recomendations for bindings

[scotts.Scheinman]

Well, the hardbooter debate. CATEK vs. BOMBER. im stuck in the middle no east coast no west coast. OS or OS2 or TD2 im about 105 lbs. For thoes who have rode both i would like more feed back than the gear reviews section.

thanks scott

[Jon Dahl]

Mark Anderson has a pair of bindings (F2 proflex?) in the classifieds that may be perfect for you. Both the options you've chosen are fairly stiff compared to everything else out there, especially at your weight. If however you are set on one of those choices, go with the TD w/ the softest e-rings.

[Hugh]

Scott,

You already has 413 boots? The perfect match at your weight would be the Deeluxe/Raichle X Bone Bindings. $99 at the Bomber store right now.

I have a pair of X-Bones and ride them with my 413's (Thermoflex liners) and Intec heels. I use this setup for freecarving on my Maverick, 4807 and Prior 4x4.

Great bindings for a first pair. You can always buy TD's or Cateks later in the season.

Hugh

[D-Sub]

search function will yield more discussion than youd probably ever need.

not that many people have ridden the OS2 yet, so there wont be much if any info.

here's my take:

at your weight you dont need either, but if youre convinced you want them, and have the cash, buy bombers.

go to catek site and youll be told the same thing, only "buy catek"

theyre both damn good!

[scotts.Scheinman]

I have 413's that are now 3 sizes to small. i was thinking of upgrading to the susuka

[Gecko]

search function will yield more discussion than youd probably ever need.

not that many people have ridden the OS2 yet, so there wont be much if any info.

here's my take:

at your weight you dont need either, but if youre convinced you want them, and have the cash, buy bombers.

go to catek site and youll be told the same thing, only "buy catek"

theyre both damn good!

I'll break the mold a bit...though I agree with D-Sub, at your weight you definatly don't NEED Bombers or Catek's. However as an OS1 ridder I will say if you absolutely have to have one or the other buy Bombers, at 180 I can barely flex the OS1's :eek:

[D-Sub]

I'll break the mold a bit...though I agree with D-Sub, at your weight you definatly don't NEED Bombers or Catek's. However as an OS1 ridder I will say if you absolutely have to have one or the other buy Bombers, at 180 I can barely flex the OS1's :eek:

gecko...are you on the short plate? supposed to be more forgiving

[D-Sub]

I have 413's that are now 3 sizes to small. i was thinking of upgrading to the susuka

scott

what are your intentions with this setup? racing? carving? freeriding?

[Gecko]

gecko...are you on the short plate? supposed to be more forgiving

No Long plate but there isn't that much of a difference...especially for a 105lbs rider; hell 413's would be fine unless you want to race and even then with either Cateks or Bombers the flex 413's would give you the needed flex that the bindings won't give you

[scotts.Scheinman]

pretty much everything you said. racing ,carving and freeriding

[scotts.Scheinman]

also the xbones are step in and thats somthing i vowed to myself i would never do again.

[Gecko]

also the xbones are step in and thats somthing i vowed to myself i would never do again.

OK coming from a softboot background I can understand you I rode Clickers and while they were convenient the feel was never quite what I got out of strap bindings...that said I was also probably expecting too much from them using them on an older Alpine-ish board. They might get bolted to stiff popsicle style board in a year or so. However stepin's for hardboots are a completely different animal...personally I'm not a bag fan however I am starting to think like a convert...there are times when I have seriously contemplated switching my rear binding to stepin. The ease of steping in at the top of the lift has all but convinced me to check the Catek factory after thanksgiving for one binding's worth of parts ;)

[D-Sub]

also the xbones are step in and thats somthing i vowed to myself i would never do again.

why?

and..just so you know, I believe the xbone comes in standard, too. maybe just not at bomber.

you know whats a SUPER solid binding, almost on par with bomber and catek (well...)

F2 Titanium or Titanflex. Intec or no, these are damn fine bindings. In fact, next to bomber and catek I would vote F2 as the best binding out there. I had some intec titaniums and they were SOLID as heck, with all the key components being metal. The intec receiver was stainless and I believe teflon coated. Its not surprise bomber will be the US distro for F2 once all the legal BS has been sorted

[scotts.Scheinman]

Thats a great recomentation. The only reason i would never go back to step ins is because on a pow day my back foot kept poping out and i hurt my leg and sides.

