F2 Speedster Rs Equipe

[dave29]

Has anyone ridin this board or any other F2's? If so how is the quality and feel(stable, damp, etc...)? Also how about the Titanflex and the Titanium bindings. Thanks for any input.

[philw]

Well I ride piste on a Speedster SL from a couple of seasons back (the red one), plus the race titanium bindings. Search here and you'll find a fair bit on those things I think.

I really like F2 boards for banging about on the piste. I've not tried the metal stucff, but for standard boards the style of these suits me. They have the right compromise between "carvability" and "thrashability", by which I mean that they will hold an edge but not hysterically so, and the corollary of that is that you can switch edges extremely quickly if you want to ride the fall line. I wrote some stuff about my SL when I first rode it, which is here.

For pistes, well the SL goes faster than most resort people; the RS would require higher speeds to work. You may not want that if you ride anywhere with speed cops.

The bindings are rock solid and last for years - I have a set from before they were F2 branded and they are still in perfect condition. I have another set from a couple of years ago and the design is nearly unchanged.

The "titanflex" bindings are almost the same as the straight version except they have a wodge of flexible buffer stuff, and no toe height adjuster. I'd say you don't really need the toe adjustter for modern boots, and you can always run the titanflex without the buffer stuff if you don't want it. The "race" variant is cheaper and has that toe adjuster.

I like these (specifically the straight "race" variant) because they're small, neat, solid, and they just work.

Small: they don't stick up above the board like some bindings. I prefer close contact with the board, so this works for me. I don't want flex in this part of the system, I can put what I want in through my boots.

Neat: no twiddily bits to loosen or lose. Changing angles or width is of course trivial, but changing lift/ cant is less so. You have a fixed number of options, and setting them up is something you don't want to do too often. That said, once you have them set the way you like, they stay that way, irrespective of the number of helicopter and bus baskets your board's chucked into. Toe and heal sections have huge worm screws so you can shift them back and forth.

Solid: there's a base plate and some mouldings and that's about it, especially with the Intec heel version (which I use).

Note that there are two size variants - one small, the other large. I've only used the small variant.

Again, search here for more specifics.

[Arc2Arc]

I have a speedster and a silberfiel. I can't comment on the binding as I ride TD's with 6deg on both and love it. My style of riding is more that of a free carve rather than racing. ie stronger controll phase as oposed to a fall line release.

The RS is stable at speed and very sure footed on firm groom and race conditions. It is my perfered board on harder days and if I have the more open runs. That being said, I ride it in the midwest and ride it all the time and can make it turn tighter when needed. All the F2's I have ridden are quick under foot and they have more life in the tail than most of the other boards I have rode. The metals are too damp under foot for me and feel sluggish. I like a board that you can load and unload into the next turn and feel like you are accelerating into the next turn. I do not care for it when things get too soft. The nose digs in and wants to keep digging, like it is hoping for firm underneath.

any specific q's let me know.

[Skwalleur]

I have had several Speedster RS:s, SL:s, GTS:s and Silberpfeils and I really have to say that they differ very much from year to year. The later Silberpfeils have gotten stiffer and stiffer with metal and have become less playful, meanwhile I think the RS has gotten softer and softer over the years.

Just bought a spanking new RS equipe 169 after riding a friends RS WC last weekend. Haven't been able to get out and test it yet though.

I feel that F2's flex index is somewhat wrong in the catalog. For instance the Silberpfeil last year was a 7 and the last years RS WS a 10 - but in reality the RS WS was rather a 7 and the SP a 10. Really misleading.

Love the boards, really great value.

[dave29]

Thanks for all the quality feedback.