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plates on freeride board


Guest ethanpt

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Guest ethanpt

I am wondering what folks think about putting plates on a freeride board...specifically a never summer T5 165. I am waiting for the MADD 170...so I am riding this board with a softie setup...which I am not crazy about. What do folks think about putting my plates on this board until the MADD comes?

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I've not put on my soft boots in 2 years; I put my old crappy plate bindings on my freestyle board and love it.

My hard boots are so much more comfortable (with thermoforms) than my slightly-too-small soft boots (my toenail has never been the same after a hard season in those).

Some people do it with their hard boots in walk mode, or not cranked down too much. I personally ride it much the same as my carve boards.

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Three years ago I mounted a set of Burton carbon race plates on a 162 k2 fatbob. It was my first day out on the snow and I didn't want to work my legs hard, so I though the fatbob would be better tahn one of my carving decks. Good intentions, bad outcome. On my third run I was turning the board so hard that it was flexing underneath the binding. It flexed so much that it snapped the binding in half. I had never seen anything like it before, but there it was in two seperate pieces. My advice to you is, you better have a fairly firm freeride deck. If it isn't, don't crank hard, deep carves or you might end up with one and a half bindings.

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Guest Todd Stewart

Be carefull bomber bindings are too stiff for most free ride boards. Everyone i've know who mounted plates on a freeride broke there boards in the end. Aswell, most warrenties are void if you mount plates on freerides.

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I have ridden Catek bindings on various Option and Arbor boards for the past 4-5 years. I weigh plenty, and am not gentle. I have not broken any boards or bindings.

Here in the Northwest, plate bindings are a historical footnote at most shops, if they have heard of them at all, and alpine boards are also mostly forgotten. I have been using Alpine Touring boots and Cateks ordered online, and love it. I can ride ice, pow, slush, whatever and not have to change gear.

Any quality built freeride board can handle plates. I think that the forces are not really all that different. The energy should be more or less the same, given the same rider and board, and any "surplus" energy magically generated by soft boots has to be absorbed by the ankle.

If anything, it seems that plates would tend to spread the forces around the entire contact area, while flexing strap-ons could concentrate all the forces on one or two screws. In any event, I would rather rip my board apart than rip my body apart. And while I am trying to marshall all that energy around, trying to keep my self up and the snow down, I don't need to add a flexy unpredictable plastic bit in between me and the board.

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We have a number of customers riding plates on our incline deck. I have a few that I know of riding them on wides. I don't normally recommend the use of plates on anything wider than our incline. We've seen some failure on wider boards due to the greater leverage required to put them on edge. If you order a wide intending to put plates on it, inform us that you are doing so and we can reinforce the insert area further. This will take care of the problem.

The Never Summer cores are mostly aspen with a beach (I think) hardwood through the inserts. I'm sure the beach can handle the forces, but would be skeptical about the aspen surrounding it. The retention strength is somewhat related to the lumber around the stringer that the inserts are in. Not a definite yes or no, but a word of caution.

I'll be seeing Tim from NS tomorrow. I'll try to remember to ask him if they've ever seen any failures in this situation.

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Put my TD2's on my Atomic Don freeride board this year. So far so good, and I don't notice any extra stress on the inserts so far. I also rode it hard in my softie step ins and don't put quite as much pressure into the turns with my hard boots. This is a really stiff board to begin with though so it takes a ton to flex it. Will let you know if I have any insert problems.

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it's OK if the plates is not bombers/cateks.

my friend ride neversummer with plastic f2 binders for 2 years.

BUT i broke donek wide 169 in the 3 days of driving it with catek olympics.

though riding f2 eliminator ltd last season with f2 race titaniums without any problem.

be careful not to overpower your NS

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Guest ethanpt

I called never summer and spoke with one of the tech guys who said he didn't think it would be a problem and that it would not void the warranty...so I guess I will give it a go?

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again a word of amazement/praise that we can get direct input from the guys behind the gear.

nice one Sean for yet another helpful response. same goes to Bob, Fin, and anyone else building this gear who takes the time to answer questions so thoroughly! you guys rock

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In the pow I use TD1 si/TD2 si on my Rossi 185 Undertaker and Rossi 169 Levitation, no problems after 3 seasons. Nice to have the control of the board w/ the hard boots. Another plus would be to retro fit the step in cable so you can release out of the binding in pow or tree well....can't do that with straps.

aloha

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Guest ethanpt

Sean,

Did you get a chance to run this buy the NS folks?? I am a little hestitant to go for it..don't want to rip out...the guy I talked with didn't sound like he knew much about plates. Unfortunately I only own TDs so thats my only option. Thanks

Ethan

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I used the TD1 step in's on the OSIN-4807 swallowtails. I split three boards (die cut logo un the bottom happened to be shaped similar to the mounting plate). Soft snow was no problem but the wide waist width on hardpack was to much for the soft board. O-Sin warrantied two of these but it took over 2-months to receive them. I was thinking that the TD2 has a bigger foot print that would cure some of this problem. Also now that you guy's are showing me what carving really is I use real carve planks for hard pack.

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