BINDINGS

[dpartridge7]

I played with the Jones Mercury FASE in my local shop today. Seems solid. It’s a shame they (or one of the FASE offerings) doesn’t have Skate-tech but that might happen in the future.
Observations: very hard and stiff ankle strap. I’ve enjoyed the Burton hard plastic straps but not many of the others of that type are comfortable for me. I run my older Rome foam straps. I just like a cushy strap so not necessarily an issue for others.

Forward lean has three notches, easy to adjust. No high back rotation though. I like to have it but appreciate that most don’t bother about it. High back shaping and flex can also make this a non-issue.

Footbed a bit like some of the high end Union bindings which are hard but with softer material underneath. FASE aside, it felt like a pretty responsive binding all over.

The heelcup obviously protrudes a little more than a regular binding, maybe 1cm or so. Nowhere near as much extra heelcup material as a Supermatic binding

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NOW, FASE and supermatic

[Spenser]

I'd want to see them aligned by the heel pocket w/ highback up, as that's where the back of the boot will rest & define how much sticks out. Let's get the stepon highback contraption in the photo too, hah. Sure, it won't matter to your average rider, but there are definitely people who benefit from the binding being low profile behind their boot. That's one of my favorite bonus features of NOW.

I can't comment on the other two, but NOW highbacks are flush inside the heelcup & forward lean adjuster is very minimal outside. If the fase highback is the same in that sense, it looks fairly slim overall.

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[dpartridge7]

I'd want to see them aligned by the heel pocket w/ highback up, as that's where the back of the boot will rest & define how much sticks out. Let's get the stepon highback contraption in the photo too, hah. Sure, it won't matter to your average rider, but there are definitely people who benefit from the binding being low profile behind their boot. That's one of my favorite bonus features of NOW.

I can't comment on the other two, but NOW highbacks are flush inside the heelcup & forward lean adjuster is very minimal outside. If the fase highback is the same in that sense, it looks fairly slim overall.


IMG_1708.jpeg

the highback has to be flush with the heelcup for there to be pressure on the pedal.

[kimchi]

I played with the Jones Mercury FASE in my local shop today. Seems solid. It’s a shame they (or one of the FASE offerings) doesn’t have Skate-tech but that might happen in the future.

...

No high back rotation though. I like to have it but appreciate that most don’t bother about it. High back shaping and flex can also make this a non-issue.

NOW/Jones/Yes have never had highback rotation. I've never missed it, but now that I own 2 sets of Drives I might try two left ("front") highbacka when I go posi posi

Any Union-esque bushings or rubber underfoot? Curious what kind of design they went with sans SkateTech.

Kinda curious they went with Mercury name. I get the power of existing branding but I ride the SkateTech Mercury and wouldn't expect these to ride all that similar wirh completely different baseplate design.

[Spenser]

I played with the Jones Mercury FASE in my local shop today. Seems solid. It’s a shame they (or one of the FASE offerings) doesn’t have Skate-tech but that might happen in the future.

...

No high back rotation though. I like to have it but appreciate that most don’t bother about it. High back shaping and flex can also make this a non-issue.

now that I own 2 sets of Drives I might try two left ("front") highbacka when I go posi posi

FWIW & YMMV - I have dual front highbacks on one set of drives, and normal on the other. I've never tried swapping between runs on the same board, but I'm not confident I could tell the difference. If it's there, it's pretty mild. Maybe I'll give that a go some time. Rear foot at +9 and forward lean maxed, for reference

Once in a while I'll bring two setups and swap during the day, and I've never thought about it

[Kevington]

I played with the Jones Mercury FASE in my local shop today. Seems solid. It’s a shame they (or one of the FASE offerings) doesn’t have Skate-tech but that might happen in the future.

...

No high back rotation though. I like to have it but appreciate that most don’t bother about it. High back shaping and flex can also make this a non-issue.

NOW/Jones/Yes have never had highback rotation. I've never missed it, but now that I own 2 sets of Drives I might try two left ("front") highbacka when I go posi posi

Any Union-esque bushings or rubber underfoot? Curious what kind of design they went with sans SkateTech.

Kinda curious they went with Mercury name. I get the power of existing branding but I ride the SkateTech Mercury and wouldn't expect these to ride all that similar wirh completely different baseplate design.

