Gear Homemade DIY Touring Binding

[Philpug]

I saw this on Facebook, it's a pretty cool hack.

 

[scott43]

I'm waiting to see the homemade leg splint...

 

[Doug Briggs]

Apart from having to swap (and not drop) binding bits and pieces during transition, it looks pretty slick. It doesn't lighten the load, although it does lighten your steps.

 

[T-Square]

Hmmm, wonder what the wife said about him doing that on the nice white bedspread?

 

[Philpug]

Hmmm, wonder what the wife said about him doing that on the nice white bedspread?

It' OK..they are her skis.

 

[Brian Finch]

I think it highlights an issue in AT:

Crappy Pins or extra tall Frames?! Idk

I was thinking of designing a sole block w pins & a heel riser to fit ALL my skis.

 

[Ken_R]

I saw this on Facebook, it's a pretty cool hack.

Really nice setup for certain situations. (Long skin up with one long and continuous descent and a nice place to make the transition)

It is a pretty darn heavy setup though.

 

[jmeb]

For those unaware -- Brian the poster and designer of this DIY is one of the reviewers for Blister. And one hell of a skier.

I suppose this has its place like the CAST system or Shift.

 

[neonorchid]

...talk about Reinventing the wheel!

 

[Ken_R]

...talk about Reinventing the wheel!

That looks really slick.

Again, it definitely has its place in the touring gear realm. Pretty darn ingenious!

 

[jmeb]

...talk about Reinventing the wheel!

Kind of. And kind of not.

Cast is great if you want to use the bindings that are available with it (which is now basically the pivot). And you want to buy the mounting plates.

And the Cast system is significantly more weight on the ski for the touring section. I'd rather carry that weight in my pack than on my feet.

Just another option.

 

[Analisa]

Reminds me of a split board transition with a hard boot setup - which I can’t say is much to aspire to, but it works. I just imagine getting the bindings on would take a good deal longer when they’ve got to come out of the pack and the rails are covered in snow.

 

[Lindahl]

The idea was to make a one-ski quiver setup for my wife. She rarely ever tours, so a dedicated touring setup really doesn't make much sense (especially since we're moving to Europe and will have limited luggage and living space). I wanted something very lightweight for the uphill. But since she mostly skis inbounds, I also wanted her to have a normal alpine binding for day-in, day-out skiing. The ATK touring toepiece is mounted with inserts, so I can quickly swap it off my lightweight touring ski and onto hers. So, usually, the toepiece is on my skis for touring. When just skiing the resort, it isn't mounted on hers.

I personally use Shift on my heavier inbounds (+sidecountry) ski, so I see the value in that setup as well (less faff and pieces). But I also have lighter weight touring skis + bindings when that's the call for the day - she doesn't.

The benefits of this over the CAST system is its a lot less weight on the ski when going uphill, since the heelpiece comes off too. They say 1 lb on your feet is like carrying 5 lbs in your pack. The alpine binding is about 5 lbs (in your pack), so this is a lot more efficient than CAST.

The toepiece is 81 grams, and I'd expect, with the rest of the uphill pieces, the total weight on the ski is noticeably less than 1 lb (maybe as low as .5 lbs). So, with 1 lb on your feet, and 5 lbs in your pack, this is probably equivalent in efficiency to a 1.5 to 2 lbs (906 grams) of weight on your feet - better than the Shift and probably better than the Kingpin as well. It's close to a Vipec/Tecton I'd wager, or perhaps even better. Of course, when touring with the wife, I'll probably throw the toes and heels in my pack - so, without carrying the binding in your own pack, it's probably equivalent to a Dynafit TLT Speed for efficiency on the uphill.

Details on how you can make one...

Superlight touring mode:

Bomber full alpine downhill mode:

Either of these are the binding that you want:
https://www.tyrolia.com/shop/us-US/aaattack-11-at-demo.html
https://www.tyrolia.com/shop/us-US/aaattack-13-at-demo.html

You can use any tech toe with limited distance between the toe pins and the back of the toepiece (for better touring position on the ski). I mounted an ATK Trofeo toepiece with Quiverkillers to share with one of my other pairs of skis:
https://www.atkbindings.com/en/prodotto/bindings/race-en/trofeo-145-gr-2

I used these heel riser climbing bars:
https://www.voile.com/voile-3-pin-cable-climbing-wires.html

You'll need a hacksaw to cut off the front of the heelpiece plastic rails, and a grinder to cut down the toepiece metal rail back to the front screwholes and then grind off some of the back of the metal rails. The trick is to be able to still slide the toepiece off backwards, with the risers mounted in place (you'll need to raise them first). This doesn't work if your BSL is much less than 280 or so. You'll have to mount the toepiece behind the line - how much so depends on your BSL - you want your boot center to land on your mount point when the toepiece barely covers the front screws. I used the BSL numbers on the toepiece rails to figure it out. I believe I mounted the heelpiece on the line, but you'll want to check if that works for your BSL.

