# A New Type Of Snowboard Bindings



## Guest (Jan 31, 2009)

I'm thinking electrical components = probably some added weight. Technical problems that may have to be dealt with ontop of the already large number of problems bindings could have. I'm not that lazy that I can't spend 15 seconds doing up my bindings by hand


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2009)

The aspect of whether this product is needed or not is a fair point but would i be right in pointing out that similar thinking was behind the development of the flow bindings? why make something that is easier to use but does not function as well? Assuming the electronic aspect could be overcome and the added weight kept to a minimum then this would be an improvement on both the flow and ratchet bindings, right?


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2009)

what about a push button line that can attach to your pant legs and at the push of the button the bindings release. so in case for some reason you need to get out of your board, but you cannot reach down to your feet, you just push this button, which has a line connected to the bindings which would release the ratchets, allowing the boots to be removed from the binding. the line could work similar to the way cable brakes and shifters work on a mountain bike.


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## MunkySpunk (Jan 7, 2009)

Staffchild101 said:


> The aspect of whether this product is needed or not is a fair point but would i be right in pointing out that similar thinking was behind the development of the flow bindings? why make something that is easier to use but does not function as well? Assuming the electronic aspect could be overcome and the added weight kept to a minimum then this would be an improvement on both the flow and ratchet bindings, right?


Would it? What's your design? How does it perform? What's the final weight? How reliable is the electronic system with all of those moving parts covered in ice, water, and snow in sub-zero temps? 

That's not a question you, or anybody, can really answer when the design is still in your melon.


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## Technine Icon (Jan 15, 2009)

I like the way you think, but honestly if it ain't broke don't fix it. The normal ratchet bindings have been working perfectly fine for a long time now and I don't think we need to change them. I don't think that any electronic device would ever be able to withstand the punishment of snowboarding.


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## bakesale (Nov 28, 2008)

I don't want to piss all over your idea here but it has potentially a lot of problems to overcome. 

Water and extreme cold: How will you make the electronic bindings waterproof and shelter the electronic components from the extreme cold. Motors don't function very well in the cold, especially tiny ones

Power: How will the bindings be powered? Adding a battery pack is bulky and unsightly, most other power options are expensive

Weight: Motors, Batteries, and wires. It sounds heavy

Damage: Snowboarders abuse their equipment, rocks, trees, rails. It's a sport thats hard on its equipment. How will you manage to make the bindings strong without making them bulky? Also how will a rider tighten the binding if the batteries die or a motor breaks on the binding? 

Performance: The binding must be highly responsive in action on top of all the other requirements, if it's not helping me bomb down the mountain then i'm not likely to ride it


COST: With all those requirements there is no way that this binding will be cheap enough to mass market. The highest end bindings top out anywhere between 300-350 and they have proven performance from companies we trust.


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## Guest (Feb 1, 2009)

Start trying to think with magnets. They are heavy, but not any heavier than some type of electrical device and they can work in a lot of different conditions. Definitely gotta think outside the box and see what you can come up with. There's always room to improve todays designs in just about anything.


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## arsenic0 (Nov 11, 2008)

Technine Icon said:


> I like the way you think, but honestly if it ain't broke don't fix it. The normal ratchet bindings have been working perfectly fine for a long time now and I don't think we need to change them. I don't think that any electronic device would ever be able to withstand the punishment of snowboarding.


Thats what they said about boot laces..i mean you tighten them and go down the mountain..why would you need SpeedLace/BOA?


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## Technine Icon (Jan 15, 2009)

arsenic0 said:


> Thats what they said about boot laces..i mean you tighten them and go down the mountain..why would you need SpeedLace/BOA?


Thats a good point, I didn't even think of that.


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## gibbous (Jul 9, 2008)

Double post. Stupid IE...


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## gibbous (Jul 9, 2008)

arsenic0 said:


> Thats what they said about boot laces..i mean you tighten them and go down the mountain..why would you need SpeedLace/BOA?


I never really heard anyone say that. And the simple fact is that neither of these things had to be developed from the ground up for snowboarding, it was existing technology that was adapted to the sport. What's being discussed here is completely different, this is like trying to invent the power-laced pair of Nike sneakers from Back to the Future... 

