Plum guide tech binding

[dark_star]

god damnit this thread scares me

Yep. Me too. Got home from work and checked my bindings for cracks. Of course it's microscopic damage that you really need to look for... and can't see by definition...

Confidence in gear is essential as we all routinely trust our lives to these things.


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[gregL]

I got an email from the Plum factory this morning. They said to ship both the toe pieces to New Hampshire and they'll ship them back under warranty.

Where in New Hampshire?

[zerkman]

It's an address in Dublin, NH. Google Earth doesn't make it look like a business address, so I'm going to keep the address given to me private.

[telelebowski]

Buddy's failure skinning on level ground, less than 30 days on the binding, fortunately only requiring him to posthole on the slogfest out. I posted my difficulties with them long ago in this thread requiring loctite on various screws. I've seen enough toe piece failures that I am done with them. I also don't even feel comfortable selling them to someone else given what I have witnessed.

[mickymikey]

hmmm, that does make me worry a bit. the newest version of the guide that I have have black toe wings. I hope a bit of a re-design was included with the change in colour!

I guess at the same time though if you do a quick search on dynafit toe breakages you come up with quite a lot of similar stories, pick your poison I guess.

[endure]

Yes; it is the black wings I am interested in. Are there any known failures with them? We all know by now that the silver ones may fail in a brittle manner with a high enough strain rate or from fatigue. They say they have strengthened the black wings so that should be the focus.

[GeezerSteve]

Who said they strengthened them? The cross sections of the silver and black toe wings look the same to my eye, although I've never done a side-by-side comparo. How would they make them stronger? Aren't they both milled from 7075T6 alloy billet?

I sold my Plums after a few days of use cuz the skimpy toe wing cross section made me nervous.

Dynafit Radical toes are bomber, easy in, great design. Updating Plums with Radical toes is an obvious option. I've updated my TLT Speeds (my favorite tech binding when modded by grinding off Le Bump and installing longer pins) with Speed Radical toes.

[auvgeek]

^^Yeah, I've upgraded my Plums with Speed Radical toes, too. Between the cross section and AL fatigue issues, not to mention the recent failures, those toe wings are scary.

Not sure what to say about the heel pieces (they seem as trustworthy to me as any other heel, but YMMV), but speed radical toes are a relatively cheap upgrade.

[mickymikey]

looking at these photos just from the web there does seem to have been a bit of a re-design of the area around the pins. definitely looks to be more material around the pin on the newer black winged version.

[endure]

And there is a rib up the centre of them now, I guess to dissipate forces or something (I'm civil eng, not mechanical). I have both silver and black toes and there is some small differences. The Plum rep in France at the time told me the black ones can support more force than the previous silver ones. No numbers to back that up. I haven't heard of a black fracture yet.

[gregL]

The cross section of the toe wings in Micky's A and B photos is different - the newer one on the right is slightly thicker near the bend, with a groove in the center and beveled edges. I've owned both and had problems with neither.

[wildmanwillie]

I was inspecting my guides today and noticed one of the toe pins has a crack on the external side. This allows the pin to rotate almost 360 degrees. I'm not sure how long this crack has been there or if I've skied the binding like this. The binding has ~30 days on it, mostly on soft snow. They were purchased new last August from Evo whom I assume is an authorized dealer.

Here is a picture, sorry for the shitty quality.


I emailed plum at contact@fixation-plum.com, that seems to be the general consensus for how to deal with warranty issues. I assume these are under warranty as they are less than a year old...If anyone has a better way to get into contact with plum for warranty issues please let me know.

[neck beard]

eek.......

[wildmanwillie]

eek.......

I drank the kool-aid but the acid was bunk...

Anyone else seen this type of failure? I quickly browsed this thread but didn't find anything.

[dark_star]

What kind of ski do you have it on? It looks super wide. Just curious as to the usage patterns that correspond to these failures. Also, how tall are you/what's your weight?

This thread is concerning...

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[wildmanwillie]

What kind of ski do you have it on? It looks super wide. Just curious as to the usage patterns that correspond to these failures. Also, how tall are you/what's your weight?

