Home › Forums › Splitboard Talk Forum › rotate yer’ highbacks
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- January 11, 2008 at 4:23 am #569522
stomppowParticipantI used to rock 21/-15, now I’m on 15/-15 and loving it
finally actually fine tuned the highback rotation, never figured it would do that muchOH MAN
It makes a huge difference in comfort, and a slight but very noticeable change in board feel and response, somehow both in toeside and heelside (mostly heelside of course) as well as butters/ollies / everything
the bindings now are truly an extension of the body, and thus the board, bindings and body are one flowing unit, yarrghJanuary 11, 2008 at 5:31 am #601811jackParticipanthow exactly did you rotate them (which direction for which binder)?
didn’t you get the memo? if you ride duck you have totally wack style. 😉
January 11, 2008 at 7:41 am #601812BakerShreddaParticipanti always thought that the high backs should be parallel with the boards edge. duck or not. and that the rear foot forward lean should be slightly more than the front foot.
i ride 30 and -15…. regular board and about the same on my split.
January 11, 2008 at 12:58 pm #601813mergsParticipantI would love a pic of this… I can’t imagine how one would rotate a highback. (scratches head).
I tried duck (bc someone said it will help switch riding), and my knees said:
“fooock you”. 😥
January 11, 2008 at 2:41 pm #601814KnuckleDraggerParticipant@BakerShredda wrote:
i always thought that the high backs should be parallel with the boards edge. duck or not…
This has been my understanding too.
mergs, it will depend on your bindings, but look at where your highback attaches to the base. Most bindings have some form of screw in a track. Loosen the screws on both sides, rotate the HB as desired and tighten the screws. Note that this puts the HB in a slightly tweaked position with respect to the binding base so the HB may not fold down as easy. Also for those riding with big angles (more than 20 degrees or so) you probably wont be able to adjust the HB that far. Again, this will vary from binding to binding.
January 11, 2008 at 2:44 pm #601815MumblesParticipantGenerally the highback’s main role is to leverage pressure on the edge. As your angle goes away from 0* for your riding comfort, style or whatever, so to does the direct leverage of the highback. Most highbacks are designed to rotate with various adjustments so that you can keep them somewhat aligned with the edge. Imagine you ride a + or – 30* angle. When you attempt to engage your highback for a heelside edge you are no longer using the center rear of your calf, you are using the outer aspect of your calf. That is where the rounded cup of your highback should be positioned to accept this pressure and more directly apply it to the edge for the turn.
Keeping the highback at what appears to be exactly 0* on your board may not be possible or comfortable, but rotating that highback around to the angle adjusted rear of your lower leg should provide more bite on those heelside edges and a more controlled ride.
This may also require some forward lean adjustment for many riders. A ducked out rider may find that with no rotation on the highback that their forward lean promotes kneeing out keeping the knee in line with the center line of the foot/binding. When the highback is rotated to align with the edge, the same forward lean my now direct their knees away from the heel edge more, and not necessarily align it directly through the center line of the foot. (Rider preference prevails no matter how you explain it, so try some rotation and forward lean combinations to get a more dialed in ride. (Add canting and you have added a third variable to consider for the angle of the canting and the direction of the cant’s downward angle will also affect your posture, knee alignment and feel for the ride). Maybe riding snowboards is why I had to take a physics class or two growing up?
I rotate my front binding’s highback as I ride +15* to +24* normally. My rear binding is +6* to +9* and I do not rotate that highback at all.
January 11, 2008 at 5:56 pm #601816dude_reinoParticipantI am confused. Isn’t the highback attached to the base of the binding? When you rotate the base, the highback follows. If it was different how would your boots fit into the binding?
January 11, 2008 at 5:58 pm #601817brgParticipantI ride an 18/0 and on my solid board the high backs are rotated to be parallel with the back edge. When I first started splitting I had my high backs rotated so they would be parallel to the rear edge, this was extremely uncomfortable while skinning. I now have my high backs straight in line with the binding which make skinning much more comfortable and I only notice it slightly on the ride.
