Advice needed

[combatb5]

Hello everyone,
I'm looking for some advice or a feedback.
I just broke my Burton Ultra Prime 168 board (((it's unrepairable).
I bought a Burton Speed 168 just because it was "half price off" deal - it costed me ~$254 (US dollars) but...
a) I've heard some generally negative feedback about Burton alpine/carving boards
b) The board I bought has the following written on it:
"Buton Snowboards. Beta Version .02 Burlington, Vermont. Innsbruck, Austria. Urawa, Japan"
Different spot reads: "Racecore. Indium. Handmade in Austria"

I just got off the phone with Burton Customer Service in Vermont - they could not tell me for sure what exactly Beta Version .02 means. Instead they told me that all their "High End" boards are made in Vermont, US.

Any feedback/advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks a lot!
===============================================
<b>Update</b>
Thanks a lot to everyone for your help!
I've returned the Burton Speed 168 to the shop I bought it from for a full refund. I've decided to buy a couple of used decks instead - to be able to compare different boards and to have a back up just in case
So far I got F2 Silberpfeil 168 and I'm going to take a look at Nidecker Tornado GS 168 tonight (will likely buy it as well).
Happy Carving!!!

[nils]

never heard of the speed model, but as for what I know, the austrian factory that burton uses has been making most of their alpine boards since the 80's... the factory prime is made there etc...

No clue what the beta thing is thu.. try the bomberonline.com forum for a more specific answer !!

cheers

nils

[joe]

Hello,

i´m riding the second factory prime now and i´m really satisfied with this board.
At the beginning of my boarding i rode a Nidecker Concept.
I broke two of them. I used the second one only two or three days.

Afterwards i tested a F2 Speedster RS, a Oxygen, and the Factory Prime.
And for me the Burton was the best of them, although i don´t like this brand.
I used it for over 60 times without breaking it.

I tested the Burton Speed 168 this season, and i didn´t feel very comfortable on it.
The reason for this was the radius. It is only 9-10 m, and i´m used to 13-14 m.
When you have a look at the specs of the speed 178 and compare it to the Fp 7.8-200, you´ll notice no difference.

And about "handmade in Austria".

My first fp 7.3-180 was made in Vermont.
My actual fp 7.3-200 was made in Austria. This one i bought at ebay for 200 Eur.
It was new and sold by Heidi Neururer, an austrian world-cup racer.
She sold them, because she left the ISF and Burton doesn´t support FIS-riders.
But i can´t imagine that Burton doesn´t equip their riders with high-end-boards.

Joe

[DW]

I can honestly say that I am more then happy with how my 2001 FP 167 (black top sheet) has held up. I am not a small guy at 6' 1" 230 and I have not had any problems with the board. I would have liked to go longer but, the board has held together even with all the abuse that I have given it with minimal maintence. I even managed to learn how EC on it. Anyway lots of people especially on BomberOnline talk about pulling inserts and the like using Bomber TD's but that is what I run and I have not seen any weekness (except for the 19cm waist ). Anyway I really have enjoyed this board and think that their speed boards would be equally as good.

Later

Dan