I can't help but think that even with the rapidly advancing state of electronics and materials engineering we've got today, it's going to be a long time before we can create a mechanism that can generate the leverage needed to tighten a strap, measure and control the tension on the straps to variable levels, and carry all the electricity needed to repeatedly do so all in a package that is similar in weight and profile to a current binding. Let alone be tough enough to last as long.

More power to the OP if you can make it happen someday, but I think that day is a long time off. And if you are that guy that pulls off something like this, such technology would have far greater application than just snowboard bindings.


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## gibbous (Jul 9, 2008)

Notwithstanding what I said earlier, I still find this an intriguing idea and hope I get to use something like this someday. Imagine how nice it would be to just pop off the chair, slide your boot into place and have your binding tighten itself up so you wouldn't even need to stop.

If you want to reinvent the binding you might as well work over the boot as well, it makes sense to have it designed to match this binding instead of trying to engineer something that will work for any old soft boot. Something more like how a hard binding system is set up would probably be mechanically simpler which is always good. And if you could somehow do something like make the structure of the boot stiffen to the rider's taste when it's locked into the binding then loosen when disconnected so they feel more like soft boots, maybe you could streamline the whole thing down? Though I guess if you have the capability to build a boot like that and power it, how it attaches to the board is a cakewalk.


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## gibbous (Jul 9, 2008)

WTF is with the double posts? I'm not even on the same computer...


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2009)

What about straps that go around the boot (like what we have now), but instead of the ends attaching to the frame of the binding they attach to a plate on the bottom of the boot. The plate would then go onto the rest of the binding (still on the board) and held on magnetically? The high back would be on the frame that is attached to the board, and the plate would only fit on one way so that the boot can't slide forward.


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2009)

I had the idea of housing the battery on the back of the heel support and then having small motors on the sides to tighten the bindings. There is the problem of whether the motors can with stand the stresses on them but if the just tightened them and then a ratchet system held them in place then you wouldn't have to worry about that as much. The idea of redesigning the boot to make it fit in with the bindings is great idea but one would hope that it didn't just turn out like the clip-in bindings that were so unsuccessful. If the board mount clipped onto the boots then they would automatically tighten up so the idea of soft and hard depending would be pretty easy in the scheme of things.


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## arsenic0 (Nov 11, 2008)

The idea of a motor potentially seizing/frying and locking my foot or smashing my foot with pressure does not sound intriguing...


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2009)

Well considering the complexity of this product that would be a relativy easy problem to get over. You could have a maximum limit where afterwards it shuts off or an automatic mechanical shut off system.


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## KIRKRIDER (Mar 18, 2008)

hmm
I can see a better mechanical solution, using the power of your foot going down, not electric motors.


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## Jenzo (Oct 14, 2008)

gibbous said:


> I never really heard anyone say that. And the simple fact is that neither of these things had to be developed from the ground up for snowboarding, it was existing technology that was adapted to the sport. What's being discussed here is completely different, this is like trying to invent the power-laced pair of Nike sneakers from Back to the Future...
> 
> I can't help but think that even with the rapidly advancing state of electronics and materials engineering we've got today, it's going to be a long time before we can create a mechanism that can generate the leverage needed to tighten a strap, measure and control the tension on the straps to variable levels, and carry all the electricity needed to repeatedly do so all in a package that is similar in weight and profile to a current binding. Let alone be tough enough to last as long.
> 
> More power to the OP if you can make it happen someday, but I think that day is a long time off. And if you are that guy that pulls off something like this, such technology would have far greater application than just snowboard bindings.




Not really, look at the K2 Auto...which is in essence a binding BOA. If you had say, a small motor inside that wound up the wire it could be done. Two wires, the second wire going through the top strap and a button on the side that winds it up, and a quick release.

Or, maybe air pressure, like the old school nike pump.. stick your foot in and pump it up!

