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Softboot and what’s wrong with them


bobdea

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  • 2 months later...

I've settled on 33/18 for now. 33/15 is good too. Spoken to a few (much more knowledgeable than me) people and all seem to agree that you lose power above 27/15. I'm not good enough to notice any difference, though.

Any less than 33 on my front foot and my front knee wants to always turn out and I get pain on the outer part of my knee.

Any more than 18on my rear leg and my rear knee wants to turn out and same pain. 33/15 felt most natural for knees but the larger splay felt weird and more boot out with 10.5 Drivers on Geckos on a 26cm board. Plus with the amount of wiggle room in softboot bindings, my knees are happy @ 33/18.

Still had trouble on softboots where I would over rotate my upper body on a heelside turn so I'm too square-ish to the front of the board, similar to hardboots. That would just bring the back of my board around and wash me out. I had to mentally force myself to hold my position.

 

But, then again, this guy is riding 39/24 and doesn't seem to be losing any power...

 

Edited by daveo
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I run 33/-3 i dont really have much issues with lack of power on but i do run incredibly stiff boots since i actually replaced the plastic strengtheners on the insert tongue with aluminium since i broke the plastic in half.....

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My biggest issue is in a way to much power since im breaking bindings disks with alarming regularity does anyone know of aluminium disks that fit union atlas?

I have found a solution to my ultra highbacks breaking at the eyelets just cut them and bond them to the atlas highback lol

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Has anyone ever tried modifying softboot binding straps so it uses hardboot/skiboot style buckles rather than ratchets since ive broken a fair few of those also.

I'm kind of playing whack a mole i fix something and break something new and then have to find a new fix fortunately i like this kind of thing ?.

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not biased at all there fair suggestions ?

I have Rome targas which are fairly similar to the ride el hefe's in concept I like them but after awhile i bend the metal chassis and have to disassemble them to bend it back to the correct shape. Eventually i probably will break the metal part of the chassis through metal fatigue again. I broke this one a year or so ago.

DKhnSM0.jpg

I've tried the flow NX2 that a friend just got they were very responsive heel to toe but suffered from chassis flex side to side similar to what my SP brotherhood bindings had. I guess the nx2-gt might have less due to lower heelcup/highback section being metal.

Im swaying towards Flux XF bindings for my next set i guess there must be reason lots of the japanese and korean riders seem to be on them
 

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@scottishsurfer are you rather heavy? Seems like you put A LOT of force into the bindings! Keep in mind the Japanese/Korean may well be quite a bit smaller/lighter than you.

I reckon it might be worth seeing what the bigger guys in snowboardcross are using. Apparently Nidecker Carbon and Drake Podium FF are both used, but I'm not very clued up on the matter.

Do you ever make your way to Japan to ski? What size boot are you?

The NX2-GT are definitely very responsive BUT they're not as stiff as my old Drake or Nidecker bindings.

Talking of SP, have you seen the new F2 Eliminator Fastec binding? Pretty sure it's an SP Mountain. EUR250 is the cost.

Edited by daveo
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9 hours ago, scottishsurfer said:

not biased at all there fair suggestions ?

I have Rome targas which are fairly similar to the ride el hefe's in concept I like them but after awhile i bend the metal chassis and have to disassemble them to bend it back to the correct shape. Eventually i probably will break the metal part of the chassis through metal fatigue again. I broke this one a year or so ago.

DKhnSM0.jpg

I've tried the flow NX2 that a friend just got they were very responsive heel to toe but suffered from chassis flex side to side similar to what my SP brotherhood bindings had. I guess the nx2-gt might have less due to lower heelcup/highback section being metal.

Im swaying towards Flux XF bindings for my next set i guess there must be reason lots of the japanese and korean riders seem to be on them
 

Heel cups are bad. The Koreans are having to go wide waist. My new 168 saber hammerhead is going to 25.2 from 24.8. I’m a size 9 and run large nx2gt flows with powerplates and or lift/can’t devices.

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10 minutes ago, slopestar said:

I’m a size 9 and run large nx2gt flows with powerplates and or lift/can’t devices.

Thoughts on powerplates?

