BINDINGS

[coleslawed]

I have to say since my switch to Unions, I am in love, love, love with the mini disc.

I was riding a board in pow for the first time this week and had it set at reference, which I always try to the best of my ability to ride reference.

Wished for just a tiny bit more nose. with the Mini Disc it was super simple and I was able to just bring my front foot back 1/2"

With other bindings would have had to lose a full inch in stance or move both bindings back and loose almost two inches of tail to keep a stance width that I like.

with this do you just mean the ability to move the bolts laterally in the disc, vs toe-heel like in a unibody baseplate? I sometimes have to sacrifice a 1/4" either direction with my mini-disc Unions, but not with the full disc, as those still have lateral adjustments due to the adjustable heelcup.

[pow_hnd]

I have to say since my switch to Unions, I am in love, love, love with the mini disc.

I was riding a board in pow for the first time this week and had it set at reference, which I always try to the best of my ability to ride reference.

Wished for just a tiny bit more nose. with the Mini Disc it was super simple and I was able to just bring my front foot back 1/2"

With other bindings would have had to lose a full inch in stance or move both bindings back and loose almost two inches of tail to keep a stance width that I like.

with this do you just mean the ability to move the bolts laterally in the disc, vs toe-heel like in a unibody baseplate? I sometimes have to sacrifice a 1/4" either direction with my mini-disc Unions, but not with the full disc, as those still have lateral adjustments due to the adjustable heelcup.

I mean the ability to move the disc mini 2x2 vs 2x4 with a full disc. So by being able to move it just 2x2 then slide the disc all the way to one side I can narrow my stance by 1/2" while still having the heel cup to keep my boot centered over the board. With unibody, for me, it was always the full 2x4 because I needed the slots in the disc to move toe/heel to center my boot.

Does that make sense?

[eleveneightnate]

I've seen a handful of broken Rome bindings -- snapped highbacks or chassis -- but never seen the screws come loose myself. It strikes me as a "possible" issue vs. something that actually happens often. I'm 2 seasons into riding Bataleon and always double check the many screws, but I've never noticed any coming loose.

It was always these screws on my '21 Katanas, even with blue Loctite. Maybe they've fixed them since then, but the Katana, by comparison, has like 3-4 times as many screws as a competitive binding such as the Strata so it's just a numbers game.

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[pow_hnd]

- but never seen the screws come loose myself. It strikes me as a "possible" issue vs. something that actually happens often.

My homie ride Rome bindings, not sure what model. He's always having hardware/screws come loose. Has to tighten/check that shit every day he rides and has lost screws during the day and we've had to zip-tie his straps to get him to the base to grab some new screws.

[coleslawed]

I have to say since my switch to Unions, I am in love, love, love with the mini disc.

I was riding a board in pow for the first time this week and had it set at reference, which I always try to the best of my ability to ride reference.

Wished for just a tiny bit more nose. with the Mini Disc it was super simple and I was able to just bring my front foot back 1/2"

With other bindings would have had to lose a full inch in stance or move both bindings back and loose almost two inches of tail to keep a stance width that I like.

with this do you just mean the ability to move the bolts laterally in the disc, vs toe-heel like in a unibody baseplate? I sometimes have to sacrifice a 1/4" either direction with my mini-disc Unions, but not with the full disc, as those still have lateral adjustments due to the adjustable heelcup.

I mean the ability to move the disc mini 2x2 vs 2x4 with a full disc. So by being able to move it just 2x2 then slide the disc all the way to one side I can narrow my stance by 1/2" while still having the heel cup to keep my boot centered over the board. With unibody, for me, it was always the full 2x4 because I needed the slots in the disc to move toe/heel to center my boot.

Does that make sense?

yes it does. just wanted to clarify that you'll get the same adjustment (or maybe even more) on a full sized disc from Union (or any other adjustable heelcup binding) due to be able to adjust stance tip-tail and letting the adjustable heel cup tune the toe-heel adjustment.

[pow_hnd]

I will now be riding Union Charger Split Bindings.

I was so used to Sparks because they are the simplest and were for the longest time the best performing, and at a time they really were the only split bindings worth a damn.

