Results 126 to 150 of 876
Thread: Fritschi Vipec review thread
-
03-03-2014, 08:34 PM #126Registered User
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
- Location
- northern BC
- Posts
- 31,081
-
03-03-2014, 09:01 PM #127
The tlt5s were def more used so maybe - but to expect to change the pin adjustment for a boot that should be the same was too much to ask. Or to only use same boot...
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Natures peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn. - John Muir
"How long can it last? For fuck sake this isn't heroin -
suck it up princess" - XXX on getting off mj
“This is infinity here,” he said. “It could be infinity. We don’t really don’t know. But it could be. It has to be something — but it could be infinity, right?” - Trump, on the vastness of space, man
-
03-04-2014, 10:29 AM #128
AFAICT, the Garmont problem was with the profile of the dimple, too cup-shaped, not a jaw width issue. The problems appears to have been fixed with this year's Scott models, evidence that it can indeed be reverse engineered. No need for a width spec. Easy to reverse engineer that.
-
03-04-2014, 10:43 AM #129Gel-powered Tech bindings
- Join Date
- Dec 2004
- Location
- Amherst, Mass.
- Posts
- 4,686
Right, that's what I meant by "too deep" -- obviously a problem immediately upon insertion into a binding's toe pincers.
(Amazingly that Garmont would unleash that on the skiing public. Yes, I know, we've suffered through many bad product releases, but this one took only a few *seconds* of casual use to be obviously defective.)Mo' skimo here: NE Rando Race Series
-
03-10-2014, 02:02 PM #130Registered User
- Join Date
- Feb 2012
- Posts
- 610
My two cents on the Vipecs:
Me: 5'9", 155 lbs, ski the Wasatch mostly, 30-50 days per season, 90% resort/10% backcountry
Normal gear: 184 Katanas/186 Renegades/186 Sickles, STH14 or STH16, Cochise Pro 130s 26.5
My old touring setup: old Katanas with Fritschis
I got my Vipecs mounted by the BD shop. Mounted on some 186 Volkl Nunataqs, 3+ cm from rec'd. Skied them with some TLT6s 26.5, black tongue. G3 BC.com skins for touring.
Over the weekend I did two half day tours on the south side of Little Cottonwood and two half days of resort skiing at Alta and Snowbird.
Ascending: this being my first tech binding, I was impressed with the uphill performance of the Vipecs (no surprise there). No problems with stripped pins after about 5000 vert of skinning over two half day tours. Stepping into the toe was a little finicky but manageable. Switching heel riser levels was super easy with a pole basket or your hand. Going from tour to ski mode was also seamless. Brakes functioned perfectly. And even a tour jong like me could manage to strip skins without take the skis off.
Descending: the resort is a better test of downhill performance than touring, and the Vipecs did not disappoint. I skied the high T at Alta a bunch, bumped down High Boy, 3rds, Eagles Nest and West Rustler the first day, and skied sunbaked mank in Mineral Basin, bumps in Gad2, chalk off of Little Cloud, and recrystallized shady pow on North Baldy at the Bird the second day. Not one prerelease with the toe and heel set at a release value of 8. Solid connection to the boot and ski. The vibrations of skiing fast over rough snow were definitely felt more with this setup than with my alpine gear. Tough to say if that was all the binding though, since I was skiing the Vipecs with an AT boot and an AT ski in the resort.
Overall, I'm impressed. I've got a week long AT trip coming up, will report back more after that.
-
03-10-2014, 03:45 PM #131
Thanks for the reveiw ^^
www.apriliaforum.com
"If the road You followed brought you to this,of what use was the road"?
"I have no idea what I am talking about but would be happy to share my biased opinions as fact on the matter. "
Ottime
-
03-29-2014, 06:32 PM #132Registered User
- Join Date
- Dec 2012
- Posts
- 19
Any new updates for the Vipec for the 2014/2015 season?
Seems like the main problem has been with the toe pin treads stripping. Has using the loctite 263 solved this problem?
-
03-29-2014, 07:00 PM #133
-
03-29-2014, 10:04 PM #134
-
03-30-2014, 04:17 AM #135
-
03-30-2014, 10:41 AM #136
So, what's the word. Do you recommend buying this year's Vipec, or would you recommend sticking with Dynafit for now? Doesn't sound like many problems outside of the pin issues this year. correct?
-
03-30-2014, 12:53 PM #137
Go for it. Or get some cheap on sale dynafits and wait a year or two.
These are real cheap in the 130mm brake: http://featheredfriends.com/gear/sno...t-binding.html
-
03-30-2014, 02:02 PM #138
BC.com has Vipec's for $420. Seems pretty good. I'm just a tad worried about problems with them. That feathered friends price is awesome too.
-
03-30-2014, 02:25 PM #139Registered User
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
- Location
- northern BC
- Posts
- 31,081
When Rads were new I bought Verts, this year I bought Rads instead of Vipecs
The Vipecs are still on the bleedign edge, not because I don't trust fritchi and their idea but because they are new, the Radicals had problems when they came out which got fixed and so I expect at least a year or 2 of working out the bugs
If I buy bleeding edge tech I am either willing to thro $ away or work with the mfger as opposed to coming on the WWW to say "phuck xyz I bought this latest greatest product which ain't so greatest, must be a conspiracy!?"Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
-
04-02-2014, 10:22 AM #140Registered User
- Join Date
- Apr 2014
- Posts
- 2
Anyone mounted Vipecs on skis formerly mounted with Dynafit Speed Radicals? Wondering if the hole pattern will be problem with the holes being too close together. Guess I can always shift forward or back if I had to. What would people recommend if I had to do that? These are going on some Voile V8's (165's).
