TD3 Sidewinders and UPZ...

[Flywalker]

Hiya,

Been reading through the forums and it appears that these two items don't necessarily work all that well together. l believe my shell size would be a 27... should l be looking at a different product?

Looking for the ultimate all-mountain carving set up!

Coming off Burton Reactors and race plates at 49B/57F 3 degree rear lift/cant.

Also read somewhere that these bindings are quite tall, making them less EC friendly. ls this still the case for the newest model?

[MUD]

I got my SW's from the first lot and have been running them with UPZ's without a problem (knock on wood).....

I know they had a problem with the UPZ / TD? interface in the past, but I have not heard of one with the sidewinders.

Do you have a link to the thread?

I should add, mine are 29.5's. Does it to do with the short sole?

[Flywalker]

There was a comment in the TD3 SW equipment review from a rider on RC10's in a size 26 who had some problems dialing them in... and another comment in the same thread saying that UPZ boots weren't supported by Bomber.

Going shopping so trying to answer all the questions before the beer tokens fly out of my wallet.

[Corey]

UPZ boots are not officially supported by Bomber. However, you just don't hear of any failures either so it's a choice you have to make. You mentioned EC, note that the UPZ RC-10 boots are considered quite stiff laterally.

I have size 27 UPZ RC-10s, I normally use them with TD3 step-ins and Fintec heels. At SES last year I tried the Sidewinders. The boots fit even with the Fintec heel still in place, I just had to be a little careful when clipping in that the heel bail was catching the ledge.

My main complaint was the silly* short sole on the UPZs and the very large toe/heel blocks of the Sidewinders meant that you couldn't access the 3 bolts that hold the plate on the cant disk. The heel block was so far forward that it almost blocked the 4x4 bolts too, but I just offset both toe and heel blocks rearward slightly to get around that.

A fix is to flop the toe/heel blocks around so the bails are towards the inside, but then you loose the awesome hard stops. That blows. So much so that it's a deal-breaker for me. I asked Fin about putting the hard stops on both sides of the bail for this reason, but he didn't want to. Understandable considering how few people this affects: UPZ users and those with very small feet in any other brand.

Unfortunately this was my first ride in the UPZ boots so I was more focused on my feet hurting than the cool bindings once I was riding. Between moments of foot pain I noticed that everything was a lot 'smoother' for lack of a better word. I'd like to try them again now that I have the boots dialed in to my feet.

* I won't rant here about the stupid heel ledge placement on UPZ boots, I've done that elsewhere. But they fit my feet (narrow heel/ankle, medium-wide toes) and hold my heels down so I deal with it...

[fin]

Flywalker,

Many years ago the UPZ (called UPS at the time) boot seemed to have a different sole height rather that the DIN standard most boots used. There where issues with them fitting in our older TD1 binding. Since then they seem to have changed those heights more to standard and we have not seen any issue with this in a long time.

The only current issue we have seen is that those boots have a VERY short sole length and at the smaller sizes you had to flip the blocks around on the TD3 SW to get them to fit. What we did this year was make the heel bails shorter on the SW and this seems to have helped fit these smaller UPZ boots.

Height, boots, board, etc.....when it comes to making those low hard turns, its the rider

[Flywalker]

Thanks guys (^_^)

l haven't bought gear in 16 years so l am doing my homework. Your respective inputs are helping to steer me in the right direction.

TD3 SW's and UPZ RC10's to replace Burton race plates and Reactors... woohoo!

[energyrail]

Does flipping the heal block around, allow a upz to be centered on the board?

my snowpro's are almost out of adjustment on the back to get them centered on the board.

I have tried td3 and and it was impossible to get them in the right spot.

ps. i'm refering to centering the whole boot shell, not the stupid tucked in sole.

[Corey]

I can center my UPZs on a regular TD3. I found that you have to watch the upper cuff of the boot on heelsides, not the actual heel. I had a really crappy day until I figured that out, I just couldn't figure out why I kept losing my edge in heelside turns until I stopped and really looked at marks in the snow. There was a distinct 'scuff' about 10-12" inside the carve just before I slid out.

