The Official Salomon S/Lab SHIFT MNC Thread -AMA

[GoldenBC]

Boots are in close to new condition(8-10 days of use). I started with the AFD at the maunal recommendation of .5mm and have tried a narrower gap as well. Salomon now recommends a .12mm gap but were talking C hairs. Hopefully no one besides myself and the few others I've read similar comments from has this issue and Salomon's customer support has been great so far. Seems like the AFD slacking off is a somewhat common issue. So far for me these bindings have been a disappointment and kind of scary experience. I'm wondering if anyone can speak to the QC done on these bindings release mechanisms by Salomon

The Kicking Horse Mountain resort rental shop has a binding release testing machine.

[el hefe]

I ended up cranking my afd tight to boot. Seemed to solve problem, will keep checking to see if it drops.

[MHSP1497]

They don't have to stop the ski to be effective, they just need to keep it from turning into an unguided missile. Having watched a monoboard sail by my head and bounce 8-12 ft uphill off a lift tower, and almost never seen a ski take off like that, I'd say that overall ski brake are reasonably effective.

Re: the Shifts, the only time so far that I've had one escape, I did not have a brake issue.

many years ago while skiing in Wisconsin (Wilmot for those that have been to that pimple in a cornfield), saw a guy crash hard on the icy slopes. 1 ski took off like a rocket down the hill, brakes deployed and all. Ski got to the bottom, hit the little snow pile at the edge of the parking lot and shot into the air like a ballistic missle. Skewered the windshield of a Jaguar in the 3rd row. When we slid down to the guy to check on him, he was in silent astonishment. The Jaguar was his car...

Karma, man. We all laughed really, really hard.

Lesson here, brakes “help” but are not the end-All-be-all in some conditions and sometimes Karma conspires to get us all.

[Norseman]

Ha, good story.

[PNWbrit]

Ski got to the bottom, hit the little snow pile at the edge of the parking lot and shot into the air like a ballistic missle. Skewered the windshield of a Jaguar in the 3rd row. When we slid down to the guy to check on him, he was in silent astonishment. The Jaguar was his car...

You're lucky he didn't cast a spell on you.

[Cdubmpdx]

Suggest glueing some velociraptor claws to each brake arm... the ski should stop next time you beater. Report back.

If the arms in this pic were ski brakes... These would sell like hot cakes for shift owners.



I we have all had a ski take off down the hill. Mine usually spot when they flip over, stick in the snow like a spear, or find a tree. If this hasn't happened you aren't skiing hard enough.



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[burrito]

we have all had a ski take off down the hill.

I had a fun one a couple seasons ago. Came off a small cliff too far forward and went over the handlebars upon landing. One ski shot down to the bottom of the mountain while the other stayed completely buried under about 4 feet of pow. The snow was so deep and soft I literally couldn’t climb up to search for my buried ski, and it took about 30 minutes just to walk down through it all to retrieve the other one. Grabbed a pair of demos, skied back to the landing under the cliff and spent another hour digging before I found my buried plank. Good day.

[XXX-er]

" Hey so I had these bindings tested on a Montana machine and got a message of "the messurement value is below tolerance". In Canada it is not an obligation for shops to test release values unless they have the testing equipment so many shops will opt not to own the equipment. When I created this thread I was expecting to hear of many more people with the same problem as I believed the shift had a design flaw but I realize now I just have a faulty binding. Still a little apprehensive of the toe piece deisgn in that it uses an aluminum spring and it has such little contact on the toe ledge of a boot compared to an alpine binding but hey doesnt seem like a common issue "

[galibier_numero_un]

Aluminum spring ??? I ain't no stinkin engineer, but that creeps me out. I'm guessing they know what they're doing ... I think.

[TahoeJ]

Ever hit a baseball with an aluminum bat? It goes pretty far.

[Norseman]

Alu spring has been confirmed?

Titanium would have been a sexy solution to the toe spring weight problem, having a fatigue limit as do steels... aluminum will eventually yield even from small amplitude stress, but the number of cycles required to do so is probably beyond the useful life of the rest of the system. At least, that is what the Solly nerds would likely say.

Next brocore hack: shift toe spring swap

[galibier_numero_un]

Ever hit a baseball with an aluminum bat? It goes pretty far.

So what you're saying is that they shouldn't use wood springs?

I tried finding details on fatigue resistance for alu springs but came up empty.

I wonder if their fatigue cycle calculations were predicated on touring use (fewer vertical feet skied).

The thing about most aluminum alloys' failure mode is that it cracks. I don't know if this is true of some of the exotic aerospace alloys however. I get a queasy feeling about a cracking failure mode.

... Thom

[1000-oaks]

Don't recall ever hearing of an aluminum spring in anything.

[Norseman]

Definitely raises an eyebrow. This shit true or just bs rumor?

[tomjensen]

Definitely raises an eyebrow. This shit true or just bs rumor?

Hey yeah Im just getting that info from a post Cody Townsend made earlier in the thread

[grinch]

Probably alloy. A steel alloy. They’re as light as ti and cheaper and don’t wear from friction and/or warp. Aluminium would be worse in all of those measurements

[jono]

There are 3 pieces of aluminum in the toe-piece (two plates and the DIN spring).

Um. Wut? Is this really the (adjustable, high energy and/or travel) release spring in the toe-piece? Not really aluminum, Shirley?

[tomjensen]

Yeah so just to elaborate I have a binding that I guess doesn't take enough lateral release force for a Montana machine to register. Yeah binding release testing is just not common practice in Canada. There was one place with a machine I found in Revelstoke. I thought this was a design flaw but it's just a bad binding I guess. I removed the bindings because I need the skis for an upcoming trip. I'll keep posting updates on the warranty situaish. Im wondering why the shift has been developed with so little contact with the boot toe ledge though.

[LeeLau]

Spring is a steel spring. Cody misspoke. I checked with Annecy. Also something in that toe responds to magnets.

[Alkasquawlik]

Spring is a steel spring. Cody misspoke. I checked with Annecy. Also something in that toe responds to magnets.

Yeah, indeed a misrepresentation.

[Name Redacted]

Skied mine all day today in some hardback bumps and steep trees and lived to tell about it. Couldn't tell any difference. Probably touring tomorrow.

[kid-kapow]

man, that is such a great scene - thanks for posting, made me chuckle!

[F#*k you cat]

Thank you Cody and Solly for the shift. Skied it everywhere. Inbounds / Backcountry. This clamp rocks.

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[lucknau]

Probably alloy. A steel alloy.

Steel is an alloy.

Being a binding manufacturer must be nerve wracking as hell in this day and age.

[reckless toboggan]

Steel is an alloy.