WTB-> Startup looking for a board/bindings/boots

[RkyMtn]

hi RKYMTN

thanks for helping young STEVE D. out. i am already sending him a board and a set of bindings but if he likes your stuff better then tell him i will pay for it since he is on a tight student budget.

thanks

doug

Hi Doug!

That is very nice of you to sponsor Steve!

Let me know what you both want to do and we'll get it together. I live in Denver. What about you and Steve?

Cheers,

Eric

[tenorman]

Hi Doug!

That is very nice of you to sponsor Steve!

Let me know what you both want to do and we'll get it together. I live in Denver. What about you and Steve?

Cheers,

Eric

hi RKYMTN

too much of a nobody to be a big shot sponsor—just trying to help out my friend STEVE a little.

i already informed STEVE that his wcr board and td3 bindings would be shipped this saturday. since FATMARMOT already sold the boots to someone else, STEVE is still trying to buy a pair of boots. is it possible for you to post the boots that you are selling? it would be easier than playing email tag with about a dozen players as BORIS and the rest of us vancouver guys are still actively hunting down boot leads. STEVE is doing the same in the greater los angeles area

thanks.

[RkyMtn]

Is it possible for you to post the boots that you are selling?

Yes, but I will need to go to the shop in boulder (60 miles round trip) to get a picture, as I have them with my LBS (Local Board Shop,... or Lots of Budget Spent) so that he could sell them to someone like Steve.

I will post a pic as soon as I get the opportunity. I can get it sooner if you send me an email address to send them from my phone as soon as I take the pic.

As for your "sponsorship" of Steve, every little bit helps! Nice to make your acquaintance, Doug, as I enjoy "sponsoring" good people to help get them out boarding and cycling (the pedal kind- mostly road) when I can.

Please send me Steve's email address that I can send him pics and communicate, as trying to manage this PM'ing via my phone is a long, slow process.

Thanks,

Eric

PS I PM'd Steve for his email address.

[RkyMtn]

Since i am sending you a stiff wcr board and stiff td3 bindings, you will probably want (most likely NEED) some flex as a beginner. the only place to do this in your total “carving system” is in your boots.

Tenorman:

If Steve is measuring a 30, then shouldn't he be seeking a 29 boot?

If so, I have a brand new pair of Deeluxe T225's (Pic below) that were just too flexible for me, but should provide some flex for Steve to get aclimated. I have had them molded once, but they will take 3 more heatings, so we could get Steve in some really hot equipment. I saw the long-boarding video of his, and I am still speechless.

I'll do $150 on the Deeluxe boots + shipping

I will post photo soon if this sounds worth-while. Otherwise, I'll get the Burtons photo'd asap.

Cheers,

Eric

[BlueB]

If Steve is measuring a 30, then shouldn't he be seeking a 29 boot?

This is a slippery slope... Yes, Raichles SB type shells tend to run a bit longer then their mondo point. However, they are also pretty narrow with relativelly wide heel portion. If Steve is narrow-footed, he could probably squeeze into 29. If wide footed, then look for the 30s. Or, like in my case, wide front foot, narrow heel, I would skip the SBs all together...

[CarvingScooby]

Tenorman:

If Steve is measuring a 30, then shouldn't he be seeking a 29 boot?

I doubt that he'll fit in MP29, unless punch shell and mold the liners..

Roy

[CarvingScooby]

were you able to take advantage of bomberonline member RKYMTN’s kind offer of assistance?

if not then read on. with your footsize of 30.2 cm you are technically a size 30 in a raichle/deeluxe.

Doug,

Chq yr email: Found narrow shells size 12 (might be MP30 or bigger).

Cheers

Roy

[tenorman]

Doug,

Chq yr email: Found narrow shells size 12 (might be MP30 or bigger).

