# Adjust your bindings!



## tboooe (Mar 16, 2008)

As you some of you know from this forum I have been struggling all season with my turns. On my heel side, I tend to oversteer, causing a lot of skidding. On my toe side I have some trouble consistently transitioning without leaning my upper body. Today (my last day), I decided to try and adjust the forward lean of my bindings (Burton Cartel). I increased the lean angle gradually. After each run, I felt my turning getting better and better. By the end of the day, my lean setting was at the "f2" mark on the back of the binding. The improvements were dramatic:

1. My knee bend became more pronounced due to the increase forward lean. This actually made me feel more in control.
2. I can now "bomb" straight down hills without fear of catching an edge. The increased lean naturally made me put more pressure on my toe edge. Actually, when bombing down hills, I lean back on the rear leg a bit and apply toe pressure. I found that this allows the front of the board to ride nicely over bumps while also making it easier for my front leg to absorb shocks. Having the confidence to go straight down a steep hill has completely changed my riding. I dont have to worry about scrubbing speed with a bunch of skidded turns. Instead I can just worry about making nice, clean carves.
3. With my knees positioned over my toes, it is much easier for me to initiate a toe side turn with just my front leg. It is also easier for me to transition from my heel to toe.
4. Turning on my heel is now a bit more difficult with the increased lean toward the toe side. That is ok because I had a bad habit of oversteering on the heel side. Now my heel turns takes a bit more effort but I have more control and can gradually enter a turn.

The end result is that I had the best session of the season (too bad it was my last day). Even though I still do not carve consistently, I do carve more often. All I can say is that carving is an incredible feeling, especially when you are used to skarving. The feeling of being on rails is so addictive. Anyway, sorry for the long post. I am just amazed at what impact a simple binding adjustment had on my riding. I highly advise everyone to play around with the binding adjustments until you find that one setup that maximizes your riding abilities.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2008)

if you posted the other thread, im glad the highback lean helped you out as much as it did for me  I was having a "lag time" transitioning from toe to heel cause my highbacks werent as tight against my calfs as they good be, glad to hear your last day of riding was fun too !


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2008)

I love the forward lean - I put my missions all the way to f6 for a day, was great for putting form into my riding. I have it at f4 now so that I have a little more room to play with freestyle.


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## Minger (Jan 24, 2008)

I had my missions at f3 for a few runs and it killed my calfs...so I dropped em back to f2, but next year I'll try it again, seeing as how its helping you guys out a bit.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2008)

Sounds a lot like my last trip! I'd been using some crappy Morrow Dimension bindings for my entire snowboarding "career". My Rome 390s didn't come with the conversion disc, so my friend took pity on me and lent me his Cartels. He had some crazy forward lean on them (f5 I think) and I was too lazy to change them.

Like tboooe said, it seemed to make a big difference. I could bomb (straight-line) everything at the resort except the black mogul run (granted, this was probably the tamest resort in Nagano - nothing over 35 degrees). Toeside turns were easier to initiate, but that could've been because I had pretty bad heel lift with the Morrows. Carving happened much more naturally and was easier to control. The downside was that long flat run-outs were excruciating.

Why is less forward lean better for freestyle? (Not saying it's not true, I just don't know the reason.)


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## tboooe (Mar 16, 2008)

Minger said:


> I had my missions at f3 for a few runs and it killed my calfs...so I dropped em back to f2, but next year I'll try it again, seeing as how its helping you guys out a bit.


My calves hurt got sore too especially during long runs from the top of the mountain down. Yesterday I actually had to stop once near the bottom. Overall, I really like what the forward lean did for my riding and will keep it set up that way. Hopefully my calves will get used to it.

BTW, I can't imagine forward lean more than f2! On my Cartels at f2, I feel like my knees are way over the toe side edge and my stance is pretty low (a lot of knee bend). I dont think my ankles can flex more forward! Must have some limber riders out there!


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2008)

tboooe said:


> BTW, I can't imagine forward lean more than f2! On my Cartels at f2, I feel like my knees are way over the toe side edge and my stance is pretty low (a lot of knee bend). I dont think my ankles can flex more forward! Must have some limber riders out there!


I don't know man - I just kept increasing the forward lean every time I went to shred. Eventually I found myself wanting more and more forward lean so I said "screw it, let's bust out the f6" - it's so damn good how responsive it is when you've got this much forward lean - and I kept it at that for a couple of sessions. But like I said, I put it back to f4 to ease up.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

I don't really care for much forward lean but I do run a little. Just enough that when I stand up straight it helps engage. If I was still a pipe monkey I would definitely run more, now that I am a powder junkie, it's not needed as much.


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## tboooe (Mar 16, 2008)

neosuke said:


> I don't know man - I just kept increasing the forward lean every time I went to shred. Eventually I found myself wanting more and more forward lean so I said "screw it, let's bust out the f6" - it's so damn good how responsive it is when you've got this much forward lean - and I kept it at that for a couple of sessions. But like I said, I put it back to f4 to ease up.


at f6, do you find your heel turns to be more difficult? 

I am going to try increasing my lean next season to see what happens.


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## tboooe (Mar 16, 2008)

killclimbz said:


> I don't really care for much forward lean but I do run a little. Just enough that when I stand up straight it helps engage. If I was still a pipe monkey I would definitely run more, now that I am a powder junkie, it's not needed as much.


I am not sure I understand. In your opinion, why does more forward lean help in the pipe and less help more in the powder? In other words, is more forward lean more beneficial to one type of riding and why? BTW, I am purely a hill carver with an occasional jump.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2008)

tboooe said:


> I am not sure I understand. In your opinion, why does more forward lean help in the pipe and less help more in the powder? In other words, is more forward lean more beneficial to one type of riding and why? BTW, I am purely a hill carver with an occasional jump.


because in powder you arent riding up an icy vert wall...


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2008)

heel edge is not difficult at all - I think I feel the lean facilitates better transfer from edge to edge. Though like you said, it may strain your leg muscles becuase you're constantly in such a form.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2008)

Yup, forward lean has helped me tremendously as a beginner. The first day I started with no lean...then I started messing with it and the more I leaned, the better I rode. I am finally at a point though that I am backing off my lean a little as I think it is making me squat too much and hurting my knees as I ride so I have lessened it some. It's all about finding that perfect balance of everything


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## tboooe (Mar 16, 2008)

Snowolf said:


> Forward lean is a funny thing. It`s original intent was to improve heelside effectiveness, but what has happened is along with that, it has helped riders maintain a correct stance which helps with their toeside as well. I like to maintain a couple of clicks of forward lean on my Rome bindings. Some bindings have a lot of foward lean built into them naturally while others such as the Rome 390`s are more neutral.


Interesting comments snowolf. I found that by increasing my forward lean, my heelside turns are not as easy (not sure if this is what you mean by effectiveness). For me this is ok since I tend to oversteer on heelside anyway so the extra effort required to initiate and maintain my heelside turn has helped me a great deal. I think the biggest improvement to my riding has been having the correct stance. In comparison to how my stance is now, I was practically standing straight up before. Now I feel much more confident knowing I wont catch an edge while going straight which allows me to concentrate on my carving. Its amazing what some confidence will do.


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