Rome Katana FASE Snowboard Binding Review

A Detailed Breakdown Of How the Rome Katana FASE Rides Review by The Good Ride

• User Reviews
• Product Specs
• Product Images
• Questions?

How The Rome Katana FASE Was Tested:

It was sent to me as a promo from Rome to keep and if it wasn’t a favorite I’d send it back. I want to keep this to test against other quick release like Supermatic, Step On, and Flow in the future.

Compared Against

I rode the Rome Katana FASE several days to get used to them all. We started out with my base liner, the Union Force, to get that feel underfoot of the day with the board that I was testing these on. Then I put these on and sometimes put one foot with these and one foot with these so I could get an even better feel. Then another day I brought out these, took a run, then got on these, and then got on a run with these. So I had a really good comparison of all of these.

And throughout all of that I rode them with my Nitro Team TLS boots that I’ve been loving this year. I got this in a wide variety of conditions as well.

Days: 5+
Conditions:  and an early morning slackountry time with Drift Boards & Union Rovers
Riders:  James (Size 9, 5’10”, 185-190lbs). I’ve tested and compared 800+ boards, over 180 bindings and 100+ boots
Boots: Nitro Team TLS
Insoles: Footprint Kingfoam Orthotic Elite
Redundancy: Strapins in case boots or bindings break.
Jacket: Skyline Fuse Jacket
Jacket: Skyline Faze Pant, Burton AK Gore-Tex 2L Swash Pant
Helmet: Smith Method
Goggle: Smith 4D Mag
Gloves: Burton AK Clutch Mitt, Burton AK Tech Leather Glove, Drop Tahoma Mitt

Boards:
Nidecker Megalight

Similar (but not the same) Bindings:
Union Force & Jones Mercury FASE, Flow NX2

Weight

The Rome Katana FASE are 2lbs 7oz. It’s a little bit on the heavier side of medium. In comparison to the Jones Mercury FASE, you’re looking at 2lbs 3oz. And in comparison to my Force, 2lbs 5oz.

Highback Flex

There is not much twist here. There’s a little bit of give and it feels like with a lot of flex back there’s a little bit of snap back. You compare that to the Mercury, there’s a lot more twist and a little more give, but not much. Same with the Force. They’re very similar. This actually has a little less twist than the Mercury and about the same give maybe a little less as well. But you can rotate this high back where you can’t with all of these.

Adjustability

When it comes to adjustability, you’re losing high back rotation, but everything else about this binding is great adjustability wise. Unlike Step On and unlike the Nidecker Supermatic line, you can still slide this heel loop in or out and then slide this gas pedal forward and back to center your boot in the binding and therefore center it on board. The Rome Katana FASE keeps that versatility without sacrificing stability.

Then you can take these hybrid mini discs that are a good bit smaller than full size discs. However, they are still big enough to fit set back inserts that are 40 mil apart instead of 20. Without any adjustability, if you set it up mini disc, you have infinite adjustability, and so you’ll probably get your stance width on every kind of board except for boards like this, my wonderful Cadet that has the set back insert. You can see this will fit this, but you just have no adjustability. But when you’re on the 20 mil apart inserts, it’s going to work just fine and you’re going to get the stance width you want.

Adjustability vs. the Jones Mercury FASE

In comparison to the Jones FASE Mercury, you get almost nothing. You have a gas pedal you can extend out, which is better than the regular Mercury, but you have no adjustable heel loop—very limited adjustability in comparison to the Rome Katana FASE, which has tons of boot-to-binding adjustability. Most of you won’t be able to turn these discs tip to tail and slide it this way because you’ll be using the discs to slide the binding heel to toe to center it on the board. And that kind of sucks. So a huge win for the Rome Katana FASE here. And while I still prefer the excellent adjustability of my Union Force, these Katanas are close enough and they’re close enough to the regular Katanas as well.

Flex Underfoot

When it comes to flex underfoot and buttering, the entire binding is covered with EVA foam. It’s medium density. It’s just the contact of this hybrid disc with the board, that’s it. It has a very easy flex underfoot. When I went to the Jones, this has foam everywhere except for the full-size disc. It made the board feel stiffer underfoot but not dead. This made the board feel softer underfoot, so it’s just about feel preference. The Mercury and the Force felt very similar in terms of flex underfoot—stiffer but far from dead. So if you like to butter, you want the Rome Katana FASE over the Mercury FASE for sure. But if you like a stiffer feel underfoot, you’ll probably like the Mercury’s.

Shock Absorption Dampness

The Rome Katana FASE has this stiffer, plasticky material on the gas pedal. Then it transitions to a very damp but also shock absorbent heel pad that has almost the same material throughout the bottom. So it’s a very damp, cushioned, shock absorbent ride.

