Flux XV Bindings Review

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the XV are capable of.

Demo Info

Bindings: Flux XV 2019, Large

Date: April 15. 2018

Conditions: There was a little bit of fresh snow in the morning but just a few centimeters. There was still some left over fresh snow from the previous couple of days but not as much there as there was the day before. Quite cold in the morning, especially for April, but warmed up in the afternoon as the sun came out.

Visibility was variable in the morning for the first couple of laps but cleared out pretty quickly with the sun coming out late morning.

There were a couple of harder spots but mostly pretty soft/medium all round.

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance Width: 550 (21.7”)

Board tested with: Rossignol One LF, 2018

Boots tested with: Vans Infuse, size US10

Baseplate Length: 24.7cm (9.72”) – the heel ramp was a little extended, so it goes shorter than that. And since the heel ramp and the toe ramp both adjust it can go a good bit longer than that. My Flux DS are 24.5cm with no extension and 26.1cm fully extended. The XV, since they use a different base plate may be a little bit different, I only remembered to measure it after I had mounted it so could only measure it at what it was set to. The XF (which has the same base plate) I measured was 24.3cm and that was still a little extended, so I think it will go as short as 24cm and likely as long as 25.5cm.

Highback Height: 19.5cm (7.68”)

Flex

This binding is seriously stiff, particularly in the highback. It barely moves when you try to twist it with your hands. So I’ve given it a 9/10. Flux gives it a 5/5. I would say it really is bordering on 10/10.

Responsiveness

Very very responsive. Certainly, made my board more responsive. To a point that it was bordering on twitchy (the board I rode them with, I consider a 6/10 flex). So yeah, super responsive.

Not just in terms of quick turn initiation but also really locked you in for carves really well, just felt it held me in super-solid on a big arcing carve, more so than most bindings.

Board Feel/Butterability

For how stiff it is, you can actually still butter in these bindings and there is still a really decent board feel. This is what really surprised me about these (and other stiffer Flux bindings).

Pop/Ollie Power

Made my board poppier too. Like a lot of stiffer bindings, I felt like you had to give it a bit more effort but once you did you could really extract good spring from ollies/popping.

Adjustability

You can adjust pretty much everything. One of the only bindings that lets you adjust both the heel ramp and toe ramp (usually just the toe ramp) – so that’s a bonus.

Can’t adjust the heel cup, which I would like to see and can’t adjust the high back rotation, which isn’t a big deal for me, but heel cup adjustments are nice to have.

Shock Absorption

They’re a bit lacking in this department. To be fair, I didn’t really notice the extent of this, but I didn’t ride them all day, which is when you might start to feel that. But also, I wasn’t hitting a lot of jumps or jibs in the park or anything either – and for what you want these bindings for (Freeriding/charging), shock absorption is less important, IMO.

Entry/Exit

Smooth entry and exit on these as with all the other Flux bindings I’ve tried.

Comfort

Really comfortable. I hardly noticed them on, which is always a good sign of comfort.

The waffle strap fits great and, again, you just don’t notice it. The toe strap is probably the best in the business in my opinion. I found it conformed to my boot perfectly with no pressure points. It felt like it was on as solid as it could be but you hardly noticed it was there.

Ankle Support

Great ankle support. Flux are one of the best in the business when it comes to ankle support, in my opinion.

Price

For Freeride bindings they are actually one of the better priced models, and given the performance you get out of them, a great price, IMO.

Changes for the 2022 Model

As far as I can tell the 2022 model is the same as the 2021 model, apart from colorways. 

Changes for the 2021 Model

The 2021 model gets a brand new highback. The “W-Prop Highback” replacing the “Retro Mod Highback” that was on the 2020 model. 

The 2021 model also gets a new disc – which is now compatible with the Channel. So you no longer have to get a separate disc to make them compatible with the channel. 

Changes for the 2020 Model

The 2020 model gets a couple of upgrades: 

1. The highback is now different. The 2019 model had the “Axis” highback. The 2020 model has a “Retro-Mod” highback. The “Retro-Mod” has carbon in it. 
2. The base plate also makes use of their “Super Carbon Blend” now

Changes for the 2019 Model

The toe strap has been tweaked (FTM ver5.0) which takes what was already an awesome toe strap and made it even better. I thought Flux had one of the best in the industry as it was, and this makes it that little bit better.

They may have done some other tweaks for the 2019 model but as far as I can tell it’s otherwise the same binding as the 2018 model.