Cheers

Roy

hi ROY

thanks for the lead. i emailed the guy about buying them and have yet to hear back so maybe he'll respond tomorrow morning. they are 94/95 burtons so they may not fit as all the shell sizes were reduced the following year in 96/97 and remained the same until burton got out of alpine.

the present day deeluxe paradoxically have a longer clamp distance than the old ones for some strange reason--probably has to do with them having to elongate the sole to accommodate the intec heels. since the burton soles are shorter than the new deeluxe i am hoping the older burton soles are in between the 2. at a maximum equal to the new deeluxe sole length. otherwise the search continues.

keep your fingers crossed.

bomberonline is timing out and loading real slow tonight so i will respond to the rest of the posters tomorrow when the site speeds up.

thanks everyone for your continued efforts in this matter.

[tenorman]

hi STEVE

i just emailed you your tracking number. we made the canada post deadline with 4 days to spare!

the boots were a real adventure to acquire and required the expertise of BORIS to work his magic. they are burton reactors size 30 (fits 30.0 to 30.5) and were in really good shape--after BORIS fixed them up in his garage.

i will be quite busy the next few days and will post more info for you next week. please ask BORIS if you need any further info in the meantime.

thanks to ROY for rooting out the lead on the boots at the last minute.

later

doug

[Steve D.]

RAD

[carvingchef]

Hi Steve

it looks like you are in sunny Southern California, i don't know where you are planning on riding but there is a lot of regulars going to Snow Summit almost every sunday (sometime on weekdays too) and you can always find hardbooters at Mammoth, just check the SO CAL section, we always start a thread to let people know and to see who is coming

[Steve D.]

I live 2 hours from Mt. Baldy, and 3 hours From snow summit/bear mountain

[BlueB]

Here you go, young gun! Just to give you a teaser while you waiting for it :D

Btw, boots were easy to fix, it just required 4 hands and a part from Doug's old broken boot...

[carvingchef]

Steve,

there are a few people who go to mountain high as well, i personally like Snow Summit better but it's only 2 hours from where i live

Prior WCR and TD3 that's got to be the best beginner set up i have ever seen

[scrutton]

Sweet first timers setup! Mad props to all those involved.

[tenorman]

hi STEVE

been busy the last week and didn’t realize your stuff was delivered last tuesday. sorry for the delay in getting this info to you. canada post estimated 12 day delivery during the busy xmas season—who would have thunk they would do it in 5 days! i am going to be away for a few more weeks so this will be a long winded post as i am trying to anticipate all the possible questions that may arise after you unpack and inspect the stuff. hope it all arrived intact lol.

BINDINGS:

1. mounted at a 19.75 inch stance width which BORIS suggested would be right for someone of your size and probable inseam. btw the cants are 3 degree front and 6 degree rear—most downhill skateboarders will favour this canting configuration as it mimics a sweeping turn while remaining in full tuck on a dh skateboard. from watching you skate i think you are athletic enough to start off with this canting configuration from the get go instead of going through the intermediate step of 0/3 or 3/3.

2. angles were 65/60 which we measured to be the minimum to ensure zero boot drag. luckily the 94/95 burton reactors had a shorter clamp distance than the new deeluxe otherwise you may have been forced to use even higher angles due to your big feet. beginners should start with lift only but you have a slight 5 degree inward (traditional) cant on both feet (70/65) because we originally thought the bindings needed to be at 70/65 to ensure zero boot drag but when we backed down the angles (after doing the tilt the board on edge test) we forgot to change the cant angles. BORIS didn’t think you will notice the slight difference—besides we were rushing to get to the post office before it closed. in fact BORIS had to carry the package out to the mail truck to ensure it didn’t get left for the next day’s pickup!

you probably won’t know if you are a traditional (inward) canter or non-traditional (outward) canter or zero canter (lift only) until you ride for a few weeks so you might as well just leave the cants in the position BORIS and i randomly picked as a starting point.

3. the only concession to flex in your total carving system is the soft yellow elastomers. the yellows will be good at the beginning stages and will make learning easier. you may wish to get stiffer elastomers next year when you get more experience. however, a lot of heavy guys such as local vancouver rider DAVE* (230 pounds) deliberately choose the soft yellow elastomers so it could be that you will not be swapping them out in the future if you like the ride of the soft yellows.

