Folding nose

Post by **ursle** » Monday 3 December 2007, 15:04

Got a question
Just offered a 175 swoard med flex to someone and his answer back was that he had heard of several swoards that had folded the nose and snapped in front of the front binding
Before I call him on his bs I thought
I would get my facts straight
Does Anyone know of Any swoards that have folded and snapped?

If it were a burton I would agree with the fool but it's not a pos board I consider my swoard to be a tank
thanks

Post by **nils** » Monday 3 December 2007, 15:56

Several = about 5-6 boards over the last two seasons.
it only happened with people that either happened to be doing EC in too soft snow, or for the bigger part, happened to have bury the nose in a hole. A case was hitting the hard snow bumps on the side of the slope during a missed turn...in everycase: nose break was due to overloading it in not normal EC turn.

In most case we did exchange the boards... in some we did not because it was cases of accidents ( : rider fault).

We have reacted and have produced an official disclaimer so people know it is not safe to do EC in inadapted snow conditions...
viewtopic.php?t=2378

We have produced since we began ( 2003) quite a lot of boards, and the broken boards cases are really random and small statistics... we are more concerned about people injuring themselves doing EC in wrong conditions, than having quality and breakage problems.

Strangely enough: there was not a single case of breakage with Gen1 3D's... it is for two reasons i think:
- Level of riders was not as good, and high power EC turns where not common ( people were learning and not doing EC in bad conditions...)
- Better nose grip of Gen2 which makes the nose grip and do not release that easy ( its an EC board made for gripping)

We have also worked on the flex pattern of the new boards 3rd generation so they are easier, and despite beeing as grippy, they are also more forgiving, which should help prevent overloading the nose.

Nils

Post by **ursle** » Monday 3 December 2007, 16:43

Thanks nils
If I saw a way to delete this post I would

Post by **nils** » Monday 3 December 2007, 16:56

its fine! Its normal to ask the question! We believe in transparency and are concerned when this kind of questions occur, so we want everyone to benefit from this, in order to avoid injury and broken boards...

I think only Tinkler does not fold noses

Its good that everyone knows why a board can break, and what to avoid this....especially with the softer flex we and other manufacturers provide today... metal boards for example seems to have this problem too ( overpressing the nose causes a weak point in front of the binding that overstresses the nose and leads to fatal breakage...)

Hope it clears a few rumors too

Nils

Post by **pokkis** » Monday 3 December 2007, 17:03

Nils, do you see any benefit of using similar protector/riser with Swoard?
That could/should/would spread forces of edge of bindig to larger area, similar as with metal ones and that way board from breakage.

Post by **nils** » Monday 3 December 2007, 17:16

Maybe it would be a good idea to test it...
jacques and Patrice rode the new board VERY hard without any problem, they tested especially this folding nose issue and did not manage to break the board ( the nose bites and the board turns

... it means breakage happens on unexpected conditions where the nose is kept stuck in the snow...Maybe then a riser like the one tested by bordy, the one by catek etc would expand the physical resistance of the materials indeed... downside is it makes the bindings higher on the board, and we try to keep it as low as possible....

Well anyway: testing is a good solution... but i'm not going to ask jacques to crash in a frontside so he can test that hehe

N

Post by **pokkis** » Monday 3 December 2007, 17:36

5mm extra height is not much

Almost same effect than leaving one pair of warm thick socks away from boots

Post by **Felix** » Monday 3 December 2007, 19:46

What binders did the people use?

I can imagine boards braking much easier on very stiff bindings (TD2, Catek, custom CNC,etc) than on softer bindings like Burtons, Snow Pros or F2.

Post by **pokkis** » Monday 3 December 2007, 19:49

TD to be ranked as stiff is very much dependent setup of binding.

Post by **nils** » Monday 3 December 2007, 20:51

mostly phiokka Highlander ( all plates like the emery course with stiff alu plate is not recommended... a circular pattern is better for distribution of forces

N

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Folding nose

Folding nose

Answers:

nahh

Well

Phiokka mostly