A guy in Japan I know uses them and loves them. But he's rides ~40/20 in softboots so I think he likes the lift options.

I ended up with geckos because bomber was nowhere in sight. Do love them though.

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9 hours ago, scottishsurfer said:

not biased at all there fair suggestions ?

I have Rome targas which are fairly similar to the ride el hefe's in concept I like them but after awhile i bend the metal chassis and have to disassemble them to bend it back to the correct shape. Eventually i probably will break the metal part of the chassis through metal fatigue again. I broke this one a year or so ago.

DKhnSM0.jpg

I've tried the flow NX2 that a friend just got they were very responsive heel to toe but suffered from chassis flex side to side similar to what my SP brotherhood bindings had. I guess the nx2-gt might have less due to lower heelcup/highback section being metal.

Im swaying towards Flux XF bindings for my next set i guess there must be reason lots of the japanese and korean riders seem to be on them
 

Heel cups are bad. The Koreans are having to go wide waist. My new 168 saber hammerhead is going to 25.2 from 24.8. I’m a size 9 and run large nx2gt flows with powerplates and or lift/can’t devices.

Sorry for the double down...

 

like the power plates but experimenting with printed risers with canting options. Less weight... not sure yet if this helps or hinders. Like the power plates a lot but excited to experiment this season on a newer version of my Donek Saber. I’ll be posting that in the new board porn thread here in about a week

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11 hours ago, scottishsurfer said:

Im swaying towards Flux XF bindings for my next set i guess there must be reason lots of the japanese and korean riders seem to be on them

Ahhhhh I dunno... The Fluxes I had did not seem very strong.  Stiff yes, strong no. 

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On 10/10/2018 at 12:36 PM, daveo said:

@scottishsurfer are you rather heavy? Seems like you put A LOT of force into the bindings! Keep in mind the Japanese/Korean may well be quite a bit smaller/lighter than you.

I reckon it might be worth seeing what the bigger guys in snowboardcross are using. Apparently Nidecker Carbon and Drake Podium FF are both used, but I'm not very clued up on the matter.

Do you ever make your way to Japan to ski? What size boot are you?

The NX2-GT are definitely very responsive BUT they're not as stiff as my old Drake or Nidecker bindings.

Talking of SP, have you seen the new F2 Eliminator Fastec binding? Pretty sure it's an SP Mountain. EUR250 is the cost.

I'm 6 foot and 187lbs size 11 boots so reasonably sized but no giant. My issue is I don't really do subtle very well I have nerve damage in my legs from an injury as a kid. This resulted in reduced sensitivity and numbness due to this i find big movements with lots of force much easier than smaller more precise controled ones. One of favourite analogies is that a plane works with the laws of physics to fly and helicopter flies by just smashing them into submission until they allow it to fly, I am very much of helicopter in how I carve.?

I hope to get to ride Japan one day but that probably won't happen for a few years.

I think I looked at those bindings they were really similar to my sp bindings brotherhood bindings pretty much just different straps.

I have a friend with a hardboot set up I will get to try fairly soon. I help also another friend alot with his company which involves having to ride and test different boards and there all set up soft boot bindings for average Joe skidder. so it's unlikely I'll ever fully make the jump to hard.

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8 hours ago, scottishsurfer said:

I help also another friend alot with his company which involves having to ride and test different boards and there all set up soft boot bindings for average Joe skidder. 

Well, you are not exactly helping him, if you are breaking all his stuff ?

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4 hours ago, slopestar said:

I’m a heavy weight at about 220. I break stuff too. Part of the game...attrition. Spare parts or extra board/ bindings always helps,

I generally take a bag of spares and leave them in the car and carry a couple of smaller spares on me incase something like a ratchet or ladder breaks 

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/3/2018 at 6:48 PM, Jack M said:

IMHO, in softboots, higher than 15 degrees on the back foot and you start losing toeside power. 

When I was running softies the past few seasons I didn’t have much problems with my rear foot well over 15 degrees. That said: it seems like everyone’s experiences in softies are fairly varied. I’m experimenting with hardboots and super-soft tongues instead of softies this year, mostly due to how insanely uncomfortable i find the softies. 

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