[D-Sub]

Thats a great recomentation. The only reason i would never go back to step ins is because on a pow day my back foot kept poping out and i hurt my leg and sides.

you definitely need to make sure the heel and heel receiver are 100% clear of snow before stepping in, but...heel on the sole and toe pads would be an issue with bail bindings, too!

anyway...bomber, catek, F2 titanium...all damn fine bindings!

[scotts.Scheinman]

have you rode the f2 titaniums?

[D-Sub]

I have, but not...well...correctly. I bought a pair from Ray last year, and as it turns out there are two sizes...I got the smaller size without (either of us) knowing, and even at mondo 27 I couldnt adjust them enough to get get my front foot toward the toe edge enough. never felt centered

I was bummed, tell the truth. the construction is solid as heck, and like I said the intec heel piece is a great feature (no matter to you)

only downside is that in order to change the cant and lift you have to remove the heel and toe-block and play with shims, but once you set this its not big deal.

[scotts.Scheinman]

well that sucks. i have the same size foot as you. Are the bomber and cateks eiser to adjust the cant and lift

[DrCR]

I love my F2 Race Titaniums. 150lbs. and I love the combination of power and flex. That said, if I ever gather together enough clams for a Swoard, I'll probably get some yellow e-ring TD2 standards to go with it. :D

At 105lbs, the F2s would *definitly* be a solid choice for you. I know you can get them from yyzcanuck.com. Look around. I was able to pickup mine for $150 on the classifieds here, but I don't see F2 bindings for sale here too often.

Do you guys know of anywhere you can get the F2s in NA other than yyz? With only ~$50 cheaper, you might as well just go for the TD2 if you can find any on the cheap...

[D-Sub]

bomber is distro now!

[scotts.Scheinman]

Okay. the one problem is that no one in the chicago land area, vail, and brek even though bomber is in silverthorne and i had to catch a flight back so i dindt have any time. no place has anything hardbooted related. Andmy favoreite ski shop can get TD2's only on special order which doesnt make any sense becase i can order them direct. and besids yzz is canada , and the shipping would be outrageous .

[cfj04]

I'm a big fan of F2 bindings especially versus cateks. With cateks, the front toe piece does not have a stop point so if you don't patiently put your foot into the toes piece and then heel - you can have some misteps (at least I did). This is especially troublesome on powder days when you may not have a solid base to work on.

F2's are solid - I weigh 200 pounds and I have not had any problems using them over the past five years. I have four pairs and set-up takes some mechanical know how but all of them have their quirks - that's the fun of it!!

I did break a set of carbon X-bones and it took me close to four months to get the replacment part. I let me wife use those now since her 120 weight won't be an issue with them.

I agree with everyone else who wrote in regards to all bindings being acceptable based on your weight. Every pair has some time that needs to be spent on set-up, but once dialed in - your done.

[DrCR]

Well, I know bomber will be a distro, but was thinking more in the terms of now. (Thought Linux when I saw "distro" lol. I'm a IT-Procurement dude parttime at the uni. We use vendor for vendors, distros for Linux).

Scheinman, shipping to and from Canada isn't that expensive. I think it cost ~$10USD to get in a binding sized package from Canada once. It wasn't expedited or anything though.

[scotts.Scheinman]

hot damn. i have heard it is more expensive

[NateW]

If you have more than one board, get a set of each.
If you have to choose, toss a coin. :)

Cateks are slightly easier to adjust in the field (no extra parts, just turn screws). With Bombers there's the 0/3/6-degree bases to choose from... but also the different elastomers to choose from.

[astrokel]

Don't forget All Board Sports in Boulder! Bola has some sweet stuff in his shop. The amount of cool hardboot and carving equipment (and long boarding stuff as well) is higher than in any other shop I've ever been in (never been to the Bomber store though :) ). Boulder is only a half hour northwest of DIA and is a great little town as well. It's too bad that he doesn't have a web store but if you're in Denver on your way to Summit or Eagle and have a car its an interesting detour. They're going to start stocking Virus Boards and they have a few Coilers in stock along with some other stuff that you never see anywhere else. Anyway just wanted to mention it because it was fun meeting Bola and chatting.

(ps. Is yyzcanuck selling/shipping product to the States?)

