Poster: A snowHead
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Recently returned from a week snowboarding backcountry out of Zinal in Switzerland - which on the whole was great, but it was marred by the fact that, for the first time ever, my bindings kept coming loose from my board during the second half of the week.
I run NOW Drive bindings - which feature the skatetech rocker - on a Lib Tech Orca. The Orca was new for this trip, but I've used the bindings for a week before and no problems.
I tried a couple of sets of bolts, including brand new bolts (slightly longer ones), with loctite too, moved the stance to different inserts and even resorted to tightening them much tighter than I really normally would but they just kept working loose really quickly under normal piste riding (within one run!)
I also noticed a clicking in the binding after the occasional break, sat down in the snow, which I attributed to snow getting under the bushings on the corners of the bindings (which lift and compress slightly with the skatetech action) and hardening into ice, which was then being crushed away under heel turns. Conditions were fairly cold -8C most of the week, but sunny.
I was previously running the bindings without issue on a Capita Black Snowboard of Death, which might have had more torsional stiffness than the Orca and it's possible the binding baseplates (exacerbated by the skate tech) were effectively levering/lifting off the corners (particularly turning on to the toe edge) and working the bolts loose. It was fairly easy to see this happening off the board just by torquing the bindings against board by hand. It's a standard four-bolt mounting pattern and just can't believe it'd work them loose though.
Wondered if anyone else had either had issues with NOW skate tech bindings before, or perhaps a dodgy batch of inserts on the Orca (2020/21) model year? The bolts seems to bite well though and no issues tightening up.
Very reluctant to take this set-up out again...ended up getting fed up and switching over to skis for the last day (much to my shame!)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Been riding nows 50-60 days a season for the last 9 years on loads of different boards, never had an issue.
So might be the board inserts? Could be worth trying different washers on the bolts ?
Also, not sure loctite is a good idea - can weaken the disk and top sheet
The only other thing is that they settle down on the hanger and bushings, so need a tighten up after a while when first put on, but should be all good after that
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I use the spare hangers on my boards so just swap the binding between boards without removing the base.
One solution might be to take the hanger off the binding - just use Allen keys to undo the bolts through the hanger, then bolt the hanger and disk to the board real tight, and then install the binding back on to the hanger. Will take a bit of pressure to get the binding to go back on the hanger but that will give you a tight connection.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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You could mark the bolts against the surrounding material to assess if they are backing out with rotation, if not the inserts may be a problem.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The most common cause of this is that the screws are too long, rather than too short. If they're bottoming out on the inserts before actually clamping the binding hard, then they'll come loose quickly. If you've added longer bolts, this could actually have caused the problem. Try going back to the original screws and even adding an extra washer.
I've used the Now bindings (just for tests) for a few days on a bunch of different boards with no problems.
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- As someone said, over long bolts are a bad idea. I carry washers for the Burton track because their doobries are less deep than standard inserts.
- They tell me to use Vibra-Tite not Locktite, although I don't use either on my inserts and don't have issues.
- If you're bolting something compressible then you're going
to have to keep on it for tightness until it's bedded in.
Changing only one thing at a time is the usual way to work out what's causing something like that.
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