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Bindings

Flow Fuse Carbon 2021-2022 Snowboard Bindings Review

Tested and selected for our top 100 snowboard products of the year: the Flow Fuse Carbon

  • Price: £325 / €340 / £340
  • Sizes: M, L, XL
  • Flex: 8-9/10
  • Entry System: Rear Entry

Why we chose the Flow Fuse Carbon Snowboard Bindings: They’ve got more fancy carbon bits than Lewis Hamilton’s car, and deliver handling to match. An utterly uncompromised new binder for speed freaks with cash to burn.

You should know the drill by now. In the world of snowboarding kit, carbon is king. Carbon stringers, carbon pop rods, carbon topsheets, carbon-infused bases, carbon goggle frames, carbon butt shorts… the list goes on. OK maybe we made that last one up, but product designers love this featherweight wonder material more than Donald Trump loves fake tan. It’s light, it’s stiff, and it makes any piece of gear look like it belongs on a special shelf in the Batcave. The new Fuse Carbon is no exception. It’s a souped-up version of the popular Fuse that’s been given the classic graphite makeover, shifting the response factor from ‘fast’ to ‘shit-your-pants fast’. But, naturally, it comes at a price.

“An utterly uncompromised new binder for speed freaks with cash to burn”

MORE INFO:
flow-bindings.com

Who Is The Flow Fuse Carbon For?

Advanced riders who demand the ultimate in agile performance. We’re talking pipe jockeys, carving ninjas, big line lovers and anyone who knows how to put their board properly on edge – and keep it there.

Baseplate

The chassis has the same form factor as the regular Fuse i.e. chunky sides when compared to the thin aluminium design of the NX2 series. It’s made from carbon-infused nylon (nylon being a fancy word for plastic) which might sound like a cop-out but there are two key advantages here. First, 100% carbon fibre is brittle; and second, by keeping some nylon in the mix, the binding retains some useful lateral flex – so you can still tweak tricks and bring a little style to your turns rather than going full Peter Crouch robot. Make no mistake though, compared to the standard Fuse, the carbon version is noticeably lighter and stiffer. Heel-to-toe response is near-instantaneous.

Like all Flow’s models, the baseplate featured rockered corners that help the board to flex more naturally. It’s a clever design solution that works well. The footbed is canted inwards to 2-degrees, improving comfort when you’re in your riding stance, and there’s gel cushioning at the heel to smooth out any vibrations and soak up landings.

“It’s light, it’s stiff, and it makes any piece of gear look like it belongs on a special shelf in the Batcav”

Straps and Highbacks

Did we mention these things have got carbon in them? Well, the highback is no different. It’s a single piece of carbon-infused nylon that doubles as the heel hoop. An asymmetric shape means it supports the back of your boot more ergonomically, and of course it transfers energy into your heel edge as rapidly as you would expect from a rigid highback that’s full of the c-word. Again, though, the lateral flex is not bone-shakingly stiff; the holes in the back have the effect of focusing most of the support down the spine, in a toe-to-heel direction, so torsionally you can still bend it a little (and of course, those cutaways make an already featherweight design even lighter).

Being a Flow binding, the highback reclines with the flick of a lever so that you can gain entry from the rear (oo er). The Fuse Carbon is fitted with their ‘Active Strap Tech’ that hinges the straps upwards when you operate said lever, giving you more space to slide in your foot; as soon as you pull the highback back up into the ‘locked’ position, the strap re-engages over the boot. Bingo.

Speaking of straps, there are two varieties to choose from prior to purchase. On the ‘Fusion’ version, the toe and heel straps are more closely integrated. It’s designed to make it as easy as possible to put your foot in – maximising the benefit of the speed entry system – and pressure is spread over more of your foot. Support feels a bit more ‘top-down’ which suits riders seeking locked-in power from edge to edge. The ‘Hybrid’ option looks more like a conventional two-strap binding, with a webbed toe cap helping to pull your foot back into the binding, and in fact some riders like to operate them in a traditional style without using the highback. There’s a little more side-to-side movement available in these, too, which tilts the balance towards freestyle.

Both strap versions are made from expanded EVA, which is tough as nails, though the Hybrid style features an AuxTech mesh on the toe strap that helps it expand around the end of your boot. Machined aluminium ratchets complete the premium feel, and boast a locking mechanism that means you can crank them to your favoured level, then fix them in position and get in and out using the reclining highback. This probably makes most sense with the Fusion strap, which is the purest rear-entry design.

“The new Flow Fuse Carbon bindings are all about speed”

Roundup

The new Flow Fuse Carbon bindings are all about speed. Speed of entry, speed of exit, speed of response. They’re obviously on the stiff side, which puts them firmly in the realms of intermediate to advanced riders who understand edge control. That said, they’re not just for hipster euro carvers. Given they’re so light, and they have more lateral flex than you might credit, they’re more than capable of sending it over the pro line if you’ve got the chops (and deep enough pockets). And you’ll look like Batman if you do.

Trade Secrets

Lucien Vink – Industrial Designer & Product Manager, Flow

“The Fuse Carbon uses the same carbon-infused nylon as the NX2-CX hiback. But to get the material-mix and injection parameters just right to work for the Fuse baseplate, to achieve the optimal strength, stiffness and visual appearance, probably took around 5-6 trial runs of samples more than usual to dial in a new material. It was challenging but totally worth it because it elevates to Fuse Series binding to a whole new level of performance!”

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