The Step On thread

[AyAyRon]

You can literally taste the performance

His heel cleat was not seated into the binding. User error. The OP even states as much. You're such a troll lol

If you have engaged the heel cleat with even the first click you cannot pop out without engaging the lever.

IF IF IF
Just use straps, this can't happen because of the superior performance.

[jsil]

You can literally taste the performance

His heel cleat was not seated into the binding. User error. The OP even states as much. You're such a troll lol

If you have engaged the heel cleat with even the first click you cannot pop out without engaging the lever.

IF IF IF
Just use straps, this can't happen because of the superior performance.

Cars are stupid. They can run out of gas. Keep riding horses.

[coleslawed]

[G.D.]

His heel cleat was not seated into the binding. User error. The OP even states as much. You're such a troll lol

If you have engaged the heel cleat with even the first click you cannot pop out without engaging the lever.

IF IF IF
Just use straps, this can't happen because of the superior performance.

Cars are stupid. They can run out of gas. Keep riding horses.

I believe you mean well with your strong Step-On advocacy, esp with your mentioned skepticism prior, iirc. It's the delivery of your feedback really that's coming off pretty abrasive, whether intended or not. And/or dismissive of those that still prefer the traditional method, despite trying some version of the Step On.

I have no horse in this race. I like traditional bindings, but def open to trying Step Ons at some point as I do like the idea of more performance benefits, with added benefit of relatively quicker "strapping in", so to speak. But just the way the advocacy is relayed could def be improved, fwiw .

[jsil]

IF IF IF
Just use straps, this can't happen because of the superior performance.

Cars are stupid. They can run out of gas. Keep riding horses.

I believe you mean well with your strong Step-On advocacy, esp with your mentioned skepticism prior, iirc. It's the delivery of your feedback really that's coming off pretty abrasive, whether intended or not. And/or dismissive of those that still prefer the traditional method, despite trying some version of the Step On.

I have no horse in this race. I like traditional bindings, but def open to trying Step Ons at some point as I do like the idea of more performance benefits, with added benefit of relatively quicker "strapping in", so to speak. But just the way the advocacy is relayed could def be improved, fwiw .

The reason I responded is because this guy posted a video of self-acknowledged user error like it was a reason not to try the system. The only point of that post and the above response is trolling IMO which is fine, he or anyone can do that if they want, but I'll call them out on it. The Internet is full of trolls and misinformation. I can tell you that nothing I've said, even if offensively delivered to some, had been trolling or misinformation.

I'm not trying to be dismissive at all, I hope it isn't taken that way. This whole thing with this one guy is because I tried to help explain/rectify a perceived "negative" of the system because they were solvable warranty issues and not functioning as normal. They can do what they will with that, but there is nothing sloppy about the system and if you experience that there is a boot fit issue or some other underlying configuration/warranty situation that is causing it.

I've seen most of what can happen with this system because I've put so many days, seasons and other people on them. Unless you're in the industry, have time, disposable income or a combination of, it's hard to try everything that is out there. As you pointed out, I only tried them selfishly to get a low intermediate vacationing friend on a faster system.

People can choose to ride whatever that want, I was actually trying to help. I'm also not married to the system, but it's the best I've found so far for my style of riding.

[McK21]

You can literally taste the performance

Many many years ago I was at a test day on a glacier in Austria, Union was kind of newborn, maybe couple of years or little more in the business, but they was already a big name, so I tried a couple of their bindings with a couple of capita boards, remember I tested the stairmaster extreme and another board, didn't remember wuch one onestly, think was something like the outsiders but not sure about the model, so they gave me those bindings, maybe the force or the ultra, onestly don't remember the model maybe because what happened.

So I was going down the slope, doing some side hits as usual at the time and suddenly the ankle strap on the back foot went loose, I was lucky enough to realize that I was going to loose the strap wich happened as soon as I stopped, I managed to go back to the test tent and give back the board and the bindings to the guys that apologised about the problem, at the moment I didn't complain at all, I thought that it's something that could happen, it should not happen onestly, you give people stuff to try doing a potentially dangerous activity so you must check the stuff, but at the time I didn't look at it that way, and that's it.

