utahdeafcarver Posted February 4, 2011 Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 Below is a pic of my Donek plate setup. I need your help... I race and like to have my bindings centered, or as close to centered as possible, on the board. The board you see in the pic is a Prior WCRM 177W. I setup my Donek plate according to the best lineup I could get with the holes on my board and the plate. Unfortunately, the plate is set back farther than I would like. You can see this in the pic: the centerline of the board's effective edge is marked with a black line on the sidewall of the board. It is clear how far back the plate is in comparison to the centerline. Now here's the problem: I mounted the bindings on the plate as close to centered (according to the board's centerline) as I could. If you look at the 2nd picture, you'll see the mounting holes on the front of the board. I had to mount my bindings to the very first holes on the plate. This is directly above the sliders. This led to the front plate mount acting like a pivot point any time I put weight on my front foot. I actually raced a USASA GS (Men's Open Class) last Friday afternoon with the board like this, after only about 3 hours riding time on it. Yes, I got the plate and set it up the night before! I had to consciously keep my weight back while riding in order to not excessively bend the board at the pivot point. I'm going to try to reset the plate on the board but based on my initial setup, I don't think it's possible due to the variation between the board inserts and the mounting plate holes. My question for those of you who are riding plates, and it seems to be a no-brainer: where do you mount your bindings on your plate? Are they behind the sliders so that there is no pivot point? Please post pics. Feel free to critique my setup. I want to achieve the most optimal setup I can and continue to use this plate for racing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueB Posted February 4, 2011 Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 Not the best angle... But you probably can see that binding centres is just inside of the axles. I'd still set that thing of yours just behind the axle, even if you are a bit more back then you normaly like... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunSurfer Posted February 4, 2011 Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 You've run into some of the limitations of trying to mount a plate on a conventionally set up 4x4 binding insert pattern. It was for these kinds of reasons I went for a UPM pattern when I built my own plate. I used a stiff Riot snowboard as the snowboard under the plate. It had only 50cm between the outermost binding inserts. My normal stance is 50cm. I bought aftermarket pre-P-Tex'd binding inserts and setup my board with a UPM pattern at the maximum separation. The whole story is in 3 separate threads from May to Sept 2010. This allowed me to have - a) my plate axles approx. 61cm apart & equidistant from the board effective edge centre. b) my binding stance distance at 50cm. c) my binding centres approx. 5cm inboard of each plate axle, thereby ensuring no need to sit back as you describe. d) my binding centres to be equidistant from the effective edge centre. While the 4x4 plates mechanicals allow you to put a plate on a 4x4 pattern board this may well cause significant compromises in the plate performance just as you have found. SunSurfer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kieran Posted February 4, 2011 Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 per the video sean made, the logo on top of the plate is regular-aligned, not goofy. i mounted my plate centered, over the widest set of inserts available. my rear binding was just slightly forward of the rear pivot, and the front binding was perhaps an insert pack rearward of the front slider. no current pictures, apologies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race_Carver Posted February 4, 2011 Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 Thanks for the update! I had a feeling this may be the case with the 4x4 plate designs. This is not the fault of the plate designers, they have no way of knowing the spacing / offset between the front and rear inserts for every board design out there. My two SG race boards have the original Hangl plate system secured by 24 ski binding screws. Sigi mounted the plates up himself according to my specifications. I was thinking of converting to the newer mono plate design using the boards existing 4x4 inserts, but without actually trying the plates on the boards, I think I will stick to the existing Hangl system for now. When I get new race boards, I will investigate the the UPM mounts as an option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utahdeafcarver Posted February 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 Thanks for your replies! I agree that the UPM would be better suited for setting the plate but I'm limited to the board I have and I'm not technically inclined to do my own inserts. Kieran, you suggestion is just what I needed. I didn't notice the goofy vs regular alignment of the logo; and being deaf, I can't know if Sean explicitly said the plate is supposed to be aligned this way. Looking at it after I read your suggestion, the hole pattern on the plate does seem to indicate the plate should be turned around for appropriate binding placement. I'll try it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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