Binding Help, please?

[Johnny Danger]

Aloha, GroupMind!

 

I would appreciate any help or knowledge with the purchase of some bindings. Obviously I'm new to this whole Hard Boot thing and am getting more and more confused with equipment, the "I just know enough to get into trouble" time of learning, to be exact.

 

I'm 210# and have been soft boot carvin' for a few years and have finally acquired some 29mp Head Stratos Pro boots. I am more into the freecarvey style and not really a GS kinda guy, if that makes a difference. I don't yet have a board yet but that is going to be determined by how much I spend on bindings (Aloha, Monoduuuuude! gonna talk to you soon, thanks)

 

So, what are the things I should be looking for? Stiff binding and soft board, softer binding and stiff board or just not worry about it yet??? I was going for some TD's but have been directed away from them by a couple of folks towards a flexier binding like the F2 Carves (not sure if it's a shop rivalry thing, I kinda think it is). Now, I'm just confused again.

 

Thanks for any help y'all can provide and see you soon on the slopes,

 

John G

[Neil Gendzwill]

Well you are posting on the forums of a company that makes bindings for a living, populated by many satisfied customers of said bindings, so I think you will get a lot of recommendations for TDs.  They are well constructed and well suited to a strong heavy rider such as yourself.  I'm not sure I would recommend the cheaper F2s for a guy your size but the Titaniums would also work well for you.  Personally I ride Titanflex step-ins and I really like them.

[tex1230]

I quit using flexible bindings when I crossed the 200lb mark. Too many broken plastic binding pieces to count. You should be able to pick up TD2 for around $200 used. That's where I'd go.

[Johnny Danger]

Thanks for the input, Neil and Tex.

 

The only binding I have ever ridden has been TD's so I am kinda partial to them to begin with. It was an easy decision initially and folks here have made me some very, very good offers (thanks, y'all) and then...Boom...I read too much and seem to have confused myself. I think it is the adage of having a flexy variable in the boot, binding, board equation that is messing me up.

 

Uhhh, are Heads considered stiff boots?

 

J

Edited June 12, 2015 by Johnny Danger

[lowrider]

This sport has moved well beyond just boots board bindings. Racing at speed requires a stiffer interface than leasure riding. If you develop in to a serious rider and ride in all conditions a snowboard plate system is a very good investment but requires the willingness to investigate and perfect. TD 1's work well with a plate system and help offset the expense of a plate because they usually sell for $100. and will last forever. For heavier riders step in bindings are well worth the cost vrs risk of ejection compared to plastic. Research alpine snowboard plate thread and decide what might work for you. There are some early plates I would not recommend but you can PM me for details.i don't want to come off as negative on some products because even the makers won't admit they made some real dogs. Popularity doesn't always mean value !

[Neil Gendzwill]

lowrider, why are you bringing plates into the discussion?  The guy's a newbie hardbooter who wants to freecarve, he shouldn't be thinking about plates at this stage.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Slow down, take a deep breath and do more research.   Then make a decision, knowing that buying used, you will not loose much if anything should you decide to resell your current gear.   You live among some of the "Most Excellent" alpine riders in the world, more importantly you have evidently touched base with Don , he is a great guy with deep knowledge of all things "Carving".  Skiing, alpine sb, skwal , mono etc. 

 

BOL is a great resource , use it,  someday you too can pay it back.   You are in a good place, don't sweat it ,  it is going to be a good time for sure.  

 

You may get a pretty seriously humbling "Slap Down" on your first couple days so get prepared mentally too.   Those around you can make it look easy. 

 

Bryan 

[philw]

Well, what they said about this site and how it's funded. Look at what people of your size race on and make your mind up about what's "up to the job" and what's not. To me find American bindings appear a bit over-engineered. Catek for example are things of beauty to look at, but I don't want all that stuff on my board, all those bits to lose, all those things to go wrong.

 

Many people here like very long boards, but they also like what they call "carving slopes" and what I call flat boring runs where long boards can almost achieve enough speed to turn. So to me, avoiding GS gear is a good idea unless you're riding on a GS course.

 

Plates... well, the difference between soft gear and hard is much larger than a plate and not a plate, and the plate just adds cost and complexity for something you don't need and which depreciates faster than a sinking Catek binding. I'd leave them alone until you know why you want them, then I'd still leave them alone. A poor engineering solution in my view.

 

In summary, I would not worry about it yet. Talk to people you see with the gear, see what you can pick up, form a view as to the style you want to ride. You'll probably make some mistakes, so I'd not by anything extreme initially - pick the middle ground and work from there.

