Questions about race boards

[Zander747]

This is probably a dumb thing to ask, but here goes. I'm getting an F2 Speedster SL, and I'm wondering if I need to get race bindings/boots for it. If I can use my regular flow bindings, will there be way too much overhang? If I need the race bindings do I need race boots?

[pokkis]

Yes for both questions.
They are too wide, and when you change your bindings, you need to change your boots too.
If you want to carve/race with soft boots you need board in 23+ center width class.

[raphael]

Same as Pokkis:
Speedster SL is too narrow for softboots.

Knowing that some people ride Swoards with softboots, I'd say 22cm is the lowest width acceptable to put softboots on. But it does certainly overhang a little.

[pokkis]

I must back-up slightly if you have small feet, like 23 mondo or so, then you could perhaps ride it with soft boots, if they are very rigid ones

[gabor]

If you want to use that Speedster you need hardboots and bindings. Using it with any type of binding/boot combo is possible but the board is way too stiff to bend it effectively with softies. Some may argue that a soft hardboot has about the same stiffness than a really hard softboot but I doubt it.

So

You either buy hard binding/boots for the Speedster
OR
Sell the speedster and use your Flow with a boardercross board (if you want a stiff board for softies)

[pokkis]

I mean i was riding Swoard with softies, perhaps one of most rigid setup, F2 Hurricane with HBX bindings. And even with width of Swoard i was riding them with 40+ angles which is quite much for softies.

[Felix]

Nearly only girls have such small feet to ride Swoard with softies. For me with Mondo 26.5 it would still mean angles in high 40°s if not wanting to have too much overhang. More fun is on hardboots off course.

But with size 26.5 boots I can ride duckstance on wideboards with no overhang at all, that's a cool thing. Wonder why the're no boards with 30 middle for people with bigger feet.

[Zander747]

I did the math, and it came out to 2.5cm of overhand on both bindings if I do a 0,0 setting. I figure if I do 35,35 and fit it with the risers that do 12mm of lift I can completely take off all overhang. The board has a waist width of 190mm.

[Viviane]

Hello Zander,

I've been riding a semi race board with soft boots in the past and I had no overhang concerning my boots but you cannot possibly give enough power to do good carving. And something else, your legs will burn as hell!!! So my opinion is get yourself, if possible, good hardboots with equal bindings, fitted to race/carve.
Succes,
Viviane

[raphael]

Don't be afraid Zander ... join us to the other side.

[Ohawa]

I would say that even with a small overhang you're not likely to suffer loss of adhesion in the curves because most of the time your board is not that much inclined to the slope - I'm talking about race board, not EC. There the board is almost perpendicular to the slope. But watch some races. I personally have light overhang on my rear shoe and some of my racing friends too.