Thread: Dynafits

Ok I would like an opinion about how far, fast or even push these bindings before they may release or brake.

haha, toque's got you now.

Well. I would say you can push them suprisingly hard..



I am a skinny (69-74kg) guy that loves his im.103s and liked to charge stuff.
Not like a loonie, but,you know, go fast?

With dynafits (bd havocs, today mounting völkl sumos) I obviously ski more carefully. Mostly because 95% of skiing is don OB, where you ski more carefully anyways..
On piste/hard you can push the setup really hard. Even on ice. It just rocks. The boot+ski+snow contact is almost better than on alpine bindings.
And sooooooo much better than on freerides/naxos.
I skied couple of season with them,and I wouldnt do it any more,even if I would get paid to do that...

On touring :Longest skinnings with dynas have been around 8hrs and just loved them. They are light to skin,easy on my knees (naxos was a bitch) and reliable.Well,exept I broke the volcano on my comforts but that was my own stupidity.


But.
I have had one huge face-to-skitip experience with dynafits. Full speed charging and steep-to-flat concave slope ended up releasing in heel and driving the skitip to my mouth. Wham.
The reson was that the shop had fiddled with the iso setting (they put it on 5) AND had tampered with the heel gap. Instead of it being 6mm it was 1...

AND my own dumbassness for not checking the setup before skiing.

Apart from that,I have had one proper release and no pre-releases.




Otherwise, I have to give them a A+ verdict. I am not a dynafit fanatic, but the product just is bloody good.
Obviosly there is different setups if you are just slaying it inbounds or have a obsession to huck to flat all the time, but for OB skiing, is the best invention since,well,whatever?


The downsides?

-Toe can get some snow underneath it and you have to clean it to engage.
-The boot inserts might get clogged with ice and small rocks.Have a tool handy.
-Unproperly mounted bindings will cause problemsrereleases,broken pins,deaths..
-Breaks work like shite..
-Switchbacks need practicing because no return springs in the binding to keep the tail up.
-On longer meandering skins (uphills skinning and flats with your heel clicked in) you need to disengage the toe,unless you master some A.Mclean technicue. Wich I dont.
-Takes time to properly trust that those pesky little things [i]really[/u] keep you attached to your skis..



But that´s my opinion. Hopefully it helps to decide one way or another!

Cheers.

dynafit rules. use the search function and you will see the light.

6'0" 185 lbs. DIN set at 9. Skinny (80-something mm) skis. Probably 12 or so inches on boilerplate. Jon got a knee to the jaw. They didn't release.

Originally Posted by verbier61

dynafit rules. use the search function and you will see the light.

+1. If you don't ski a lot they can be finnicky and problematic (my wife isn't a big fan but she only skis them 8 times a year or so.) But if you ski a lot, they are great and simple to use. Make sure you always make sure the toe pins are seated correctly, it's easy to get complacent about that and get an unpleasant surprise.

As far as durability goes, I just skied 21 out of 23 days on my Alps trip. I weigh 240 and was skiing with a 20 pound pack in the backcountry, as well as resort skiing. I skied pretty hard and broke a pole, broke something on both my boots, ripped my bases to shreds on thinly covered rocks, etc. I tend to abuse stuff but the Dynafits never missed a beat. As someone else mentioned, the brakes suck but are usable.

I love mine, they ski way better then Naxo's and are super light weight. They feel like my alpine binders when I'm skiing them down.
The only issue I have is when I'm traversing on hard snow and trying to set a skin track -
then I've had the ski pop off (the toe piece was set in the skinning position, no ice, etc.)
a few times which was pretty unpleasant.

They rock. Back when I sucked (worse) as a skier and before I got various alpine set-ups sorted out I skied them a bit at the resort. Had a couple of tips-crossed crashes and hooking of roots and they released fine. I'm 175lbs or so. Never had them release when I didn't want them to, except once when had them adjusted wrong. Oops.

I'm 6'4" 200lbs... I lock the toes and ride them like a pair of p18's, be ready for the occasional heel release, and if you start taking 10+ footers to flat, hardpack landings, the heel pins will snap off, usually just one at a time, so the binding is still functional, although I carry zip ties to zip tie my boot down to the heelpiece in an emergency. But why take flat hardpack landings? thats why we tour to the goods. That toepiece is so bomber though, ingenious, and it will still release when locked, I have no idea what a comparable DIN would be... probably upwards of 16 or 18. I think the unlocked DIN is 6 or 8... I fly right out of them, but if I'm doing any spinning / inversion I'll unlock them just to be safe. You can push them harder than naxo's and fritschi's without a doubt. I wouldn't ski them in a terrain park though, maybe a couple gaps w/ smooth trannies... I've toured straight in them for about 14 hours, booted another 3hrs, skied 1 hr , and skinned another 4 hours back out, 22 hours total, most comfortable touring setup you will ever get, so much less wear on your knees.

