Comments

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  Peter Massee

  5 years ago

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  Cool idea. A major problem I see: unless you are hiking on very firm/packed snow or on a well packed skin track, you will be post holing. 

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  kyle wood

  5 years ago

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  Avid snowboarder and winter hiker for the last 20 years. Really interesting concept! I think you should design a boot to match though. Of the dozen of snowboard boots I've used, all of them have too much ankle support to be a good hiking boot. If there was some sort of hybrid hiking/snowboard boot this would be excellent. 

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  Peter Beegle

  5 years ago

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  Agreed, cool idea! But, as a former snowboard binding designer, I have a few issues with this concept. Asking a binding to do two tasks will likely reduce the performance of each (bad binding, bad snowshoe.)

  
  

  The binding doesn't appear to have forward lean, highback rotation or canting, which will reduce the amount of customization and comfort of the user. Forward lean would be really important here if you aren't going to have risers in touring mode. This binding has a permanent baseplate on the board which has a large footprint (reduced natural board flex) and will experience icing and snowpack problems (same as splitboard bindings). The snowshoe mode is restricted and doesn't appear to accept crampons. This binding also looks quite heavy due to the number of metal parts. Tubbs snowshoes or Spark R&D/Karakoram split bindings would be are greater weight reduction package. 

  
  

  I applaud the drive for innovation. Hope it performs better than I can perceive from the videos. 

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  • 

    Alex Swaynie

    Peter Beegle

    5 years ago

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    Hey Peter, I am Alex, owner of RST. Just wanted to address your comment because you raise a lot of good questions, hopefully I can clear some stuff up. As far as the performance of the binding goes, we have designed the Convert to perform as well as any other binding you can get by studying a number of models and seeing what works and what doesn't. In snowshoe mode, it has roughly the same surface area of a 26" snowshoe. The forward lean adjuster is on a bolt system similar to the Spark R&D so you just turn the foot that rests on the heel cup to increase or decrease your angle. There is a built in heel riser on the frame. The mounting bracket is only a 1/4"ish longer than your average binding. We have integrated a crampon system into the baseplate, it rests between your boot and the baseplate locking it in place (also the only step in the transition that you have to take your boot out for). They are going to be a bit heavier than your average binding because we obviously added a few parts but when you take the 5 lbs from the bindings, off the back of your pack, on the accent, we think it will be worth it. Not to mention not having to deal with snowshoes on your back on the way down. Icing is also something we spent a lot of time thinking about. Every moving part is self clearing. Our cam locks are a scaled down mechanism that is used on most satellites when the solar panels are deployed. 

    I really hearing from people that have been in the industry (and probably know more about it than me) so I really appreciate your comments!

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    • 

      Alex Swaynie

      Alex Swaynie

      5 years ago

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      Really enjoy*

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    • 

      Peter Beegle

      Alex Swaynie

      5 years ago

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      Alex, thanks for the reply and walking through the development process. Designing bindings become exponentially more challenging with more moving parts while providing customization, so I understand. It is great to hear that you have worked through these topic areas and feel confident about this platform. I wish you all great success. Be safe out there and please enjoy those pow slashes for the rest of us. Cheers!

       

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