SnoChica
Moderator
Registered: March 2005
Location: Wilmington, DE
Posts: 5725
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Review Date: Wed March 28, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $189.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Responsive, Comfortable, Stylish, Easy to get it and out
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Cons:
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Toe Strap ladder gets stuck on leather cover
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I've been riding the Madison's all season. I LOVE them. To be fair, I do have some bad words about them as well.... but I'm 95% in love with them. Here's why:
I used to ride Ride SPi's. I have a Rome Blue. Pretty stiff board, pretty stiff binding. Put them together and you have a nice combination and I really enjoyed it. However, once I tried the Madisons, I realized what I was missing. The Madison is a bit softer, less rigid binding yet highly responsive. The convertble toe-strap was another nice change for me. I never thought I'd like it, but once I tried it, I was sold on the idea. With these, I don't feel like I need to ratchet my bindings down so tight that I cut off circulation in my toes. It's hard to explain, but they just feel natural to me. They work for me. Most of the time, you won't know if you like something until you try it. I can tell you how great they are for me, but that's just me. I just know I'll never buy Ride bindings again.
I've ridden these bindings through ice, pow, park, crud, & corduroy.... name a condition these are fine for it. I wouldn't say the are park oriented or freeride oriented. What really matters is that you are comfortable in them. In my opinion, your board is more important when discussing freeride vs. park. Bindings, it's a matter of comfort.
What I don't like about the Madison is really a tiny tiny thing.... on the toe strap, there is this really cool looking piece of leather that the end of your ladder is supposed to go under. It's useless, there for style only. However, on a cold day, when the leather freezes into the wrong position while on the lift... the ladder doesn't seem to want to go under the leather and sometimes gets caught. I found this to be HIGHLY annoying since it's difficult in gloves and mittens to push the leather back into it's correct position. As the season went on, this happened less. But I was at a point where I wanted to cut the piece of leather off.
My whole setup now is the '05 Rome Blue; '06 32 Velas, and '07 Rome Madisons. This is by far the most comfortable I've ever felt with my gear.
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SnoChica
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Snowboard Addicts
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