Splitboard.com Forums

that's all I can manage for posting images today, If you can see em, the boots still need a belt sand, upper buckle removed and probably a trim off the front of the soft boot. But you get the idea anyway

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57647543@N04/8126489174/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57647543@N04/8126489804/in/photostream/

I just got blue x's but I copied the links and found your pictures. That's along the lines of what I was thinking too. That's the kind of hybrid that would make hardboots a lot easier to deal with for most of the softbooters among us.

Flickr, what can you do?

Yeah it's a pretty committed mod, I thought that a 32 ultralight on top of a Scarpa Alien could be pretty good, but its a lot of money for a hard boot that at a size 29 for me has some real overhang issues. I'd probably get it finished if I lived in Alaska, Jackson, Colorado or PNW but really haven't had the need here in Utah. Maybe someone will give it a go and report.

PSA Found these Clicker Hybrid boots on ebay:

K2 Clicker "ACE" Snowboard Boots men's size 8.5 or EU 41 or 26.3cm


see: http://www.ebay.com/itm/K2-Clicker-ACE- ... 53ef3b5a92

Not to steal the thread, but I ride stock Scarpa F1 boots (stock) with a ELIMINATOR TONGUE SHIMS See http://www.tognar.com/the-eliminator-custom-tounges-pair/. This boot works great for me!

I like the Oxygen boots and and Denali hybrid boot too

how about a ski/ride mechanisim on the ankle rivets of hard boots?, lateral stiff on the up, flexy on the down

And CB adds another good idea to this thread.

BTW That's a pretty bad PSA, I wouldn't wish clickers on any of my friends. And yes, I have ridden them.

i think some of you get it, but some of you obviously dont. The idea IS to eliminate strap bindings. The pictures of the K2 clickers reveal alot about what i'm thinking. Just substitute a hard boot for the lower portion with dynafit toe pieces and a toe below (like on scarpa f1s and f3s) and were there! CB has a great idea about locking lateral flex for the up and unlocking it for the way down.... its the perfect addition.

K2 Ace's -shown above- rock in a lot of ways, they don't in that they weigh almost 4lbs each in a size 11. Pretty much all other K2 clicker boots for flat bindings (w/o highbacks on the binding) really suck, only the top of the line boot for any year was good-and some of those weigh a full ton. They committed product suicide by selling container ship amounts of crap boots for the clickers. By Suck I mean the highback is super squishy like on the yaks, or the forward lean is super soft. I've ridden the Ace boot for at least a decade, never had any issues with the clicker hardware or getting in and out, or wear from walking on rocks affecting the bindings. I have had all manner of soft binding explosions, usually just cracked straps and failed heel cups. The slider plate, clickers mounted flush on it and the boot, that is just shy of 5 lbs per foot, it'd be 4.5ish with a intuition liner, so they aren't super light or super heavy if you strip the hardware down. So easy in and out that they spoil you, just pop em off to cross that creek, hike a flat on the way out, etc. and real easy to rig a quick release. Once you mount the binding hardware in the center of a slider track, they also roll and provide a lot of range of motion medially, from nose to tail, even before flexing the boot uppers which I really like.

What you really need is a wide lasted pebax scarpa alien-type lower and highback, with the new lighter Yonex step in hardware (who's more fashionable than the japanese really), titanium of course, and 32 Boots to make the uppers weigh in as little as possible and get the job done. If you had the amount of money to get that going, I'm sure you'd have less at the end, but they'd be sweet all around boots!

The Shimano mech is bombproof and simple. It would be great to lose the plate altogether, have a boot with a cam system built-in to lock the boot to the board and the halves together in one move. This would require a dynafit toe piece for touring, and a boot design that incorpporates all the design feature you all have mentioned above.

PSA: Found these Nordica Sky Walk 260 SBS Snowboard Soft Boots which are a hybrid soft/hard boot on ebay.


See: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nordika-SBS-Snowboard-Soft-Boots-Sky-Walk-Ice-Climbing-Mens-Size-9-5-US-/220884965942?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336dc51a36&autorefresh=true

Anyone ridden these back-in-the-day???

I remember those but I never rode them. They were out at the same time that I was riding Koflach Super Pipes in plate bindings. I remember those being very soft too and would probably need the support of a highback to make them ride ok.

I have the SBS and SBH and even though the lowers come from the same molds, good for crampons,
they are two very different animals.
the plastic on the sbs lower is so soft that it could possibly flex/twist out of the plate binding.
not good. the sbs upper is a soft plastic cuff sewn to the lower and laced up/integrated by the
liner laces which makes these super light weight. the upper flex is excessively soft in all directions and absolutely
requires a highback binding. however they make an excellent noboard/powsurf boot.

the SBH is an AT boot (same as TR9s} with with a shortened tongue and a lockable slotted cuff hinges like CB suggested. They're not too heavy
for a 20yr old AT when used with a light intuition liner, I still use them for spring hikes.
If they still made these with a softer plastic cuff and improved forward cuff articulation I'd
buy'em and most softbooters would be converts unless your just too addicted to laces & straps.