My Dynafit Speed Radicals broke after only about 20 days on them. I only weigh 135lbs and don't ski radically hard on them so very disappointed since Dynafit is not being very helpful at this point so I'm pissed at them and am plan on picking up some Vipecs that seem to be a great alternative. The Dynafits of course are just out of warranty period. Plus they are waiting for some to come in for parts therefore I am without BC skis. Not good customer service at all. All my experiences with BD have been great so I would hope that BD takes care of their Diamir products equally as well.
Thanks
-
04-03-2014, 07:18 AM #141Registered User
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Colorado
- Posts
- 3,009
Now that these have been out a few months, how are people finding the ski performance? I'm mostly wondering about the vagueness in the rear of the ski that comes with the traditional-style dynafit binding. I'm kicking around the idea of getting a pair for a more "aggressive" BC ski next year but would rather avoid the beast.
If your comment starts with "this is my first tech binding, but...," your opinion is not what I'm looking for."High risers are for people with fused ankles, jongs and dudes who are too fat to see their dick or touch their toes.
Prove me wrong."
-I've seen black diamonds!
throughpolarizedeyes.com
-
04-03-2014, 08:05 AM #142
I am also looking for up to date info. I do like that there has not been a thread titled "Vipec failure almost killed me" over the winter.
www.apriliaforum.com
"If the road You followed brought you to this,of what use was the road"?
"I have no idea what I am talking about but would be happy to share my biased opinions as fact on the matter. "
Ottime
-
04-05-2014, 02:44 PM #143
Clicking in is a pain. Dealing with the adjustable pin is a pain. There are no accessories available in North America yet. They claim the boot toe color clip thing will be addressed next year, for now with some boots (tlt6 for sure) you have a choice of staying in walk mode when walking, or getting a reliable release when skiing. I have no complaints so far about how they ski. I'm not that impressed.
-
04-05-2014, 03:50 PM #144
Here's what I said to Lou about them..."I’ve got 4 days on my Vipec’s now and am extremely happy with them, definitely prefer them to the a Dynafit’s I’ve owned. In rough order of importance to me here’s a list of what I like. Toe elasticity and side release, ski/walk mode change, riser height change, ski brake operation. Ramp angle is also something nice since no mod-ing is necessary. I have mine mounted on 2.2kg 120mm waist Rossi Squad 7′s and the rig skis well."
Haven't toured them much lately, it's been pretty good at my home hill. Anyway most of the criticism I've seen on the Vipec is related to getting in and out of them. If you put them into walk mode first they're no different than any other pin binding as far as getting them off. And as for getting the toe on, it's just the same as Dynafit was before they added power towers, so not really that big a deal. Having a release setting on the toe, being able to switch from ski to walk with the push of a button, and good ramp angle out of the box with a quality ski brake make these things worth looking at in my opinion.Lucky Thirteen!
-
04-06-2014, 06:42 PM #145
Does the Vipec's elasticity translate into a smoother ride? Do you feel less vibration, rough snow, etc, directly through the binding becauseIf the elasticity absorbs some of the vibration, or does it ski the same as dynafits? I'm coming from tele gear so I have no idea how this elasticity works bit I've got knees that complain when I ski super hard scrapy snow and I'm looking for anything to mellow that out.
-
04-06-2014, 10:13 PM #146
I feel like the ski has much more to do with that than the binding. Sidewall construction, rubber dampening, and things like metal laminates and hybrid wood cores are what really counts for a smoother ride.
That's why you see Dynafit adding titanal layers and sidewall. Adding weight, improving performance.
-
04-07-2014, 12:21 PM #147Registered User
- Join Date
- Feb 2012
- Posts
- 610
In response to Hugh,
Yeah, I don't tour all that much.
But I did just finish a week long AT trip in the Selkirks at the Sorcerer Lodge. Again, Vipecs on 186 Nunataqs, used the TLT6 throughout. We skinned 4500-6000 vert per day for 6 days.
The fiddle factor of getting into the toe is compounded when using boots with a rockered toe like the TLT6. My wife used the Vipecs with Black Diamond Shivas (flat toe) and had less trouble clicking in.
Vipecs are awesome on the up. As noted by someone else, my TLT6s require the color clip high to release properly at the toe from a forward fall. Color clip high also means it kicks out of walk mode after a few strides almost every time. Even in ski mode, however, I never prereleased when moving uphill. Risers are changed easily with BD pole baskets. For those that care, changing to ski mode without taking the ski off is also a snap.
I crashed twice during the trip. First was a 15-20 ft cornice drop to soft snow. With my release values set at 8 for heel and toe, I double ejected despite a pretty square landing. After the run I turned up the release values to 10 and 10. I hooked a ski in breakable crust the next day and appropriately got a lateral release out of the toe.
In short: tours uphill awesome, fiddly toe entry especially with rockered boots, easy riser and mode changes, zero prereleases and two appropriate releases while skiing down.
-
04-07-2014, 06:23 PM #148Meadowskipping old fart
- Join Date
- Feb 2009
- Posts
- 578
-
04-07-2014, 06:41 PM #149
-
04-07-2014, 08:11 PM #150
hah - that's awesome and true.
I don't dare try the Fritschis. Still in awe of how many people in this thread are asking about that binding when on here and on Wildsnow so many people have reported problems. Truly backcountry skiers are the lemming sheeps of the ski world.
So maybe the Fritschis and Ions are the hardtails with Mag 21s?
Bookmarks