You can either make the heel risers yourself, or buy some low-profile ones from CAST for $80:
https://casttouring.com/collections/freetour-parts

Creating the heel risers takes some time with a dremel tool to get the right shape. If you go slow, you can get there. Once you get the right width, the natural spring of the bars maintaining their shape causes them to stay in place. Rounding the plastic edges near each position allows them to snap into place. I played around with a tele binding to get an idea of how the mechanism works.

Make sure that when the bars are vertical, the plastic cutting board forces them to slant forward slightly, otherwise it won't work very well when you step down on them.

I also made a one-position high(er) riser for my race bindings using a titanium rod. You only need one screw per riser position. Comes in about 15g per piece, which, when paired with a tech race binding, it's the lightest binding with a functionally-high riser that I've been able to find (130g per). With the riser mounted to the ski, you get the benefit of being able to use the riser regardless of the heelpiece position (flat or not, downhill or uphill) which is a cool bonus.

I'm waiting to see the homemade leg splint...

It's actually just a normal Tyrolia demo binding. So it's as safe as one of those.

 

[Philpug]

It is a pretty darn heavy setup though.

Is it? The Attack2 AT Demo is about 2200gr. add the extra parts you are at a total weight of probably about 2800gr. Now take off the toes and heels I bet the climbing weight is less than 800gr. Sure the other 200gr. of the toe and heel have to go somewhere, like your pack as @Doug Briggs said above.

 

[EricG]

@Lindahl - Props to you for creativity and ingenuity!

 

[Lindahl]

Is it? The Attack2 AT Demo is about 2200gr. add the extra parts you are at a total weight of probably about 2800gr. Now take off the toes and heels I bet the climbing weight is less than 800gr. Sure the other 200gr. of the toe and heel have to go somewhere, like your pack as @Doug Briggs said above.

Close to 280g in extra parts total, so 2480g. The toes are 80g each, the risers are I think 40g each, and then add screws.

 

[crgildart]

Apart from having to swap (and not drop) binding bits and pieces during transition, it looks pretty slick. It doesn't lighten the load, although it does lighten your steps.

I'm with Doug here. I'd be worried about dropping one of the 4 pieces in 4 feet of light snow and not being able to find it. Then there's the odds of getting the forward pressure correct with snow and ice building up on those modified demo tracks during the ascent. High risk hack solution to just spending the money to get the product designed AND TESTED to perform the tasks at hand.

 

[ScottB]

Very creative and I hope it works for you. The real world testing usually tells you what you need to know about how it functions. Lot's of considerations for how you intend to use it, versus all the ways it could be used.

 

[Brian Finch]

Love the work.

I’ve been thinking: could ya quiver kill the rear 2 screws in an ATTACK16 & then just carry a boatload of backup screws ?

 

[Lindahl]

I'm with Doug here. I'd be worried about dropping one of the 4 pieces in 4 feet of light snow and not being able to find it. Then there's the odds of getting the forward pressure correct with snow and ice building up on those modified demo tracks during the ascent. High risk hack solution to just spending the money to get the product designed AND TESTED to perform the tasks at hand.

What? Lol... the toe and heel pieces are pretty big. If you can’t find them, you’re doing something wrong, regardless of how much snow there is. Plus, I can’t imagine dropping them if you take them out one at a time to slide them on. Are you thinking about juggling them or something? After many many years of touring in deep snow on a regular basis and dropping all sorts of gear in snow, I can safely say thats not a concern of mine at all.

Getting the forward pressure right is super simple, even if it was packed with snow, there’s no way you could get it wrong. Have you played with this binding yet? Its pretty obvious when you do.

If you have trouble sliding the binding on the rails because of packed snow, a clip of a voile strap would clear snow in seconds. I’ve used the original CAST for a few years and that older system was much more susceptible to snow packing issues, but it was never an issue.

Sounds like a metric ton of FUD to me.