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Review: Jones Mothership 156 '14

10K views 42 replies 18 participants last post by  neni 
#1 · (Edited)
Setup: '14 Jones Mothership 156 with Burton Escapades '14 M and Ride Cadence women's 8.5 boots.

Rider: 125lbs, 5ft 7.7in ~400d experience, mid-advanced one direction rider with no switch/tricks n review skillz, just writing up my thoughts :)

Stance: +24/+9 angles, 22in. At first centered but I seemed to put too much pressure to the tip, tended to dig in when carving. With one insert setback it felt perfect.

Location/Conditions: Swiss Alps, high and mid alpine 35-45° BC, and red and black groomers: fluffy pow, heavy wet fresh, softpack, slush, moguls, crud, hardpack, ice - well, everything.
And 5d heli boarding in Alaska Chugach Mountains: 40-50° chutes and very challenging conditions: deep slush, windblown crusts, pow and ice changing every odd meter.

The '13 season I spent on a Jones Flagship 158. Loved the board for it's stability and great float, but as fun it was in deep pow and to bomb groomers, it was hard work in challenging conditions, it more wants to go just straight. Thus - having the AK trip in mind - I was insecure, if it could be too tiring. After having very good experiences with my Jones Womens Solution 156, I also got the Jones Mothership 156 mid '14 season.

Compared to my Ride Farah (not a soft board neither!), the Mothership feels like a stiffy, compared to the Flagship, she feels soft. For me she is the perfect agility/stability tradeoff. Enough dampened to still be fun to ride in moguls, but stiff enough to be super fun to charge with fast edge to edge transition, immediate response, precise and predictable, easy turn initiation for wide turns as well as quick narrow ones. She doesn't swallow heavily bumpy terrain as well as the Farah, but she cuts through crusts and mellow bumps at speed very nicely. You certainly can relax and criuse with her but the challenging terrain is where she shines.

Base is very fast; she picks up speed immediately. Sometimes almost too fast. While the Flagship was like a tank charging pow no matter what speed, the Mothership surprised me sometimes with being a tiny bit squirrelly at high speed in pow when I was a bit too much in the backseat (my bad). Base is also very resistant; hit some rocks where I expected to find nasty damage and found only minor superficial scratches. Absolutely no issues with the wooden top sheet; on contrary, she resisted all the skipole attacks in lift lines and stuffing into the heli basket.

The profile is pretty much the same as the Flagship, but she has a more narrow waist and is a bit softer. She has a RCR profile with a very pronounced softish rocker nose, the rocker beginning right after the last insert. That nose floats pow easily without having to lean back.

Carving: she carves very well, lean into a carve and it rails effortlessly.

Stability: very stable at speed, she gives me all the confidence needed to flatbase and charge a slope. I didn’t ride at the same speed as with the Flagship, that one still is a notch more stable, but the Mothership is such a great compromise with the amount of agility she offers compared to the pure kitchen door.

Edgehold: That's the thing which impressed me most. I've been on pure ice on +40°, where I first though ugh, now you're in troubles but no, the edge held. After that experience, I didn't reduce speed anymore when hitting icy patches.

All in all, great freeride board!

The setup (2nd from left)


Some of the steep runs in AK she brought me down safely. There was no second I didn’t have full confidence with her.

Pretty narrow and icy chute in the middle: easy hop turning, the edge held perfectly,

A lovely spine with fluffy pow.

Did ride the spine in the middle and the convex snowfield run on the right. Knowing that she is so easy to throw around I had the confidence to tackle them and enjoyed the runs a lot.

She's also fun on groomers!

Getting ready to enjoy some fresh in the Alps

Very happy Mothership rider



Some more pics and vids of where she shined are in the AK heli trip report: http://www.snowboardingforum.com/alaska/176514-alaska-heli-trip-15-a.html
 
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#5 · (Edited)
125lbs, 5ft 7.7in

And thanks for your hints, Noreaster! :)
 
#6 ·
125lbs, 5ft 7.7in
Day-ahm!! I'm 6'-240 buck, and I'm riding 157 & 159cm soft(ish) boards. Also, I believe I recall you said you're riding men's boards mostly too, didn't you?

