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Individual Review Long-Term Review: Salomon Shift Binding

Mattadvproject

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Ok, I've had quite enough time on the new Salmon Shift bindings that I think I can put up an honest long-term review. It's been a fun season on the bindings and I think Salomon are onto a winner here. But why? Let's get into that, but first a little background.....

Tester - Matt Appleford, age - 41 (I think), height - 6ft3, weight is a fluctuating 225lbs or so (depends on how much steak and roquefort sauce I've had). I'm pretty harsh on gear, I tend to break things so I'm a stern test for most ski gear. I can turn left and right on most runs. I do like to go fast when I'm making said turns.... Ski boot - 29.5 Lange XT Freetour (they are green).

What I am looking for in a binding - the style of skiing I like to do is a lot of "sidecountry" style skiing. I ski inbounds a lot, but in resorts that get a lot of snow, but if I'm in hardpack, then I need them to perform there too. I like to be able to tour from the resort, maybe upto 3 or 4 hours and I might like to do some pure backcountry days too, with no lift access. I'm looking for a binding that can help me do all of that. I need a relatively high DIN and I need a strong binding that's going to last. It needs to have consistent release when I need it to come off and stay on when I need it to. It doesn't have to be super-light weight, but not a brick either.

Duration of test - 2018
Japan - 6 weeks
India - 2 weeks
Colorado - 6 days
Utah - 2 days
Chile - 3 weeks

Disclaimer - Salomon did give me the bindings (and skis) to try out for the season and to report back on what I found. I didn't buy the bindings but I have no contract with Salomon. My job was to give impartial and honest feedback on their new technology and that is what I will try to present here.

Previous comparable bindings skied/owned - Marker: Baron; Duke; Kingpin. Salomon: Guardian. Fritschi: Tecton; Vipec (all unmounted). Naxo's. Out of those, my favorite's were the Kingpin's and then the Guardian's. The Kingpin's were arguably the closest thing to the Shifts and I was on them for 2 seasons. I like them a lot. I liked the Guardians due to their low stand-height and relative ease to transition into ski-mode. I owned the Fritschi's but never skied them (I was excited to try the Tecton's and had them mounted for Japan and then Salomon gave me skis to take away, so I never got to ski on them). The Tecton's would have been a decent comparison to the Shift's too, at the time.

The testing grounds - I've had approximately 12 weeks on the bindings now, all around the world, in a variety of conditions. I've toured in them and done resort only skiing in them, in soft and hard snow, during storms and when it's been bluebird. I feel I've given them a solid season and a half of abuse and feel my experience should give decent insight into the bindings.

First impressions/initial concerns - admittedly, these bindings came out of nowhere, I heard the rumors that Salomon had a "revolutionary" new binding coming out, probably in the summer of 2017 but I really didn't know much about them. I saw photos of the bindings that Fall and started to understand a little about how they worked, but I didn't get on the bindings right at the last minute, maybe a few days before I was due to leave for Japan, in early January. My first day of skiing was around the 12th January.

I had a play around on them at home before I packed my bags. I was a little confused by reading about how to change from tour to ski mode, and vice versa, but it was easy to figure out when I did some initial testing at home. No worries there. Looking at the bindings, I definitely had some initial concerns. I'm always wary of using 1st year tech, normally I don't jump on board with crucial and complex gear until year 2 when hopefully any bugs have been figured out, but the CO Salomon agent told me that the the bindings were in their second season of would would become, the commercial model. They'd been in development for 6 years already with some very solid skiers onboard and were unchanged from the previous year. That was comforting.

They bindings look "plasticy", so I was concerned about how strong they really are and was concerned how would they stand up to abuse from a heavy guy. When I got my hands on them I noticed that there are a lot of moving parts, plenty on them that could go wrong. Bits could fall off and/or they could be prone to icing up (I'd definitely had a lot of problems with icing up on the older frame bindings and I'd also broken Dukes, Barons and Guardians in different places). Straight away the climbing aid looked pretty low, so I was concerned at how well do they go uphill? How heavy are they? Then there were several questions that relate to how they actually work on the downhill. How do they ski? Do they stay on when they need to and do they come off when they need to? I think those were the initial concerns that I had. Only time on snow would tell.....

