Hi,
During the winter I have done some tests of various springs for Northwave Point 900. Here are some experiences. My weight is abt 80 kilos. First I started the season with original springs (blue and yellow) with the original set up. Then I substituted the blue with green same length without doing nothing with the yellow. This made the boot more flexible and permitted to buckle more closely, but I found the boots not to give enough edge pressure on hard and icy slopes so I went back to the blue spring.
Before going to Zinal I did the modification as recommended by Jacques and Rob (Crobar). Cut the yellow in 2/3 and 1/3 and put the pieces as shown on many pictures. I found the boots more flexible but hard to bend to be low enough when initiating the turn.
For the last couple of weeks I have substituted the yellow spring under the blue with a red, but 5 turns or windings instead of 4. For my ability I find this a little softer than the blue yellow combination, especially in cold weather (-10), but hard enough to provide good edge control when initiating the turns. It permits to close the boots firmly but also to bend the knees/ankles. I will keep this set up for a while. May be I will try the blue/yellow later for a comparison.
So one conclusion can be that if you find the blue/yellow a little bit stiff, try the blue/read instead.
Regards,
Some experiences with Northwave springs
Moderators: fivat, rilliet, Arnaud, nils
Boot Tongues
Hello Harald
Thank you for the feedback you have provided. I too continue to search for the magic spring combination; part of the spring solution may lie in the boot tongue.
A while back, Peter and/or John Vu (P&J part II
) Mentioned that they found the Northwave tongue too stiff; they are both lighter guys. They also explained that they installed a very soft Raichle tongue into the NW boot. They explained that the Raichle tongue does NOT seem to be affected by the temperature. Patrice also mentioned that he has cut his NW boot tongue to make it softer. I am a heavier guy, similar to Jacques. I decided to compare the following 4 boot tongues for flex in the cold:
Raichle 325 - Red
Raichle 325 - Yellow
Raichle 224 - Gold
Point 900 - Blue
Room temperature
The Red 325 tongue is the stiffest, but it is just a bit stiffer than the Blue NW tongue. The yellow 325 tongue is a fair bit softer than the Blue NW tongue. The Gold 224 tongue is super SOFT, it can be folded in half easily with your thumb and one finger.
-20 C in the Deep Freezer
The Red 325 tongue and the Blue NW tongue are like a damn rock, there is very little give or movement. The yellow 325 tongue still permitted bit of movement when frozen. The Gold 224 tongue is super soft when frozen, even when frozen it can be folded in half easily with your thumb and one finger. The cold temps did not affect the 224 tongue.
The smaller sized Raichle 224 tongue (25-27.5) fits perfectly into my Northwave size 28.5 and sell for $12 a set at Bomber. This seems to be a very inexpensive way to avoid cutting the original NW tongues when experimenting.
For the last few days on snow I have been using the softest 224 Raichle tongue with my Point 900 boots. What I have found is that the soft tongue has very little, if any, affect on the forward flex; the is exactly what I hoped would happen. This means that the springs can be set to your liking without being changed or affected by a tongue that is too hard or soft because of the cold/warm temperature.
My latest spring configuration uses harder springs than before, to compensate for the very soft tongue. I found that hard impacts were dealt with via the SUPER hard boot shell and springs. At the same time it is easy to bend the knees and ankles in warm or cold temps.
Take this feed back with a grain of salt, as my apprenticeship is in progress.
Hope this helps.
Rob
Thank you for the feedback you have provided. I too continue to search for the magic spring combination; part of the spring solution may lie in the boot tongue.
A while back, Peter and/or John Vu (P&J part II
) Mentioned that they found the Northwave tongue too stiff; they are both lighter guys. They also explained that they installed a very soft Raichle tongue into the NW boot. They explained that the Raichle tongue does NOT seem to be affected by the temperature. Patrice also mentioned that he has cut his NW boot tongue to make it softer. I am a heavier guy, similar to Jacques. I decided to compare the following 4 boot tongues for flex in the cold:Raichle 325 - Red
Raichle 325 - Yellow
Raichle 224 - Gold
Point 900 - Blue
Room temperature
The Red 325 tongue is the stiffest, but it is just a bit stiffer than the Blue NW tongue. The yellow 325 tongue is a fair bit softer than the Blue NW tongue. The Gold 224 tongue is super SOFT, it can be folded in half easily with your thumb and one finger.