January 11, 2008 at 7:56 pm #601818MumblesParticipant@luca_brasi wrote:
I am confused. Isn’t the highback attached to the base of the binding? When you rotate the base, the highback follows. If it was different how would your boots fit into the binding?
luca_brasi, most bindings have a hinged highback that is removable/adjustable/replacable. Yours may not, but most are. Look at the two pivoting points where the highback attaches to the heel cup of the binding. When you rotate the baseplate this rotates the entire binding. To rotate the highback you simply loosen the hinge point on both sides of the highback and rotate it back toward the heel side edge. This permits your baseplate and heelcup to align to your desired riding angle and to customize the highback to accomodate your preference.
January 11, 2008 at 9:15 pm #601819stomppowParticipantTry ‘er out 🙂
I come from a forward angle background, but I slowly evolved to be duck and now I’m entirely symmetric, even with the same forward lean on both feet (plenty)
I feel more solid in my stance, more comfortable, still plenty of direct solid input to the board with knees, subtle upper body movements and lots of lower body and some foot movements
I even feel really comfortable with my neck (which has to look farther sideways if your shoulders more or less aligned with the board at any time)I also evolved wider and wider, I think I’m 22-23 inches now at 5’10”, never been comfier and felt more responsive/versatile and stable in any conditions
I too used to laugh at the stances I saw in Transworld and around the park (of course some of them are ridiculous… 5’8″ with a 25″ stance… that’s stupid) and I used to think, for example, that in resorts nobody could carve hard unless they had a forward stance, now whenever I’m at a resort I carve harder and more dynamically then when I used to rock hardboots (of course though the grip on steep ice is not quite comparable) but for general use and especially backcountry, never been happier
I’ll try to get a picture
January 11, 2008 at 9:33 pm #601820MumblesParticipantOkay, so Mumbles is never short on words, but I will try to post a photo of either my burton step ins with highback rotated or my rome sds soft bindings with the same. They accomplish the roation diffrently, but in both binding sets they allow for rotating the highback around the heel cup to better power your lean into the highback into hell edge hold power.
January 11, 2008 at 9:54 pm #601821bcriderParticipant@brg wrote:
I ride an 18/0 and on my solid board the high backs are rotated to be parallel with the back edge. When I first started splitting I had my high backs rotated so they would be parallel to the rear edge, this was extremely uncomfortable while skinning. I now have my high backs straight in line with the binding which make skinning much more comfortable and I only notice it slightly on the ride.
ditto.
Rotating the highback on your front foot (or both if you ride a wacked out duck stance ;)) is nice for riding if you use a good amount of forward lean but for skinning it generally sux.
January 11, 2008 at 9:55 pm #601822bcriderParticipant@jack wrote:
didn’t you get the memo? if you ride duck you have totally wack style. 😉
Its only wack if your feet don’t normally point that way….otherwise its natural.
January 11, 2008 at 9:57 pm #601823bcriderParticipant@mergs wrote:
I would love a pic of this… I can’t imagine how one would rotate a highback. (scratches head).
I tried duck (bc someone said it will help switch riding), and my knees said:
“fooock you”. 😥
Check out the binding tech on big B’s site (burton).
Also, listen to your knees, they wont lie and you can still ride switch just fine with a non duck stance.
January 11, 2008 at 11:20 pm #601824stomppowParticipantwith an equally symmetric duck stance, and the highbacks both rotate inwards (about 15 degrees on my setup) , when skinning you just get a little more outwards lateral support (the upper ski in a traverse) and a little less inwards lateral support (the lower ski in a traverse)
it’s true it would probably be more ideal to have lots of inwards support
January 12, 2008 at 1:00 am #601825MumblesParticipantHere is a photo of my burton custom step ins (no straps to cloud the picture and yes I still ride these and like them). The two lateral pivot points not only allow the highback to fold down for and aft, but if you look at the oval hole in which the pivot screw/bolt are attached they are oval with ridges for adjustment of the highback rotation. These bindings allow for about 18 to 20 degrees of rotation.
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