Interesting freelock mod. Based on on-carpet flex feel, I was just planning to ride these locked without tongues (maybe a half tongue on the bottom for weather protection), but I guess this would give you the ability to customize the flex based on the tongue alone.

I just picked up a pair and I’m super stoked to try them. Has anyone tried moving the lower buckle to the cuff pivot points like the dynafit mod? I know a longer cable would be required.

So word is that phantom is working on a custom lever to dial in preferred forward lean lock. I asked about availability but he’ll be out of town till Christmas so who knows.

That are great news buell! (I did not read the comments carefully enough) but I directly asked to be on the wait list. I am really stoked on this🙌

As far as I know the Phantom leaver is for the Atomic range of touring boots not just the Backlands. The Atomic locking leavers are screwed on so can be swapped out easily..

VtVolk wrote:

Buell, will this mod be specific to Atomic Backlands, or could it be applied to other boots (e.g., Fischer Travers, or others with a similar lock bar)? Sounds promising.

They are specific to the Backlands. You might be able to get them to work on other boots but they are not being designed for that.

I finally got out on my backlands and I could see how having a progressive forward lean would be nice. I felt the boot flex a bit but then it just applied a lot of pressure to my shin. Perhaps I’ll try using the power straps and have the cuff a little looser. But all in all it wasn’t bad and the response was amazing. Has anyone cut the lower shell around the pivot point to allow more lateral flex?

Info about the Phantom LINK spring system for the Backlands is public now on their instagram.

Phantom LINK:

“Designed for #splitboarding, the LINK is a dual suspension tour/ride mode lever that swaps in easily for the stock lever on any @atomicski Backland boot. Provides forward lean adjustment from 6 to 26 degrees as well as increased forward (toe side) flex via a spring with ~1/2” of travel and backward (heel side) damping via a rubber shock with ~1/8” of travel.”

hello

i just wanted to share with you my diy version of the flexible lever idea. in this case for the backland boot, but obviously applicable to any boot with a similar locking mechanism. It’s based on the various year old existing spring system of alpine carving boots, i had this idea in mind for some time but only some weeks ago during a storm cycle took some time to build it.

lever image

coming from softboots and then transitioning to tlt6 and now to backlands, i did not feel a real urgent need to make the backlands softer as to me they are quite rideable the way they are actually, also definitely softer without mods than my modded tlt 6s. so building the lever was more a thing I did out of curiosity and fun. I have some touring days on it now and one day in the resort and like the way it feels. basically it does what it should, gives more “progressive” flex in the front without stressing the shin and quite some dampening on the “highback” which is good. I found the unmodded backlands flex to the front already quite nicely when buckled loosely.. now I can close the buckles more snug which helps me with heel hold. On the photo, the strap-spring looks quite compressed, but the voile strap really has some nice flexing characteristics and there is quite a bit of travel actually. I mean in the end it also comes down to personal preference.. as you can imagine, with this construction, depending on the length of axle and number of strap twists per axle length unit you can create quite a lot of difference flex characteristics. For the first try I dialled in the “spring” twists and axle length by having one foot in the backlands in a Dyno binding and the other in a very soft 32 softboot in a Burner binding mounted on the same board.
apart from my very rudimentary engineering which yet has to survive the test of time, design flaws include that due to the protruding spring design, the lever cannot flip up the whole 180 degrees in walk mode, it stops at about 130. It doesn’t really bother me though as I mostly had the original lever flipped up outside the pants and so far it hasn’t interferred in any way when touring or hiking. but obviously this is way more elegantly solved in the phantom lever 🙂

many greets

Hello like-minded,

I wrote a summary of my backland mods, which ride really good after investing some work:
Modifying an Atomic Backland boot for Splitboarding

check it out and feel free to ask!