Ride Arcade UL Snowboard Review |
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The Good Ride TakeRide Arcade UL Review by The Good Ride Size 157 Days-1 Riders- 5'10" size 9 shoe 190lbs, 6' Size 10.5 shoe 160lbs Bindings- Burton Diode Boots- Burton SLX Ride has two tiers of board. They have the regular series and the ultra light series aka UL series. Almost every UL series board we have tried we like but some of their non UL boards don't always do it for us. So here is our take on the Arcade UL which is pretty much a hybrid camber version of the old Society UL Camber.
Groomers- Even though this is a freestyle twin we had a blast on groomed runs at any speed. This is where the All mountain in the All mountain freestyle rating comes out. Switch or regular it was a blast. We found that we felt more comfortable at higher speed switch than we normally do.
Powder- The Ride Arcade is a twin with a centered stance and although it's mostly flat the camber that runs through most of the board makes point a slight bit down. The tip/tail that points up early helps this float better than a camber but its not going to compete with mostly rocker shapes out there. Still this will be fine in shallow or light powder but if you ride in a lot of deep powder this will be a lot more work to stay afloat.
Turn Initiation/Carving- The Arcade was very lively and fun to engage a turn with but it wasn't totally easy. This we both felt was very good. This could transition from edge to edge pretty fast and it was fun to make short or wide radius turns. This had a very camber feel to it when it came to turns. When it came to carving the Arcade was really fun for a twin and you could lean into a carve as hard as you wanted without it washing out. It's not going to have that magic that many directional boards of the same flex have but it's great for a twin. Speed- This is a Medium to Stiff board, with a fast base and damp ride. That equals a fast board which is quite a surprise for a twin in this category but it's kind of expected for the price. It's not going to take down a Never Summer Raptor or Arbor A Frame but it's one fastest true twin's we have ridden and that is why we feel it's excellent at speed.
Weight- This is super light compared to most boards out there. It's not as light as the Burton Vapor but it's in it's class. There seems to be almost no topsheet there which makes you worry about longevity. Ride always makes long lasting boards so don't stress too much about the thin topsheet.
Edge Hold- We both were a little surprised here when it came to edge hold. We thought there would be border line excellent to excellent but instead it was somewhere in between average to good. It still held an edge very well in the medium to hard conditions we were riding in but when we found harder patches we weren't terribly comfortable leaning into a turn. We wouldn't want to take this out on a snowment to icy day.
Flex- This is rated at an 8 out of 10 but it didn't feel that stiff. It just felt like an average med/stiff board.
Switch- This is a twin with a centered stance so the switch ride is just the same as the regular. We felt switch was just as easy as regular too.
Rails/Jibbing- This isn't a jib board It's made for aggressive mountain/jump/pipe play and it is pretty stiff for slow speed jibs.
Pipe- If the edge hold was a little better this would be an excellent pipe board. Still this is really fun in the pipe.
Jumps- The Arcade was very springy and it generated it's own air very well. We felt this was one of the poppiest boards Ride makes. We don't really go big but we had fun on natural to medium park jumps and felt this is a great jump board.
Our overall impression was this is a great board and our only drawback was the price. We felt that there are many boards out there that ride like this for $100-$150 less which was our only real complaint. We'd like to see Ride say f---k it and just add this UL tech to all their mid level boards like the DH and Machete. Still this is a great board and will be great for that person who likes jumps in the park, finding cat tracks/natural terrain to launch off, riding fast switch or regular and hitting the pipe when the conditions are good.
