Fuck marker... repost

[Evil E]

a while back... on the powder board there was a thread called rant here if you think marker sucks ass

Its time this thread was reborn to educate skiers on the evils of the marker brand at the commercial level.

Im tired and drunk.... but post your story here and I will do the same when I am more sober.

(But I promise it includes retarded unnecessary pre releases and ski patrol searching for a ski for a few hours)

anyways... this company needs to advertise in SKI and nothing else, their commercial products SUCK for aggressive skiing.

[Duker]

Marker sucks because:

we have some nordica skis for demos at the shop. They have some uber extreme -o plastic demo track mcnasty marker bindings on them. To move the binding you have to grip all the way around the ski, so your hands are touching the edge. I have cut myself about 3 times thus far this season on the stupid things.

story two-
I did a remount on some crazy marker that had like 30 pieces to it. THe ones with the 1-2-3 switch on it. well, I was trying to make post-haste on the remount and so I took it apart rather quickly. When it came time to put the bindings back on it took me 20 minutes to get it right. and a hack saw because I had to custom fit the plastic piece. These bindings dont mount to a a size 332 boot for some reason. wierd.


I HATE MARKER.

signed ,

Andrew Thomas Grewe.

[non grata]

dear tgr,

one time, i landed switch while on markers. i popped out of em and landed on my bum.

- l.o.m.b.

[spanky]

For some reason, I think my partially dislocated shoulder and resulting torn rotator cuff and torn labrum are to blame on a marker pre-release. All caught on helmet-cam video here. I was just making a left turn on a fairly mellow groomer and my right (downhill) toe pre-released. Right foot hit the snow and pulled me down. Check out the ski on the right side of the screen at the very end of the video. You can see the heelpiece is still up. Fucking Marker.

[crashnburn'd]

For some reason....

No man, it's just cause you suck at skiing and your shop has your din set at 2.

[powderhound]

one time i was dropping this rock at anthony lakes and one of my skis didn't come with me. come to find out the heel piece broke on my markers.

one time i was airing it out on this lip at bogus basin and upon landing my ski flew off. come to find out the heel piece broke on my markers.

one time i was sking a groomer and my heel piece broke. those were tyrolias.

[laseranimal]

i had a pair of those 1-2-3 switch markers, not only was the switch USELESS because once snow got in it it became impossible to move but when I went to go show my skiing newbie wife how to step into bindings I stepped in and broke the plastic on the heelpeice therefore ruining the binding

[scoober]

I won't say that I love Markers, but I have a pair of 8.2 and 9.2 on two pairs of skis and have never pre released. I don't crank them down.

All I know is that when I blew my ACL, it was on Looks.

[ajdemo76]

I've had pair of Markers fail a release test in the years working in a shop. I've had multiples in other brands. Those of you complaining about mounting certain Markers sound inexperienced. Complaining about Marker rental bindings? What rental binding doesn't suck?

[ulty_guy]

re: marker 1200 ti's...how bad are these SPECIFIC binders (i know that some don't mind comp 1400 and 1800's)? i just picked up a pair of v-pros cheap with these att. and am not sure what to do with them. i probably have a spare pair of solly 912 ti's, but after a couple of ejections at din of 10 (2 higher than i should be running), i'm losing a bit of confidence in those. these pre-releases were while skiing through chop at higher speeds, and yes, the wings are adjusted properly.

[karma]

I have 2 pairs that have a total of 3 cracked heel piece mounting plates. All the same, from the outside edges to the front screw holes. One of them resulted in tearing out a heal piece and destroying a G4, the ski was close to done before (decambered and dime thin bases) but they would have been good rock skis for this...Ummmm.... Season???

Total manufacturer defect if you ask me, but im not gonna bother to get them replaced, they only way I would ever get another marker is if they payed me to ski them.

[FNG]

I've had pair of Markers fail a release test in the years working in a shop. I've had multiples in other brands. Those of you complaining about mounting certain Markers sound inexperienced. Complaining about Marker rental bindings? What rental binding doesn't suck?

As my old boss (a 30 year shop vet) once told me, "Ben, Markers test great right out of the box, but after a month they're total shit."

So this one time I had a pair of Marker MRR's, and I was standing in the lift line minding my own business. I put my skin on it's inside edge, and twisted my ankle to the inside. The toe easily released from it's 9-din setting. Of course maybe it wasn't Marker's fault. Maybe I just have fucking super strong ankles.

Sincerely,
- Ben

[Free Range Lobster]

Maybe I just have fucking super strong ankles.

I'll vote for BURL ankles.