If you use any of these ideas I require 50% inventors fee :laugh::laugh:


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2009)

Jenzo said:


> Not really, look at the K2 Auto...which is in essence a binding BOA. If you had say, a small motor inside that wound up the wire it could be done. Two wires, the second wire going through the top strap and a button on the side that winds it up, and a quick release.
> 
> Or, maybe air pressure, like the old school nike pump.. stick your foot in and pump it up!
> 
> If you use any of these ideas I require 50% inventors fee :laugh::laugh:


Even use a Boa tightening wheel on an Auto Binding. Run the cable through both toe and ankle strap, and tighten with a slightly larger version of a boa wheel. Three clicks on the wheel and you're in tight, fast enough to not need a motor


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## bakesale (Nov 28, 2008)

MaPolley07 said:


> Even use a Boa tightening wheel on an Auto Binding. Run the cable through both toe and ankle strap, and tighten with a slightly larger version of a boa wheel. Three clicks on the wheel and you're in tight, fast enough to not need a motor


I actually like this idea. I could see it being adapted easier to a Flow binding, if you weave the BOA cable in the binding like shoe laces and allow it to be tightened from the side it would give the flow binding more response by being tighter on the top of the boot.


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## Rocan (Dec 3, 2008)

i had an idea for the classic ratchet style, but with the ratcheting to go down vertically with long straps...

so you can be able to step out just by loosening the binding all the way (open the ratchet), and tightening is as easy as pushing the straps down over your feet.
© David Xerri, 2009 

=D


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## Guest (Feb 4, 2009)

What happens when you go to strap in and your batteries are too low or dead?


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

perhaps an electromagnetic charging device that uses the static created by riding your snowboard


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## agoodwin727 (Jan 26, 2009)

what about a combination of magnets and step-in technology? for example, your boots could have metal in the bottom, and the bindings would have magents. Then when you step in, you press down on clasps that automatically lock once your in, a lot like ski bindings. the combination of the two might be enough to keep you in?

also, is it a bad idea to have bindings like ski bindings, in which with enough force you'd pop out? obviously this wouldnt be good at the top of a cliff, but i could see it being practical in glades or something. magnets would work in this case.

the only problem with magnets is that they're heavy as fuck. I think im gonna look into designing some more efficient bindings. call it a hobby.


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## FoShizzle (Nov 6, 2008)

Metal plates on the bottom of your boots + UBER MAGNETS ON BASE OF BINDING = ZOMG POWERFUL ATTRACTION AJGAPRGAPUEPRGU!#$!#)[email protected])#*)J)!FJ#)JF!11!1!!!

*Q*
"How do you get off your board?"
*A*
:dunno:


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## stoepstyle (Sep 15, 2008)

hahahahahah


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

FoShizzle said:


> Metal plates on the bottom of your boots + UBER MAGNETS ON BASE OF BINDING = ZOMG POWERFUL ATTRACTION AJGAPRGAPUEPRGU!#$!#)[email protected])#*)J)!FJ#)JF!11!1!!!
> 
> *Q*
> "How do you get off your board?"
> ...


electromagnets


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## Guest (Feb 5, 2009)

I can't wait to attach these electric bindings to The Whip and start doing some sweet K-stomps.


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

electro mags...I could hang upside down on the chair and then drop like bat shit. OMFG there are too many over engineered things that are over=rated, hard to fix, expensive and a waste of resources...dude get a real job instead of mental masturbation for gapers. Anybody hear of the less is more...elegant design school of thought. Over-degreed retards we are...monkeys with nuclear devices


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## C01K (Dec 18, 2008)

FoShizzle said:


> Metal plates on the bottom of your boots + UBER MAGNETS ON BASE OF BINDING = ZOMG POWERFUL ATTRACTION AJGAPRGAPUEPRGU!#$!#)[email protected])#*)J)!FJ#)JF!11!1!!!
> 
> *Q*
> "How do you get off your board?"
> ...


You turn on the anti-gravitational generator that will be build into the board itself


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

wrathfuldeity said:


> electro mags...I could hang upside down on the chair and then drop like bat shit. OMFG there are too many over engineered things that are over=rated, hard to fix, expensive and a waste of resources...dude get a real job instead of mental masturbation for gapers. Anybody hear of the less is more...elegant design school of thought. Over-degreed retards we are...monkeys with nuclear devices


i take it you noboard full-time?


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## jmacphee9 (Nov 11, 2008)

lets get real crazy and use some sort of electric magnet for a base plated that connects to your board and releases with like a switch in your glove so boarders can finally do kickflips and stuff like in ssx! that could be extremely expensive and interesting. its not like you really have to make this binding im assuming.


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