Rome 390 Review And Buying Advice

Rome 390 2014 - 2011 Review by The Good Ride

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The Rome 390 appeals to a very wide variety of riders and riding styles. The only difference between the 390 Boss and 390 is the 390 Boss has canting options and a different toe strap. Our only complaint is that they are many parts and the binding is hard to adjust to your foot size.

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.

Day’s- 50+

Bindings tried- Rome 390

The 2014 Rome 390 bindings have the same ride but they have improved lots of annoying construction issues in the past.

1. You can now dial this binding out for your boot without going bat shit crazy. There is a sliding system to adjust the heel loop were before you had to remove screws and it was a nightmare putting them back in because the under wrap heel loop wasn’t always perfectly aligned. It drove me mad a few times.

2. The rubber padding on the bottom is now permanently attached where before it used to always come off when you were trying to mount the binding.

3. The EVA footbed of the base plate has been changed to a uniform base plate instead of a 2 piece base plate that didn’t look too sturdy.

Approx Weight: 4.8lbs

Flex– As we say above this is a medium flex that is compatible with a wide range of boards and boots. We all felt it was more on the soft side of medium but supportive and pretty responsive.

Adjustability: The one issue with the Rome 390 is it’s not easy to get everything dialed out. The biggest pain is adjusting the bindings to your boot size.  You have a metal piece connecting to a metal or plastic piece that isn’t easy to align so you can get the screw in. This was incredibly frustrating to us and took us almost an hour to get both bindings dialed out.   Also when there are a lot of parts there are a lot of possibilities for those parts to break.  We have to say though that we haven’t had any issues but the writing is on the wall.  It’s also not easy to change from one board to another. You have to take off a small screw on the top, remove 2 pieces and then un-screw the discs.  For us, it was a pain in the ass to change these bindings from one board to another but for the average rider, it won’t be terrible if you mainly keep them on one board. The 2014 Rome 390 is for sure the call for the reasons mentioned above.

Comfort: Once you get the bindings set up these are some of the most comfortable bindings out there.  None of us experienced any pressure points even when we cranked them super tight. Also, the new canting system makes a big difference when it comes to keeping your hips, knees, and ankles better in line with your body.  I (editor) have bad hips from too much hard living and when I’m done with a day of snowboarding they can get tight. When using the canted system they feel much better when getting off the hill.  You see the canted trend increasing across the binding world and I really like this.  The rest of the crew liked the cant but I liked it the best for obvious reasons.

Heel to Toe Response: The response is good for what Rome sees as a freestyle snowboard binding. We see it more as an all mountain do anything type of binding and it can handle a soft continuous rocker snowboard as well as deal with even a moderately stiff camber board.  edge to edge response with the 390 and 390 Boss is very good for its flex and design.

Approximate Weight The Rome 390’s are not light.  We don’t really put any binding on a scale and can be wrong but the 390 Boss and 390 seemed heavier than the other bindings in their class.  The 2011 and 2012 models are a little lighter than 2010.

Tip to Tail Response: The new ankle straps for the 2012 and 2011 models give a little more ability to flex the board laterally a lot better than the 2010s.

Shock Absorption: 2011 and 2012 have superior shock absorption and some of the best in the industry.  The addition of EVA foam throughout the entire base makes for a very friendly ride when making that awkward flat landing. 2010 was pretty good but it doesn’t hold a candle to the 2011 to 2014 models.

The Rome 390 is a great binding for all kinds of riders and if you can live with the adjustability issues you might have a binding that will make you very happy.