Lib Tech Duh 2016 - 2015 Review by The Good Ride

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Ethics Statement: We don’t get paid by the manufacturer to write these reviews.  We do make money from the “Where To Buy” links, but this is our best attempt at an honest and objective review from an average riders’ perspective.

As you can see in the video we had a debate about whether this is lifted like Bataleon boards or not.  I said it wasn’t the same but didn’t describe the difference correctly.  The real difference is the second set of edges and the fact that the entire middle part of the base is lifted up dramatically like it’s a second board. Boards like Bataleon and others only gradually bend up some strategic points along the effective edge.  The feel is completely different from TBT and other boards with parts of the effective edge lifted.

Size: 157
Days:  1
Conditions: Perfect soft but a little messy snow with only a few hard patches here and there.  Also a little powder in the trees.
Riders: James, Peter Jimbo,
Boots: Burton SLX, Burton Fiend LTD, Salomon F3.0,
Bindings: Burton Cartel

Set Up: Centered 15 front -15 back 23″ wide

Approximate Weight: Felt normal to touch on the heavy side of normal

On Snow Feel: Very interesting feel.  It doesn’t feel like it’s XC2 BTX and the edges fought each other making it feel super catchy doing anything.  It’s not a very stable ride and it scared us.

Turn Initiation: All I can say is very weird. Every time we turned the edges fought one another. You would turn left and it felt like the board was trying to turn you right throughout the turn.   All of us wanted the inside edges completely dulled out because we felt like they were not only catching but fighting the outside edges on a turn. I felt this on short to wide radius turns. Here is a vid showing how it works with Stephen acting like a 6’4″ Nelly Furtado…

If this was my board I would have gone straight to a shop and filed out the inside edges until they were round from tip to tail and left the outside edges the way they were.  That way they wouldn’t catch or fight the turn as they did here.

Flex: Felt very similar to the TRS and felt a little bit stiffer.

Edge Hold: Amazing grippy edge hold that would own it in hard to icy conditions.  Not sure how it would feel though with 2 edges at a time on the snow in the really hard snow.  We only had a few hard snowment like patches but the biggest issue would be stability underfoot.

Powder: Only a little bit of powder in the trees but not enough to really tell.  However, based on the similar camber profile to the TRS it seems like it would be good but nothing great.  Kind of the same for all hybrid rocker twins like this.

Carving: When I really got it on the outside edges on a hard carve it felt fine and carved like the TRS did which is pretty fun but it was weird getting to them and often the inside edge would have a little grab fight with the outside edge before letting me get over on that edge. So yeah it can carve really well once you are there but when transitioning from edge to edge on a carve wasn’t that much fun.

Speed: Like Peter said it bombs pretty well and feels pretty stable when flat basing at high speeds but on edge or I guess edges it can feel a bit uncomfortable. I would hate for the edges to fight one another at higher speeds. It could lead to a spectacular accident.

Uneven Terrain:  Ok in terms of how the boards’ flex and materials handle uneven snow but I just don’t want to take 4 edges through the bumps.

Switch: Felt pretty much the same either way.

Jumps: Good pop but I think I liked the pop of the TRS better.  It’s not really a board I’d feel comfortable on a big kicker or even a medium one.

Jibbing: I think if the inside edges were filed down to completely round then this would be pretty strong here despite it’s less than ideal flex. It just wouldn’t catch and you could even keep the outer edges sharp and still have some really solid jibability.

Pipe: Took one pass through the pipe and didn’t really like the feel.  Again I might like it much better with the edges completely dull.

So, all in all, I think this could be the start to something fun but I think the inner and outer edges need to find some harmony with one another before it evolves from here.