UPZ RC-10 + TD3 SW Combo

[yamifumi]

I was setting up for coming weeks to ride with RC-10 and TD3 SW (standard bail) and I was noticing that what people were talking about. 

The sole is much shorter than deeluxe and I really had to move the bail inward in order to fit correctly but by doing so, I have no direct access to the bolts that adjust the angle for TD3 SW. That means I have to unbolt the bail section in order to access the angle bolts which is super annoying. Also there isn't quite good snap of standard bail once RC-10 is buckled into the binding like I used to with Deeluxe boots. If I move the bail system closer to each other, it is too tight for the boot to "buckle in"

 

Has anyone experienced similar outcome with combination of RC-10 with bomber TD3 SW? I am curious how other people have set theirs up.

[slopestar]

Yep. Size 27 and lower will struggle a bit with UPZ.

[Corey]

Hi Yamifumi, sorry I haven't replied to your PM yet. I'm travelling right now. 

A key thing to check is if the toe bail is hitting the sides of the boot toe box. This can cause the mushy toe clip engagement, and will ultimately cause the bail to break. I think UPZ toes are a little lower than DIN standard, which causes this. A layer of Shoe Goo or similar on the toe helps with this and walking on smooth floors. 

The newer (~5 years) Bomber bails are shorter and help. I took a round file to my boots to ensure there wasn't contact. 

You can also flip the toe/heel blocks around to access the bolts, but then the hard stops are on the wrong side. I have resigned to disassembling the binding when I need to change angles. Even better, I bought a few more bindings and leave them set up for various board widths. One for 20 cm, one for 22 cm, one for 25 cm, etc. Expensive, but makes a board swap a 5 minute affair instead of 20+ minutes. 

[queequeg]

I was unable to get my bindings biased correctly due to this issue on my 26mp UPZ. 

[yamifumi]

On 11/9/2016 at 4:52 AM, corey_dyck said:

Hi Yamifumi, sorry I haven't replied to your PM yet. I'm travelling right now. 

A key thing to check is if the toe bail is hitting the sides of the boot toe box. This can cause the mushy toe clip engagement, and will ultimately cause the bail to break. I think UPZ toes are a little lower than DIN standard, which causes this. A layer of Shoe Goo or similar on the toe helps with this and walking on smooth floors. 

The newer (~5 years) Bomber bails are shorter and help. I took a round file to my boots to ensure there wasn't contact. 

You can also flip the toe/heel blocks around to access the bolts, but then the hard stops are on the wrong side. I have resigned to disassembling the binding when I need to change angles. Even better, I bought a few more bindings and leave them set up for various board widths. One for 20 cm, one for 22 cm, one for 25 cm, etc. Expensive, but makes a board swap a 5 minute affair instead of 20+ minutes. 

Thank you for your reply.

When I checked the TD3 SW, my upz boots barely clears the bail, maybe slight filing is needed to ensure there is no contact.

It seems like it is unavoidable but to disassemble the toe and heel bail if i need to change the angle... as it gets too expensive to have multiple set ups.

 

Is there any other tips of UPZ and TD3 SW combo?

 

[yamifumi]

On 11/9/2016 at 8:03 PM, queequeg said:

I was unable to get my bindings biased correctly due to this issue on my 26mp UPZ. 

Did you end up with F2 race ti bindings?

[queequeg]

11 hours ago, yamifumi said:

Did you end up with F2 race ti bindings?

I considered them but I ended up going with the Virus Powerlock binding. They're both good choices I think.

[AcousticBoarder]

This may be of use to you. I documented differences in the TD3 SW here from last year to older versions

 

Edited November 25, 2016 by AcousticBoarder

[yamifumi]

UPDATE:

This season has been great in terms of trying out different set up. I am finally at the location where I can go out to the slope a lot so I had time to adjust, ride, record the set up, etc.

At the beginning of the season, I had TD3 SW and struggled to center the UPZ (mondo 26) on it and toe bail didn't seem to snap on to the boot when engaged. After 2 days of outing, I decided to sell it and try something different. I tried SG binding, F2 binding, and have tried TD2 while back. At first, F2 was my go2 binding as it centered fairly well but I felt it lacked stiffness that I wanted. SG binding was good as it was stiffer but again it was difficult to center for my size boots (mondo 26), it just didn't carve as I did in F2 bindings.

Faster forward to now, I decided to just give TD3 SW one more try after talking to Jim and Angie at ATC. I didn't flip the toe bail but flipped the heel bail (as heel bail dictates the location of boot's center) and put the heel bail out to the max which had center of boot 3~4mm away from center of the binding toward the toe. In addition, I used 6 and 6 for both toe and heel lift with yellow E-pads and yellow ring. The TD3 SW felt really great and it was just the stiffness I was looking for and I felt response was immediate. Also, we had 4-5in of fresh snow over night, so it became slight choppy after a while. I usually switch into skis when slope gets choppy as it just isn't fun carving it but the weight of TD3 SW plus the yellow rings did the job and I was able to carve through it. 

 

Conclusion: after trying different set ups and bindings, I ended up where I began and really happy with TD3 SW.