The Unions are so much more fucking comfortable. I went on a tour today that has a mile long exit that’s a bobsled track and is toeside for me. My feet have always cramped like a mother fucker on that exit, sometimes to the point where I’d stop for a minute and pop my straps to get the cramping to go away. The Sparks rode well in actual downhill pow, never had comfort issues there, it was a soon as I had to exit on hard pack where shit got uncomfortable.

The Unions today were like heaven.

As far as the change over, you for sure have to pay a bit more attention to detail, it’s not a quick as Sparks but that extra 2-3 minutes is no big deal, I even really think that after 3-4 more times out in them I’ll have that transition time and routine down and it won’t really be any longer.

I’m gonna give Bjorn back the set he let me try tomorrow and buy a brand new pair for myself.

I do know that the “pucks” can wear and you start to get disco foot. Bjorn said to just buy an extra set to have on hand for when this starts to happen, he said it pops up around 20-30 days of use, then you just swap out to the new pucks and then Union will warranty your old pucks no questions asked.

So you need to invest in that second set of pucks, but I can live with that for the comfort trade off easily.

Also, the climb bars are so much easier to engage, like worlds easier. The new “ST’ climbing bars were for sure an improvement over the past Spark climbing bars, but even then, not even close to how easy the Union ones are.

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[scrub]

I borrowed set of Union atlas from my buddy. I’ve only ridden Burton EST for 3 seasons and the pair of franken reflex bindings for 3 days on this Lib. The Atlas are about 40g heavier and the high back rotation and the FLAD are a wee bit finicky compared to Burton but the adjustment for stance is really nice compared to reflex. Looking forward to riding theis week.

[Spenser]

I will now be riding Union Charger Split Bindings.

I was so used to Sparks because they are the simplest and were for the longest time the best performing, and at a time they really were the only split bindings worth a damn.

The Unions are so much more fucking comfortable. I went on a tour today that has a mile long exit that’s a bobsled track and is toeside for me. My feet have always cramped like a mother fucker on that exit, sometimes to the point where I’d stop for a minute and pop my straps to get the cramping to go away. The Sparks rode well in actual downhill pow, never had comfort issues there, it was a soon as I had to exit on hard pack where shit got uncomfortable.

The Unions today were like heaven.

As far as the change over, you for sure have to pay a bit more attention to detail, it’s not a quick as Sparks but that extra 2-3 minutes is no big deal, I even really think that after 3-4 more times out in them I’ll have that transition time and routine down and it won’t really be any longer.

I’m gonna give Bjorn back the set he let me try tomorrow and buy a brand new pair for myself.

I do know that the “pucks” can wear and you start to get disco foot. Bjorn said to just buy an extra set to have on hand for when this starts to happen, he said it pops up around 20-30 days of use, then you just swap out to the new pucks and then Union will warranty your old pucks no questions asked.

So you need to invest in that second set of pucks, but I can live with that for the comfort trade off easily.

Also, the climb bars are so much easier to engage, like worlds easier. The new “ST’ climbing bars were for sure an improvement over the past Spark climbing bars, but even then, not even close to how easy the Union ones are.



IMG_8648.jpeg

You do see a lot about developing "play" in ride mode, but seems like there's a workaround as you mentioned… and I don't split a lot anyway. Been intrigued by the Chargers since they came out. Functionally, I love my sparks with spark pucks, but I definitely get foot fatigue when it's not soft. Not a huge deal, but if I can improve on that, paired with the improvement I gained with the US covert, I would be pretty stoked.

In theory, still supposedly going to get a set of next year's Karakoram recons, which I expect to be a ride improvement over Sparks, but haven't heard anything in a while

[kimchi]

When I finally start splitting again, I will likely switch to Unions. If @pow_hnd 's on board, i'm confident they've worked out the kinks.

I distinctly remember a sick inbounds pow day at Brighton winter 2019/20 on my Sparks... I was sneaking in a quick pow day and then IMMEDIATELY needed to do a QUICK turnaround to get to the airport for a noon-ish flight. My margin for error was so tight that I rode my split with Sparks because I needed to be able to slide off the bindings to slip board into board bag.

I didn't drop anything huge, maybe a 6-8 ft drops into 2 ft of fresh, and I could still feel the impact rolling up through the bindings. All aluminum felt like a necessary trade-off 5 years ago, less of one now.

[unsuspected]

Why is Strata baseplate so wide?
Compared with my Nitro Zero.

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Oh and Nitro ratchets are brittle. Back foot but still not used much.

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