hikeswithdogs

I knew they were a PITA for riding powder but Snowvols and I were hiking Pioneer Ridge this weekend, got cliffed out and had to hike through 4 feet of snow back up 50 feet or so then strap back in and traverse right, "strapping" back in on a 45' degree angle face in 4 feet of snow with read entry bindings sucks donkey balls.

Having my 2007 AutoEvers shipped out here from Minnesota and put a normal ladderstrap on them and forget the cable tightening sytem better bindings overall than my Cinche's anyways. No real need for fast in\out bindings out west anyways.

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Grizz

Which bindings?

The title says rear entry so I thought FLOWs.

In the post you say step ins so I'm thinking clickers.

Shimano clickers did suck for entry in the deep stuff.

hikeswithdogs

Fixed, sorry said step in instead of rear entry.

Anything rear entry makes the scenario I mentioned above a major pain in the ass.

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Grizz

Good to know. I've never tried them.

snowklinger

is it easy to convert auto bindings to traditional? i just got a pair of uprises would be tempted to do this to, although i have no problems with them atm.

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hikeswithdogs

Yea I believe it's just the ladder strap piece(the strap and ratchet are 100% normal), should have mine in a few days and I'll probably post somthing about the conversion. the Toe strap I will just lock in a static(like flows or Cinches) and not use a ratchet at all.

Loved my 1st gen AutoEvers but I keep on breaking cables(That K2 keeps replacing for free) and don't want to deal with a broken binding while getting ready to drop into some kind of gnarly steep and rocky out of bounds situation.

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Leo

Am I missing something here? Every rear entry binding I know of can be used like traditional bindings in powder situations.

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hikeswithdogs

Yes my Cinch's have those but have you ever actually tried that in practice; not nearly as simple as it would seem.

For starters the ratchets aren't the quick\easy kind(like normal 2 strapers) their tight as hell and the when you get back to the resort you've totally screwed up your preset dialed in rear entry settings.

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Leo

Well, I had several Flow bindings and their original ratchets sucked. Their mini-ratchets were a little better. I didn't have powder to strap into, but I did bring them to a demo where I had to constantly unstrap them to swap boards. I was able to strap back in very easily without messing up my settings because I never touched the adjustment on the inside ladders.

I haven't tried Cinch ratchets, but are they that bad that you prefer to try to kick in rather than strap in? According to the Cinch supporters, they are a better alternative to Flow because of the traditional strap nature.

Oh well, all above issues definitely addressed with the upcoming 2013 Flow NX2 line.

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hikeswithdogs

Everyone I talk to says conventional bindings are superior in the backcountry and always will be, I've had flows and Cinches and while I do like them for resort riding they don't belong anywhere near the back or side country.

In the above situations simplicity, weight and reliability are paramount, no one gives two shits about saving 10 seconds when you spent 20 minutes or 2 hours hiking up and out.

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