You have to be underweight (...at least by the printed specs) for that board aren't you? You don't have to "muscle" them bad boys around in the groomers or glades? :blink:





(....great review & pics btw!) :thumbsup:
 
#11 ·
very nice.

I bought the wife a Flagship based on your experience and previous review. She loves it and in pow about 1 foot or so deep she even prefers it over her Burton Fishcuit.

But when finding icy / hard conditions she preferred her Gnu Velvet Guru with more aggressive magnetraction for better edge bite.

I don't blame her, I prefer my Rossi XV over my Flag in those conditions.

I ended up getting her an XV after our last outing. Although due to our schedules, I don't think she will get to try her XV this year.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Good to hear that she likes the Flag. Yea, I had great days in real deep with it (not this season tho. We weren't blessed with big dumps this year). It will be my go to board if we get real deep again to ride the wide open terrain at home. If we go to terrain with more narrow chutes or varying conditions, I take the Mothership for the plus in agility.

I've never tried a board with more aggressive magne so far. For what I ride (no frozen waterfalls :D), the mellow magne of the Jones boards was already great for me. But you don't know what you miss until you've tried it. I'll add such a board to my "to demo" list.

Curious to hear about a XV/Flag comparison, since I read that they have an opposite flex in nose and tail. The soft nose and stiff tail in the Jones boards made sense for me as the soft nose floats and the stiff tail rails through turns. Do you feel the opposite flex (stiff nose, soft tail) in the XV?
 
#16 · (Edited)
Little update

Newly set up with '15 Burton Lexa LTD (the ones with hammock straps; I'm a big fan of those straps) - they match perfectly with the Mothership.

Meanwhile, I used her also in conditions I haden't in the first post:

- knee-hip deep pow: float is great. Riding big fast turns is as fun as quick short ones.
- tree runs: agility is good. She's more leg work that shorter, softer, even more agile boards of course, but she's not bulky or else.
- jumps: K, I'm only talking about mini hops of little rocks, side hits, moguls and alike. I've recently changed my angles from +/+ to duck,
; ever since I felt way more stable at landings, so I bit by bit began to enjoy to hit little jumps and am now actually scanning the terrain for every little bump I can hop off. She makes for a stable and comfortable landing, even if the landing is on hardpack.

- Topsheet is still pristine, even after manymany liftline ski n pole attacks.
- Base has collected some more scratches :embarrased1: (we had an awful season start :dry:), tho honestly, had hit rocks so hard, I expected to see a ripped out edge when I checked, but the edge had just a ding. Quality really is excellent.


All in all: She's brilliant. Realy love her. If I could keep only one board of my quiver, she'd be the one, cos she handles everything decently-great; a well balanced mix (whereas the Flag - still my favourite - is a love-hate thing :D). I'd recommend her to all my friends who are into steep n deep and look for a board which handles this but also the unfavourable shitty conditions one hits in the resort.


 
#17 ·
Neni, I just found the Lexa LTD's, I have the 2015 regular Lexas with the thicker straps, can you comment on what difference thinner straps would make for comfort/performance ? Thanks
 
#18 ·
When I first saw that hammock strap I was very suspicious cos they are not only "thinner", there's no padding at all, just a plastic strap. First thought that they're gonna be uncomfortable. But no, the opposite. Comfortable AND responsive without cranking.

With my former bindings (lots of padding) I always cranked till the ratchets moaned to get as much response as possible. Now with the Escapades and Lexa with that type of strap, I just tighten them firm but not extremely, but get the better feel of response.
My take is, that all that padding which women's bindings often have is contraproductive if one wants response. It leaves room. This hammock strap is comfy, it fits perfectly over the boot, gives firm lock, without having to squeeze.

The strap fits over my bulky Spark XV boot as perfectly well as over the slim Ride Cadence.
 
#22 ·
Ooooooh now there's an idea ! I need to contact them anyway about a severed lace on my boots BEFORE I ever put them on snow.

Thanks!
 
#25 ·
Hehe, fair enough.

To me they are the most important part. Locked in or not, pressable or not, dead in them or not etc.

