The Blog

Archive for April, 2008

Welcome to our new website!

Posted on April 15, 2008

Hello out there,

Welcome to our new site. Big thanks to Scott Wood for the design, and everyone that contributed words, photos and advice. If there’s something else you’d like to see on here let us know.

We are heading to the World Backcountry Freeride Jam at Whistler Blackcomb this weekend April 18th-20th. There will be gear demos, backcountry clinics and tours, and races over the weekend and it’s all free. For more info check out www.wbfj.ca. If you make it to the WBFJ drop by our tent and say hello.

This first year selling the bindings has surpassed expectation. The first lot that we busted out was largely an experiment, involving too much outside work, time and expense. The way demand grew it became very important to bring those things in house, in order to have half a chance at making our way through the waiting list. So we bought a laser engraver, brought the machining in house requiring a few thousand in tooling, and learned how to make our own pins. These improvements did slow us down in the short term, but in the long term it will vastly improve our production capacity and quality.

I also designed the next binder and got the crampons out there. More on that end:

I’m pleased to unveil the Ignition II binding. This binder is built around the Bent Metal Restraint. This binding is a little lighter (989 g per binding with pin), has better hardware, and has a one piece molded highback for increased comfort. This highback also has convenient holes for rigging a booster strap for added edging power in touring mode. The highback is also tilted back more than on the Bent Metal Baseplates, so the lowest forward lean setting is more straight up, making for a longer stride on the flats.



Ignition II completes sell for $365, baseplates only for $215. The hole patterns for the heelcups are different than the Bent Metal Missionary Bindings used with the Ignition I bindings. Restraint binding parts are not compatible with Ignition I bindings without modification. We will continue to stock the ignition I baseplates for people that want to use their own Missionary binding parts.

Crampons are now ready for the Spark R&D Ignition bindings. Click here to see a youtube movie on them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dIq3sqTcCo. These crampons sell for $85 plus shipping. We currently have red and black, green and burnt orange available in the next week or so:

We’ve also re-anodized some split hooks from our friends at Voile:

It can be helpful in transitions to have different colored hooks on your board halves (one color on one half, one color on the other). These sell for $18 per pair or $35 for a set of four.

Spare pin sets are also available for $28

We also have t-shirts for $10 in sizes xs through xl in many colors:

We hope you’ve had a great winter, and are getting after it this spring and summer. If you’re interested in making any purchases just drop us an email or give us a call. My apologies for the slow production this winter, you’ve got to learn how to crawl before you learn how to run.

Thanks for your support,

Will Ritter, Owner
Spark R&D