Great soft booter with big feet.

[shawndoggy]

I "fear" stepins. the notion of 2 tiny little pins holding me onto a board that can potentialy pop loose scares the crap out of me ever since I busted a heel bail on a set of Snowpro "race" bindings....

That's really an ad for step-ins right there isn't it? Intecs pins can't "pop loose" from their beefy intec heel receiver, but a thin heel bail can sure break. If something breaks on intecs it's the whole heel ripping away from the boot, or the cable breaking in which case the boot is stuck in the binding.

[shawndoggy]

Like these

http://cgi.ebay.com/F2-intec-challenge-comp-bindings-brandnew_W0QQitemZ250505269589QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Sporting_Goods_Skiing_Snowboarding_Snowboards_CV?hash=item3a53471155

If you buy these, prepare to be really patient, unless you pay for the fast shipping. I bought a pair of bindings from this guy last year and it literally took two months for them to arrive.

[Dave ESPI]

That's really an ad for step-ins right there isn't it? Intecs pins can't "pop loose" from their beefy intec heel receiver, but a thin heel bail can sure break. If something breaks on intecs it's the whole heel ripping away from the boot, or the cable breaking in which case the boot is stuck in the binding.

yeah, LOL, I guess so, OR it will steer someone away from SP bindings ;)

I guess my worries were cause I saw one set of step-ins ice up in slush and cold temps, and didnt fully lock when a friend was riding, and he went down really hard when it came loose. Can't recall if it was Bobby Bugs or Ronnie or one of the racers I rode with, but I know he was as shocked as I was that he was not all busted up when his boot popped out and he rolled back over covered in slush and crud saying " WTF JUST HAPPENED?".

Then again, Ive said the same when my rear toe bail came loose on the TD2s and saw my back leg swinging up in the air to hip height.... all I recall is thinking " Put that foot down on the stomp pad and pray you can lay this down!"

but enough of scarin' the kid.... its haloween after all hehehhe.

[chrisc]

The Arcane system he used to ride would get iced up and would not latch in. Dad wasn't around to help so... He learned to come down the hill one footed. He became very proficient at it in his early years.

<O:p</O:p<O:p</O:p

The real question about the F2 binding did not center on the binding system per say, step in vs. bails. The question is more about the change in models. The F2 titanium of yesteryear is more like the F2 carves of today. Additionally after being cautioned on placing metal on metal, I became acutely aware that the F2 titanium’s use a metal binding plate that attaches to the board.

<O:p</O:p

What it comes down to is should I spend $219 for new F2 Race Ti Bindings or $90 on the older F2 Titanium’s.

[BlueB]

I belive that all of the F2 bindings have a bit of padding under the aluminum plate.

The ones you are looking at for $90 are not titanium, nor RS.

Whichever binding you get, I would still run the lexan plate under, just for the piece of mind. They are easy to make.

However, the propper thing would be to use the propper riser plate, Hangl or Vist. I know, I know, another $400, probably not an option in the 1st year...

Has anyone tried running the Palmer risers on Kessler? Phil? Bordy?

I think I'm going to try it this winter...

[bobdea]

other than as I'm trying to get in

popped out of bails more than once and at this point I've been riding intec longer than I was on bails I think.

if you're popping out of bails more than say once a year it means you have a binding that's not properly adjusted.

[chrisc]

Once again, I have to thank you all for the fantastic help. I have learned allot about this discipline, and have some objective information to bring back to the table.

First I would like to address the Slalom portion of the season. In short, he won all his races, but there where other riders in different groups that where seconds faster than himself (All Hardbooter’s).

The one thing that no one told us about Hardbooter’s, but it is obvious after you study you guys, is you like to keep your shoulders perpendicular to the board. Softbooter’s are drilled to “stack”, keep your shoulders parallel with the board. Likewise, Hardbooter’s will break at the waist to push weight to the front of the board if needed during a carve. Softbooter’s will lean towards the front of the board while remaining stacked, refraining from bending at the waist if posible.

The Hardboot set up really helped on heal side carves, one of the more difficult aspects for a Softbooter to perform well.

Michael was fast in Hardboots, faster than he was on his Softboot set up. But when in trouble, he would revert to his old-trained habits of stacking, which would make the problem at the moment even worse. No disasters, he would force things to work, but it would break the carve, and slow him down.

Next I would like to discuss Boardercross.

We moved his angles forward +10 and +25 on his Softboot setup. This allowed for much better heal side turns, but it introduced a new problem and a realization that there is a reason for riding duck, or negative angles on the rear binding. When a rider is surprised by an unexpected hit or jumps, a duck stance is more self centering, keeping the riders position where they should be on the board. With forward angles, a unexpected pop will push the rider into the “Backseat”. With a series of pops or hits, the problem just exacerbates itself until the rider finds himself unable to regain control.

So, it comes down to selecting compromises of how a rider can be retrained and what equipment can be utilized to maximize their performance given the selected choice. Training Mike to try to keep his weight forward when riding BX forward angles seems obtainable. Training Mike to place his shoulders perpendicular with the board while riding one set up and parallel while on another seems a bit too challenging and possibly detrimental to his performance over all.

Best Regards!