I run 24 degrees on the front foot and get knee problems if my lower leg is too locked in. No rotation and probably even more so the super-tall frame is why I had to stop using Now, even though I loved Skate-tech and the older leather asym strap from the Pilot.

The Jones binding was mounted to a board so I couldn't see underneath. No obvious bushing but probably something other than hard plastic in contact with the board.

I imagine all the brand and model name changes will settle down a bit after next season. I still think it's strange to not go with Skate-tech on the Jones bindings though, considering Jeremy was an early adopter and big proponent of the tech. It's arguably more useful to serious freeriders than FASE will be.

[dpartridge7]

I played with the Jones Mercury FASE in my local shop today. Seems solid. It’s a shame they (or one of the FASE offerings) doesn’t have Skate-tech but that might happen in the future.

...

No high back rotation though. I like to have it but appreciate that most don’t bother about it. High back shaping and flex can also make this a non-issue.

NOW/Jones/Yes have never had highback rotation. I've never missed it, but now that I own 2 sets of Drives I might try two left ("front") highbacka when I go posi posi

Any Union-esque bushings or rubber underfoot? Curious what kind of design they went with sans SkateTech.

Kinda curious they went with Mercury name. I get the power of existing branding but I ride the SkateTech Mercury and wouldn't expect these to ride all that similar wirh completely different baseplate design.

I run 24 degrees on the front foot and get knee problems if my lower leg is too locked in. No rotation and probably even more so the super-tall frame is why I had to stop using Now, even though I loved Skate-tech and the older leather asym strap from the Pilot.

The Jones binding was mounted to a board so I couldn't see underneath. No obvious bushing but probably something other than hard plastic in contact with the board.

I imagine all the brand and model name changes will settle down a bit after next season. I still think it's strange to not go with Skate-tech on the Jones bindings though, considering Jeremy was an early adopter and big proponent of the tech. It's arguably more useful to serious freeriders than FASE will be.

i also ride 24 front binding. i find the drive HB are fine for this with there shape and stiffness. i do though usually have more forward lean on the front binding compared to the back. each to there own.

[Vanni]

i got a pair of branded pre-production jones first, so riding then. it does have a supportive HB, which I like personally. i also just got some rome and bataleons. have played around with then, but because it's summer here, i haven't ridden them. also, my jones has 32 straps, as i guessed the jones ones were not ready as this was 5 months ago.

Before working on FASE - did you have a preferred binding?

NOW drive was my go to binding. i changed the toe strap to the jones one eventually. i also have in my quiver, 2 strap burton and rome as well as supermatic's and step-on.

what kind of ankle straps you were using? because this year (Yes) and the previous one (Now) were not as bad as my first version of H3.0 Drive. That was a really really bad ankle strap.

[dpartridge7]

Before working on FASE - did you have a preferred binding?

NOW drive was my go to binding. i changed the toe strap to the jones one eventually. i also have in my quiver, 2 strap burton and rome as well as supermatic's and step-on.

what kind of ankle straps you were using? because this year (Yes) and the previous one (Now) were not as bad as my first version of H3.0 Drive. That was a really really bad ankle strap.

i'm fine with all the NOW ankle straps (post-stitch straps). me, i don't notice the difference between most modern ankle straps. it's the toe straps that i'm particular about.

[C.Fuzzy]

Got a sneaky good weekend up north with a couple solid pow days.

Rode step ons the whole time. Just felt like I barely knew how to ride. Would fall over just for no reason at all. Even one little girl, probably 8-years-old just pointed and laughed at me and kicked snow in my face as I lay in the snow trying to figure out how to get back up... and said I wasn't a real snowboarder.

Just kidding.

They rode fine. I ripped as hard as I could as long as I had legs to ride and never had an issues with them at all. I didn't notice them when riding, didn't feel like I was fighting them, or had anything come up to cause concern. I do ride my boots more lose than I've ever done before.

I may have to grapple with the shame that I'm not a real snowboarder anymore if I don't strap up and get my act together real soon. Shame I have brought upon my family name.

Edit: Also saw a guy riding a Fullbag board. I yelled FULLBAG and did a fistpump into the air. I think he thought I was mentally challenged. Rightfully so I guess.