But then, surfing on the various forum at the time I discovered that a lot of people was complaining at the time about the screws on the first union bindings, at least in Italy it turned out that it was an issue that then they fix during the time.....so, I guess that we can't give shit because one person had a problem with step on, as far as I know I never heard someone else complain about those bindings, and we don't know if these case it was a technical failure or an error by the rider.

Anyways I like step on for certain things, but I still can't find the feeling doing side hits or buttering, especially I have problems with the simple ollie, not that I'm really good at it, but with straps I can do a decent ollie, with step on seemse like I can't make the popo out of the board.

[Ancahlagon]

For me at the end of the day, SO has limited performance variety, limited boot options, and limitations in boot design. With straps, your boots are more or less unaffected by the binding design and you can achieve lateral stiffness options that are impossible with SO. The sheer number of boot options can catch up, kind of, but even with more and more models, the geometry of the where the cleats all need to land require the boot to hit certain points in space and be shaped a certain way in that space. Strap systems do not have this requirement. It has it's place, but it also has significant hurdles to overcome to replace straps at the top, not even including entrenched rider bias.

[jsil]

You can literally taste the performance

Many many years ago I was at a test day on a glacier in Austria, Union was kind of newborn, maybe couple of years or little more in the business, but they was already a big name, so I tried a couple of their bindings with a couple of capita boards, remember I tested the stairmaster extreme and another board, didn't remember wuch one onestly, think was something like the outsiders but not sure about the model, so they gave me those bindings, maybe the force or the ultra, onestly don't remember the model maybe because what happened.

So I was going down the slope, doing some side hits as usual at the time and suddenly the ankle strap on the back foot went loose, I was lucky enough to realize that I was going to loose the strap wich happened as soon as I stopped, I managed to go back to the test tent and give back the board and the bindings to the guys that apologised about the problem, at the moment I didn't complain at all, I thought that it's something that could happen, it should not happen onestly, you give people stuff to try doing a potentially dangerous activity so you must check the stuff, but at the time I didn't look at it that way, and that's it.

But then, surfing on the various forum at the time I discovered that a lot of people was complaining at the time about the screws on the first union bindings, at least in Italy it turned out that it was an issue that then they fix during the time.....so, I guess that we can't give shit because one person had a problem with step on, as far as I know I never heard someone else complain about those bindings, and we don't know if these case it was a technical failure or an error by the rider.

Anyways I like step on for certain things, but I still can't find the feeling doing side hits or buttering, especially I have problems with the simple ollie, not that I'm really good at it, but with straps I can do a decent ollie, with step on seemse like I can't make the popo out of the board.

The person who posted this on reddit acknowledged that it was user error in the post...

[jsil]

For me at the end of the day, SO has limited performance variety, limited boot options, and limitations in boot design. With straps, your boots are more or less unaffected by the binding design and you can achieve lateral stiffness options that are impossible with SO. The sheer number of boot options can catch up, kind of, but even with more and more models, the geometry of the where the cleats all need to land require the boot to hit certain points in space and be shaped a certain way in that space. Strap systems do not have this requirement. It has it's place, but it also has significant hurdles to overcome to replace straps at the top, not even including entrenched rider bias.

I don't disagree and I'll definitely be trying other systems as they come out, but I appreciate the performance as my park days are over. I can handle cliff drops and sidehits with no issue on step ons and I was never a big butterer, more of a freerider and carver.

I've heard from someone inside Burton that they are working on a version of the binding with more lateral play, but I don't think that will be out next year (if ever).

[spanyard]

Took advantage of an awesome spring deal on the Xs and preseason on the Felixes, cannot wait to try this whip out. I was going to roll to Troll today, but the windchill at minus has got me like Linus with a blanket on the couch.

20250103_120542.jpg (1.77 MiB) Viewed 163 times

This is my 4th season having step-ons on at least one of my setups, pretty casual fanboy knowing they have considerable limitations/areas of improvement.

cc:

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The Burton thread
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