Filing down F-A-S-T bindings to prevent "binding-out"

[felix]

Hi - I'm wondering how all users of the Snowpro F-A-S-T system cope with the binding dragging into the snow on backside

I assume it's no problem if you own UPZ boots. However it's a pain with my Raichle 325 (wouldn't be better with the Deeluxe series boots either and probabely worse with heads and burtons) as the boot will not overhang the edge at the backside while the Fast mechanism does so by 2cm because it is so wide - the only problem would be filing away so much that the spring pops out.:eek:

I now just filed down half of the Fast mechanism plastics to prevent dragging. Now back of boot and binding should start dragging into the snow at about the same time- binding still being slightly ahead. It's no security risk on my SP race as the metal things that hold the boot are screewed into the baseplate, However I had to epoxy some holes that I made. I'm thinking about just filling the thing from the inside with epoxy and filing down even more - but I can't achieve much more as otherwise the cable will be outside.

I've won the snowpro Race F-A-S-T at a snowboard competition and thought it would be a waste to sell it on ebay as they don't score much. Does anybody know if the Snowpros with the short baseplate are better in that aspect (I have a friend who's sponsored by SP so I think I could get some spare parts for free if the short version ones were smaller)?

How the heck is the rest of you doing? For me I could have binned the binding otherwise as with the boot centered and no toe drag the Fast mechanism stould over about 2cm, what a crappy design.:AR15firin:nono:


I'll come back next season to report if it broke or held up.

[Boarder_Ted]

Felix,
I have the SnoPro F.A.S.T. bindings on 2 of my boards and it hasn't been a problem. I'd heard complaints about the overhang of the heel mechanism but it has never bothered my riding. I tend to run steep angles (57 degrees rear) on boards that aren't too terribly narrow. I think my Oxygen has a 195 waist width. I'm even running the same boots as you!
But then I say do whatever it takes. I removed the plastic cover on some Device soft boot step-ins because I was booting out on heelside turns. Shop owners would tell me I was out of my mind, I couldn't possibly be getting over that far. Well.....they were wrong.
Best of luck. Let us know how it goes next winter. Just make sure you actually do have metal there that the boots are clipping into.

[pebu]

Felix,
Shop owners would tell me I was out of my mind, I couldn't possibly be getting over that far. Well.....they were wrong.

That's because very few shop owners deal with anybody that actually carves.

On another note, would you believe my brother, a skier, boots out occasionally... I've seen it with my own two eyes. He gets down there.

[felix]

You can't compare it with skiing because you've got two edges and you can't get them to the same angles. I boot out all the time even though I'm on FIS limit with plate/binding/ski height and got Fischer racing ski boots that are about the least prone to boot out available. It's impossible to hinder bootout without taking wider skis, that are slower however. (imagine a 105mm wide boot (bout the smallest you can get in MP 26.5) on a 65mm wide race ski - at least Fis widened skis for next year by 3-4mm in DH/SG). You simply can't improve that situation. Analogy would be to offer race bindings that are wider than the boots.

However SnowPro is offering a top-level binding that in my eyes really wants to boot out and this in my eyes a design flaw, so I wonder if its better with the short baseplate version (according to alpinecarving the heel mechanism only got two screws to attach - so maybe its smaller?).

[Bordy]

However SnowPro is offering a top-level binding that in my eyes really wants to boot out and this in my eyes a design flaw, so I wonder if its better with the short baseplate version (according to alpinecarving the heel mechanism only got two screws to attach - so maybe its smaller?).

I really wouldn't call the snow pro binding top-level, even less with the FAST system. I think snow pros out look is convenance over proformance with the FAST system. I hope the bindings hold up for ya. Sounds like ya had fun making the system mods at least!