Leo

I'd do something mid-stiff or stiff for the Heritage. Cartels, Restricted Malavita, and Diodes are great choices. Diode being optimal if you have a great discount/proform and can afford it. I would do Restricted Cartels over the regular ones for the Asym ankle strap. You can flip the strap according to what you want. More support or more flex. The Restricted Malavitas have this same strap, but the overall binding has a bit more play to them than the Cartels. Diodes are just a light, responsive beast. Insanely light.

For Flow, definitely the NXT-FSE for most response. I owned these bindings and loved them. One of the more responsive Flow bindings out. Had good dampening and was light. Of course it comes with Flows rocker baseplate... in all honesty though, I didn't notice it. Maybe that's the magic of it?

I've only demoed the Flux RK30's so no help there.

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CheeseForSteeze

Hi idshred, I can answer those questions:

Yep, I rode the 09/10 Forces and 10/11 Contact and Contact Pros. They smoothed up a little and the magnesium cages with aluminum wheels on the Contacts were pretty good but they still tended to stick when I cranked them down on my boots. I didn't have this problem with Flux, Burton, TechNine or Raiden which all released smoothly straight out of the box.

Bear in mind, I guess this could be considered a minor complaint since the baseplates and highbacks never once failed me and that's what's really important. But as I previously stated, it's nice to have your buckles release effortless especially when you are paying north of 200 bones.

Landing on flat surfaces coming off faster rails or down bars that don't always have a transition on the bottom, I tend to stomp down my landing and I go through mounting discs. No brand can really hold up to repeated abuse like that, nor should the be expected to. However, the Union discs seemed to crack the fastest, far quicker than Raiden, Burton, Flux or TechNine.

TechNine I had some problems with the discs fitting but they held up ok. Raiden were average and Burton have been above average so far. Flux I can't comment on as I haven't ridden them with the frequency of those other bindings. The design and materials of Burton and TechNine seem much beefier than Union, though, and one would expect them to last longer.

Again, if Union are your thing, by all means have at them! I don't think they are bad, and in fact, I love the Contact Pro baseplates (awesome board feel and weight) and high backs. I just wish they'd do something about their straps, buckles and discs.

With that, if anyone has any more specific questions about what I didn't or did like about those bindings, please PM me. I'm afraid I've already eaten up enough of Leo's thread as is.

Himynameissean

Ride Toe Strap Upgrade Kit - Online Snowboard Shop

I actually just got Force's today, and was kind of like WTF at the toe straps when they wouldn't release smoothly. I actually cut my finger open. They feel great, but I'm wondering if those toe straps will fit the Force's, or if I should just return them and get something different.

For what it's worth, I was riding my friends beat down, 4 year old burton freestyle's last year and the toe straps were smoother than the forces.

rdot84

I've used rossignol jones xp, rossignol hc2000's and burton cartels and my union forces are by far the best pair for board integration/feel and response. I will say the straps and buckles leave much to be desired but you do need to adjust them correctly and have the right size binding. They also smooth out over time.

My two cents: Pick up a pair of Union Atlas'. Asymetrical straps and high back makes leaps and bounds compared to the Force.

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Leo

A ton of people put the Ride toe straps on their Unions. There's an entire thread full of them on EasyLoungin and they are a huge Burton/Union forum.

If you like everything else about the Unions and this is your only issue and the price of the Ride's is chump change to you... go that route.

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civic2tegg

Wow first opening of the toe strap I cut my finger pulling so hard bought them anyway though let's just see how they work.

Nefarious

Is it really necessary to act like such a child? It's a debatable concept. There are certain issues with Unions that are no secret.

The lack of problems with yours certainly don't justify infantile name calling.

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Leo

Okay Mr. New World Douche bag. I have read your other posts and you have this condescending tone throughout most of them. Keep it up, you won't last very long on these forums with that attitude. How about you stay over at EasyLoungin with that garbage attitude.

Go tell your Union reps to set people up right then. The bindings were setup by them. This is how it works on a demo day.

But at any rate, the straps were put in their back position and ladders not maxed out and toe straps centered over the toe of the boot. Just like Johan shows in his video. After all, it was his co-workers that set me and Dave up.

You're outnumbered here NWO. Consistently people are saying the same thing about the toe ratchet and most agree that the toe straps only properly fit some boots. These are the very people that support Union.

So either take the criticism if you're associated with Union in a good way or else STFU and keep your trash comments to yourself.

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binarypie

The whole ratchet problem is very very common on the unions. Almost everyone I know that rides them complains about it. I've even seen a few people putting burton straps on their unions....

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Leo

By the way, let's not try to use the old argument from authority fallacy. If you want to compare binding experience, I can do that. Even better, BurtonAvenger will make you look like a peon with his gear experience and most of us know what his opinion on Unions are. That is if you want to continue with your fallacy.

I'm providing constructive criticism and even providing options to fix the Union toe strap issue. You do nothing but shove two wildabeast penises in your ears and scream "LALALALALALA UNION IS PERFECT WITHOUT ANY ISSUES LALALALALALALALALA".

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