Voile Mountain Plate

At 1 pound how will you do any better! Probably not well suited to 50′ hucks, anyone tried? 😈

dumb Q:

do these plates fit on Burton hardware?

Thanks man. Can I ask then what bindings are people using on the Burton’s splits if not these or Bomber’s stock?

As for gear in Europe – yes, there is heaps of it but not so easy from where i am to shoot down the road and browse a few shops. But once you work out what you want (via online research in the office instead of working ;)) you can just go and get it. As for buying gear in the UK – forget it. Small selection of brands, not all models are carried even if they have the brand and then they charge way too much for it. And that is for normal boarding gear, not even splits. The word splitboard is a dirty one. I have not seen nor heard of anyone interested in split gear in the UK neither retailers or riders of internet forums. Time to change all that 🙂

Any soft mountaineering boot and plates will suck. I tried my Technica leather boots once in plates for giggles and can tell you that the toeside is doable, barely, but the heelside is nigh on impossible! You have no edging power with leather boots and plates. Possibly using them in strap bindings would work, but why kill yourself when there are other better boots to use.

I used the voile mtn plates on my splitboard (with koflach degres) and they sucked for the descent. For the ascent it was nice to have these lightweight bindings to make carrying the board a bit less cumbersome. Skinning in these bindings was super nice, you have more room to move your feet about, compared to strap on bindings where the bindings add a lot of weight and take up space in your set up. The bindings absolutely sucked for going downhill.. but i think that was because of my boots, not the bindings.. the bindings were really rigid but the buts only came up to my ankles.. bad news..

overall- keep the lightweight/slender mtn plate bindings, get AT hard shell boots.

bcrider,
what are those little blue plastic ovals of two sizes and that other thing above the pins in your pic? They’re sitting on my shelf threatening to get lost after I used the plates without them. Also, I know this might be sacrilege, but has anyone tried to use the voile plate on a solid board?
I got such a great improvement (without giving up the boogie) with my dynafit boot/plate binding set-up holding an edge in the icy east that I’m thinking of picking up an extra pair for my solid board.

dave

Hi SliderForLife

The Voiles won’t work on a solid board. For a similar feel, you’ll need to find a set of Burton Raceplates or F2/Proflex Freecarve plates.

F2/Proflex

Burtons

I’m selling the F2s in the picture if you’re interested (85 shipped).
The Burtons are readily available on eBay for about $125-150 new.

hey ssatler:

Voiles vs. F2s vs. Bombers

These are my opinions, others may have their own!!!

I’ve not used or seen the Voiles live, but reports are that they are very lightweight but have some durability issues. They also are the most economical option.

The F2s aren’t all that easy to locate in the US. However, they are great in that they maintain most of the lateral flexibility of the Voiles but with better durability. You can pull the Toe/Heel blocks off the base plate and bolt them directly to the Voile sliders for a very clean and lightweight setup. Again, US availability isn’t great, but you can often find used sets over on the Bomberonline classifieds. Alternatively, you can order from some Euro websites, but with shipping, the price approaches that of the Bombers.

The Bombers are bulletproof and really the only choice for high altitude mountaineering. All metal design means that they’ll likely outlast your board, boots, and probably your knees as well. They will be noticably stiffer than both the Voiles and the F2s as the bails are thicker and there is no plastic to flex. You are more likely to need to customize some cants or toe/heel lifts due to the stiffness, but once you get dialed in, they can be as comfortable as the plastic options.

If you happen to be in the Tahoe area, I’d be happy to lend you either an F2 setup or Bombers or both. Also, if this will be your first foray into hardboots/plates, I’d highly recommend hooking up with a hardbooter at a resort to get some pointers before heading into the BC. There are a few technique changes that you’ll need to make that are best practiced in a controlled environment. You’re likely to find a helpful hardbooter close to you in the Bomberonline forums.

I’ll try to post a picture of the F2s directly mounted to the Voile sliders so you can see this setup.

Enjoy!!!

Mark

Is it possible to bolt the catek toe/heel blocks directly to voilè slider (as done with f2)?

very interesting, can you post a pic?
I imagine that there aren’t problems between catek’s “boot size screws” and voilè’s t-nuts..or have you used another type of screws?

do you know the weight of the pieces? lighter or heavier than bomber ones?