Location: Keystone, Colorado
Snow Conditions: Overcast with hardpacked groomers to a mixture of conditions.
Setup: I rode the Raiden Eris’s with the Nitro Carrara and my Rome Vamp size 8 boots.
Time to set up the binding: Average time, the only time I’ve noticed Raiden bindings being longer than average is if the baseplate is being a hassle to get it adjusted and moved to the right spot to screw in to the disc.
Fit: Last year when I tried them, the fit was a off with them and my boot. This year it felt a lot more snug and good fitting to my boot. But also I’m rocking different boots since last time.
First Impression: Comfortable, light, padding and no complaints.
Appearance: Jungle theme meets animal kingdom. I’m not really big into the whole animal print look but that’s just me.
Comfort: Airbag dampening was comfort under the feet, the straps are padded and offer good support as well as the highback, some padding there but the dampening under the feet made the binding a good improvement from last year’s on comfort.
Functionality: A typical binding and everything worked fine for me during the demos, I didn’t encounter any problems with how it functioned.
Flex: The highback is stiffer giving it good heel to toe response especially on the heelside turns and very sturdy lateral flex, not a lot of give to it. The pairing with the Carrara was a good match from board to binding.
Response: The Eris has quick response with the stiffer highback, you feel more connected to it and from turning toe to heel edge you get immediate action. The women’s asym type S highback is molded to a women’s calf while offering a natural feel and fast response.
Toe Strap: Last year I had issues with the toe strap’s sticking, this year I took note of the crank it down advice and had no problems with it holding to my boot.
Overall Impression: It’s getting improved each year which is great to see the tweaks to make it as good as possible. This year the new addition was the airbag dampening which makes it even better than last year, added comfort and the dampening really helps with going over choppy terrain and not feeling it.
Shay’s Honesty Box: It’s a good progressive binding, I liked it for that it was lightweight, responsive, and a great combo with the Carrara. I just don’t like the animal print.
Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the 2011 version of the Raiden Eris or shop their full line of Raiden snowboard bindings
JT
May 13, 2009 at 10:36 amOh come on now.. animal print is all the rave.. 😉 LOL I think I’m with you, not a fan of animal print, but I know several peeps who dig it..
Lauren
May 13, 2009 at 11:03 amCome on, the animal print is awesome!!!!!!!!! I loved the Bataleon Distortia with the snow leopard print… haha, sooo 80s. Would you happen to have these bindings?? They tickle my fancy and I’d love to try em out
Shralp
May 13, 2009 at 1:54 pm“Flex: The highback is stiffer giving it good heel to toe response especially on the heelside turns and very sturdy lateral flex, not a lot of give to it.
Response: I would have liked more response from the highback and partially because the highback holds a lot of the control with these bindings. I didn’t think the highback was stiff enough for what the binding needed to make it responsive.”
The highback was stiff and responsive, followed by, the highback was not stiff enough to be responsive? LOL Whut?
Shayboarder
May 13, 2009 at 1:57 pmOops! Scralp thanks for pointing that out, I copied the wrong response wording to that review. Fixing it now.