The Diodes are pretty awesome. They aren't that stiff really. You can still tweak yourself back and forward and ollies aren't a problem, given that you have them dialed correctly. And I'm not even that heavy, about 70kg. Still good toe to heel response as you would expect not to mention comfortable as hell.

Have fun in the weekend! Be safe. (Oops, different thread!)
 
#26 · (Edited)
@Neni: Do you have any experience with 152cm boards in powder?

I am 10lb heavier than you (3 inch shorter) and looking for a new board to complement my current one (146cm Yes Emoticon). The Emoticon has been great confidence booster as a upper beginner at the start of the season, and looking forward, I will keep it for switch riding and park.

But as you've warned, this board struggled in powder. And though I said at the beginning that I had no interest in "bombing runs".. you know what? I do want a board that can go faster (and be more stable at high speed) on groomers than my current one.

By the sounds of it, the Mothership / Women's Flagship will provide plenty of speed with stability and will do much better in powder with tapered directional shape and setback. But I am also years behind you in terms of snowboarding experience, so I am thinking that perhaps I should go with 152cm.

Lastly, I am a jump addict and I have heard that unlike for jibbing, a normal size board provide more stability than a short one and is preferable for jumps. Could this board also serve that purpose?
 
#27 ·
@Neni: Do you have any experience with 152cm boards in powder?
Hmmm... this is so hard to say. I've used boards that length (and shorter) in pow, but they had overall different shapes (less setback, less rockered nose) and so they aren't comparable anyway.
Now... a 152 may work just well for you. Depends a lot on the type of snow and terrain you're riding. Just been to CO and experience way different conditions than I'm usually riding and after that, I understand why the guys there ride rather small boards (very light fluffy snow, lots of trees, short quick turns); while in the terrain I usually ride (heavier snow, open alpine terrain) a bigger board is more suitable.
If you're just into riding pow left n right off the groomers, not BC in rather heavy stuff, wgere you absolutely don't want to submarine, I assume that 152 will serve you well. It for sure will be fun to increase speed on groomers. She's very stable and fun to charge. The big rocker nose helps a lot to swallow chunder and plow through afternoon crud.
 
#29 · (Edited)
You are actually 5lbs underweight according to their weight range chart
By now, I'm 10lb under :giggle: But that's just a chart ;)

Every rider is bit different - I just like them bit on the longer side for how/where I use her. E.g. the two favourite runs yesterday where she did brilliantly in 5ft fresh blower pow :dance1:

 
#31 · (Edited)
Oh, wasn't meant to sound teasing, TooNice! Dont get me wrong... I just remember you saying you're only just beginning to ride pow... you may won't be hitting any steep n deep yet and thus likely won't share my preference for longer boards.

For now, don't put too much thoughts into what other riders choose as their preferred sizes. There are many different personal preference reasons some ppl go over, and some go under the weight range. Don't bother too much with others... For starters, go for something where you're in the middle of the chart, this will serve you well. You have enough time to find out what type of riding you will do in future, if you like the longer or shorter boards - or right in the middle.
 
#32 · (Edited)
:eyetwitch2:

No I won't be hitting that any time soon :laugh: 152cm it is! Besides, the increase in waist width going from 152cm to 156cm was a bit more than I would have liked. Hopefully they will offer more sizes in the future.

But wow. That is awesome. It will be a long road ahead, but that is something I want to aspire to. Earlier this season, against my better judgement, I actually tried to ride in an area with over 3.5 feet of powder. I recall the nose of my board "stabbing" into the powder causing me to flip over.. not a problem because it was all soft and fluffy.. but digging myself out of it was seriously exhausting!
 
#40 ·
that is a great explanation. It makes sense to me. Now I just need to win the lottery so I can see for myself...:cool:

I know it's easy to say just sitting here looking at those amazing pics, but I would totally try those runs if I had the chance...


jealous of you both (in a good way) and am so glad things turned out well for you snow-wise there in AK.

We are still not done down here yet.. hoping to have a great time at splitfest and do some 14ers afterward if the snow stays around long enough. It won't be AK, though.
 
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