yamifumi Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 12 minutes ago, lowrider said: .951 like the new Coke missed the point. When development doesn't go far enough to include the obvious piss off the diehards and it's an uphill battle. Accommodate what was already a very acceptable device and design it into your new boot. The last thing the world needs is a different pin configuration on a cell phone adapter yet they continually make them ! Since the hype is now fully behind the .951 why would they admit a slight miscalculation and capitulate on the short comings of their heel and toe design ? Pull a Trumpism and trash talk the predecessor and continue with the hype ! I don't see how this is mis-calculation? The point was to bring back the "beloved" boots by many and thats what exactly they did with the point 951. I don't see the point on doing step-in for first model that they produce because most races, if not all, uses standard bail. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrider Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 One mold to accommodate replaceable intec and regular heel would be cheaper would it not ? The conclusion that a new type of step in binding is the answer to the problem has me puzzled. Since most people have real issues deciding whether they want a stiff or soft interface between board and boot . Who will this new binding accommodate ? UPZ seems to have figured out how to accommodate skiers and boarders as well as intec fans . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 The key market is people who loved the old boots but wanted cheaper ones. Any deviation from the original could lead to some saying that they wouldn't buy them. If I were Mountain Slope, looking at the ludicrous market for used Northwave boots, I would have done an exact copy just like they did. Us freecarvers are not their primary market. However, it's easier to add something to an injection mold to remove plastic than to remove something from the mold to add plastic. ;) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Gendzwill Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 IIRC there was some issue with how high the heel would have had to have been to accommodate an Intec or other step-in mechanism. The market is for an exact copy of a Northwave .950. The people who love that boot don't want any "improvements". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yamifumi Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 (edited) 43 minutes ago, lowrider said: One mold to accommodate replaceable intec and regular heel would be cheaper would it not ? But that changes the whole heel design and deviates from the northwave boots. I am not a manufacture guru so I don't know. But I bet racers have their own "superstitions" and if anything deviates from successful northwave boots which has won countless medals and podiums, they probably won't buy it. Now looking at the races, ~75% of racers uses point 951. I say that is a successful in their strategy. I am curious how many % of people in North America uses Intec vs people outside of North America?? I personally like standard bail so it has worked out for me. Although, it is nice to have intec heel for convenience on small hill! Edited March 9, 2018 by yamifumi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrider Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 (edited) 3 hours ago, Corey said: Us freecarvers are not their primary market. However, it's easier to add something to an injection mold to remove plastic than to remove something from the mold to add plastic. ;) Agree to your point about modifying mold at a future time . Europe is their market and like all things skiing North America just doesn't count to the Europeans. When the life cycle of their mold is up and rebuilding is necessary we will be old old men. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for step in bindings but i think that is an even smaller market for them in North America than their boots. So is Northwave 950 still the bitcoin of currency ? Edited March 9, 2018 by lowrider 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MountainSlope Posted March 9, 2018 Report Share Posted March 9, 2018 1 hour ago, lowrider said: So is Northwave 950 still the bitcoin of currency ? We used to play that market while waiting for someone else to make new boots ... I honestly haven't check the market since we sold our last ones 950s for about 3,500€ approx. 2 years ago Smashing the yellow boot black market! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aracan Posted March 10, 2018 Report Share Posted March 10, 2018 Quote UPZ sells the Snowpro FAST system, step-in. Maybe their North American distributor does, if he still has some bindings lying around. Snowpro has not produced plate bindings (bail or F.A.S.T.) in almost 15 years. While I liked the bail version, hardly anyone had anything good to say about the step-in version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yamifumi Posted March 17, 2018 Report Share Posted March 17, 2018 (edited) Update: I have purchased WC tongue (stiffest tongue) + yellow spring for forward lean (stiffest spring) from Mountain Slope. It was smooth process and I got it in less than 1 week. Initially I indicated that it was hard to reach mountain slope but through @puhutes (Jennifer), it was easy and