In comparison to the Mercury FASE, it is not like their Kingpin technology, where it has four rubber bushings on the bottom that really damp up the ride. This is foam, and while it’s pretty damp, it’s not as damp as the other Jones and Yes, formerly Now bindings. But it has a lot of EVA foam that allows for pretty good shock absorption, and it goes throughout the entire footbed.

Unlike all the Jones and Yes bindings formerly Now, this has no pressure point on your metatarsal. That is great and doesn’t stress your arch or make it harder to ride all day. I felt like my Force was still very good with shock absorption and dampness, although it was maybe a little bit better in terms of shock absorption, but about the same in terms of dampness and a good bit behind the Rome Katana FASE.

Turn Initiation/Response/Carving

There is a lot of response happening here. The adjustable ankle strap angle allows you to bring it up for more response, bring it down for a more fun surfy feel. It’s a really great way to improve your response. But overall, the Rome Katana FASE is a very responsive binding if you want it to be, and a mellow binding if you don’t—that’s incredible. I thought this would be further behind because I did set this up a little high ankle strap wise, but when I adjusted this down to match the angle of the Jones FASE Mercury, they were pretty similar. While the Rome Katana FASE can be more responsive than both my Force and the Mercury when it’s set up somewhat normally, it’s pretty similar.

Boot Support

Rome Katana FASE ankle straps are pretty supportive but not as good as regular Katana’s. They’re smaller than the other Katanas, and I think that’s so you can get your foot in and out easier. But I still didn’t feel like I was ever in trouble or lacking support when I had these on. They’re a little bit behind my Force in terms of support, but they were close enough, and when I was off-piste, they weren’t bad.

Same with the Mercury’s—not as much support, but I think they want that easy in and out. Never really been a huge fan of this ultra stretchy toe strap, and I wish they put a more dense rubber reinforcement right here because I can just crank this all the way down to where you run out of ladder, and I don’t like that. I definitely liked the straps of the Mercury better, but I like my amazing toe strap and ankle strap of my Force a lot better. I just felt that it had more support. And then on top of that, the ratchets were much better with my Union Force. But really, you don’t have to worry about the toe strap ratchet—you only have to worry about the ankle strap, and it’s pretty good. Same with the Jones.

Stepping In & Out

Finally, let’s talk about why you probably want to buy the Rome Katana FASE. The in and out—at first I found that these were actually slower than my Union Force. I know these bindings well. I know how to pull up on the side, step into them, strap them on super fast and go. These were a little weird, a little tricky at first, and I didn’t like them at all. Then each time I went out, it got a little faster, and by the end it was a good bit faster. Sometimes I could just step off the chair, put my boot in, then when I was moving along, I could just ratchet this down and go. Then it started to get faster, but it has a learning curve with it.

Vs. Supermatics and Step On

It’s definitely not as easy as the Supermatics. I did a comparison on the same day.  It’s definitely not as easy as the Step On, but I don’t like stepping out of Step Ons, so stepping out of this was actually easier for me.

The only time I really felt slowed down and frustrated was on a powder day when I rode the Rome Katana FASE, and I was constantly trying to dust off this with my hands. With my Union Forces, I just put this off to the side, bring my boot heel in and scrape it all out, finish it off with my hand if I need to, but I get it all out really easily. With this strap being here, I would have to take this off and open up the toe strap and run my boot through it like I would a normal binding, and then put it all back together and strap in like I was on normal binding. So on a powder day, it’s going to be like a traditional strap binding or even slower.

Final Thoughts

So overall, it’s not as fast as Supermatics and Step On. I feel like I’m compromising the least in terms of feel underfoot, adjustability, and except for high back rotation. I feel like I almost have a Katana under my foot—and that’s pretty cool. So I think right now with where Step On is—how you’re so locked into the high back, you have so few boot choices and such limited adjustability. With Supermatics you have such a heavy feel with minimal flex underfoot.

The Rome Katana FASE, of the two FASE bindings, I preferred the Katana. I really did like the lighter feel of the Mercury FASE, but it has such limited adjustability. The Rome Katana FASE does it all. It has more shock absorption, almost the same boot-to-binding adjustability as the regular Katana. So I think if you’re looking for something that’s a little easier on/off vs.traditional bindings and don’t want to reach around the back like you do with Flow these could work. They have way more adjustability than Supermatic and Step On. They also have a much more familiar modern binding feel. I wish I could have gotten on the Bataleon’s—they said they were sending them to me and then nothing ever got sent. Shit happens though. So there you have it. The Rome Katana FASE is my favorite FASE of the two I’ve tried, hands down.