The Good Ride Take on Ride They are from the same parent company as K2 and have many similarities in terms of board design and company policy. Ride’s customer service is better than K2’s and actually has a # to call on their site instead of just an on-line form. Ride, like K2 seems almost secretive when it comes to having third party entities like us or end users like you review their gear. So many companies like Burton, Rome, YES, Arbor ect. are really proud of their gear and try to do everything they can to get you to ride them. Ride seems to do the bare minimum and despite its large size has very few demo products. Their policy seems to be if you want to try it you have to buy it. Ride chooses mainly to work with variations of flat/rocker snowboards but has recently started to work with hybrid camber. Their hybrid camber is different than YES and Rossignol and leans more on the flat camber side of things but we still like to see them go in this direction. We have found that we like some of their shapes but other boards we weren’t fans of . Like K2 Ride’s rocker shapes always seem to be pretty flat between the feet and it makes for one of the better rocker set up out there. Ride makes pretty good bindings and many people swear by them. They have more parts than most bindings but all in all they do a very good job despite the fact that a lot of the binding is metal. We are big fans of the canted foot bed but can’t say we are a fan of their Contraband strap system. They make good boots that last for a long time but boots are so personal all we can speak to is their build and longevity. Company InformationRide Arcade UL 2012 Arcade UL snowboardsPotent Charging Pop Meets Surfy Goodness$599.95
SIZES: 151, 154, 157, 160
STYLE: All Mountain Freestyle, Park & Pipe
SHAPE: NEW! Hybrid Twin
STANCE: Centered
Providing primo response, pop and stability, this unique Hybrid Twin snowboard features micro-rocker in the tip and tail, and level micro-camber under the feet. Combining the best of both the rocker and camber worlds, the new 2012 Ride Arcade UL snowboard offers the limitless all-mountain versatility only our new Hybrid shape can provide. Adorned with Pop Rods 3.0®, Hempbrain™ top sheet, 85A Slimewalls® and all of our UL techs, this smooth Ride is built to go big and lock in landings. SNOWBOARD FLEX-O-METER:
CONSTRUCTION: NEW! Hybrid Twin Thin Con UL Steel Pop Glass UL Base 2x4 Pop Rods 3.0 85A Slimewalls Carbon Array 5 Hempbrain Silencer 5 UL Core
FEATURED TECH NEW! HYBRID TWINThis twin shape features micro-rocker in the tip and tail and a level micro-camber zone between the feet.  POP RODS 3.0More pop and smoother landings without added stiffness. Available in 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.  85A SLIMEWALLSRide’s exclusive Slimewalls® are forgiving and ductile, absorbing impacts rather than defending against them. Just like your skate wheels, the urethane in Slimewalls® smoothes the interaction with the snow, wood or metal surfaces you may Ride on. On top of all that, these babies are virtually indestructible, the most durable sidewalls in snowboarding.  HEMPBRAINUsing less material by eliminating the traditional plastic top completely, Ride’s Hemp top sheet is lighter and stronger, and is made from an easily renewable resource that requires little processing. Hemp is fast growing, requires no irrigation or pesticides, and helps clean up toxins from the ground.  UL COREBuilt to smooth the Ride and lighten the load. The UL Core has tip-to-tail full thickness silencer stringers, placed strategically within the wood core for high strength and less weight. SETUP OPTIONS   
Videos & Other ReviewsA quick look at the 2012 Ride Arcade UL
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Ride Arcade UL Snowboard Review
Snowboards - Snowboard Reviews
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5.0 (2) |
User reviews
Average user rating from: 2 user(s)
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Excellent high end ride
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Had to special order this deck. A great high end board, been up Whistler everyday this season so far (2011/12). Ride Arcade is an all round board that is great on jumps and has a awesome lively feel (camber based). Super damp in the rough stuff, nil high speed chatter (used to boarder cross so tested this maching - surprisingly good for a twin). Not bad in semi deep pow either. Factory wax sucks. This board is a keeper. Chose over LibTech horsepower, custom x and Yes history mainly due it's all round ability being a notch above it's competition. Super light too. Top sheet is like nothing I have seen before. No i am not affiliated with Ride in any way shape or form. Just want to let the world at large know that it's a worthy investment.
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Reviewed by Chook
November 29, 2011 |
ARCADE rULez
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Have riden the ARCADE for 4 days now and 2 of those POW and it’s the F#*ken BOMB.Does everything this hightech rocket claims to do. When we got pow on the 3rd day, I pulled out my other board a "Ride Concept" (another goooood board, 3cm longer and set up for powder) but I only did 2 runs, slid back to the truck and got the ARCADE back out. They advertise the ARCADE as average in powder? NO WAY! It POPS,SPINS, CARVES, NOSE WHEELIES like no other. THE BEST BOARD I’ve owned, (and I’ve had some good boards) POW, ICE, CRUSTIES, TARRAIN PARK, or high speeding the CORDAROY this board leaves the others in it's spray. Paired up with the CONTRABANDS you can’t get better… PEACE OUT from NZ |
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Reviewed by seaweed
July 26, 2011 |