This thread is concerning...

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Praxis Protests, so yeah pretty wide. I'm a smaller dude at 5'8 140#. Skied in the resort 10-15 days but only on 6inch+ days until I got my concepts. Maybe 5 hard snow touring days on them, with corn or slushy descents. The rest of the usage was soft snow touring, with minimal jumping off of shit.

I've hucked on them a decent amount especially in the resort, but nothing to hard snow or over 20ft. Regardless, probably more than I should have.

Only have skied them locked out on 2 descents. Have had 2 pre releases and that was when I took them out for a couple icy groomer laps at the beginning of the season to get an idea of limitations.

[Lambert]

I was inspecting my guides today and noticed one of the toe pins has a crack on the external side. This allows the pin to rotate almost 360 degrees. I'm not sure how long this crack has been there or if I've skied the binding like this. The binding has ~30 days on it, mostly on soft snow. They were purchased new last August from Evo whom I assume is an authorized dealer.

Here is a picture, sorry for the shitty quality.


I emailed plum at contact@fixation-plum.com, that seems to be the general consensus for how to deal with warranty issues. I assume these are under warranty as they are less than a year old...If anyone has a better way to get into contact with plum for warranty issues please let me know.

Do awnser from Plum?
Youre pins are different than the ones on my Yaks.. Mine are flat on the outside, yours have a hole..

It a shame that this thread is concerning to people. I understand it, because of all the problems you read here. But there are also people with 0 problems, like me. I can shred the whole mountain without a speed limit and without locking the toes. I've abused my Plums but they remain bombproof.

[wildmanwillie]

Do awnser from Plum?
Youre pins are different than the ones on my Yaks.. Mine are flat on the outside, yours have a hole..

It a shame that this thread is concerning to people. I understand it, because of all the problems you read here. But there are also people with 0 problems, like me. I can shred the whole mountain without a speed limit and without locking the toes. I've abused my Plums but they remain bombproof.

I received a response from Plum after 5 days with instructions to send both toes to the Dublin, NH address as mentioned earlier in the thread. They're sending me a new pair of toes pieces.

I was more than happy with them prior to this, and was very impressed with their retention capabilities. Interesting that the pins on your Yaks are different, maybe the new toe pieces I get will have that pin design.

[Jonathan S.]

[...] the Dublin, NH address as mentioned earlier in the thread.[...]

Mr. M.S. and/or Ms. N.S.?!?

[wildmanwillie]

Mr. M.S. and/or Ms. N.S.?!?

Yeah Ms. N.S.

Is there something I should know? Haven't sent them yet.

[Jonathan S.]

Yeah Ms. N.S.

Is there something I should know? Haven't sent them yet.

Was mainly just my own curiosity -- the southern NH connection to Plum had eluded me until I saw the Dublin address and remembered that the only person I know who lives there has been sponsored by Plum for many years (while previously living in the somewhat more snowy & mountainous Chamonix).

Despite being the only American to ever win a World Cup rando race and also a World Championship medal (fears of that white & pink suit compelled me forward during our races this season) , she is very quiet, modest, polite, etc.
(Plus her husband is an IFMGA guide -- what a lineage for their kids!)
So your bindings will be in good hands (which are also amazingly adept at seemingly instantaneous transitions).

[wildmanwillie]

You had me worried for a second there!

It's good to know that Plum has solid people like them on board for N.A. warranty stuff. Customer service has been better than expected thus far, and after hearing that I'm sure it will continue with Mr. and Ms. S. Thanks for the info, I definitely feel better about sending my toes to reputable good people than some random rep or shop.

[gregL]

I have heard that once NS receives the broken parts and determines they are warranty-worthy, Plum will send replacements directly to you from the factory . . .

[shasti]

My PLUM Guides with silver pins broke too, probably after about 15 or 20 days on them. I emailed Ian as well, who emailed PLUM, and was told that the silver pins were no longer covered on warranty. Finally I got in touch with somebody at PLUM who offered me a deal on a new pair, but with the international transfer fee and shipping it ended up costing me $500 USD to get them to my door.

[neck beard]

Both bindings broke in the same place?