[ar(angel]

I currently have 3 pairs and am looking at picking up a fourth. Blue Tomato is the place to buy, their last years models are between $170-$250.00 plus shipping (once you establish an account) and they ship out DHL within 3-4 business days. The red/black ones pictured are currently what I have and the all black ones are the ones I'm buying next. They do come in different sizes so pay attention when ordering. I'm mondo 27.5 and have the "large" size. Been on them 3 seasons now and never had a problem. Although I must say I'm contemplating the TD2's and OS2's due to the trick anodized color options.... :D

Good luck,

Paul

[D-Sub]

black ones are the new intec titanium? changed the baseplate config?

in all honesty, for $250 plus shipping, plus duty from BlueTomato, Id just go with bombers if it were me.

[skategoat]

Umm guys - yyzcanuck isn't selling to you litigious Americans. Remember?

[philw]

black ones are the new intec titanium? changed the baseplate config?

No, those are the TitanFlex (or some such). They have a circular sort of riser plate (you can see it in the image) and some padding - supposed to be flexible or something. You can dump the risers and you have a race binding without the toe adjuster, but they're a different product.

I ride F2 Intec race plates and have done since they were introduced (with different naming conventions). I look at the US bindings every so often (Catek, Bomber), and they're obviously very well engineered and full of adjustments. But they weigh a huge amount, they have lots of stuff to break, they're heavy, and I have always found them "over engineered" in the end and left them on the shelves.

One one point in here, if you have problems with Intec heels in powder then you just need to get it right. I've never had a mis-step in about a year of backcountry days on these things. The main reason for using the heels is actually performance, for me. I find the Intecs give a much more solid boot/ binding connexion.

[skategoat]

Phil:

Tell me which model you are riding exactly. If I go to the F2 site, I see 2 Intec plate bindings - the "Intec - RS" and the "Intec - Titanium". My standard Cateks are too fiddly and heavy and my Intec TD2s were too stiff for me. Going to try F2 for sure this winter.

Correction, F2 has 3 Intec bindings.

Intec - RS
Intec - Titanium
Intec - Titanflex

Henry

[D-Sub]

No, those are the TitanFlex (or some such)...But they weigh a huge amount, they have lots of stuff to break, they're heavy, and I have always found them "over engineered" in the end and left them on the shelves.

Phil

have you ever weighed the Intec Titanium vs Bomber or Catek?

I dont think Bombers weigh much more than the F2. Obviously more than the Challenge Comp or that sort of binding...

so the titanflex is the dampened, lifted binding.

I had the black and red intec titanium. One thing I really, really , really liked about them was the fixed toe bail. Even though bombers stand up pretty well, they can still flop. with the F2 theres _no_ flop

[scotts.Scheinman]

what if i used a softer boot like the lemans and a stiffer binding like bombers or cateks. would it level out like if i used the f2 titaniums and the susuka's?

[Skwalleur]

I've got the Titanium binding and I love it. I'm tired of moving it around between my boards though (even though its five times as fast as moving a TD), so I just ordered a pair of Titanflex to complete my setup (F2 Lancelot / F2 Silberpfeil). However, I'm on 26,5 Stratus Pros and are using the medium size Titaniums and the Titanflexes might be large. Any one knows if that might be a problem?



http://www.f2snow.com/2004_5/english/produkte/bindings/titanium/bild.jpg
http://www.f2snow.com/2004_5/english/produkte/bindings/titanflex/bild.jpg

[dantheman0177]

I have the TD2 and the Catek Freeride and love them both. But the ups and downs:

TD is a pain to change boards. TD3 needs to have the base plate accessible without having to remove the top plate.

Catek is a b***h to set up in the first place but once it's done (assuming you don't want to change it) it seems pretty good.

Catek has a much greater degree of adjustability. Although that is generally lost on a pleb like me, for some, it is probably the best thing since sliced bread.

TD is simple, Catek is complicated. Same end result.

End result, if neither made any improvements of significance, I think I would buy TD over Catek again, but only just.

[skatha]

I got the Xbones and the Cateks for the narrow boards I got but haven't ridden because I have this knack for severely damaging myself in Utah...

Xbones for my wider boards...

Cateks mainly because they have a smaller footprint than the Xbones and, when looking at the TD's, I didn't know what I wanted in terms of cant, so I figured I'd get the bindings I could adjust as I wanted. I got the OS2s