Ride Buck Up 2015 - 2014 Review by The Good Ride

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The Ride Buck Up is the continuation of the DH2 with a few new enhancements.  It’s still got a personality very similar to the DH2 but rides a little better.  This is for the rider that wants something a little more forgiving than the DH but still wants an aggressive all mountain freestyle ride. It’s not for everyone but the right kind of rider could be very happy with this ultra damp twin. The 2014 and 2015 Ride Buck Up are pretty much the same rides.

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.

Size: 158

Days: 1
Conditions: Hard snow at the top with softer snow at the bottom.
Riders: James, Ginger, and Peter
Boots: Burton Ion, Nike Kaiju,
Bindings: Ride Maestro
Set Up: Centered Stance, 23″ wide 15 front -15 back

On Snow Feel: Very stable to the point of being semi-catchy.  It’s no easy riding board.  It’s made for the more aggressive or technical rider that likes the pipe, jumps and hauling ass regular or switch around the mountain.

Powder: We had no powder but from past experience with rides hybrid camber boards my guess is it’s going to be better than true camber but not as good as many of rides flat to rocker twins like the Buckwild. This is the trade-off for more pop and spring.

Turn Initiation and Carving: The Buck Up takes some work but a technical rider can make the board transition quickly from edge to edge.  So it’s not easy but it’s quick. Wide radius turns are pretty fun and you can feel a little spring at the end of a turn. This is really fun to carve. It’s not as good as the DH but it can satisfy most aggressive riders needs when it comes to laying into a hard carve.

Speed: Very very fast for a twin and this board can bomb the mountain better than many all mountain boards. It’s really at home on the mountain.

Uneven Terrain:  Ride does something with many of their boards to make them feel like they have an extra shock absorbing layer in them.  Some love this ultra damp feel and some don’t.  The one good thing is it makes a stiffer twin handle bumpy terrain better than it should.  It’s still not as easy as some boards but at the end of the day, it won’t punish you as some boards can.

Edge Hold: I’d like to see ride give a little something extra with the edge hold.  I don’t want magnetraction but instead, just a little something extra like many other companies are doing.  I believe this has a little extra camber in the tail than the DH2 and you could feel a little extra edge hold.  Maybe that’s why.  It’s an improvement but to us it felt still a bit on the great side of good.  It’s not the best board we rode in hard conditions but it holds an edge well enough in less than ideal conditions.

Flex: Medium to maybe even a bit on the medium/stiff side.  It’s no mellow twin and we found it harder to butter than Ride’s flat to rocker boards.

Switch: Felt just a little shy of perfect.  It’s simple to get used to the minor difference.

Jibbing: Not the kind of board we would like to have in the jib park but it can hit some simple boxes and bonks. It’s way more at home in the pipe or hitting kickers.

Pipe: We had no pipe time but you can tell this will carve pipe walls well and give a pretty good show in there.  It’s not a great board to learn in but an accomplished pipe rider might like the more forgiving ride than the DH.  It might boost a little confidence.

Jumps: It pops pretty well for an Ollie but it is best hitting a bigger kicker in the park.

All in all, we liked this board but it fell a little shy of the discontinued Arcade UL. There weren’t’ aggressive all mountain freestyle favorites back in the Arcade UL’s day but if there were it would have been. We’d love to see them bring the Arcade back or give the Buck Up Ultra Light tech.