Jones Meteorite Bindings Review

Bindings: Jones Meteorite 2024

Price: $329 (USD recommended retail)

Style: Freestyle

Flex Rating: Medium (6/10)

Flex Feel: Medium (5/10)

Rating Score: 84.7/100

Compared to other Men’s Freestyle Bindings

Out of the 16 men’s freestyle bindings that I rated:

overview of the Meteorite's specs

Check out the tables for the Meteorite’s specs and available sizes.

Specs

Who are the Meteorite Most Suited to?

The Meteorite are best suited to riding freestyle, IMO, and in general for more playful, slower speed riding and great for slashing around. 

Didn't perform as well for deeper, more aggressive carves at higher speeds, so not best suited to those who want to charge all day. 

IMO, they would match best with boards in the 3/10 to 6/10 flex range, and particularly well in the 4/10 to 5/10 flex range. I felt they matched just right to my 5/10 flex control board. 

The Meteorite in More Detail

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance Width: 555mm (22”)

Board tested with: Lib Tech Terrain Wrecker

Boots tested with: Adidas Response ADV, US9.5

Footbed length: 25.6cm (10.1”) 

Footbed Length Fully Extended: n/a

Baseplate Length (underside):  24.2cm (9.5")

Highback Height: 21.0cm (8.3”)

Weight: 900 grams (1lbs, 15oz)

* for one binding, including screws and disc. The average weight of a small sample size of around 80 bindings (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024 models) I have weighed is 920 grams (2lbs). So the Meteorite is really close to the average and felt that way on snow too. 

The Meteorites were tested around the same time as the NOW Drive Pro, NOW Select Pro and Jones Orion and were also compared, as is the case for all our binding testing, to the control bindings, in this case the Burton Malavitas. 

Flex

In Hand:  Surprisingly the Jones Meteorite was stiffer when twisting the highback vs the NOW Drive Pro and Jones Orion (which were ultimately stiffer on snow). But they weren't as stiff when twisting the high-back as the NOW Select Pro - or my control bindings (Burton Malavita). The Select Pro felt quite a bit stiffer feeling in twist vs Meteorite with the Drive Pro and Orion hard to choose between for the softest.  

On pull back, the Orion had the most give, with the Meteorite, Select Pro and Drive Pro all about the same. 

Ankle and toe strap: Ankle strap flex between all bindings were very close, but the Drive Pro and Meteorite had slightly stiffer ankle straps vs the Select Pro and Orion. 

The two Jones’ (Meteorite and Orion) have stiffer toe straps than the NOWs (Select Pro and Drive Pro). 

On Snow: As is quite often the case, high-back in-hand flex and strap flex don't necessarily translate into a stiffer binding on snow. Which is why whenever someone puts out a review about the Burton Malavita (or other binding with a stiff highback but overall a mid-flex or just a different overall flex to the high-back's flex feel in-hand) being a stiff binding, I know straight away, they've just gone and flexed the high-back and haven't actually tested them for real. 

This also applies to the Meteorite. While the high-back felt stiffer than the Meteorite and Drive Pro, the overall flex was noticeably softer. Maybe it's because of softer ankle straps? Well the Meteotite didn't have those either. 

IMO, binding flex is influenced by high-back and strap flex, but the most influential factor in overall flex feel must be the baseplates flex. 

In any case the Meteorite felt like a 5/10 flex overall, by my feel in comparison to the Orion (6/10 flex), Drive Pro (7.5/10) and Select Pro (6/10 flex).

Carving Performance

The Meteorite felt like it couldn't hold a carve as well when compared to the Orion, Select Pro, Drive Pro and Malavita. It certainly wasn't terrible, but made my board feel more likely to wash out, when carving at higher speeds than any of the others. 

Slow Speed Response

While they down in terms of higher speed carving performance, they were the best of all the other bindings mentioned in terms of slow speed response. They felt like they were designed to be just right for my board when riding slow and increased the ease and quickness of my slow speed turns. 

Butterability/Board Feel

While still not as good as my control bindings, in terms of board feel, they actually felt better than other Jones/NOW bindings I've tested. 

Adjustability

Heel Cup: No

Stance Width: Not a minidisc, but there’s a fairly narrow space where the screws go, so not a massive amount of stance width adjustment, but there's some. 

Highback Lean: Yes - tool-less.

Ankle Strap Position: Yes, in a way, as you can swap the ankle straps between the bindings. One way up they provide more ankle support and the other way up, they give more freedom of movement. What Jones term freeride mode and surf mode. 

Toe Strap Position: No

Ankle and toe strap length: Tool-less

Gas pedal/toe ramp extension: None

Highback Rotation: No

Compatible with: 2x4 | 4x4 | Channel

In addition you can also change the bushings to stiffer or softer ones, so that's an extra piece of adjustability that most bindings don't have. 

Shock Absorption

As is the case with every Jones/NOW binding I've tested, they had great shock absorption. I would say that they absorbed shock as well as the NOWs, but just a touch down in terms of chatter absorption - maybe because of that extra board feel. 

But that's being picky and still more shock absorbing than everything else not NOW/Jones. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Entry/Exit

I found the Ratchets to be nice and smooth on the Meteorite and this helped to make them easy to get in and out of and could trust that they would open up when unstrapping on the move. 

They also have hinges on both the ankle and toe straps, which open out and stay open, so you can get your foot in without any straps in the way and you don't accidentally step on your straps. Nice to have it on both ankle and toe straps. 

Comfort

Ankle Strap: While the ankle straps were on the stiffer side, they felt nice and comfortable and most importantly didn't feel any pressure points.

Toe Strap: Ditto ankle strap. 

Canted Footbed: Yes

Padded Footbed: See shock absorption - the way these things feel underfoot also enhances their comfort. 

Highback: Some padding on highback, but main thing was that they didn't produce any calf-bite. 

Ankle Support

Ankle support was good. Nothing epic, but good. I was in freeride mode, which gives more ankle support. I imagine in surf mode - and from experience with other similar bindings in the surf mode - there wouldn't be as much ankle support - but you might want that if you want more freedom of movement in your ankles. 

The Meteorite are super fun bindings matched to a mid-soft to mid flexing board, when you're wanting to slash around, rip short sharp turns/carves at slower speeds and when doing ollies, spins, butters etc. 

They didn't go quite as well when opening them out and trying to do big carves at high speeds. They made my board feel more agile at slow speeds compared to most other bindings, but not as good on a carve. 

I really liked the fact that both the ankle strap and toe strap have hinges which open out, to make it easier to strap in. But their best quality was how well they absorbed shock.