Traveling with the bindings - for someone who does have to travel for a living with my skis, then if I have a lighter setup in my bag and only have to take one set of skis with me, then that is an advantage. I also appreciate the fact that I can retract the brakes up and out of the way (don't have to remove them or tie them back with rubber bands). I've had issues before with ski brakes punching holes in ski bags on long journey's, so I appreciate a ski brake that stays out of the way (it's the small things in life that I apparently appreciate....). So, ticks in both those departments.

Testing - how did I like them?
Overall, I love these bindings. For me, they do exactly what I need them to do. I did write about my early thoughts on them after I had been skiing on them in Japan, I my feelings are still the same today (you can read that initial review here at https://www.pugski.com/threads/exclusive-daron-rahlves-and-the-atomic-shift-mnc-13-binding.7581/) if you've not read it before. My review back then was positive too, I had a couple of small issues with them back then that I can now (after a lot more mileage with them), can account to user error. The climbing aid does flick down from time to time in deeper snow (in Japan that happened most, in India there was no problem and in Chile I was pretty aware of what I was doing wrong), you just need to make sure you've taken the climbing aid back slightly past the 90 degree mark and then they don't flip back on you as easily. I break trail alot, so I'm often in deeper snow and that's where they can flip down on you. If you are already in the skin track, then as long as you flip them forward just slightly (as I described above), then you should have no problems.

I figured out how to lift the touring lock up with my ski pole handle and not with my hands and that saves a lot of time and effort (there is a little notch that a prominent ski pole handle will grab, if you just angle it forward slightly). Once I had figured out the angle of attack, then I got good at locking the to-piece of the binding into touring mode with my pole. Again, user error. In Japan, with the toe piece full of snow, it was sometimes hard to get to the ski/walk mode lever and to lift it up. I found that if you pinch the two binding arms with the pins on together, then that would raise the lever up a little and then you could easily flick it up with your middle finger, so the action was truly one-handed. That also helped to start the de-icing process too; I really enjoyed how little the binding suffers from icing. If it ever does get stuck, it's super quick and easy to un-stick it and transition with the bindings.

I've snapped the changing lever on Marker Dukes before and I've always been extra cautious with the change lever on the Kingpins too, I just don't have that same worry with the changing mechanism on the Shifts. They are the only touring binding that I have not broken...... yet! So I think the only concern that I still have from my initial tests is that you still have to be pretty accurate at lining up the lugs, when you are closing the pins. I'm still working on it, but I find that if I put the ski brake locking lever at the back into the down position and then push down on my heals to lock the ski brakes, that gets my boot into a better position in general, for the front lugs to be aligned with the pins. When I then release the front lever and drop the pins into place, 9/10 I'm in the right position for everything to be lined up. It sounds complicated, but with some practice, you get pretty good at getting into ski mode.

Pros
- The best sidecountry style binding on the market. With more and more boot manufacturers moving to tech fittings (and I'm sure this binding will further convince more boot manufacturers to add more tech-fitted boots to their line-ups which seems to be a general trend anyway), then more people will have access to this binding.
- Great blend of uphill and downhill performance.
- DIN compatible release in the toe and heal.
- Skis just like a regular alpine binding when in downhill mode, no compromise in performance (it's accurate, with a low stand height, good release and retention).
- Has the one-ski quiver been designed yet? That's debatable, but this could be the true-one binding quiver. On paper, it makes the frame-style touring binding obsolete as well as the touring adapters redundant (unless you need a 16 DIN binding - will the Shift ever get a 16 DIN version??).
- Carbon-infused plastic is strong and relatively light weight. The binding is only a few grams heavier than the Kingpin but has full release in the toe and heal, so the slight penalty is worth it. Metal in all the right places. They seems durable as I haven't been able to break them yet.
- Once you get the hang of it, pretty fast and easy transitions can be had.
- Climbing aid is easy to engage with your ski basket, ski brakes stay out of the way when properly engaged.

