Often overlooked, snowboard bindings are an essential part of anyone’s mountain setup. They are the core of what really translates the movement of your feet and your body to the board and onto the snow.
Ensuring you have a solid binding that suits your riding style without causing foot pain is the secret to both a comfortable and satisfying ride.
Over my years as a snowboarder, I have been through the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to bindings.
The most expensive are not always the best, and the cheap can often surprise. I remember my first set of bindings, I went cheap and paid the cost of riding with them in tatters in weeks.
Burton Cartel Binding Reviews
With these Burton Cartel bindings, you are investing in a company that is both known for its high quality, and you are guaranteed a pair of awesome bindings. Taking the time to do your research will pay off in the long run.
These middle-of-the-road bindings won’t break the bank but pack some nice little extras, such as the re:flex system that helps the bindings flex with the board.
These are the snowboard bindings you can equip in your arsenal when you’re looking to take your riding to the next level.
Burton Cartel Bindings
The price of “Burton Cartel Bindings ” varies, so check the latest price at
Breaking Down The Burton Cartel Specs
Taking a look at the specifications of the Burton Cartel bindings doesn’t give too much away. A very middle-of-the-road grouping shows a real everyman binding.
Medium flex combined with a medium-fast edge-to-edge rating makes these all-mountain snowboard boots suitable no matter what your riding style.
Specs
Being geared towards the intermediate and up rider means these Burton snowboard bindings will be suitable for anyone that’s comfortable out of the training school. It won’t take much to make these bad boys do what you want.
One Binding to do it All
They will be great to take your board from mountain riding to terrain park without much of an issue, and their middle-of-the-park specs will help you find your riding style and improve with ease.
Without any particular focus, they are the perfect binding to help you find your preferred place on the hill.
All mountain bindings have the ability to be great across the whole plethora of snow available to anyone up the mountain. You won’t have to worry about not being ready for whatever the day throws your way.
Mounting
These Burton Cartel bindings come equipped for all mounting systems, from the more traditional 4×4 setup to the Burton boards’ own channel system. This means you can slap them on any board you choose, be it Burton or whoever else you want to ride.
The bindings do have a slight issue with mounting on the non-channel system. The foot angle becomes difficult to really get to where you want it using the 4×4 or 4×2 mounting.
Who Should be Riding The Burton Cartels
These Burton bindings are built for the rider who wants it all. These jack-of-all-trades bindings hit all the spots but specialize in none.
You can take them from shredding a park to throwing your board into waist-deep powder whilst staying extremely comfortable.
Burton products are synonymous with quality, they make good boards and some of the best snowboard bindings on the market.
These are made for the rider who wants to invest some money into their equipment. Buying your own boots and bindings is an easy way to massively improve your setup without breaking the bank.
Every setup starts somewhere, and where better than your bindings?
The Burton Cartels are suitable for the rider who perhaps wants to own their own boots and bindings but may end up hiring their board.
The excellent thing about the Burton Cartels is their ability to be connected with almost every mounting system. The base plate can be adjusted and is designed to work on a very universal level.
A Deep Dive Into The Burton Cartel Snowboard bindings.
Taking a look at the specs is all well and good, but with so many little things that make such a big difference, it’s impossible to really get an idea of what these bindings are all about without breaking them down.
I know that for me, each detail makes a difference in my decision as to whether I buy or not. Let’s see if these bindings are the ones that will work with your ride.
Getting The Flex
The Burton Cartel comes in two different editions: the Burton Cartel EST version and the Burton Cartel re:flex. Both of these implement different technologies to improve the way they respond to the flex of your foot inside your boot.
Both of these bindings have taken the medium stiff approach to their builds, opting for a more natural flex throughout the high back and base plate.
The Cartels flex moves naturally with the board and makes you feel the snowboard move along with you. This creates a comfortable and responsive ride across the whole mountain.
