Binding Review: 08-09 Raiden Tigre

Location: Loveland, Colorado

Snow Conditions: Hardpacked icy in the morning to soft bumpy in the afternoon groomers

Setup: I rode the Raiden Tigre’s on 4 boards so far, the GNU B-pro, Never Summer Infinity, Lib TRS and Lib Phoenix Lando.

Time to set up the binding: Average

Fit: I’ve been rocking Rome’s so long that it took me a little longer to get everything dialed to my boot when I received the bindings. Didn’t have to adjust the heelcup to my boots and only had to adjust the straps.

First Impression: I found a replacement to the Madison.

Appearance: It’s a sleek black design with small raiden symbols on the binding. It’s not fancy or super color coordinated, but it’s sleek and it works. The ratchets are my favorite part, reminds me of a bottle opener.

Comfort: The ankle strap is slim but really cushiony, it molds to my vans boots and my rome boots just fine. I like that it’s not bulky because I hardly notice it when I’m riding. The toe strap is really thin material but just molds around my toebox of the boot when I tighten it. The highback features a “nuback cushion” that molds around the top of the highback and eliminates any pressure points where my boot fits in. I don’t notice any pressure when leaning laterally with the bindings.

Functionality: I’ve had 4 days on them and used them to switch boards with…which is a big thing to me now, is it easy to switch the bindings from board to board. The raidens definitely have been. Once I take off the baseplate cover which just slides out, I can unscrew the bindings and dial them on another board. Adjusting the straps I can re-align them or move them forward or back depending on if I want to rock cap or regular strap. It’s not difficult and I’ve changed it up a couple times since riding them.

My only gripe after using the bindings for the past 3 months is if I need to remove the baseplate cover during a day of snowboarding…sometimes it gets stuck from snow or is tougher to screw back in.

Flex: Very similiar flex to the madisons, marketed as a freestyle binding but a binding you can ride all mountain…it’s not a soft binding, definitely a mid-flex binding between soft and stiff which is perfect for me. Laterally I have good give and take, it’s not completely constricting in my movement and the straps are softer giving me more forward flex with a stiffer side to side (lateral) flex.

Response: It’s been fun to test the response on the cat tracks…just little amounts of pressure on the toe and heel to see how quick I go on edge. As a freestyle binding it’s not quick reacting but the rider controls how fast you want it. I didn’t notice any vibrations when coming to a stop or spraying up snow giving it a faster response time on my bindings. I have control over the response when riding and I like that, I felt quicker response from the heels than the toes. From the bindings to the board, I don’t feel like there’s anything interfering with response, even on cat tracks I had the ability to lay it over and get quicker response or take it easy and not feel like my weight shifts from toe to heel would cause me to lose control. The baseplate cover gives some extra padding which I have found helpful.

Toe Strap: The revert toe strap, can rock it as cap or regular over the toe. I’ve been rocking it as cap since I got it because the last time I rode raiden bindings it was moving on me so I wanted to judge these in cap first. I strap it tight on my toe and have no issues with the binding moving when riding.

Overall Impression: This is the 2nd pair of Raiden bindings I have tried and my first pair I’ve owned and so far I’m impressed. Between these and my contacts, I have two bindings that are lighter and different flexes depending how what I’m riding. These will be my all mountain ride everything binding with my contacts being more freestyle, just messing around since they are softer, way softer. I like that the bindings aren’t super flashy or based around the design with gimmicks because that cosmetic stuff never lasts on my bindings…so this will be a good difference and we’ll see how they hold up in the long run as I place more days on them this season.

So now 3 months later after I wrote this review I still agree with what I wrote. I think the baseplate could use more padding on the toes and the baseplate cover sometimes can be a bitch to lock into place.

Shay’s Honesty Box: I received these bindings, I did not pay for them. However I would pay for them because I do like them a lot. I’m looking forward to seeing how they hold up on the longevity of binding life, but so far I am happy with how they have treated me.

On Snow Photos
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Raiden Tigre Description

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