BINDINGS

[eleveneightnate]

Stoked to try these things out. The toe strap feels flimsy as hell, but everything else feels solid. The base pad isn’t as soft as I was anticipating.

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[g3greg]

Make sure to follow up with feedback. Wondering if other people feel like I do, which isn't in line with most review videos.

Stoked to try these things out.

[eleveneightnate]

Make sure to follow up with feedback. Wondering if other people feel like I do, which isn't in line with most review videos.

Will do! No pressure points strapping in to test, but I'll find out for sure this weekend.

[Blessed420]

i like that toestrap more than the new one, no pressure points and locks in proper.

[eleveneightnate]

i like that toestrap more than the new one, no pressure points and locks in proper.

Messed around with it more tonight and I think it’ll grow on me. Got it adjusted to my boot perfectly and it feels like it contours more than the typical Union toe straps.

[coleslawed]

I've got the same toe straps on a set of Falcors and I love them.

[ninja_nate]

I sold my Nitro Squash yesterday, I just used that money to buy Burton straps and ladders to upgrade my Jones Mercury

[NERD POST ALERT. Huge pics gallery and long post]
Ok, Burton box received.
I started to upgrade the straps on a binding, on the other one I left the Jones one.

To me, for the ankle strap: it's all subjective, but, to me, the Hammock straps are better.
They are wider than the Jones one (see the pics), and they are a little bit softer on the edges.
And also, this is a plus for me, it removes the option to flip straps, no more freeride or surf mode, I'm in the mood to have less option, less things to setup, to have a more straight forward binding. To have less adjustability, coming from other bindings, is quite refreshing for me. But again, this is highly subjective.
Nothing wrong with Jones ankle straps, you can live with them just fine, they are worlds better than the pure garbage that I had on the last year Drive.

For the toe strap, the thing is debatable. The Jones one are on par at least with Burton, they can even fit a little bit better without caring too much on the position of the strap. So I think I'll try both on the hill and then decide what is the best for me. But if you want to upgrade the straps on a Jones, the toe strap (at least the current one) is great and if you don't want to spend a lot of money, the Jones one is great.
Both are again world better than the garbage they put on Now bindings, even the 2024 line, because they didn't upgrade the toe strap.
If you buy a new Now or you have an old one, I think the current Jones or Burton toe strap is a GREAT upgrade. A must, to me.

To use Burton DT ratchets on ankle straps, you have to buy the Burton Double Take Ankle Tongue, it seems sturdier than the standard Jones ladder.
Also, you can mount the Hammock straps on the Jones Ankle Slider, but the Burton Ankle Flex Slider seems sturdier too.

For the toe strap I got Burton Double Take EST Snowboard Binding Toe Tongue; for the Toe tongue Slider, i think the standard Jones is better than the Burton Snowboard Binding Toe Slider, because it has a flex point to have the strap out of the way, and with the burton one you don't have this.

Bottom line: if you have a Jones you are 100% fine.
If you want to upgrade the straps, start with the ankle one, and buy also the two Burton tongues.
Then I think the toe straps are fine (if you don't trust Jones ratchets you can buy some spares and you'll be fine).

If you have a 2023 Now, DO IT.
Burton Hammock for the Ankle and Jones or Burton for the toe. You'll have a PERFECT binding.

If you have a 2024 Now, to me you should upgrade at least the toe strap (again Jones or Burton).

My Mercury are size S, I bought toe straps in size S and the same size for the ankle straps. I measured the size M straps on my Drives and on my Mercury, and the length is really close, if not the same (a lot of S and M bindings share the same straps, on a lot of brands or models).

Hope this helps.

thanks for this write up! im guessing most people will say its worth upgrading the straps to burton for the buckles alone but this gives me more confidence in taking my recently purchased mercurys out without upgrading anything. the guy at the shop i bought them from claimed the jones buckles havent been having the same issues as years prior (and he has plenty of spares if i run into issues lol) but i think kimchi mentioned his buckles from last yr had issues. appreciate all the pics and thorough review!

[eleveneightnate]

thanks for this write up! im guessing most people will say its worth upgrading the straps to burton for the buckles alone but this gives me more confidence in taking my recently purchased mercurys out without upgrading anything. the guy at the shop i bought them from claimed the jones buckles havent been having the same issues as years prior (and he has plenty of spares if i run into issues lol) but i think kimchi mentioned his buckles from last yr had issues. appreciate all the pics and thorough review!

As long as you don't have the plastic Now buckles, you're miles ahead haha.

[kimchi]

The Jones ratchets are better than stock NOWs but still flawed. I lost this little tension spring in an ankle buckle last season... that spring supports the pin which holds together the entire ratchet. I was able to finish out the day by carefully holding the pin in place while tensioning my bindings, but that was sketchy and annoying.

And are the replacement ratchets, the fancy high-end NOW carbon ratchets, and even they have this spring exposed.

This is the first time I it spring entirely, but I've suspect that spring is why I got floppy ratchets on four NOW/Jones toe ratchets and one other NOW ankle ratchet.

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A Burton Cartel ratchet for comparison. If they have a similar spring mechanism (I assume they do) then it's much less exposed and better protected. And that pin is riveted into place on the ends, so losing the spring wouldn't be catastrophic.

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[kimchi]

Lololol holy fuck. Taking a closer look after my pics in previous post, I just realized one of my replacement NOW buckle is busted.

I'm just going to buy some Burton parts. The straps are fine but I don't trust these ratchets any more.

That pin I mentioned holding the ratchet together is secured in place by a smaller c-ring pin.

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I just realized the left binding strap is missing the c-ring pin... meaning I can pop out the long pin holding the ratchet together with my fingers.

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Super poor design. Maybe I'm an extreme Wreck-It outlier but I've replaced like 3 ratchets total lifetime on every other binding I've ever owned... this is my 8th-ish bum NOW / Jones ratchet in <6 seasons. I get defects happen but this is absurd. I'm going to buy some Burton replacements today.