Hard to say at this point, as only a handful of people have tried them, and likely no one has tried both the blaze and the karakoram. Since this is your first split, it may be hard for you to tell performance differences until you have had a chance to get out there a bunch. You could consider waiting until there is more information available?

Some people seem to think that the karakoram product is bulletproof. For these peoples reps… well I hope so. If something does break in the BC…. How easy is it to rig up to get your ass back to the trailhead? Does your riding buddy have compatable spare parts? Do you have spare parts, screws, bolts, DUCK TAPE? I tend to lean towards the sparks. Plus when I blew out MY Ignition 2s Will sent me the Fuse. Total down time 1 week. Sparks has great customer service and stands by their shit.

As someone who has ridden extensively on both systems, I really will say that you cannot go wrong. Both bindings work fantastically well.

As far as addressing your concerns:

Its true that Spark has been around longer, and is more well established, and their customer service is off the hook… Will is downright the raddest dude in snowboarding. However, the same can be said about Bryce and Tyler. What I wish everyone understood, is that Karakoram really is just two highly passionate and driven engineers putting their heart and soul into this project.

Let the best product win!

@JayBee wrote:

-I’m a bit worried that there are a couple of parts that might give out after a lot of use and aren’t that easy to replace.

I’m yet to have a catastrophic failure in the wilderness. No other prototype tester has either, I believe. The binding is actually very simple and easy to work on. I’ll go as far to say that the linkage is impossible to break with human produced forces. The tolerances are just too high. We’re talking about material strengths in the area of thousands of pounds. Also, because the binding incorporates an axle as opposed a pin, there are negligible frictional forces between materials. I found the axle on my Fuses to significantly wear through my baseplate, yet there are no signs of wear on the Split30’s.

@JayBee wrote:

–What happens when you get water inside the chambers where the locking rods move and it freezes, does the system work?

I’m doing this experiment right now. So far, in actual riding situations, I haven’t been able to ice them up (I have iced up my Fuses). So, tonight I’m laying the binding submerged in a tub of water for 30 minutes to get it good and soaked. Then I’m putting it in the freezer. In the morning if I can’t get it to work, you’ll have your answer! (I’m curious to see how this goes too)

@JayBee wrote:

-No crapons yet (propably going to be solved before it comes an issue).

Crampons are very close behind 🙂

Sparks $300, Karakorams $599.

Is money an object? I know that I’m unable and unwilling to spend $600 on snowboard bindings.

@russman wrote:

@JayBee wrote:

–What happens when you get water inside the chambers where the locking rods move and it freezes, does the system work?

I’m doing this experiment right now. So far, in actual riding situations, I haven’t been able to ice them up (I have iced up my Fuses). So, tonight I’m laying the binding submerged in a tub of water for 30 minutes to get it good and soaked. Then I’m putting it in the freezer. In the morning if I can’t get it to work, you’ll have your answer! (I’m curious to see how this goes too)

The verdict is IN! Karakorams pull through in the freeze test!

Here were my methods:

1) Set Split30 in 4 inches of cold water, let sit for 35 minutes.

2) Pour out water until 1/2 inch sits in bottom of tuperware.

3) Place in industrial freezer along with all the dead deer, salmon, beef and turkeys.

4) Leave alone for 13 hours.

5) Remove from freezer (my industrial freezer is set at 19 degrees F).

6) Test linkage system. Here were my questions:

-Does the lever move?
Yes
-Do the pins push out?
Yes
-Does the lever still cam over?
Yes
-Is the motion still smooth and continuous?
Yes
-Do the pins still push into the baseplates perfectly?
Yes
-Does the front axle still rotate and glide perfectly in touring bracket?
Yes
-Were there any significant notable functional differences in how the binding works or feels other than being frozen?
No

7) Subjective thoughts:
Most notably, when the binding was frozen solid, it took a tad bit more force than normal to get the pin to move. This was negligible though, and once moving there were no differences.

Overall, this is the toughest freeze test I could come up with. The only way to make it more knarly would be to leave the binding completely submerged in water and let the whole thing freeze inside a block of ice. I might try this version too, and see if it still works after I chip it out.

GO SCIENCE!!

@jeri534 wrote:

The Karakoram system also comes with board clips.[/quote]

yep, accounted for that – missed the 4 gaskets though

Tour bracket – $36
Hooks – $24
tip/tail clips $24
Pucks/gasket $36
Climbing bars $36

Total $156

I was in the same boat as you, got a new setup this year. I ended up with a Venture Zephyr and the Blaze’s. My thought was that Spark has been tried and true for so many people and so many people sing praises of them, you really can’t go wrong. While Karakorams are cool, and innovation is great, I figured I would let some of the guys here try it out and get in their opinions before I threw down. I didn’t want to drop extra money (already had plenty of parts to reuse, so no voile interface extras) on something that wasn’t completely proven yet, although it has a lot of potential to be great. Then maybe in a couple years after they have finalized their production, came up with new innovation (who knows where they will go, but it will be better), possibly dropped some costs from manufacturing, I would look into it again. Until then I really think the Sparks will be great. They are lighter and been in the biz for longer. The clips on Karakorams do seem sweet though, and I might look into them later in the year.

Product innovation is only going to get better. One must say that the battle these guys will have from competition is only a good thing for us consumers. Go CAPITALISM! :scratch:

And, for those who are not good at metric system, the above posted weights end up being 8.62 oz. less for the Spark for a pair of bindings… this is weight on your feet, which you lift with step forward when skinning.
Looking at the pictures of the Karakorums, I cannot see how they adjust for size and for boot centering? The Sparks allow for precise adjustment of size and boot centering-I am sure Karakorum must adjust somehow.

@samh wrote:

Karakoram Split30

Weight: 920 g (single binder)

============================================

Spark R & D Blaze

Weight: 798 g (single binder)

Remember that most of the weight on both of these bindings comes from the highback and straps. The actual aluminum components of the Blaze are very close to the Fuse weights.

@barrows wrote:

And, for those who are not good at metric system, the above posted weights end up being 8.62 oz. less for the Spark for a pair of bindings… this is weight on your feet, which you lift with step forward when skinning.
Looking at the pictures of the Karakorums, I cannot see how they adjust for size and for boot centering? The Sparks allow for precise adjustment of size and boot centering-I am sure Karakorum must adjust somehow.

Barrows,