[marshalolson]

my experiance:

markers have a much higher return rate than the other big 3 (tyrols, look, sally). i would see close to twice as many warrenty issues per binding sold than the other companies.

generally, if your ASTM several times, the results are all over the map.... some right on, some super high and some super low. look and sally tend to be all right at the same values (have not tried tyrol's).

i have had great luck with old ass look and sally bindings - how many tt09's, zr's, 977's etc are still in use vs. similarly aged markers? when was the last time you saw a ripper on some m48's?

finally, how many more rental sally's are in use by good skiers than rental markers? as was said above, rental bindings suck, but i would not shy away from some rental sally's....

[fat yeti]

Marker Sucks I had some on my old dynastar atv and always pre released. It is sad when you see a pair of markers on a nice pair of skis. When I see them on a pair of Gotamas, Sanouks, or any volkl for that matter I hope the guy didn't pay for them. I think maybe they are sponcered or are a rep and don't have a choice in the matter. I guess that is the price you pay good skis crap clamps.

[Altaholic]

I'm a fan of Look/Rossi binders, but if I HAD to ski on Marker it would be on the 1400 turntable style bindings they have. Those seem to be the best ones they have but are still no Look P14/Rossi Axial 140.

[vote4pedro]

i was on a lift one powder day as a single riding up with a two-some. i had just mounted a new pair of planks with some markers. the guys asked me if i minded if they smoked. i replied that i didn't. they proceeded to ask if i cared to partake. i enthusiasticly and greatfully said sure. "hey guy we don't know. Please don't drop our pipe. it's our only one." mind you there was at least three feet of new snow. "no worries fellas. i'm like a pro and shit at this." so, as you probably figured by now, i dropped the pipe before i could even hit the slippery motherfucker. bottom line, markers are from satan and caused me to piss off some pot heads and prevent myself from getting stoned. fucking shitty craftsmanship if you ask me. they abound with negative karma

[PrankMonkey]

they only way I would ever get another marker is if they payed me to ski them.

last year I had the opportunity to speak with an Elan-Marker Rep/PSIA examiner (during an exam, go figure). Asked him how the skis were, he said they would be fine if he wern't contractually obligated to ski them with the markers, followed by an oath that this would be the last season he would contract w/ Elan unless they stopped sticking markers on them. I was a little suprised to say the least.

[Plakespear]

See anything missing?

[yooper]

The Logic series toepiece from 95 or so was shit. I used to pre release from those, but if you are pre releasing from a current comp 1400 or 1800....... You're doing something wrong. Marker no longer deserves a bad rap.

[Spats]

I've posted plenty of rants about this before, so I won't rehash them, but:

Marker's design philosophy (low elastic travel) is wrong. All their complicated Piston BS is a doomed effort to mask an intrinsically flawed design. Check out any Marker toepiece: it's got about a million moving parts in it and weighs a ton. Then check out a Look Fulldrive or Salomon 997 toe: they're simple, they're light, and they work.

[yooper]

I like the Look toe, but I HATE Salomon. The wings always get loose, they don't have a gliding AFD, and no automatic toe height adjustment.
I'm just saying Markers have performed flawlessly for me for the last 4 or 5 years.
Don't get me wrong...... I love to bash shitty products, but recently I think Marker has solved a lot of their issues.

So lets move on to talking aobut how shitty pocket rockets are!

[flip]

I've posted plenty of rants about this before, so I won't rehash them, but:

Marker's design philosophy (low elastic travel) is wrong.

Bingo. The philosophy worked great for the stiff straight race skis of the 80s. Does not work on a heavily flexed ski. Can't handle the change in heel-toe distance. Free-flex plates/rails/systems just make it worse.

Interestingly enough, if you mounted them on the new salomon ZZ plate (completely regiid and decoupled from the ski) you'd actually have a very sweet (albeit heavy) setup.

[This End Up]

I suspected that many ski manufacturers who didn't make their own bindings wanted to get on the "Integrated Ski/Binding System" band wagon. Perhaps they went with Markers as Marker was independent of other ski manufactures? Now that K2 has bought Marker & Volkl maybe that will come to an end. But who does that leave, Tyrolia?

Image Marker bindings wtih a "Made in China" sticker.

[Spats]

But who does that leave, Tyrolia?

Head owns Tyrolia.

I don't think there are any independent binding manufacturers left: Line owns Line, 4Frnt owns what's left of Nordica's bindings, and everyone else has been owned for a long time.

You're right about Marker, btw: everyone went with them because they were the last independent. I think Fischer is in bed with Tyrolia now; not sure where Elan is going.