BOOTS:

1. your burton reactors are the 94/95 model. this was before the introduction of the FURNACE (predecessor to the FIRE) so at the time your reactors were the stiffest race boot in burton’s line. they appeared to have been used very little. BORIS thinks the seller broke the anchor pin in the lean mechanism during the first month of use and then never used the boots again. even the toe and heel ledges show little signs of use—in fact the only visible markings are from the td3 bindings when we were adjusting them for you. these boots were a great find. the boots are clearly the best component of your carving system as the quality and function of the boots surpass the td3 bindings and the wcr board in my opinion. if they fit i think you will not want to upgrade your boots anytime soon. burton reactors from 94 to 96 were of much higher build quality than the newer reactors (predecessor to the WIND.) in any case, if you wanted to get current era boots only the open throat designs are still available (deeluxe and upz.) many current riders are still crying about the unavailability of the old burton overlap design. lots of riders have been able to exploit what was originally thought to be a flaw with the burton design (the “shearing” of the overlap tongue) to their advantage. my fervent wish is that a current boot manufacturer will stumble upon the long lost burton boot molds and start reproducing them again.

however, i am lucky in that i do have 8 pairs of brand new burton boots (1 reactor, 3 furnace, 2 winds and 2 fire) still in the box in addition to the new pair of 96/97 furnace (my all time favorite burton boot) that i just started using last year which only have about 30 days on them. safe to say that with a total of 9 pairs (1 currently being used and 8 unused still in the box) i have a lifetime supply of burton boots lol!

BORIS was stunned to see my new (worn once to have the bootfitter punch out the toe) 12 year old furnace boots when i brought them over to his garage 2 summers ago to have him help me deliberately strip off the cant adjuster and replace it with my own homemade version. the boots looked immaculate except for a thin covering of fine grayish coloured powder that somehow developed despite the boots sitting in the box in a dark closet for about a dozen years. the medial adjuster is the only problem area with burton boots but it only affects riders with torquey riding styles. you may not have problems with it but if you do let me know and i will post instructions on how to fix it (you will need a new screw, t-nut, hacksaw and lots of duct tape.)

2. i don’t have time to look for the original instruction manual but if i have time to find it (probably after the season) i will send it to you. i had the exact same pair of boots (in a smaller size 27) back in the day so i remember how they were adjusted. the liners have a genuine leather cuff so you should treat it with SNOSEAL or some other leather protector periodically. also, all snowboard boots come with crappy footbeds that you should immediately throw out. BORIS did you a favor and dumped them in the garbage for you so remember to put the footbeds from your softboots in them before you use them. the 94/95 reactors were a bootfitter’s dream. they came with a removable plastic soleplate that is purposely made as thick as possible so you could grind it down incrementally to ensure you got the snuggest fit possible. when i examined the soleplates i noticed they were NEVER ground—either the seller had a small volume foot or he was ignorant of this procedure!

also the high quality stock liner can be trimmed if the fit is too tight. subsequent reactor liners in later years got replaced by a cheap untrimmable cardboard like liner and had the leather cuff replaced by a synthetic felt like material. the v-shaped heel hold pieces can be repositioned. i always glued and duct taped mine in place after finalizing their positions through trial and error—people with thick ankles often don’t need them at all. your leather liners appear to be nearly unused so they have not packed in yet so ride for a while and let them pack in on their own before you start making too many irreversible bootfitting adjustments. your boots may feel tight initially because they were never worn enough to be packed in—essentially they are like new boots in terms of fit. amazing for a pair of boots that are almost as old as you are lol.

you could replace the old liners with a newer thermoflex liner but you would lose all the power that you could generate from the leather cuffs of the original liner. My suggestion is that you only upgrade to a thermo liner as a last resort since these old school (before 1996) burton liners (unlike the newer burton liners which were total crap) were so “fit-able.” is that a word?

