SkittlesRgood

I had some old missions that I kept stripping the ladders on them, every year. I wear my bindings ridiculously tight. When I looked at the ratchet I could see a noticeable slant so that the ratchet didnt engage the ladder perfectly straight. When I shopped for bindings this year I noticed that the '13 missions still have that angle on the ratchet but the cartels sit very flat on the ladder. This lead me to believe that I would have less of a chance at stripping the cartels, so that's what I went with. Hopefully that theory was correct.

Just something to look at if anyone else has that problem.

phony_stark

The problems with your ladders had more to do with the fact that the Missions have single component ratchets which are just metal. Metal on that kind of plastic ladder will start to strip. Your cartels have dual component ratchets, which has plastic touch the ladder, so there will be no stripping.

Supra

Where are you getting your info from? The 2013 cartel highback has only 3% more torsional flex than the 2012. 3% is not significant.
Are basing your post on handflexing in store or have you ridden the bindings?

Supra

The cartel is STILL the all mountain binding. The highback, if anything, would be stiffer than the malavitas, but not by much. The malavitas are still an all mountain binding with a touch more flex than the cartels (more freestyley if you're splitting straws)

Supra

zero lean came in with the 2012 cartel, not the year before. Folks had issues with the old forward lean (saying it didn't start at zero). There is no problem with zero forward lean because if you want more, you just adjust it for more.

Supra

Glad you overcame your dislike of the 'corporate giant' which is the privately owned Burton. How do you like Lib tech being run by Quiksilver?

Anyways, your thoughts about Burton not wanting to undercut their EST system with the hinge are incorrect. The hinge was put into est bindings to mimic the natural lateral flex reflex and other disc bindings have. Reflex flex = good. Adding the hinge to reflex would mean too much flex = bad. They tested it out. So, with reflex, rest assured that you have the best that burton have out at this time

ARSENALFAN

I have last year's Attack Banana with Cartels. Primo setup and NO complaints. Cheers!

SkittlesRgood

The main issue was not caused by metal on plastic. because of the reduced contact area, from the angled ratchet, and the fact that the whole ratchet can be moved away from the ladder, when I got my bindings really tight the ratchet would slip. each slip taking away a little bit of plastic. sure that's where the metal was doing more damage than plastic might but the root cause was mechanical. there was always proof that only about 1/4" was engaging because that was the only part that would be stripped on the ladder. again, i believe this is caused by the crooked ratchet. plus, if the both materials were plastic then they would both be slowly worn down by this slipping to where I would need a new ratchet and ladders.

I actually had a burton rep try to tell me the same thing you just did. but he had nothing to say after I explained what I saw happening.