[Johnny Danger]

Sage advice, Bryan, thanks! (and thanks to everyone else posting too)

 

I hope I am not worrying too much (probably are), mostly it is just making sure that TD's are the way to go. One of my big issues is I have to get the bindings before the Mistress of Finances lays the hammer down and redistributes our wealth like the past couple of seasons, hehehehe. My gut is telling me that TD's are the way to go but I am at the level with hard boots where I really cant tell the difference between bindings yet. Both the TD's and the Virus' I have tried felt identical, although the lack of foot pain from softies probably overshadowed any differences, I would think. 

 

Weirdly enough, I can't wait for the Slap Down...then I know I'm learning something new and having Fun. Yep, just a pretty happy, go-lucky guy, I guess, every day on the mountain is The Best Day Ever. The only crappy thing I can find about carvin' is that I work Fri, Sat and Sun and won't really get to ride that much with Big Mario and the other LCI folks, but for the weekday folks "Bring it On!"

 

Much Mahalo,

J

[BlueB]

I'd definitely skip the plate in the first few years. Unnecessary cost, weight, complication and restriction.

 

I use F2 RS Carve / Proflex (plastic fantastic) for freeriding, find them too soft for agressive carving on harder snow. Only newer version with thicker bails is ok.

F2 Ti Race should work ok for you. Almost all pro racers use them, after all.

TD2 and TD3 or Sidewinders will work good for you too. I'd opt for softer elasomers if you wanted to freeride on them. With TD2 I'd add the suspension kit for more flex.

TD1 is a very stif and a bit outdated binding, limited in adjustments too. You are likely to break a freeride board with them.

Snowpro Race is very similar to F2 Race. The most of of the pairs in circulation are M size, they work up to M29 boot size.

Burton Race Plates and Ibex are abundant too. They are very flexy and have thin (known for failure) bails. Not very adjustable either, without some improvisations/additions.

Catek OS1 and OS2 are very adjustable and very complicated/fiddly. You can not get any customer support or new parts. OS2 are known for braking softer boards.

Catex WC is very old and stiff, but very adjustable too.

 

Heads are great boots.

[Corey]

You can't go too far wrong with anything. I've seen riders ripping and happy on all kinds of plastic and aluminum bindings. Get the ones that you like the concept behind the most, or the ones you can afford.

I've ridden F2s and TDs the most, and am perfectly happy on either one. But, I like the excess strength in the Bomber bindings so I've purchased more of those and sold the F2s. Others in my situation prefer the lighter weight of the F2s. To each their own!

[pmorita]

As someone that has gone from Burton Race Plates to F2 to TD3s, I can say that if you can, start with the TDs.  Everything worked fine but the solid feel and construction of the Bomber bindings is pretty good.  Plus, they look pretty high tech with the colored elastomers.  

[monodude]

JD,

I've got Cateks, I've got a set of WC's and several OS 2's. Reg or step-in. Maybe even intec heels. You need to call me... Maybe I can help you with your questions. 

 

Don

 

Feed the Addiction...

[HillB]

Johnny Danger, are you riding tomorrow?

[Beckmann AG]

If Don has a pair of WC on offer, you should get on that.  

Proper use takes a bit of thought, but most can handle it. If memory serves, they have almost the same number of individual pieces as a TD2.

As far as cant/lift/offset(bias) are concerned, they are invaluable for finding a comfortable starting point. Once you figure out where you want to be, you can sell them off to another needy novice and buy something more fashionable.

Plastic is, well, plastic.  At your weight, that might not be an advantage. 

 

 

[Johnny Danger]

Now this is why I love this community so much, everybody is AWESOME! Thanks a million and your input has been invaluable and very appreciated.

Well, I think I have enough info to be very, very comfortable picking up a set now. Plates...well, I'm sure those will come into play sometime soon but for now I'm just gonna whoosh around best I can.

 

@ Don~ I will give you a holler Monday if that is good for you. I work late weekends so am kinda tied up.

 

@ HillB~ Aloooooha! I'm sad now, I am scheduled to work all weekend again and won't be up for closing....Grrrrr..(no call outs left until next season). I hope y'all have a whole bunch of fun and lay some trenches for me.

 

Anyone who feels like it please email me or message, I will get back to you as soon as I can.

 

Many Mahalos and smooth slopes to y'all...

J 

[teach]

John Danger, I believe I met you at the top of A-Basin a few weeks ago. Since I'm about your weight and started fairly recently, I'll chime in. Some points of agreement with advice above, for sure.

 

At 210 lbs don't worry too much about the "too stiff" remarks you read. Overengineered? No, just adjustable without having to have a machine shop at your disposal. To me that's the main TD1 drawback: you're stuck with a few cant options which may not be the ones you need. Some people are insensitive to this, to others it's make or break. TD2/3 and Catek are fully adjustable in the range that's likely to matter.