Cons
- Slightly heavier than the Kingpin, but has full release in the toe/heal, so potentially a safer system and a happy compromise. Much lighter than the frame bindings. If you want lighter for longer tours, then choose a dedicated tech binding, there's plenty to choose from.
- DIN maxes out at 13, so someone skiing higher than that and jumping off stuff, might need something higher (maybe Salomon will bring out a higher DIN version later? Not sure if they need it though).
- Climbing aid maxes out at 10 degrees, just choose a mellower line if you are slipping out.
- New tech? 3rd year in it's current form so hard to say it doesn't work. Bigger sample size will definitely bring out any bugs and help the naysayers to believe.
- Complicated? Yes, but not in a bad way. There are a lot of moving parts and potential for things to go wrong therefore, but my testing has shown that they don't want to fall apart quickly. They are much quicker at transitioning than most of the frame bindings and almost as quick as the Kingpin, but again, having full release in the toe/heal is a big advantage over the Kingpin or the Tecton.


Were my other initial concerns justified?
So, out of that list, then I'm happy to say that overall, my initial concerns were not really warranted. Lets go through what they were....

1. They are new tech and you should wait for 2019/20 - well, you certainly can, but given this will be the 3rd season of their current form, then you might not need to wait. I personally would be happy to buy a pair for the upcoming season, if I had to.

2. Are they strong enough? Yes, they do look "plasticy", but it's carbon-infused plastic so it's plenty strong without being overly heavy. There's plenty of metal in there too. I'm a big, heavy guy and I haven't manage to break them yet. I haven't snapped off any of the moving parts despite trying to.

3. Icing up of moving parts when transitioning? Not a problem, if they do stick, then pinching the arms in and out a few times, tends to de-ice them. Failing that, you can open and close the ski/tour mode lever and that always works. The bindings are much easier to de-ice than the Marker and Salomon frame bindings (Tyrolia AAA might be different and Fritschi Eagle too) and easier than the Kingpins resulting in really fast and efficient transitions.

4. Climbing aid too low? Well, personal preference really. It's 10 degrees (flat is 2 degrees) so if you want steeper than that, then consider changing your line. Again this was a deliberate design from Salomon to encourage users to look at angle of attack when skinning. I had no problems changing my line if I needed to.

5. They are too heavy? This is not a binding to take on multi-day tours (you could if you wanted to, but it would be hard work). If you are looking for that, then there's plenty of much-lighter, pure-tech bindings out there.

6. How do they ski? Short answer, really well, that's what has impressed me the most. They have a low stand height and the closure around the boot is snug and precise. They ski very well therefore, any movement you make, is transferred to the ski. They give you confidence and feel like a regular alpine binding. They release when they need to and stay on when they need to as well. I've skied a lot of powder in them but to me the greatest test would be in a resort in firm conditions. I've pure-carved GS turns in them and skied bumps in them with no problem. I felt a lot safer skiing inbounds on them than on the Kingpins and they were more nimble than the Guardians and Dukes. They are my favorite hybrid touring bindings, hands down.

7. How do they tour? Fine, similar to a Kingpin and much better than a frame-binding. There's a slight weight penalty, but not much. Pair this up with a lighter weight ski and you'll have a good time. Transitioning can be a little complicated, but time on them and understanding a few shortcuts, will save you more time and energy.

Overall - Salomon have done an amazing job and created something unique that will change the market. It's another exciting product that furthers the sport and makes touring more fun and accessible. This is the first binding that also skis really well-inbounds too, it's the most versatile binding out there. It will no doubt take people a year or two to embrace the technology, but once we've seen more people adopt it, then it will grow and grow. I don't think you have to wait till 2019/20 to get it, but if you aren't sure, then no harm in waiting, you'll just have missed a year of a little more fun. It seems to be durable, skis great and tours well. There's really no big disadvantages to this binding. I'm excited to hear what other people think. For me, this binding to exceed my expectations. The hype is real. They work, end of......

- Matt
 
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TS
Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

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What ski did you use with them?

The Salomon QST 118.

DSC07661.JPG


DSC06608.JPG


- Matt
 

ScottB

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Nice review Matt. Glad to hear the shifts worked well for you and have held up. I am in the process of buying a pair, as I posted in the backcountry forum. I am curious about one thing in your post, your choice of boots. I am suprised you are not in lighter weight boots. I have read about the Lange Freetour's and they seem like the boot to get if you want downhill boot performance in a boot that tours. You pay a penalty of almost 1 pound per boot for the performance. I suppose you only bring one boot on your trips, so this one covers you for inbounds and outbounds with some uphill penalty.

