So I've only ever bought Salomon bindings...

[Jed Peters]

...tell me why another binding would be beneficial?

I literally use the (now called) STH 16 binding on all my skis....other than my race-carvers (markers on a piston plate).

I hear a lot of talk about the look pivot, and how they can improve ski performance.

I am going to get new bindings and mid-fat skis next year....any reason for me to switch from Salomon?

 

[Jed Peters]

I should point out the primary reason I like Salomon is how UN-finicky they are. You can get into them virtually anywhere with a ton of snow on your boot too...

 

[Gerry Rhoades]

I have Look(not pivots), Salomon, Marker, Atomic and Tyrolia/Head bindings on various skis and they all do what they are supposed to do. If you've been satisfied with Salomon, and it sounds like you are, I wouldn't recommend you change(and we do sell Look Pivots). I know Phil is a huge fan of Pivots and so is Bill Talbot, IIRC, but to me they're just too heavy. Yup, they are durable, but when you only weigh 150 pounds, the extra weight on my feet is noticeable. The advantage of the Pivot is the small footprint of the heel and their hell for stout construction. Does that translate to better ski performance? I don't know and I think it would be fairly hard to prove. As has been discussed, you can't really remove personal bias from the testing process.

 

[Philpug]

High performance bindings are about confidence. I am a big Salomon fan and have the utmost confidence in the Sth2 13 and 16's. I was also a big fan of the original Steels, LABs and other Driver derived all metal Equipes. Single pivot toes, while do not have the quickest return to center, I will sacrifice that for more elastically in the toe, this allows me to ki the toes at a mortal DIN range and still not worry about pre releasing but the confidence to know that the binding will release when it needs to in a low speed twisting fall.

The Look Pivots have their pluses and minuses, the pluses: short mount distance, low rotation weight and proven reliability. Minuses, Can be quirky getting in and out of , very short adjustment range and if you want all metal, you have to go to the 18.