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hmmmm....well, i've been riding for a couple years but only 1 or 2 days a year, and have now gone more consecutive weekends in japan since january than i ever have (yay!).

 

i'm more into riding powder and hitting (and landing! )the occasional jump than doing crazy tricks - probably 'cause i can't do any tricks! ;\) objectives - i guess get more confident on my board and learn some basic tricks. that sounds kind of vague but i feel like i haven't been doing it long enough to be more specific.

 

why is your life better without them? how did your riding change to make it so?

 

and thanks, by the way!

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I found them useful as a beginner to lap up and down the groomed runs. In short, recreational snowboarding where gear performance, weight and reliability was not important. I rode about 50 days in mine and was very happy with them. They are as tough as nails as well, hardly look like they have been used.

 

But then a few things changed in my boarding objectives: mainly I focused on BC touring and all but stopped rising lifts and pistes. And this that made me change my bindings to straps:

 

- my boarding required a tighter more precise foot hold with no play at all (performance issue)

- Burton invented cap straps (comfort factor)

- I started carrying my board on my back (weight issue: Flows are too heavy and bulky to carry on a steep or long climb, day after day)

- I saw a guy hit an icy 40 degree patch off-piste, fall, slide on his back headfirst down slope, highback lever hit the surface and came open. He slide and tumbled for 50m down the ice with only one foot attached to his board which made it almost impossible to arrest his slide. By pure luck he came to a stop just before tumbling over a rocky 2m ledge that would have really hurt more than he had already been hurt. (Reliability issue: Unreliable when you dont want them to be.)

 

I think strap bindings are a floored system, but the best available.

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Have also eyed them for a bit and have asked around a lot before trying them. One or two people swear by them but the major criticism I have heard is the weight, which is an issue you will have to decide for yourself, especially if you're intent on doing "tricks"... looking around you see very few "experts" using them though, and most people I've spoken to enjoyed trying them out, but then move back to straps... Definitely faster to get into, but once you get more than a few days every season you'll find that strap-in time is actually pretty negligible anyway. If you decide to try them though, you would probably do well to wait a week or two and get them at an end-of season sale. The higher end models have less of the weight issues and you may pick them up for more normal prices then.

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two of my japanese mates are sponsored by flow and love them. their only problems with them are that they`re heavier than strap bindings. they are, however, locked, loaded and heading down the hill way, way quicker than me. furthermore, check out how well the flow international team are doing these days. they seem to win a lot.

 

personally i wouldn`t ride flows, although i`d like to give them a try. ditto what everyone else has said, they look less reliable, heavier and less solid performance-wise (esp edge to edge response) than conventional bindings. and i`ve also heard a few scare-stories of flows undoing themselves mid-run. (having said that, the other day i missed my grab on a pretty nice air off a hip, twatted my large-strap clicker with my grabbing hand, loosened it completely and had to land virtually one-footed. not recommended).

 

burton seem to be setting the standard these days. nearly everyone i know who shreds hard has burtons.

 

also, i don`t know much about flows, but can you adjust how tight they are really quickly? it`s a real psychological benefit for me to crank my bindings as i`m about to hit the run-in to a big kicker. and it`s nice to ease them off slightly when i`m just cruising or sitting on the chair.

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I have had them since the metal days of the old FL11.

I have upgraded since and weight is not really an issue, though if I were spending my days just in the park I might use a normal strap in.

I went to them as i found they dispersed the pressure (from straps) evenly and didn't hurt my foot.

Having said that I haven't ridden in "normal" bindings for about 8 years, but why change when you are happy?

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fair call Indosnm, but these days, with decent bindings that have nice fat straps, especially the toe-cap straps, foot pain isn`t really an issue.

 

but you`re right in saying there`s no point in changing if you`re happy. unless you could be happier.....

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thanks for all the input - i think i'm gonna hold off for a while and just keep using the super bunk sims that came on my board (got an older burton charger at a recycle store for 1 man) and maybe try and get some burtons towards the end of the season.

 

shit, those sims are shitty though!

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Like i mentioned in the other board binding post.

Look at the K2 cinch binding they are way better then the flows, but Flow also just release the X6 binding, which suppose to fix the weight issue.

 

But i still like my C60 and K2 over my FLows anyday..

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Ive been running my flows for the past 2 seasons, and have found that the best way to prevent the lever on the highback from catching and them undoing was to put my trousers outside the bindings.

 

It means that the catch cant physically come undone as your trouser is in the way, and takes no time whatsoever to do. I had one of my bindings come undone once last season in Niseko before I started doing this, but this season with the trousers outside its been all smiles with the flows.

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there was a biig post about this a year or two ago if anyone is interested - search the archive.

 

basically i had flow bindings for 2 years and i loved them, they are slightly heavier but you can get in/out much much quicker and they spread pressure around the foot very nicely.

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