I am your size and use Lange RS140 for inbounds. I am buying a pair of AT boots and plan to go lighter. I am curious if you have tried lighter boots like the Salomon SLab Mtn and found they don't cut it for someone our size on the downhill?

Since I haven't AT toured yet, I haven't sorted out all of my use modes. Due to lack of AT boot / downhill binding compatibility things can get complicated. The shifts will go on Blizzard Zero G 108's. My Langes' will work in the shifts if I want to use the skis inbounds. Due to lack of AT boot / downhill binding compatibility I figure I will only use my AT boots with the shifts and maybe my tree skis, Liberty Origin 96's with Tyrolia Attack bindings (not sure if compatible). So lighter weight will be a plus and a little less stiffness shouldn't be a big issue as I am not skiing high speeds in the woods.
 

firebanex

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I'm glad to hear another review has been suitably impressed with the performance of the Shift bindings. I've got a pair of Shifts winging their way to me, the shop I ordered from called me last week and let me know they were in and a pair was in the mail to my house. I will be mounting them on a pair of Black Diamond Boundary Pro 107s and using the Salomon S/Lab boots with them.. should work out well even if the skis are not exactly your lightweight touring ski.
 
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Mattadvproject

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Nice review Matt. Glad to hear the shifts worked well for you and have held up. I am in the process of buying a pair, as I posted in the backcountry forum. I am curious about one thing in your post, your choice of boots. I am suprised you are not in lighter weight boots. I have read about the Lange Freetour's and they seem like the boot to get if you want downhill boot performance in a boot that tours. You pay a penalty of almost 1 pound per boot for the performance. I suppose you only bring one boot on your trips, so this one covers you for inbounds and outbounds with some uphill penalty.

I am your size and use Lange RS140 for inbounds. I am buying a pair of AT boots and plan to go lighter. I am curious if you have tried lighter boots like the Salomon SLab Mtn and found they don't cut it for someone our size on the downhill?

Since I haven't AT toured yet, I haven't sorted out all of my use modes. Due to lack of AT boot / downhill binding compatibility things can get complicated. The shifts will go on Blizzard Zero G 108's. My Langes' will work in the shifts if I want to use the skis inbounds. Due to lack of AT boot / downhill binding compatibility I figure I will only use my AT boots with the shifts and maybe my tree skis, Liberty Origin 96's with Tyrolia Attack bindings (not sure if compatible). So lighter weight will be a plus and a little less stiffness shouldn't be a big issue as I am not skiing high speeds in the woods.

Thanks Scott, cheers for reading the review. Yours was one of the posts that inspired me to write this review. The short answer is yes, I would like to keep going lighter with all my gear (as is the trend with the equipment manufacturers), but I'm very picky about what boots I'm in. I'm reluctant to compromise on the downhill performance and will definitely (and have) slog around a bit more weight if I can enjoy my turns. As you say, I don't have the luxury of being able to take multiple boots with me overseas, so my one boot kind of needs to do everything. I also haven't been able to try different boots to see what I like, I pretty much have had to figure out the type of boot I want then find one that fits. I'm always open to trying different gear, I just don't always have the opportunity.

I was a frame binding/race boot kind of person a few years ago and now I'm gradually getting the weight down on my gear and I have to say, I'm enjoying the benefits as I get older. Thinking back, that was hard work in my first set-ups (I would lose a lot of weight on my trips though!). I moved to the Kingpin bindings 2 years and immediately felt the benefits of a pin binding (not having to lift the heal of the frame binding was a noticeable difference) and that was nice. I was in the Scarpa Freedom RS and I was not a fan of those boots at all. They have a really low forefoot and they crushed the top of my feet, I have permanent nerve damage as a result. No bueno. So, that's why I moved to the new boots for last season.

When I was shopping around for new boots last year, that was before things happened with Salomon. I also (finally) found a bootfitter that I could with (Jeremy Johnson, owner of the Boot Mechanics in Golden, CO - he's been awesome!) and then he could look at boots with me. I was able to get a decent price on Lange boots (thank you Lange) and we looked at my feet and found a boot that would fit and work. That's really how I ended up in the XT Freetours. They fit great (they don't destroy my feet) and they do what I am looking for in a boot. Would I like to go lighter again, sure, but realistically, that's not going to be until next year, unless I gain a new boot partner for the upcoming season.

