Reflex R-Style With Aluminum Buckles?

[MattL]

Has anyone replaced their Reflex R-Style buckles with some aluminum buckles? I've had my rear reflex for over 5 years now and I still love it, however it has begun to show its age. Recently, I have noticed that the mounting screws have begun to rust. Additionally and more importantly, the ratchets on the buckles have worn down and now slip. Ideally, I would like to buy new mounting screws from Reflex, and find new buckles for my binding. I'm fine with the basic plastic buckles that come with the binding, but if I'm going to get new ones, I figured I may as well upgrade them to something better. The issue is that after buying the mounting screws and Reflex's aluminum buckles, I've spent more than it would cost to just buy a new boot altogether. On the other hand, since the boot itself is in good condition, this just seems wasteful...

My main question is: has someone else found snow ski buckles that work well with Reflex boots (front boots or r style)? I'm not sure if this will be any cheaper or better than what reflex has to offer, but I figured I'd see if any of y'all have experience with this already.

[Broussard]

The buckles are much stiffer than the plastic ladders and will thus stiffen the rear boot (likely significantly) as a result. Not sure this is ideal for a rear boot application.

[rockdog]

@MattL go to an inline skate store. They'll have a box of spare buckles out back you can get cheap. I did it for my R-style years ago and no problem.

Also my mounts have a little rust in there but still are ok. Spray in some WD-40, screw the screws in and out a few times to make sure thread is still good and re-mount. I do this as a matter of maintenance a couple of times a season.

[Not_The_Pug]

I have the Goode aluminum buckles on my R-style and they work fine.  You can tighten them as much as you like.

[aupatking]

Goodwill typically has OLD snow ski boots. It takes a dremel with a cutoff blade and murdering the boots  but it gets you 4-6 buckles of various sizes for about 6 bucks

[lpskier]

I buy my buckles from Dodge Ski Boots in Vermont. Great buckles at a fair price. 
 

https://dodgeskiboots.com/shop/

[aupatking]

For the amount of time you have to put into finding boots with decent buckles, and the work it takes to remove them, I’d definitely suggest going @lpskier route. I could never find buckles that good. Living where it never snows, you really don’t know where to source those things. I’m actually about to order some from that site