no issues anymore. Shipping only took 3 days. I tried with old set up (the tongue that came with my boots and red spring) for couple runs then changed the tongue and spring to stiffest one. It did stiffen up quite a bit and I actually like the stiffer set up for carving in the grooms. I did not do any powder or soft snow conditions but I would assume it would be easier to ride softer set up if going free riding through trees or POW. I never rode UPZ RCR but I assume it is quite similar to how it changes from black tongue to gray tongue on UPZ. I also tried stiffer tongue with red spring and I could tell that it was softer than yellow spring. I have not ridden with softer tongue with yellow spring but I would assume it would be stiffer to have yellow spring+softer tongue than red spring+stiffer tongue. A lot of stiffness comes directly from spring system like @Slapos mentioned on page 2. One thing to note is that changing these springs or tongue was SUPER EASY. Installing new tongue takes literally 1 min or less and installing new spring for forward lean takes less than 5 min. I am not sure how normal .951 + stiff combo compares with WC .951 but if I were weighing over 185lbs then I would probably go with WC version rather than normal. I weigh +/- 165lbs. I am definitely liking normal .951 + stiff tongue + stiff spring combo! Edited March 17, 2018 by yamifumi 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveo Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 Thanks for the update @yamifumi that's great info for everyone considering 951. Jennifer recommended the wc to me given my weight and height 190cm 85kg. Not sure if that helps anyone. Hope it does. Personally I'm going to wait until they release a step in version along with their binding =) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mord Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 I saw quite a few of these .951s here across the Pacific. Surprising, since it just came out a while ago. Someone already wrote an article on whether they're suitable for extreme carving. In Chinese, of course. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveo Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 Why of course in Chinese? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrider Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 23 minutes ago, daveo said: Why of course in Chinese? Because we are all told that the Chinese are ripping everyone off. "Of Course "fake news ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mord Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 @daveoI was talking about the article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveo Posted March 18, 2018 Report Share Posted March 18, 2018 Just now, Mord said: @daveoI was talking about the article. But why was it "In Chinese, of course"? Are Chinese big closet extreme carvers or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MountainSlope Posted March 20, 2018 Report Share Posted March 20, 2018 On 18.3.2018 at 9:47 AM, Mord said: I saw quite a few of these .951s here across the Pacific. Surprising, since it just came out a while ago. Someone already wrote an article on whether they're suitable for extreme carving. In Chinese, of course. That's correct. The hardboot market is quite new in Asia and the market is exploding there right now as they discover hardboot freecarving and racing for the first time. Most of our first year production went to the Asian market and there are new extreme carving groups popping up in Japan, China and Korea. It's very exciting! I was sent a photo of the Chinese national team awhile back. It's really looking great over there! I'm pretty sure the Olympics in Korea helped the market there a lot too! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapos Posted March 20, 2018 Report Share Posted March 20, 2018 24k euro in one pic 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted April 22, 2018 Report Share Posted April 22, 2018 On 3/9/2018 at 7:46 PM, lowrider said: .... Europe is their market and like all things skiing North America just doesn't count to the Europeans. ... European snowboarding was mostly "hard boot" from the early days of snowboarding. I almost never saw a soft booter in Europe until the 1990s, and found them curious when I went to North America. The reasons could be chance, but in Europe we always had multiple ways to slide all of which were ski focused. The American scene was very much skate oriented. During the decade there was a huge American influence on Europe, which resulted in the hard boot contingent becoming a tiny niche in the market. That would suggest that Norther America counts very much to the Europeans, whatever fox news tells you. Most hard boot/ race board technology comes from Europe rather than North America (ignoring the Asian markets as you did), because we have more hard booters and a deeper hard boot culture. Perhaps the Aisian snowboard market may drive bored North American skate snowboarders in the European direction... Find .951 here They tell me that these are going to be around (for sale and testing I assume) at Carving Masters next weekend in Sölden:http://www.carving-masters.de/ I still love my Intecs, but I'd like to try some new technology... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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