-20 C in the Deep Freezer
The Red 325 tongue and the Blue NW tongue are like a damn rock, there is very little give or movement. The yellow 325 tongue still permitted bit of movement when frozen. The Gold 224 tongue is super soft when frozen, even when frozen it can be folded in half easily with your thumb and one finger. The cold temps did not affect the 224 tongue.
The smaller sized Raichle 224 tongue (25-27.5) fits perfectly into my Northwave size 28.5 and sell for $12 a set at Bomber. This seems to be a very inexpensive way to avoid cutting the original NW tongues when experimenting.
For the last few days on snow I have been using the softest 224 Raichle tongue with my Point 900 boots. What I have found is that the soft tongue has very little, if any, affect on the forward flex; the is exactly what I hoped would happen. This means that the springs can be set to your liking without being changed or affected by a tongue that is too hard or soft because of the cold/warm temperature.
My latest spring configuration uses harder springs than before, to compensate for the very soft tongue. I found that hard impacts were dealt with via the SUPER hard boot shell and springs. At the same time it is easy to bend the knees and ankles in warm or cold temps.
Take this feed back with a grain of salt, as my apprenticeship is in progress.
Hope this helps.
Rob
Tongue Colors
Hi DrZone
You don’t really need to look for only the Gold Raichle tongues, these are just the ones I happened to have.
I remember reading a post by Fin of Bomber dealing with Raichle tongues. He has a mountain of boot tongues, in every possible color, in stock. He tried to sort them by color and stiffness, this proved to be impossible task as Raichle did a poor job of maintaining any kind of standard from year to year.
I just ordered/received a set of bluish/green tongues, they are exactly the same as the gold tongues. I simply asked Michelle to send the softest tongues she had. The blue/green tongues behave the same as the gold tongues when warm or frozen. I'm sure there are a variety of colors that will work the same as the gold or bluish boot tongues.
Rob
You don’t really need to look for only the Gold Raichle tongues, these are just the ones I happened to have.
I remember reading a post by Fin of Bomber dealing with Raichle tongues. He has a mountain of boot tongues, in every possible color, in stock. He tried to sort them by color and stiffness, this proved to be impossible task as Raichle did a poor job of maintaining any kind of standard from year to year.
I just ordered/received a set of bluish/green tongues, they are exactly the same as the gold tongues. I simply asked Michelle to send the softest tongues she had. The blue/green tongues behave the same as the gold tongues when warm or frozen. I'm sure there are a variety of colors that will work the same as the gold or bluish boot tongues.
Rob
Hi Rob,
Thanks for the review. In this easter, the day temperatures went up to +10 degrees during the day at my local slopes, but due to low night temperatures the snow was frozen (a littl bit icy) in the morning and slushy after 3 hours. As I am a little bit lazy I kept the blue/red spring combination and the blue NW tongue. When buckling firmly, (3rd step) the boots still provided good flexibility, support and control on this difficult surface. However, I have greenish tongues from my Raichle 323s. Maybe I will try them together with the blue/yellow springs for the end of the season when conditions are as mentioned, pretty hard and icy in the morning and softer during the day.
Thanks for the review. In this easter, the day temperatures went up to +10 degrees during the day at my local slopes, but due to low night temperatures the snow was frozen (a littl bit icy) in the morning and slushy after 3 hours. As I am a little bit lazy I kept the blue/red spring combination and the blue NW tongue. When buckling firmly, (3rd step) the boots still provided good flexibility, support and control on this difficult surface. However, I have greenish tongues from my Raichle 323s. Maybe I will try them together with the blue/yellow springs for the end of the season when conditions are as mentioned, pretty hard and icy in the morning and softer during the day.
harald