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Stepin build on your own ?

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Stepin build on your own ?

Postby gigabass » 16 May 2011 10:57

stepin bindings for skwals are rather expensive, and it's hard to find used material.
alpineboard-stepins are cheaper compared to the skwal-stepins, and can be found for reasonable prices on ebay (at least during the winter). the ground plate is just to wide (~ 13.x cm) to be mounted on a skwal.

i have a spare f2 titanium, and i took a closer look at this binding and my skwal binding yesterday. the front and back part of the skwal binding is mounted with 4 screws each on the plate, the f2 only with 2. fhe F2 parts could be mounted on the skwal-binding plate by using the 2 front screw threads for the front part, and the read 2 screw threads for the heel part. didn' test it yet, but should work.

on the other hand - i plan to get a new skwal for the next season, and keep the easy jungle i have now as backup for bad or crowded conditions for a while - so my idea is to build a new ground-plate for the f2 titanium. is also have a very old elfgen snowboard binding with an aluminium ground plate (11cm wide in the middle, 4mm thick, should fit) which could be modified to hold the f2 binding.
as i don't need any option for adjusting the angle (0 degree is fine for me) an alternative could also be to build a new ground plate. i think this could be easily done by 4 holes and 4 screw threads in a metal plate of about 22 x 8-10 cm / 5-8 mm thick (aluminium ? steel ? v2a ?). the original is 5mm, but i would prefer to have the thread a bit longer - potentially using drive-in-nuts as the f2 titanium has. Fine adjustment for stance could also be done by making long slots in the middle (if necessary at all). material is less than 20 €.

anyone who did something like that ? any recommendations or objections ? i know the plate might be a bit heavier than the original, but i don't think that this is too important. i'm not doing races, i'm just going out for carving 1 or 2 weeks a year having fun.

thanks for any opinion or recommendation
guido
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Re: Stepin build on your own ?

Postby obi one » 21 May 2011 10:21

as far as you keep a design and measures not far away from standards I suppose you are on the right path to experiment and assemble a nice prototype... :) ... I like experimenters! ...search throughout the past forum threads and you will find out that protos were made and still new step in bindings are coming up...

send in some pics of your results please :wink:

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Re: Stepin build on your own ?

Postby gigabass » 25 Nov 2011 16:28

as i'm running out of budget this year (just ordered an xrace 183) i think i will go for my prototype out of the F2 as outlined above.
some additional questions on toe/heel lift and binding height :

If the F2 adapters are mounted directly on the 5mm base plate, the height will be about 26mm at the toe and about 21mm at the heel (both feet). While the difference is fine for the front foot (leads to a toe-lift of about 3º) i will have to raise the heel for the rear foot about 10mm with some wedges (simple alloy plates about 70 x 80 mm) to get the same 3º for the heel lift there. (For a 6º lift i would need to raise the front toe by 5mm and the rear heel by 15). This makes the front binding about 5 mm lower than the rear, So i would raise the front by additional 5 mm on toe and heel.
The binding then is still 5-10 mm lower than my old Thias (depending on if and how many wedges are used).
Does the height of the binding really make a difference - and if yes what's the effect ? in general - is it preferred to have a 'low' or 'high' binding ?
I would then add some rubber from a broken motorcylce tube between binding and skwal (the original F2 has 1.5mm rubber, my tube is about 1mm, may have 2 add 2 layers as the bottom of the F2 drive in nuts is a little more than 1 mm). Any better knwon alternative (the original f2 will not work) ?

edith : material for the wedges could be nylon (cheaper, got some spare parts) or alloy (harder). you can find both versions in the stores. should the harder alloy version be prefferred ?
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Re: Stepin build on your own ?

Postby obi one » 26 Nov 2011 10:43

the binding height that you are going to inroduce with your proto does not make any appreciable difference... in ski this height is exploited to reduce the drag of the boot into the snow if you use carving skis, and at the same time, more height enhance your cpacity to perform neat carving turns

go with it...test it and come back with a feedback 8)

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Re: Stepin build on your own ?

Postby gigabass » 05 Jan 2012 12:01

prototype is done, but not tested yet (will do so end of january).

i put some pictures and a short descriprion of what i did in my gallery here at skwalzone.org : http://www.skwalzone.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=18788
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Re: Stepin build on your own ?

Postby Zarkod » 05 Jan 2012 14:32

looks nice
still, you can't change the angles it has to be 0° on front and rear foot, right?
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Re: Stepin build on your own ?

Postby gigabass » 05 Jan 2012 17:49

correct, intentionally no angle change possible at the moment.
i'm not an experienced skwaler (yet) but i felt comfortable with a 0 degree setup for both feet last year (though the binding i used last year was able to do different angles), so i tried to keep it as simple as possible.
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Re: Stepin build on your own ?

Postby gigabass » 03 Feb 2012 15:18

Conclusion after testing :

Works fine ! Additional wedges under the binding might be helpful to to enhance the flex of the board caused by a smaller cntact surface with the board (eg. as sold in the aes shop). Not required for the angle (toe/heel lift), that's already part of the construction.
Recommended if you have a spare F2 intec.
Still recommended if you don't have the F2 as you can get used ones for about 60-80€ (average prices at ebay germany).
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