eliminator Ltd was produced there too or at Elan. It's true that Elan Austria is the biggest producer of snowboards worldwide and market leader.

Talk to a bottfitter. They'll fit the boot for you. Remember a too small boot can be fit - a too big boot can never be fixed. Snowboard liners are high volume - you could try a low volume skiing plug like the Nordica leather one which is really nice and low volume. (talk to a shop that sells skiing race gear to get plugs)

Guys - how the heck do you arrive at wrong size. Never heard a good bootfitter or skiing professional tell you that you take a shoe where without innerboot behind your heel there should be 1cm to 1.5cm free space! I went shorter in my new Raichle 325. My feet are 277mm on custom footbed and pretty wide at front and I took a 26.5 which makes with footbed like half a cm behind heel. So I just cut away the whole front of the liner and sideways back another 3-4cm and I fit that damn boot. I touch the plastics in the front about every tenth turn. Just remember to crank up the first buckle because its the most important buckle against sliding forward if very snug. If it weren't a thermoflex liner but a proper liner with Neoprene toecap like used in ski race boots than there would be no need to cut that liner apart. But the thermoflex takes loads of space up front. Some skiers even go 0 finger fit so when getting in without liner the touch front and back and then have the bootfitter blow out the boot till it fits (as tight as possible). I just need to find some very thin material to cover the front cause its damn cold when you touch the wet plastic as I think that the boot is leaking a tiny bit. Oh BTW - Raichle sizing went up on the change from SB to AF series. If you fit a 26.5 SB allright you should be able to fit a 25.5 AF (Indy/Suzuka) as well.

Just watch a worldcup PGS an notice how the riders cross the finnish line. Thats the trick that made it for me. So on the tail, upper body facing the finnish line, looking straight forward, both arms pointed straight forward too (in order for race timing - Only seen a few cases where it worked. One was this world championships Semi-Final WMS PSL (I think it was Neuruhrer) though she crossed the finish line with her board and body later than the other rider in the second run the timing showed a dead race) I think this positions is quite stable for bombing down. Why do softbooter have less probs? In my eyes not really the detune but wider board (=reacting slower) as well as a much looser binding/boot setup meaning you can move a bit before the board reacts.

I think Darren Powell still holds the world record. Didn't we have a post about the actual board used for it appearing on ebay or so? I was made on the speed slope of Les Arcs. Skiers go somewhere around 240ks on that run I think. If you happen to pass by at Les Arcs don't forget to book your ticket for a run down. after 2-3 hours introductory session your allowed to get the hell out of it, they supply you with the gear. So not sure about boarders and the program - for skiers its possible:D

It depends on the angles you wanna run them. Anything above 25° for the front foot I'ld go for the Head PX10 or a binding with lotta different holes for fixing the highback including the possibility to cant the highback. Why? Cause if you wanna run big angles on a soft setup I'ld advise both big forward highback lean as well as adjusting the highback level to the boards edge. In order to do so with having constant connection highback to boot you need to cant the highback laterally to be flush with the forward angle of your boots. Only binding where they actively thought about it upon my knowledge is the Head PX10 where the highback therefore consists of 2 pieces so you can easily angulate it. Otherwise with some bindings that have a lot of metal you might be able to drill additional holes to cant the highback, ideally however you want to cant the highback as well as the round loop at the end of which the name I've just forgotten. Even better would be to have all this with a 3. strap for freecarving (I wouldn't use a 3. strap for freestyle or freeride though) and a highback which can be fixed into a position.

Yeah - keep up the good work. No other website provides so good and unbiased view on snowboard gear. There might allways be some pages lacking some information but nowhere else is everything so complete.

Oh yeah - sure thats true. But a tiny bit of snow on the soles does the opposite. Damn. I just hope I break neither the binding nor the boots tomorrow and will go for the tight way. Burton Race Plates Carbon are anyhow very sturdy bindings compared to any other burton bindings.

Chears, I think so too. But its really like so hard that I need a lot of force to close them. In a snowboard shop they would go for the loose setup - As well according to what I learned for my snowbord guide exam. Its like a relly bad borderline decision. I'm 99% sure that even the loose setting is still plenty tight. Can I stick to the principle, as long as you can put on the lever its allright? The lever pretty badly deforms on moving it on. I though already about grinding the sole a little bit or take off some of the hight where the lever goes on (I know you can do this for skiboots without running into danger). off course I won't keep anyone of you responsible for an answer - I know you can't properly asses the situation without actually looking at the binding yourself

Hi, I just wanted to adjust my bindings (Burton Race Plates Carbon) in order to accomodate my new (used) Raichle 325 boots. I've changed from AF600 in a 27.5 size to a 26.5 325er. Old marked sole length was 299mm, new is 285 so I moved the block 15mm closer together. Burton race plates only allow 5mm adjustments on toe and heel pieces. Is it o.k. to move the two pieces so close that I need about 15kg of force to close the lever? With my old boots it felt perfect, no too tight, not to loose. Now if I go for 5mm looser it firstly make boot out risk greater (at toe not the boot will touch the snow but the binding - should get step ins to allow for another say 1.5 to 2° less angle for same bootout danger) and secondly I'm not sure if say 3-4 kg tension force to close are enough, on the other hand I'm afraid that if I don't set it looser either the bindings might break or the bindings might kill my boot. How tight are you allowed to set a non step-in plate binding? Chears for a quick answer as I wanna go to the mountains without bad feelings tomorrow.