I was just looking at boots in the latest Backcountry Gear Guide and the new Technica Zero GTour Pro's look like a great boot (pricey though!). They would be worth a look. The Atomic Hawx Ultra XTD 130 would also be an option, if I were looking now. I don't know if I can look past a 4 buckle boot yet, I'd certainly try them, but would be a bit shy on pulling the trigger on non-trad boot. The skis I have a pretty light, the Salomon QST 118's are actually pretty light paired with the Shift's. That's a nice setup for the weight/vs performance.

Let me know how you get on with your gear Scott.

Kind regards
Matt
 

mikel

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Thanks Matt. Great review. Not sure if you saw the posts in another thread but I have been reading as much as I can find online and also spoke with a local rep. Your review was exactly what I was looking for. I did read that a couple of people had minor issues with the brakes dropping while skinning. Allegedly Salomon was going take a look.
 
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Mattadvproject

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Thanks Matt. Great review. Not sure if you saw the posts in another thread but I have been reading as much as I can find online and also spoke with a local rep. Your review was exactly what I was looking for. I did read that a couple of people had minor issues with the brakes dropping while skinning. Allegedly Salomon was going take a look.

Cheers mikel. Good feedback, thank you. I haven't heard any other independent reviews, other than reviews from shops selling the bindings (so admittedly I didn't listen to those so much) so it was good to hear your feedback. I'd had the ski brakes pop down maybe 2 times, if that, for the time I've been using them. I didn't really consider that to be a problem at the time and I think I put that down to user error at the time. Maybe some snow had gotten in them and I hadn't fully retracted the brakes? I don't know, but once I'd flipped the brake lock lever back down, I could push down and re-engage the brakes and away I went. I definitely wouldn't call it a problem, more a minor inconvenience and if that's something Salomon are looking at, then no problem, zero releases of the ski brakes would obviously be better than a couple. It's interesting to hear that other people have experienced that as well. I'll have to keep my ear to the ground on that one. Thanks for commenting!

- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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I'm glad to hear another review has been suitably impressed with the performance of the Shift bindings. I've got a pair of Shifts winging their way to me, the shop I ordered from called me last week and let me know they were in and a pair was in the mail to my house. I will be mounting them on a pair of Black Diamond Boundary Pro 107s and using the Salomon S/Lab boots with them.. should work out well even if the skis are not exactly your lightweight touring ski.

Sounds like a solid setup and great that you are getting the bindings in early too. I'd heard of some delays so great to hear you are ahead of the pack! Keen to hear your thoughts on them. Cheers firebanex.

- Matt
 

Joe Strummer

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I have the Tyrolia Adrenaline frame AT binding for my side country excursions. As you say, lifting the heel of the binding is a but of a bummer.

However, the advantage of the Adrenaline is that the heel piece can easily adjust accommodate different BSLs. This is great if you have different boots for inbound and outbound skiing (as I do). In addition, the Adrenaline does not require pin inserted boots. Many non pin boots now come with a walk mode. I gather you can only use pin inserted boots when in hike mode.

Still, when I come to replace my frame binding I will give the SHIFT serious consideration.
 

firebanex

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Just finished mounting my Shift bindings and playing around with them on my work bench.. couple things to note about that process and observations:

-Install the heel piece first, you won't be able to easily slide it onto the heel plate if you have the toe piece already installed if your BSL is smaller than mine (321mm)
-read/look at the instructions for the correct order of installing the toe piece mounting screws. Toe peg/thing>rear two>slide toe backwards>mid two.
-If you are using the paper template that is currently on the TGR template thread, there will be like 2-3mm of the tension adjustment screw on the heel plate left exposed.. so don't plan on letting friends with bigger boots use them. (Yes I checked the printer scaling and it was perfect)
-The 110mm brakes are plenty wide enough on the 107mm skis I put these on.
-Switching it from walk mode to ski mode is not confusing at all, there is ample amount of markings each piece to indicate where everything should sit. If you can still read the "Ski" marking while trying to walk, you've done something wrong.
-Everything feels very solid and makes satisfying "clack' noises when switching modes and stepping into and out of the bindings.

Now I just need some snow to go play on and see how this binding does for me!
 

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