Racing With TD-2's - suspesion?

[wavechaser]

Anybody out there race with TD-2 Standards? What hardness E-ring do you use? Do you use the suspension kit? GS or SL? Comments?

I've been racing on Burton RP's for SL, F2 Titanium Race for GS, and TD-1's for GS before that. Never raced on the TD-2's.

I'm particularly interested in comments on the suspension kit since I've never tried it.

[Sinecure]

I race with the yellow rings. First the originals, now the newer ones. I also have the suspension kit and use it sometimes. Its a bit of a pain to mount, and leaves dark circles on my boards so sometimes I leave it off. I don't notice a big difference with and w/out it, but mostly we have softer snow. Plus its a PITA to use screws and hex to mount/change so I prefer the original setup. I need to go find hex head longer screws one of these days.

I used to race on Burton plates, but they started making me nervous when they released on some super-steep terrain. I first switched to F2 Titanflex because I was cheap. Then I discovered that being cheap sometimes means buying something twice when you can't get parts or support. So a couple seasons ago I sucked it up and invested in TD2s. I love them and it was definitely the right decision. Parts are easy to find (not that I've broken anything) and they work great.

[Strider]

I race, primarily GS, on a pair of TD2's with the purple rings. I rode a fairly soft, damp board though so I liked the purple rings. The yellow rings I have on a second board kit on my all mountain and I definitley notice a difference in the flex under the bindings. I know a lot of people on the board like to race on the less stiff Burton bindings, but I have found that I really like the feel for the board and responsiveness I get from the TD2's. I found that the TD2's were a huge improvement over the TD1 as far as being able to recover from a mistake or having to go through skier ruts in our race league. The e-ring seemed to give just enough dampening and cushion to absorb some of the energy that used to get transferred right to my legs. I highly recommend it, but then again I've always liked the solid feel from boot to board, even on my softboot setup with step-ins. Hope this helps you some.

I haven't had the chance to ride the suspension kit yet, but I really want to try it, particularily on my all mountain setup. I think I am happy with the TD2 as it is for racing as I can always go down 1 step in elastomer and I think the suspension kit would be too much play for me, but that is just a guess at this point.

[Seb]

I race standard TD2 with soft-yellow ERing. I used to ride with Head Stealth DNA, I switched to Bomber when I had one front bail from Head who opened during a race, I never figured why, but it happened.

I'm still a young racer on the NorAm circuit, but last weekend at Mont-Blanc, they were few other racers with TD2, both standard and step-in. I even saw one with the suspension kit. I personnally like the "direct" control that I get from the Bomber binding versus any other ones ( never tried Catek ).

Seb

[Seb]

I received a suspension kit as a Xmas gift last week ( guesss what, all my Xmas gift were alpine oriented, Thx Santa ). I'm riding it everyday since, more than half of them, training in gates. Looking at the product with other friend racers and coaches, we found an other feature, unsuspected: this should held to prevent damage to the "fragile" topsheet of Metal board ( Kessler, Prior, Sigi, etc. ). I have seen metal board ( twice Kessler ) been damaged by stiff bindings :o . I have mounted mine on my WCR Metal and love the extra damping. The damping effect is a lot smaller than comparing a metal vs non-metal board.

The only complaint is that I have to carry a screwdriver because of the screw instead of the standard "Bomber" 5mm bolt.

Seb

[D-Sub]

Ive never seen the suspension kit, but I remember reading that Fin had a hard time finding socket screws for the mounting

maybe something here would work:

http://www.mcmaster.com/

path:

Fastening and Sealing/Socket Head Cap Screws/Stainless Steel/Flat/Metric/M6/

they have them in up to 80mm in 18-8 and 40mm in 316. Not sure which is better.

edit. after reading...these are only 4mm socket size, which is what I think was the original problem. They strip easily. Pretty sure this is why Fin chose phillips

[bobdea]

the suspension kit is really hit or miss for some people, I like it at low angles quite a bit but I am not into it on the narrow boards, it makes the binding have too much give and gets you way up off the deck so it takes some getting used to

but on the 20cm waisted boards it's rather nice on ice!

[Guest The Cheef]

Im a high school racer and I have TD 2's on my GS board. I like the extra stiffness of the bindings and it really helps! I've got the purple rings and i love how the board feels underneath my feet. The board is responsive to all my inputs and It really helps when im fine tuning my riding. I've got the F2 titaniums on my Slalom board but want to try my TD 2's on it someday...

Sean