Second that. Except for Dee Luxe softboots I've never had any that provided good comfort, its allright but once you crank up your three strap bindings they don't withold the force and become really uncomfy. Oh wait I remember my old softboots that had no innerboot, they were actually not too bad. S'pose I didn't have any proper bindings by then. Thinking of putting skiboot liners in those damn sofboots too? I just wonder how I can fit them in as I allways cut away the front part of softboot innerboots to downsize. The heelpocket of skiboots is bigger than that of softboot liners. Damn I go figure.

Hehe - did you do it after reading about it in other threads where I recommended it? If not I'm sure many others have done it before too. It's just a logical consequence you draw when skiing and boarding and those hardboots feel like a pain in the xSS Damn, why did I need to directly use the top of line ski inner boot for this, I'm getting sick of switching them back and forth. As snowboard hardboots are rather low volume (at least Raichle) you should go for a top of the line liner, they are lower volume. and the second plastic tongue (for Fischer liners this tongue is two times harder than the raichle ones) beefs up the boot

I talk about the same as in my skiing boots. So its a "race fit" Fischer innerboot taken from the Soma 9000 race (the top modell of the line for last year taking out the plug boot worldcup soft which I wouldn't recommend for innerboot exchange as its too low volume). Neither would I really recommend low or middle class skiboots as their liners are too high volume and not stiff enough. I consider buying one more of those Fischer boots just as a backup for the innerboot. However for around 200€ (RRP was 479€) it's a bit expensive. Just go in a skishop and take out a liner to see if you like it more. Maybe try a day with a rental model and then call the distributor for the price of a inneboot only. This is with a AF600 Raichle. Your mileage might vary but I threw out an old foamed inner as it was much better. The big advantage is that my low instep now fits for the first time into my boot (still buckled down completely on the 2nd buckle but no more heellift on FS). Oh liner Size was 1:1 in Mondo. Don't downsize the innerboot compared to the snowboard outerboot. 26.5 Raichle needs 26.5 Fischer innerboot from last year. This year sizes went up so maybe a 26.5 Raichle needs a 26 or 25.5 Fischer innerboot. Furthermore I use molded Conformable insoles. However using a skiboot will make the boot much stiffer overall. I now board with the lever in freeride mode, before locked and its about the same stiffness.

I jsut put Ski innerboots into my Raichles and that solved all fit problems. They actually don't work well in the skiboots but they work great in the Raichles. For Skiing I use a Fischer Soma 9000 and love it. But I would never ever consider to use it for snowboarding, even though the overall lenght would be a mere 5mm longer as I downsized heavily.

I don't like hardboots on snowboards above around 24.5cm middle width as I feel then a hard softboot with a 3strap binding does much better. It's all with the angles - softboots work great up to 25-30 on front foot, hardboots work better at 30° and above. I ripped caps with softboots too (however a titanal Base boardercross Proflex binding with 3. strap), inserts never came out. Sandwich softboards seem better to me. Note that the freeride/freestyle F2 boards do not come from Elan but from another producer, IMO offering ****ty quality. I ripped 3 in one season afterwards they send me a custom one in order not to rip the caps open all the time (6 years ago - and they had quality problems by that time). For freeriding you want a very soft nose, and generally soft board, so for me it's allways freeride board and wide board for softbootcarving seperately. makes no sense to try to find a one fits all board here. A speedcross would be great for softbootcarving IMO, for powder it sucks. In LaGrave France actually loads of hardbooters on swallowtails can be seen. It sometimes goes so far that they give people on soft setups strange looks.:p Just never use Stepins on a soft setup with hardboots. You need the lateral flex. Burton Race Plates or other soft plate bindings are great in that concern. Actually my softboot setup provides far less forward lean and flex than my locked AF600.

I get video currently unavailable??

Sorry, I don't really understand the difference (I really don't want to hijack your thread. But for me the following picture is a prime example of sittin on the toilet. However I do quite well riding like this.

What against the toilet seat? If you watch racers many are allways on the toilet seat during backside carves. If you are really low with your knees why shouldn't you? I agree its better to be able carve both ways, but in a GS race course I feel much more comfortable breaking at the waist than not. Its much easier to put in a drift when your on the toilet seat and you don't lock into the carve. Breaking at the waist enables me to perfectly ride around the triangle flag because its so easy to adjust the radius. Skiers in SL/GS also allways break at the waist and do a little counter rotation.

Hehe- don't talk the myth. Ebay Prices will rise if all softies throw away their trashy inners. (during the last days Thermos went sometimes for 15€ on german ebay including the Raichle X2X boots). On the other hand ski innerboots with plastic tongues make great Raichle innerboots and bring back volume.

I once lost the piece (fell out when taking the inner out for drying and got lost at the hostel). I think it feels awfull on the Suzukas/AF600. This was on the back foot. Your mileage might vary depending front or back foot and asymetric vs symetric shell.