Splitboard.com Forums

so you do all these objective tests to determine for yourself that the voile hooks are the stiffer and better performing set up...and you go ahead and buy the karakoram clips hoping they will be better and out of pity for the company?

Im sorry I find this amusing

So there was something you must like about the K clips, I'm curious what that is?

The idea of purchasing them was to see for myself if they were any better, otherwise I would never know apart from other peoples comments, looks like some of us are happier for now with the Voile bits, whenever new split hardware comes out no doubt a few of us will try that too, and post some objective feedback...... I kinda had to buy both to do the test mind you and I am happy I made the small investment so I can guide my customers so its invaluable knowledge to have it both anecdotal and first hand, I have a fair bit at stake making sure my customers get the right recommendation. To be fair mate you will recall I said the K tip/tail clips were far superior IMHO so I am not taking pity or bagging the K stuff generally. With all the interest about the k-clips it was worth a look at them and I'm happy I did.

No, this is not what I did. Please re-read my post. I purchased the Karakoram tip and tail clips, not the replacements for the Chinese hooks. As mentioned, I purchased the tip and tail clips in the hope that they will be an improvement on the Voile design, and will be happy to report my findings when I try them.

richie...thanks for your generous and informative input to the discussion...although I wasn't referencing you...

barrows, my question still stands, what advantage do you see in the K tip clips versus the voile ones?

also I can't wait to hear which one provides more lateral stiffness to the board

Honest reporting of our experiences is important to me. I do not yet have the Karakoram tip/tail clips. But I will post my impressions when I get them, and further when I mount them to my Furberg.
I am hoping that they will improve on the Voile design.

So Now i have the K clips on a Furberg, Ying Yangs on Rossi experience and Voile connectors on a Never Summer Summit.
My vote so far is
1- Ying Yangs, most rigidity/strength.
2- K clips, not bad i do not get any hulling and stiffer than voile. A little lateral adjusting needed.
3- Voile- still works fine for me.

So worth a try if you have $50 spare and you have the holes already.

1- Ying Yangs, most rigidity/strength.
2- K clips, not bad i do not get any hulling and stiffer than voile. A little lateral adjusting needed.
3- Voile- still works fine for me.


Thanks for this beta
I've been thinking of fabbing my own yin/yangs and this makes me think It;s the best ghetto alternitive.

Yes they are worth $50. There is enough differance in ride, feel and ease/difficulty of use that you need to try them for yourself. I love them and my friends who put the clips on love them too. It's subjective not objective so you'll have to decide based on your own experience.

Just got a new Jones split that came with the k-clips. I had last years solution which had Voile hooks and had problems with the hooks allowing the board to flex torsionally and not line up as well as it could. The k-clips pull the board halves together really well and I feel that they definitely improve ride quality, although I've only used them in the resort for one day. When they are clipped, the gap between edges is the least that I've seen on any splitboard. The nose and tail clips are much nicer and seem burlier than the voile ones too. I think this is a huge upgrade to the Jones boards and a good selling point. You are essentially getting 50$ hooks thrown in without raising the price of the board.

No problems with the board "hulling" at all. It seems like it might be a problem reserved for boards with crap, i mean cap, construction or slanted sidewalls. On my old boards which had Voile hooks, I could always feel the inner edges dragging on turns pretty substantially, especially on hardpacked and groomed snow (yes, it happens sometimes). With the k-clips that was reduced significantly if not eliminated.

Only downsides I found so far was that it took a little more skill/effort/time to get the board halves together and the rattling. I'm sure the first issue will be resolved with more practice, and the second didn't really bother me anyway.

Update:

For all you Karakoram lovers out there, I am going to eat my words! In order to satisfy my continuing curiosity, I picked up a set of "K" clips, and am testing them on my Venture. So far so good. Perhaps the mount on my friend's board was not perfect, but, whatever the case... I take my former opinion, and state for the record I do like the "K" clips for ride more performance.
I do worry about how they flip outwards while touring, this causes extra drag, but the real problem could be skinning in low tide areas, a rock could bust these pretty easily. Does anyone have a good trick for keeping them out of the way? Perhaps a small piece of elastic cord? I think "K" should really add a small spring (as is used on boot buckles) to keep the levers flipped over.

I've found it's actually pretty easy to alleviete this just by flipping the latch over before you start skinning, it usually stays put.

Even worse though, if you skin without reversing your skis (and keep the inside edges inside) the clips hang out (voile ones can slide out of the way) and you can smash them into the tail of the board - I did this and bent the K clip. Luckily I had a spare K clip!

I know the North American norm is to reverse skis which makes this problem moot, but I actually liked keeping the inside edges inside - having a more solid edge on the downhill ski is nice on nasty switchbacks. I've since gone to the status qou of reversing skis ;]

"I've found it's actually pretty easy to alleviete this just by flipping the latch over before you start skinning, it usually stays put."

I do flip them out of the way, but they will not stay put at all, especially when kick turning or split skiing.
I thought I might be able to add a tiny high power neodymium magnet to hold them (most stainless is still somewhat magnetic), but the "K" clips are actually made of high quality stainless (kudos) and as such are not magnetic enough to make this work.
I will send an e-mail to "K" prompting them to to provide a solution in future updates.