The 300g Touring Binding Thread

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Originally Posted by JRainey

I also think all the pure techs feel the same in real world conditions, and so prefer to go light as possible. I have the old FR14 heel attached directly, without adjustment track (race style, which was possible on the OG w/gap ones). Then speed radical toes.

The freeride spacer makes them ski as good as the kingpin, with better power through the tail. I stopped using them as I don't use tech bindings anymore around lifts. If I A/B w/o spacer I can feel the float, but after two outings I don't notice in softish snow and hard snow touring I'm slowing down anyway.

The old freeride spacer (not the prongs) caused issues in and out of gondolas as a little bit of ice would put me in telemode quick, but very solvable if you're on top of it. Touring knocks the snow off, so no issues.

Radical toes with a race style heel are my preferred frankenbinding as you get a reliable toe and a heel that gets 90% performance of anything bigger, at less weight, complexity, and ramp angle.

I jump, never lock the toes, weigh 150/160 (holidays ya know)

Shifts are great, but it's hard to justify the weight for starting from the bottom, pure touring.

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I’ve also been rocking frankenbindings for five years. Shimmed dynafit radical toe with Plum 165 heel for super flat delta. Exactly which heel are you using?

Question for the Marker Alpinist crew: After upwards of 10 years on Verticals and then radicals, I'm absolutely hating the zero ramp of the Alpinist. As far as I can tell, there are no officially sanctioned, or even peripherally sanctioned (a la B&D) heel shims. I'm looking for about 8mm of rise to get them ski-able. I've heard of people using an HDPE cutting board, a marker, and a bandsaw to fashion a profile-matched shim, but what screws do I need to source to account for the extra stack height? Anybody actually pull something like this off? Tips & tricks?

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Originally Posted by Huskydoc

Question for the Marker Alpinist crew: After upwards of 10 years on Verticals and then radicals, I'm absolutely hating the zero ramp of the Alpinist. As far as I can tell, there are no officially sanctioned, or even peripherally sanctioned (a la B&D) heel shims. I'm looking for about 8mm of rise to get them ski-able. I've heard of people using an HDPE cutting board, a marker, and a bandsaw to fashion a profile-matched shim, but what screws do I need to source to account for the extra stack height? Anybody actually pull something like this off? Tips & tricks?

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I'll send you speed radicals. You send me alpinists. Fixed.

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Originally Posted by kevino

Anyone using the Salomon MTN/Atomic backlands noticing lateral slop in the heel post? Seems to originate from the adjustable track. All four pairs in our household have developed this over the last 2-3 seasons. Curious if anyone else is seeing this?

They only get used in the backcountry, no lift served skiing.

I saw a mention on Wild Snow that Lou said something about there being a newer addition that addressed this issue but he didn't respond to my questions for clarity.

I've emailed salomon to hear their take.

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I just noticed this in my MTNs - both heel towers have some slop in them that looks to be coming from the interface between the track and the heel tower. Not noticeable skiing in powder, but I could definitely feel it skiing 'dust on crust' conditions. Kind of disappointed TBH, as I only have around 30 days of light to large-ish backcountry days on these. Very minimal hardpack skiing (no resort, only what I've run into in the backcountry). I'm going to keep riding them...for now at least.

Old post, but did you ever hear back from Salomon? I fired them an email a few days ago but haven't heard squat.

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Originally Posted by Huskydoc

Question for the Marker Alpinist crew: After upwards of 10 years on Verticals and then radicals, I'm absolutely hating the zero ramp of the Alpinist. As far as I can tell, there are no officially sanctioned, or even peripherally sanctioned (a la B&D) heel shims. I'm looking for about 8mm of rise to get them ski-able. I've heard of people using an HDPE cutting board, a marker, and a bandsaw to fashion a profile-matched shim, but what screws do I need to source to account for the extra stack height? Anybody actually pull something like this off? Tips & tricks?