Once you flip the block the limiting factor becomes the grooves in the baseplate for the bail lugs, that should be the same for both regular and SW TD3s.

[Flywalker]

Thank you for your posts!

Fin... with the new, shorter bails of this year's Sidewinder do you know if it would be necessary to flip the blocks if the UPZ RC10 is a size 27?

[xy9ine]

fwiw, my rc10 mp27's fit the standard td3 (in the shortest setting) w/o block flipping.

[fin]

F;ywalker,

I don't have a UPZ here to confirm but I would say at M27 you are fine. Should not have to flip the block.

[pow4ever]

To those who riding UPZ boots.

Can you share the sole length?

It should be printed on the side of the boots?

2009-2010 UPZ RC10 26-26.5

This is what's on my boots:

5,5/6/6,5

266/287mm

Fin:

How can one tell if the SW have the shoter heel bails?

Just pick up a set in the classifed.

Is the shorter SW heel bails available for purchase?

I really like the bail stop and perfer not to flip the toe block if I don't have to.

Thanks

David

[queequeg]

To those who riding UPZ boots.

Can you share the sole length?

It should be printed on the side of the boots?

2009-2010 UPZ RC10 26-26.5

This is what's on my boots:

5,5/6/6,5

266/287mm

Fin:

How can one tell if the SW have the shoter heel bails?

Just pick up a set in the classifed.

Is the shorter SW heel bails available for purchase?

I really like the bail stop and perfer not to flip the toe block if I don't have to.

Thanks

David

David - I have MP26 RC-10's from 09/10 - the sole length reads as follows:

5,5/6/6,5

266/287mm

Just like yours. they fit my TD3 Si bindings just perfect.

[energyrail]

I can tell you what the sole length on a upz 27 is. 399mm I think but it doesn't really mean anything when using it as a snowboard boot without the din blocks. that length is the length of the boot when used as a ski boot.

with my experience and corey_dyck if the bail isn't flipped around on smaller sizes. I would hazard a guess at mp28 and under. You will have boot drag in hard turns. my thought has been to run upz's din block on the rear to fix this. Haven't tried it yet.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

I’ve got MP26 RC10s purchased new during the summer of 2009. The stamped sole length is 287mm. I bought the TD3SWs sometime last winter and ultimately had to flip the toe blocks around. It was also difficult to get the heel bail to align with the slot on the boot heel. I also have the F.A.S.T. step-in heels that might be a different height than the standard heel piece.

Just yesterday I received the shorter heel bails in the mail from Bomber and I swapped them in. The fit is much better now and it works fine with the toe block in the normal position. This is a great improvement for me, but I still gotta wait before I can try them on snow. You can get the shorter bails by ordering the replacement TD3SW rear bail from the website and adding a comment to the order specifying the shorter version.

I too was looking at the upzboots web site and saw the swappable toe and heel pieces. The ski pieces look like they might make a UPZ boot seem more like a Deeluxe in terms of the boot/binding connection. The ski heel piece looks like it even moves the heel bail slot back to a more “conventional” position. This might be an option for a person who likes UPZ for the fit, but hates the short heel, and can live without step-ins. All of this is wild speculation, of course, until someone actually tries it.

[Flywalker]

Thanks for your post!

l am a size 27. According to Fin, this year Sidewinders come standard with the shorter bails so l should be OK without making any changes to the boot soles.

[pow4ever]

Thanks all!!!

ExcelsiorTheFathead:

Exactly the infomation I was looking for.

Since we have the same year and size boot; do you have problem center the boots on SW?

Regards

--

David

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

I just looked at this more closely, doing a visual eyeball of the centering of my boots on the SWs. I think that there is no problem for me to find acceptable centering with my configuration, but clearly there isn't a lot of room for adjustment as I still have to use the centermost set of screw holes for both the toe and heel blocks. People with wide fore/aft bias preferences might find it necessary to flip the toe block to get enough travel, but I'm sure that I can find good-for-me centering with the blocks in normal positions.

[Flywalker]

Just pulled the trigger on RC10's and Sidewinders!

STOKED!!!

Now... Prior FLC or WCRM. 163 22cm waist or 169 21cm waist....hmmm....

All mountain rocket (^_^)