 

SnowPro and F2 are flexy enough at my weight that the difficulty of fine adjustment (you'd need to make your own wedges) isn't a make or break issue. I can ride them comfortably with pure lift. But my knees feel it afterwards. These are nice when you can't (or don't want to take the time) to get Bomber or Catek adjusted just right. I used to use these at the beginning of the season a lot.

 

I'd take TD3s over TD2s just for the increased toe and heel block contact area. A few other niceties as well. No problem reselling if you don't like them. You'll want a selection of cant disks, or a source to borrow from.

 

Cateks are nice too, and you don't need to swap parts out to adjust cant/lift. I like the OS1s. I disagree that they're complicated. There is the risk of spending forever fiddling. I know about what I need from my TD3s and just set the Cateks to match, then tweak a little if it seems necessary. Had I started with Cateks I might still be on the hill fiddling.

 

Ride the Strati and get them to fit properly. You can tweak the stiffness, but at 210 lbs you probably won't find any boot that's too stiff. At any weight there are a lot that don't fit right, though.

 

If you're looking to spend more like $100 than $200, Catek WC may be a better choice than TD1s, unless you can McGyver the cant disks on the TD1s (or are OK with the limited options, but how would you know as a beginner... ). It can be a trick to get the right heel bails, though -- the older bindings sometimes have heel bails for ski boot soles (lower heel). SnowPro are in this range as well and might work nicely to get started.

 

Welcome!

[b0ardski]

I'm gonna throw out a plug for the adjustability for experimentation the cateks are built for.

If you want to play with lift /cant/ angle to dial in what feels right that's the best way figure it out with on-hill tweaking.

I bought a set, played with every possible configuration and resold them later for near what I paid

[Neil Gendzwill]

Depends on if you like to fiddle or not. I'm a set it and forget it guy, the F2s are great for me.

[b0ardski]

Depends on if you like to fiddle or not. I'm a set it and forget it guy, the F2s are great for me.

 

 

Me too, that's why I sold'em; turns out I ended up right back where I started   with 3* inward cant and 10* of splay that I've been rocking on 20yr old   nitro stepins that are still goin strong(add a little toe and a bit more heel lift on 18cm boards).

A well built binder is a happy thing

I'll try to milk the nitros till TD4s hit the used market

Edited June 15, 2015 by b0ardski

[lordmetroland]

Me too, that's why I sold'em; turns out I ended up right back where I started   with 3* inward cant and 10* of splay that I've been rocking on 20yr old   nitro stepins that are still goin strong:

It's because you channel the power of shalom. Shalom.

[jacopodotti]

I have tested almost all the bindings in the market and I weight 115kg and I'm 196cm tall.

My boots are MP295

Boots, board and binding should work together.

So it doesn't make sense placing stiff bindings with soft boot or soft board.

Everything should work together.

I have the F2 Carve RS(to tell the truth I have the Proflex Freecarve but they are almost the same) on my backcountry 175 Salomon and they work well.

I have TD2 on my SG 180 an 170

I have F2 Race titanium on my astonishing and amazing Coiler Nirvana VSR V-Cam 178/21

Maybe you have to figure out what hard snowboarding you will have

 

[Johnny Danger]

Aloha, everyone!

 

Great news, everybody! After everybody's wonderful help, I decided to grab up a pair of TD-3 Sidewinders. Go Big or Go Home, eh? Really, though, I got to get a day on them before the end and really, really like the ride. Thanks again for your help and wisdom and hopefully I will get the opportunity to help someone else get into this wonderful sport in the future like y'all helped me. Cheers!

 

Many Mahalos,

John G

[hard-on]

I've been riding TD1's since the day they came out. I missed the window where you could get the spring loaded rear bail. Apparently there is a way to modify, and add a spring.  I'm 50 now. I would love a rear step-in. can the TD1 be modified. What would I do? thanx for letting me poach this conversation. You'll end up making people wait for you if you don't get step-ins. Just sayin.           look before you turn   

Edited January 14, 2016 by hard-on

[omskates]

I've been riding TD1's since the day they came out. I missed the window where you could get the spring loaded rear bail. Apparently there is a way to modify, and add a spring.  I'm 50 now. I would love a rear step-in. can the TD1 be modified. What would I do? thanx for letting me poach this conversation. You'll end up making people wait for you if you don't get step-ins. Just sayin.           look before you turn   

 

Both the TD1 and TD2 bindings can be upgraded to step-ins with an upgrade kit but the kit is no longer available.  You can place a post in the "Want to Buy" forum.  Make sure the step in heel fits your boot.

 

I ride recreationally on a new/old stock Oxygen APX with TD1s, 45/48 and mondo 26 boots so I'm perfectly happy with these older bindings.  Intek heels won't work on my boots so even if I found the kit I'd need new boots.