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Had the same problem, and bought some 1/4" (about 6mm) HPDE plastic to make my own heel shims.

Like mentioned on the previous page; my experience is the opposite. Love the flat alpinists (reason i bought them), hated my old radicals (which I shimmed)

What I ended up doing with my radicals was to have a friend 3d-print a few sets of shims with various thickness. Then I added quiver killer inserts under the toe piece so I could quickly play around with it.

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Originally Posted by billyhoyle

I just noticed this in my MTNs - both heel towers have some slop in them that looks to be coming from the interface between the track and the heel tower. Not noticeable skiing in powder, but I could definitely feel it skiing 'dust on crust' conditions. Kind of disappointed TBH, as I only have around 30 days of light to large-ish backcountry days on these. Very minimal hardpack skiing (no resort, only what I've run into in the backcountry). I'm going to keep riding them...for now at least.

Old post, but did you ever hear back from Salomon? I fired them an email a few days ago but haven't heard squat.

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Never had this problem, but on an previous pair, the toe springs got noticeably weaker.

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Originally Posted by paal

What I ended up doing with my radicals was to have a friend 3d-print a few sets of shims with various thickness. Then I added quiver killer inserts under the toe piece so I could quickly play around with it.

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My specific concern is the pull out strength of the screws if they are not fully engaged due to the extra spacer. I would buy new screws +X mm obv. but I don't know the spec on a standard binding screw, if such a thing exists.

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Originally Posted by billyhoyle

I just noticed this in my MTNs - both heel towers have some slop in them that looks to be coming from the interface between the track and the heel tower. Not noticeable skiing in powder, but I could definitely feel it skiing 'dust on crust' conditions. Kind of disappointed TBH, as I only have around 30 days of light to large-ish backcountry days on these. Very minimal hardpack skiing (no resort, only what I've run into in the backcountry). I'm going to keep riding them...for now at least.

Old post, but did you ever hear back from Salomon? I fired them an email a few days ago but haven't heard squat.

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Lateral or vertical play? Or both?

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Originally Posted by Huskydoc

My specific concern is the pull out strength of the screws if they are not fully engaged due to the extra spacer. I would buy new screws +X mm obv. but I don't know the spec on a standard binding screw, if such a thing exists.

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https://www.bindingfreedom.com/stand...crews-20-pack/
or
https://www.tognar.com/alpine-ski-binding-screws/

diameter/pitch are standard, the head shape and size are what varies. Most bindings are flathead like those links, and bindingfreedom thinks that's what alpinists have. In some other cases you have to grind down the head diameter of a flathead or get a panhead screw

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Originally Posted by skisurfmirth

Lateral or vertical play? Or both?

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Little bit of both I think, but I don't have then on hand...it's subtle, but if you twist/pull on the heel tower there's movement and an audible 'click'. I'm not worried yet, but will keep an eye out to see if it gets worse. I emailed Salomon and they shrugged and said to take them to a shop, which is fair.

Husky Doc same place as you I have anew pair of alpinist waiting on a pair of CL skis to arrive. Ordered a cutting board off Amazon. Found a skinny 1/4 nch and think hdpe. Coming later this week. Then I found look pivot spacers in the box. Pr of four mm and one mm. Need to cut down to heel. I like the extra four mm of lift and perhaps the alpinist will force me to limber up likywife told me. Maybe next week

I've had multiple Salomon MTN/atomic backlands with catastrophic failures with toe pins completely shearing off. One time I was skinning uphill and the other time it happened was during a transition. Both times I was able to recover the pin and neither failures resulted from a fall.

After those failures, I completely lost faith in those bindings.

Additionally, I had a pair of MTNs that made it about 3 years before the toe springs basically stopped working. No pin failure on these but could walk out of the toes when locked in going uphill and could wiggle my ski with boot in the binding (toe and heel engaged) and watch my boot rattle around in the toe piece. This wasn't as big of a concern because these bindings lasted around 200 days for me and we're probably due for retirement.

