broken freerides

[gunniride]

Time for some dynafits.

So here I am with a broken freeride, cracked in the same location that I have seen on several other pairs. I thought I might be able to have a small plate welded onto the broken spots, but the welding shop said no dice. Next, I contacted a friend who has spare parts, and sure enough, a mounting plate is on its way. However, I am having doubts about replacing the holding pin.

After a quick SEARCH, I found that some people have had luck with warranties, even with older models. I bought these used, and would not have gone there but for the posts suggesting it may be an option.

So, do I.....

1. Fix them myself, and in a frankenstein manner limp through the season until next year when I upgrade to dynafits.

2. Send them far away to an unknown fate at BD

3. Go to a local shop and see what they think.


A note about factors of breaking. They were mounted without the plastic shim in the front to increase ramp angle. Skied by lightweight neighbor (145 lbs) with an alpine boot. He incurred an "instant tele" followed by a fall that broke the mounting plate in two locations.

It has been theorized that alpine boots add stress to the system which AT boots do not. I could agree with this, though the "instant tele" undoubtably put the final blow to the binding. I wonder if the absence of the plastic shim has any effect on durability (damping stresses from ski to metal?). Prior to the break I had no problems- no pre release, no instant tele, etc.

[squirrelmurphy]

what's the worst that can happen if you try to warranty them? BD says no and you get to try one of your other fixes?

[Buster Highmen]

.

It has been theorized that alpine boots add stress to the system which AT boots do not. I could agree with this, though the "instant tele" undoubtably put the final blow to the binding. I wonder if the absence of the plastic shim has any effect on durability (damping stresses from ski to metal?). Prior to the break I had no problems- no pre release, no instant tele, etc.

I've skied in the following Fritsche format with Raichle flexons since 1997:
Diamir II
Diamir III
Freeride I
Freeride II

Only had prerelease occasionally on 1 mount w/DIIs. The airlines cracked a toepiece, but other than that, the standard midlength mounts have worked fine for me.

[Poop~Ghost]

how the hell did you ski diamir III w/ alpine boots? the toe on mine didn't come anywhere near low enough to keep me locked down.

[chocolatecoveredbacon]

one of my buddies just got his '04 freerides warrentied. its taking time, but if you have some other skis, go for it.

[Ireallyliketoski2]

My freeride plus fit my AT boots and Alpine boots without any adjustment. Am I just lucky?

[gunniride]

Guess I'll send them to SLC and see what happens.

My BC loaner options aren't too bad either. Fischer 106, Seth Pistols, Bluehouse... all with Freerides, I just can't break em'

[gunniride]

Thanks for the warranty advice. I sent them on Friday, and Thursday, one week later I have one reconditioned replacement.

[Vihren]

So I finally managed to break my Diamir freerides today. I've skied hard on the m for two seasons, they are mounted on Rossi Scratch BCs. I've had something like 30-40 days of inbound skiing and another 20-30 days of touring on them since I mounted them.
I'm not sure how exactly it happened, but basicaly the whole binding came off, I broke the metal plate that holds the front of the binding.. I was skiing down a ridge through some rocks and I must have hit the back of the binding while turning, the whole thing just came off, have a look at the photos:



I am guessing that the hit at the heel that cracked the binding also released the locking mechanism, then the whole binding got twisted to the side and
broke at the front, it had a good leverage.. however I was going pretty slowly, so the force of the impact couldn't have been that great. I've had some problems with the heel locking mechanism earlier in the season, so it wasn't just the rock that I hit - if the locking mechanism at the back would hold the binding in place, it wouldn't have twisted and broken..?

I missed a ~1000 m descend through powder and had to walk down to the hut in 20cm of fresh pow, on top of blue ice, with no crampons or ice ax.. It was a rather tricky situation, and I missed the run of the season well I learned how to ski on one ski , got pretty good by the end.. it was fun, sort of.

The problem is , I need to fix my bindings soon, but I bought them without an official warranty from the shop that sold them ( it was a second-hand deal sort of, I got them 1/2 price as someone had them mounted, skied them once and returned them back). So what do I do, any advice on how to get in touch with the warranty service of Diamir-Fritschi in Europe? Will they even bother to talk to me, or replace my bindings with the same model, or the new FR+? I tried emailing their customers' service couple of months ago when I had another problem with that binding, but they never replied.. any idea whom I should contact??

[Vihren]

So I managed to get in touch with the local distributor or Diamir for Bulgaria, but there seems to be a problem.. I bought the bindings from a shop that isn't an official representative of Diamir, the guys were just selling a pair that someone wanted to get rid of, it was a brand new binding someone tested once and decided they don't need like them. Since I don't have a receipt from an official Diamir representative, the local distributor tells me they cannot recall the bindings and try to fix/replace them... whic I think is nonsense! With or without a receipt, the binding should be warranted by Diarmir...
I would really appreciate any advice from anyone! What should I do, keep on arguing with the local representative, or get in touch directly with Diamir-Switzerland?? Would that help? They are not really helping the image of the company in the freeride community in Bulgaria by ignoring me, we are a pretty small group here and we kknow each other pretty well, and we represent at least 50% of their market in the country....

[pechelman]

maybe ship them to someone in the states and have them deal directly with BD in SLC?

[Vihren]

Shipping them to the States and then back to Bulgaria would cost a fortune -I will have to pay import taxes.. but I might try to get in touch with the Diamir people in some other EU country.. hmm..