Personal Preference
Making sure your bindings can be adjusted exactly to your boot size, riding style, and stance is essential to make the most of your day on the mountain.
The Burton Cartel bindings have a fantastic level of personalization to get the perfect-sized bindings that is typical of most of the Burton range.
Both the ankle straps and the toe straps have multiple levels of adjustability. Making sure you adjust the bindings to exactly the way you want them removes pressure points and creates much more comfortable bindings.
Ankle strap
The Burton Cartel features three settings on the ankle straps; high, medium, and low. Finding the height that works for your ankle will really lock you down onto the board and keep your turning tights.
Having an adjustable ankle strap makes all the difference when switching between boots or boards.
Toe Strap
The bindings also come with two settings for the toe strap. I personally have always opted for a much more over-the-front positioning for my toe strap, I find this helps much more with my riding style and keeping my forward lean responsive.
For some though, having the toe strap over the top of the boot is preferable, lending more movement to the heel edge.
Quick Entry
Rather than opting for a step-in style binding, Burton has chosen a much more traditional ratchet system.
This is a little more time-consuming, but the highback that is in place rather than a flip-down, step-in system provides good support and translates the flex and movement perfectly throughout the binding.
The Burton Cartel bindings also feature a flex slider system on their toe strap. This simple little feature allows the strap to stay out of the way when it’s fully open, stopping you from stepping on your strap when stomping back into your binding.
This is just a nice little extra that shows that Burton pays attention to the smaller details.
Soaking up The Shock
After a long day pounding the mountain, bindings without decent shock absorption will leave your legs numb and your spine feeling compressed.
Decent shock absorption in the baseplates of bindings takes away a lot of the pain that can come from hard snow and serious jumps.
Re:flex system
Burton has chosen to use one material for the whole baseplate providing cushioning with their re:flex system underfoot. This provides a ride that is buttery smooth, leaves the legs feeling unharassed, and does a fantastic job of all-terrain shock absorption.
Burton Cartel Bindings
The price of “Burton Cartel Bindings ” varies, so check the latest price at
Buttery Board Feel
No review is complete without talking about just how good the board feels underfoot whilst shredding down the mountain. These make the most of their flexibility responsiveness, whereas other, lesser bindings might start to lose that connection with most boards.
Boot to board feel is right there, and movement over the snow is quick and snappy, allowing for smooth buttery turns and tight, aggressive carving. The snowboard flex translates very nicely through the binding.
Rapid Response
The new highback design of this Cartel binding provides responsiveness that makes riding quick and precise. The medium flex all-mountain Cartel bindings provide the straight-down-the-middle control you would expect from these types of bindings.
Ankle Support
No matter your boot size or stance width, the ankle support provided by the three-setting ankle strap is guaranteed to make sure you are locked in and ready to tear up the mountain.
These bindings make the most of their ankle strap, pushing your heel right down onto the baseplate.
This extra level of adjustability means you can get super tight for the high-speed hill-destroying runs or loosen it up a bit to really get the flexibility you want for some buttery powder.
How do They Score?
Let’s take a moment to score these bindings from Burton to see how they weigh up against their contemporaries.
We can see a slightly above-average scoring across the board, which is excellent for bindings at this price range.
They are not the cheapest, but they are far and away from the most expensive on the market. These are a great option for anyone looking for some great value for money.
The Final Verdict
If you’re looking for your first bindings, you can really take around the whole mountain, take in the park, on the piste, and in the powder, these are the ones for you.
If you’re wanting to get some bindings, you can strap onto multiple boards, take on many trips, and fit on any boot, these will do you proud.
Here we have a piece of equipment that won’t let you down no matter what your skill level. They may not be top of the range in any particular focus, but they will do everything, and they will do it without leaving you feeling disappointed.
Nobody, no matter what their skill level or preferred style, will be unhappy with a pair of these strapped in.
Start the endless and eternally expensive journey into buying snowboarding gear with these, and you may find yourself coming back to them year after year.
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