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The importance of a properly adjusted binding

Monique

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Last season, I had a couple of unfortunate incidents with my Sick Day 110s.

In one of them, I was skating as fast as I could at A Basin from the top of the Zuma lift to the base of Zuma cornice. All of a sudden I double ejected. It was hilarious, but puzzling.

Then later that season, this happened at Loveland. In retrospect I questioned whether my binding misbehaved after I turned up the hill. Also, hilarious video.


After all of that, I really started wondering about my bindings, and I finally took them to Mountain Wave in Breck - they've been pretty helpful to me in the past. Sure enough - they said the forward pressure was too low, and the slidey plate thing (they didn't use those words) wasn't even in contact with the boot.

I have my theories about how all this happened. Part of it is my fault, because they are Marker bindings, and when I first got the skis back from getting adjusted for my new boots, I couldn't get my damn boot into the bindings. So my husband and I decided to loosen it by a click or two. But the slidey plate thing, we did not mess with that. My best guess is that whoever adjusted the binding didn't check for the height there (I didn't know that was even a thing).

That was the first time I've messed with my own bindings, and seems like the last, too.

I'll be interested in getting them out there this season - assuming, of course, that I can actually stomp my damn boot into the binding.
 

Philpug

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We were up at Northstar and an older gentleman flew into the lift maze out of control. I could see why, he was on some old Rossi rental level skis from the turn of the century, about 140's with Marker 3.2 bindings. I noticed that the toe of the boot was halfway out, which could happen from time to time with this level of a binding. I point it out to him and suggest that he click out and click back in so the toe could recenter. As went to click back in, I could see the heel of the boot barely even made it to the treadle. As I start to mention that he might want to check the forward pressure, he quickly snaps at me and says they were self adjusting bindings and they will be fine. :nono:
It can not be stressed how important forward pressure is to not only the performance of a binding but the safety. A binding that could release when it is not supposed to is just as of not more dangerous than one that doesn't release when it should.
 
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Monique

Monique

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It can not be stressed how important forward pressure is to not only the performance of a binding but the safety. A binding that could release when it is not supposed to is just as of not more dangerous than one that doesn't release when it should.

So, what is the proper way (is there a proper way for a civilian) to adjust a binding to accommodate a slightly longer BSL without compromising retention?
 

jmeb

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Differs from binding to binding, usually either a worm screw or a plate you lift up with a flatness screwdriver. To check forward pressure all bindings have a visual indicator of some sort . You need to read the tech manuals of each manufacturer for details. Pretty simple once you know them.

Marker bindings tend to be a pain, very tight fitting heels when pressure is right.

AFAIK, this is the same way shops do it. There is a torque test for DIN calibration but I'm not sure there is an independent test for forward pressure. Phil will chime in I'm sure.
 

Philpug

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So, what is the proper way (is there a proper way for a civilian) to adjust a binding to accommodate a slightly longer BSL without compromising retention?
@jmeb posted just as I was replying.
 

Alexzn

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The AFD plates are usually a part of a self-adjusting design of the toe where they sit just right when the forward pressure is set correctly. The only bindings that I know of where the toe needs adjustment are Salomons (supposedly great for old worn out boots), and some of the newest designs that are backcountry sole compatible (there is an argument that they complicate the adjustments for the sake of being compatible with the boots that the majority of skiing public aren't even using). Markers in my limited experience need what feels like lots of forward pressure when they are adjusted properly. You are lucky that your experiment in binding comfort didn't end up in anything worse than just a fall. Most of the tech manuals are on the web in some form or another these days. And yes, it's usually the matter of turning the screw or moving the heel to get an indicator between two lines or get a screw head flush with the housing. By the way, forward pressure is a different adjustment than the DIN release setting. If your pressure is off, the effective DIN setting will be off too, so both need to be set properly for the binding to operate correctly.
 
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Monique

Monique

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It will be interesting to see if I think the new setup is tenable. Now that I think back, I remember a miserable time at Monarch in the trees trying to get my boot into these bindings while RachelV and Mr. KimmyT waited below, not knowing I was okay. That was with the previous boots. I like these skis a lot in slush bumps, but if it's too much of a struggle to get into the binding, I may just punt and sell rather than spending the cash to mount a different binding and thereby ending up with a ski that has two drill patterns before I sell it. Sigh.

Question: I just bought a pair of skis with demo Marker bindings. Haven't been in them yet. Is their demo line as difficult to click into as their "regular" line seems to be? (I don't recall exactly which Marker demo binding, one of the royal line for sure)
 

jmeb

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Assuming the heel piece is the same design (common across Royals / Tours / Royal Demos and recent K2 system bindings I've seen) -- yes they will be equally tight.
 

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Question: I just bought a pair of skis with demo Marker bindings. Haven't been in them yet. Is their demo line as difficult to click into as their "regular" line seems to be? (I don't recall exactly which Marker demo binding, one of the royal line for sure)

Yes, it has to do with the design of the heel piece. There is a single "pivot" point on the heel piece of Marker bindings. It provides a very solid feel when clicked in, but it requires more effort as you're only leveraging off one pivot point. It can get especially challenging if the heel pieces are not properly greased. When they become dry, there's much more friction, which makes it much harder to click in.
 
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Monique

Monique

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Assuming the heel piece is the same design (common across Royals / Tours / Royal Demos and recent K2 system bindings I've seen) -- yes they will be equally tight.

*grumble*
 
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Monique

Monique

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It can get especially challenging if the heel pieces are not properly greased. When they become dry, there's much more friction, which makes it much harder to click in.

This sounds relevant to my interests. It has never occurred to me to grease bindings ...
 

SkiEssentials

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This sounds relevant to my interests. It has never occurred to me to grease bindings ...

Take a look at them when you have a chance. If you can't see any visual grease, or if they actually look kind of dusty, dirty, or dry, swing by a tune shop and ask them to regrease them. Should help quite a bit.
 

mdf

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So I have an embarrassing story. I have a pair of slalom skis I used to share with my son. A couple of years ago, things were fairly icy and not a whole lot of terrain was open so I decided to take them instead of my usual skis. I glanced at the DIN setting, saw it looked like mine, put them in the car, and drove up to Stowe.

So after a few runs I take a bathroom break at the top, come out, put my skis on, and walk right out of the binding as I took off. "Hmm, that's odd, must not have been in straight." I follow the ridge down to Liftline, and hop into the bumps on skiers right. About 3 moguls in, I walk out of my binding again. "What the....?"

Put them back on, pick up my foot, and realize that the skis flop back and forth A LOT as I wiggle my foot. Sure enough, the bindings were set for my son's boots, and I had a gap between my boot lug and the toepiece. So I had to stand there in a mogul field, in the cold, under the chair, and adjust the forward pressure and the DINs,

Oops.
 

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