Flux DS30 2013 - 2012 Review by The Good Ride

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The Flux DS30 is a nice mix up to the Flux freestyle to all mountain freestyle line. You get a lot of binding for the price and in many ways, it’s a more affordable version of the Flux DMCC Light. We are big fans of this versatile binding.

Ethics Statement: We don’t get paid by the manufacturer to write these reviews.  No one is perfect and we do make money from the “Where To Buy” links below, but this is our best attempt at an honest and objective review from an average riders’ perspective.

Everyone from our crew really liked this binding.   It’s very comfortable, easily adjustable and really great for soft to medium freestyle to all mountain boards.

2013 Flux DS30-The new toe straps are lighter and a nice step up from last year’s toe strap.  Both work rather well but lighter is always better.  Same goes for the new larger asymmetrical ankle strap.  We like the new softer high back compared to last year.  Basically, the ride is pretty similar to 2012 except the high back is a little softer and the binding is lighter.

Flex: pretty soft here. You can bend the high back straight back or torsionally rather easy so if you like a good range of movement with the high back you have it here.  It’s still pretty responsive for binding of this softer flex. The high back looks a little bit shorter than the average freestyle focused high back but not by much.

Adjustability: so easy to adjust compared to many of the bindings there.  All you need the tool for is screwing it to the board.  The rest can all be done by hand.

Comfort: Very comfortable and very easy to adjust to make your self comfortable.

Tip to tail Response: Very smooth and pretty responsive for a binding with such a soft flex.  We really liked the feel of these bindings on anything from noodle jib boards to even medium flexing all mountain freestyle boards.

Approximate Weight: Even though it’s not the lightest in Flux’s line its still pretty light.

Tip to Tail Response: The new bigger ankle strap gives you more leverage to butter or press as well as get the board going from edge to edge.  One cool thing is if you like to butter or press a lot then you can take off the stoppers at the base of the binding and it will allow the board to flex more naturally underfoot when flexing the board laterally. Taking those off helps and I believe so does the super supportive ankle strap.  It seems to overpower the dead spot under foot and flex the board really well anyways.

Boot Support: The support is really locked in here.  The ankle strap really does wrap around your boot better than almost any other ankle strap we have tried. It’s a very supportive feeling.  You really don’t have to crank down too much.  The toe strap pulls the boot into the heel cup very well too. Flux really understands how to integrate a boot and board together to all act as one and this is one of the bindings best qualities.

Ratchet System: As I have said with all high-end Flux bindings the ratchet system really doesn’t lock up or stick.  It’s very smooth and right there with the best ratchet systems.

Shock Absorption: Our only issue with the Flux DS30 is the shock absorption in the heel.  It’s such a small amount of foam on fiberglass where most have dense foam or gel for most of the heel.  We’d love to see the plastic fiberglass bottom be completely replaced with a bigger foam/gell combo. Come on Flux do this for us. Think about keeping the 20-year-olds on the hill for 40 years.

http://vimeo.com/56747532?autoplay=1&quality=720p

2012 Flux DS30– It has all the new tech that Flux offered for 2012.  The new Alpha base plate has some big improvements over the old base plates.  It is lighter, has more padding across the entire base and is more friendly when it comes to allowing your board to flex more naturally underfoot.  We would still like to see the heel portion of the base plate changed to 100% cushioning material instead of having nylon/plastic but it’s a step in the right direction.  We liked the older toe straps from 2011 better but they still aren’t that bad.

All in all, this is a great binding and we had a great time on it.  This was added to our quiver to test jib/freestyle/all mountain freestyle boards.