Interesting photo hucking onto a slope right beside a very recent avalanche with fairlly sizable crown. What was the outcome of your landing? Did you set another one off? Pretty good endorsement of the dynafit. I'm thinking of going that way next year.

good endorsement for the dynafits: hit a submerged stump today, ski came off, mangling the dynafit boot insert in the process. the bindings are still solid as ever though

how about the guy who hung upside down in a crevase til rescued from a dyna fit toepiece ?I assume the toe piece was locked down

Actually, I landed on the bedsurface... didn't set anything else off... the crown is only 12-18" at most. It slid maybe 3 minutes before I hit it, I had no idea, although that surface layer was sluffing out all around...

Originally Posted by sfotex

The only issue I have is when I'm traversing on hard snow and trying to set a skin track - then I've had the ski pop off (the toe piece was set in the skinning position, no ice, etc.) a few times which was pretty unpleasant.

I had some issues like that when I had a bad mount/skewed boot inserts, so there was a definite left/right ski.

Dynafits rock.

Well I dont intend to land flat anymore,, at least not planned.

So stronger than freerides?

Switching systems could cost a fortune, and I want to make sure before I do.

Originally Posted by fattwins

... stronger than freerides?

Times 100.

and then some. Tell me you haven't personally witnessed the glorious explosion of at least a couple freeride toe pieces. A thing of beauty... Sounds like the heel likes to give it up regularly as well from what I've seen around here. I would say the dynafit heel is the weak link, DIN of 10 and all, but they are coming out with the FT12's this year, so just sit and wait for those, they should be good. But even if the heel completely blows up, which I have never seen happen, you still have that bomber toepiece that I can't imagine a way to break it even with heavy use, to the point where you couldn't still limp out on it. Ripping all the screws out is the only way I can think to render it useless, I've done that inbounds, but the ski also snapped in half right there at the toepiece, lo and behold the little fella was clinging faithfully to my boot, no searching required. Good luck getting out of the boonies with an exploderized fritschi... you could make a hulluva fence with all those postholes. If you're worried about the toe or heel ripping out for some reason, helicoils are $$$$!!!!

Originally Posted by awake1563

I would say the dynafit heel is the weak link, DIN of 10 and all, but they are coming out with the FT12's this year, so just sit and wait for those, they should be good. But even if the heel completely blows up, which I have never seen happen, you still have that bomber toepiece that I can't imagine a way to break it even with heavy use, to the point where you couldn't still limp out on it.

Duude!

Have you still checked the spacing between the boot and heelpiece?

As I stated earlier, the few cases where people have had problems have all come down on the heel being unproperly adjusted, the gap being too small. Including my own problems.
Or in one case that the heel was a bit mismounted,ia. the bootslot was offset to the pins by 4mm..

Originally Posted by Meathelmet

Duude!

Have you still checked the spacing between the boot and heelpiece?

As I stated earlier, the few cases where people have had problems have all come down on the heel being unproperly adjusted, the gap being too small. Including my own problems.
Or in one case that the heel was a bit mismounted,ia. the bootslot was offset to the pins by 4mm..

Unfortunately, yea, I've checked and rechecked all the spacing and mounting measurements, and actually decreasing the heelpiece - boot spacing is the best way to minimize prerelease for me. Not too much though, as that space is what allows the binding to flex with the ski, and when it cant, the main post upon which the heelpiece rides takes the brunt of the force and will eventually fatigue and break. Shortening that distance also helps reduce the number of heel pins that I snap off, I've gone through 8 or so pins so far.

I wish I had a copy of the catalog I saw it in, but last year dynafit themselves stated something like "Anyone who needs a DIN higher than 10 is just plain crazy" lo and behold the advent of the FT12. I'm not trying to use my DIN requirement as a bragging point, but some people just need DIN's in the 14-16 range, although I can't imagine having my DIN's set much over 16, ever. Dynafit seems to be recognizing the need for this.... slowly.

is it dee-na-fit or die-na-fit?

deeeenafit
or dynashits
or dynaclits

What models are you guys using that you are writing about (TLT speeds, verticals)? which ones are found to be more durable?