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Originally Posted by brutah

I've had multiple Salomon MTN/atomic backlands with catastrophic failures with toe pins completely shearing off. One time I was skinning uphill and the other time it happened was during a transition. Both times I was able to recover the pin and neither failures resulted from a fall.

After those failures, I completely lost faith in those bindings.

Additionally, I had a pair of MTNs that made it about 3 years before the toe springs basically stopped working. No pin failure on these but could walk out of the toes when locked in going uphill and could wiggle my ski with boot in the binding (toe and heel engaged) and watch my boot rattle around in the toe piece. This wasn't as big of a concern because these bindings lasted around 200 days for me and we're probably due for retirement.

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Well shit. That sucks. I hate hearing this when we’ve got 5 pairs of these currently mounted up. Although we’ve had no issues so far, it’s a bummer to hear about these failures. Mine have developed a little play in the track/tower though.


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Damn! I don’t like to hear that either. I’d arrived at a pretty good feeling about MTN’s. I’ll have to do better preflight checks.


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I'm now going on 120+ days without MTN issues. I'm only 160lbs though and run them mainly for pow

I'm partial to the Radical toe with SSL 2.0 heels. I have a pair of Trofeo Plus 10's that I'm planning to mount soon, but I find myself wondering why I would stray from what has worked so flawlessly for over the last 4-5 years.

If anyone has this combo (with adjustment plates) in close to new condition I would probably trade.

Thoughts or recs on the lightest pair of bindings you'd run on resort skis at 190 length and 110 underfoot? Would love flat-to-tour option, otherwise open any suggestions. Leaning towards an ATK branded or otherwise.

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Originally Posted by hafjell

Thoughts or recs on the lightest pair of bindings you'd run on resort skis at 190 length and 110 underfoot? Would love flat-to-tour option, otherwise open any suggestions. Leaning towards an ATK branded or otherwise.

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ATK FR14.

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Originally Posted by hafjell

Thoughts or recs on the lightest pair of bindings you'd run on resort skis at 190 length and 110 underfoot? Would love flat-to-tour option, otherwise open any suggestions. Leaning towards an ATK branded or otherwise.

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If you're getting a full pin binding, ATK R12/Freeraiders have better performance than anything heavier especially when paired with the freeride spacer. If you want to go lighter, I have a friend who uses Alpinists with very big skis inbounds with good performance.

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Originally Posted by Benneke10

If you're getting a full pin binding, ATK R12/Freeraiders have better performance than anything heavier especially when paired with the freeride spacer. If you want to go lighter, I have a friend who uses Alpinists with very big skis inbounds with good performance.

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Originally Posted by stuntmanbo

ATK FR14.

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Thank you both. Should have written: the skis are more resort skis but I'll be skiing them in the back-country mostly. Does that open it up to something lighter? I have skied ATKs and loved them, so would be happy to settle there.

Any recommendations for a touring binding with brake? Something to match a 95 underfoot ski for "genuine" touring and uphill resort skiing that arent the MTN..?

(ATK a bit difficult to source in France)

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Originally Posted by ddraver

Any recommendations for a touring binding with brake? Something to match a 95 underfoot ski for "genuine" touring and uphill resort skiing that arent the MTN..?
(ATK a bit difficult to source in France)

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Just type in "France" and you'll get ~120 stores. https://www.atkbindings.com/en/distribution/ (But for your requirements, the MTN should work fine.)

Le vieux campeur, télémark pyrénées, and a lot of e-shops in France have ATK, it's not really that difficult to get in France ?
Honestly other than an ATK Crest I'm not sure. Maybe a Fritschi Xenic.

Hmmm, I've never walked into a shop and seen them is more what I meant, but fair enough.

(Given that I seem to break stuff a lot I'm starting to be more attracted to stuff I can warranty easily)

Thanks all