3. in addition to the medial cant adjustment which should be obvious upon inspection there are 2 other not so apparent adjustments behind the forward lean mechanism. the following instructions are just for the older reactors (yours) as the lean mechanism was redesigned in the 97/98 model year (incidentally 97/98 was the final production year for reactors.) see the attached photo of a similar boot (a 96/97 FURNACE which is one of the boots i am currently using) which has a similar lean mechanism (i gave away my 94/95 reactors to ANDY BONIFACE the snowboard director at MOUNT SEYMOUR so we know the name of at least one source of potential parts lol.)

the nut-like dial at the top of the lean mechanism controls the amount of dampening for your forward flex. turn the dial (with a stiff flathead screwdriver) to the left (clockwise) to decrease dampening (i.e. compress the spring to make it stiffer) and vice versa. basically you would turn it to the left (compress the spring) for hard charging race style riding and turn it to the right (decompress the spring) for powder and relaxed freecarving. the screw-like dial at the bottom of the lean mechanism is for fine tuning the forward lean. turn the dial to the left (clockwise) to decrease forward lean and vice versa. the range of adjustment is 10 degrees. this is in addition to the 2 presets in the forward lean mechanism of 15 and 25 degrees. therefore, your maximum is 25 and 35 degrees if you want to utilize the available 10 degrees in both presets. generally you ride with more forward lean on the rear boot than the front boot. play around with it to determine YOUR personal preferences.

btw in addition to ANDY BONIFACE, another source of possible repair parts for your boots would be CHRIS PRIOR as i remember seeing him still riding the 94/95 reactors as late as the 97/98 season—if the boots were good enough for PRIOR they are certainly good enough for you. hopefully the size of the parts aren’t different across the different sizes of boots as both ANDY and PRIOR both wore mondo 27 in that particular boot.

BOARD:

1. ready to ride—all you have to do is to scrape off the storage wax. remember to remove the wax from the edges!

2. BORIS was initially concerned that a stiff narrow raceboard was too overpowering for a newb and suggested that i send you one of my softer wider waisted 4wd boards but i assured him that, judging by the way you skate, you would not be happy unless you could experience the same G forces that you routinely pull on your dh skateboard. this would only be possible on a stiff raceboard and i assured BORIS that you were athletic enough to skip the intermediate step of learning on a wider softer freecarve board. even if you did start on a freecarve board you would soon be outperforming it so you might as well be on the raceboard from the get go.

hopefully this is enough info for the time being as you are probably still busy with you winter semester exams at school. i will not be home much until the last week of december so i will have to impose on BORIS (again) to answer any questions you may have in the meantime.

[tenorman]

hi STEVE

i forgot to send you the manual for the td3 bindings. quicker to post a scan of it than to send it.

talk to you again in a few weeks.

[Steve D.]

boots fit great, board LOOKS great, but I've had a lot of personal drama going on recently so i haven't been able to use it yet. :AR15firin

Thank you!

[CarvingScooby]

boots fit great, board LOOKS great, but I've had a lot of personal drama going on recently so i haven't been able to use it yet. :AR15firin

Thank you!

Dude, go out and play on the slope and you'll forget all your problems...;) just kiddin... sorry to hear that, hope you can play soon...

Cheers

Roy:)

[tenorman]

boots fit great, board LOOKS great, but I've had a lot of personal drama going on recently so i haven't been able to use it yet. :AR15firin

Thank you!

hi steve

i am glad you have your priorities straight. school and work are a lot more important than snowboarding or skating or whatever. there is no stale date on alpine equipment (contrary to what you may read on BOL) so the equipment will just have to sit patiently in your closet until you attend to more important things in life.

ignore all your snowboarding friend’s appeals to get you back on the slopes prematurely. only YOU know what YOU need to do to reestablish equilibrium in your life. if your friends persist or start cajoling you to go boarding with them then they weren’t really your friends anyway so no loss—f*ck ‘em.

you may wish to talk to fellow californian PATRICK RIZZO as he was probably in a similar situation as you many years ago. i remember him asking me about whether he should accept an offer to skateboard pro or finish school. i am glad that he decided (solely on his own since i am a terrible advice giver) to finish school or in his own words to TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS FIRST before embarking on the skateboarding gig. he definitely made the right decision and i am really proud of him for being disciplined enough to do what was probably unpopular with his friends but necessary. he would probably be the best person to seek guidance from if you need to however i don’t think it is necessary as, judging by your previous post, that you probably already have your priorities straight.

take as much time off from snowboarding as you need and i look forward to your update(s) on bomberonline next year or the year after or whenever you are ready.

good luck.

your friend,

doug