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  1. #1
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    Exploding Dynafit Radical Heels

    Anyone else have this issue? 2 heel pieces in 2 seasons, fully split in half. Never hucking any bigger than 15 feet, or skiing inbounds on them. I've never even released from them besides last week when it failed on a mellow transition to a frozen lake. 1st time I saw it coming unglued so the above didn't happen first.

    Warranty has been great - but do I really need to ski with an extra heel in my pack? Bad batch of radical heels I haven't heard of?
    Drive slow, homie.

  2. #2
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    Soft ski big guy? On a softer ski you can cause the pins to bottom out when you flex the ski and put extra force on the heel piece.
    When life gives you haters, make haterade.

  3. #3
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    That's a thought. What's the fix? Heel spacing is spot on as per the dynafit indicator thingy.
    Drive slow, homie.

  4. #4
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    Derbyflex plates??

  5. #5
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    Eugenio Oregón
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    Do you have the version with or without the extra rib? Non-rib is the one being recalled.

    I had this happen on my first gen Speed Radical heel pieces after 3 seasons of use, both cracked and split within days of each other. I also saw my friend's first gen Radical FT heel piece split in half after he hit it with the tip of his other ski. In my assessment it's a design flaw / vulnerability of the material and process. Crack propagation on that heelpiece barrel leads to instant failure.

    Look how they fixed it on the Radical 2.0! Between that and the top plate failures, they really bombed on the heelpiece design. They should just offer the Radical 1.0 toe with Speed Classic heelpiece and discontinue the current radical speed heelpiece.
    _______________________________________________
    "Strapping myself to a sitski built with 30lb of metal and fibreglass then trying to water ski in it sounds like a stupid idea to me.

    I'll be there."
    ... Andy Campbell

  6. #6
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    need a solution?
    "When the child was a child it waited patiently for the first snow and it still does"- Van "The Man" Morrison
    "I find I have already had my reward, in the doing of the thing" - Buzz Holmstrom
    "THIS IS WHAT WE DO"-AML -ski on in eternal peace
    "I have posted in here but haven't read it carefully with my trusty PoliAsshat antenna on."-DipshitDanno

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Z View Post
    That's a thought. What's the fix? Heel spacing is spot on as per the dynafit indicator thingy.
    Stiffer ski underfoot? When I was dealing with the Scarpa Evo boot malfunction I was surprised how much forward pressure you could put on the toe without it releasing. Do you skin a lot in the high riser position?
    When life gives you haters, make haterade.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    the gach
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    Vertical heelpieces is my solution. I run rad toes and ft12 heels. I saw too many broken radical heels come back when I worked at the shop.
    But Ellen kicks ass - if she had a beard it would be much more haggard. -Jer

  9. #9
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    It's not about being heavy or a hard core or hucking ... the rad is about bad design

    What happens is the top plate of the heel piece gets peeled off because the shitty screws holding the top plate on break or because of inadequate support for the lifters the screws pullout

    So the heel piece breaks during the skin up and then blows up when you are skiing, this a well known problem
    Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know

  10. #10
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    ^ I've also seen heel pins come out due to the top plate cracking. That's a fun one to discover on top of a 2K' couloir! Got my buddy down through a combination of voile strapping and duct taping his boot to his ski ...
    _______________________________________________
    "Strapping myself to a sitski built with 30lb of metal and fibreglass then trying to water ski in it sounds like a stupid idea to me.

    I'll be there."
    ... Andy Campbell

  11. #11
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    I think the top plate cracking was about bad metal in the early days of the product, there was also the pin in the base issue which would crack the housing , there is also a problem with shitty screws that break more easily, I posted picts in a thread somwhere which show the differenves but i can't find em without my LT, I can just barely run this phone i can't really find on this phone, I am posting from a breakfast buffet at Annupurni
    Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know

  12. #12
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    Well, seems like it's a well known problem and I'm out of the loop. Thanks for the info. So what's the best heel that dynafit currently makes (besides the beast). As in - which would you bring as a back up for a week long hut trip?

    SkiFish - What are those?
    Drive slow, homie.

  13. #13
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    The. Verticals were the most trouble free tech binding but they don't make anymore, maybe you can find a lightly used setup?
    If you take the forces of the boot on a climbing riser the older style is like a triangle supporting your boot while the rad is like a triangle with no hypotenuse it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that something is fuckd
    I'm on verticals over here and I got a spare in my duffel
    Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know

  14. #14
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    ^ They don't currently make a "best heel" anymore! The Speed Classic heels looked most bombproof.

    The Speed Turn (1 or 2.0) looks like the same weak plastic barrel of the Speed Radical heelpiece but with a new metal non-hinged top plate. To be fair, most Radical heelpiece failures were of the lifter and top plate, and not actual barrel - but I've seen and heard of enough barrel failures to be critical of the design.

    The Radical 2.0 heelpiece looks much beefier and improved from the Radical 1.0 heelpiece (thicker and reinforced barrel, strong ribs on top plate), but it's a first generation product and there are minor complaints about the brake lockout.:
    https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ical-2-0/page4

    edited: removed reference to Speed Turn 1.0s which also use the same plastic housing as Speed Radical
    Last edited by SchralphMacchio; 01-21-2016 at 05:22 PM.
    _______________________________________________
    "Strapping myself to a sitski built with 30lb of metal and fibreglass then trying to water ski in it sounds like a stupid idea to me.

    I'll be there."
    ... Andy Campbell

  15. #15
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    Z, if you're not looking for a tech binding solution with elasticity, then maybe you should look into the G3 Ion.
    _______________________________________________
    "Strapping myself to a sitski built with 30lb of metal and fibreglass then trying to water ski in it sounds like a stupid idea to me.

    I'll be there."
    ... Andy Campbell

  16. #16
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    the 2.0 top plate clips onto the housing and the screws now just locate the plate instead of taking all the strain of the flippy lifters.

    The Flippy lifters are the BIG design fuckup, I suppose there could be other issues with 2.0 but dyna has at least fixed that issue

    And there are older models still available that don't use flippy lifters but then you don't get brakes which I am assuming the op wants
    Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Z View Post
    Well, seems like it's a well known problem and I'm out of the loop. Thanks for the info. So what's the best heel that dynafit currently makes (besides the beast). As in - which would you bring as a back up for a week long hut trip?

    SkiFish - What are those?
    not sfb, but those are ATK Raider 14.

  18. #18
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    not just raiders
    free raiders bro
    gots 70 or so days on em
    i dig em
    there's a thread on em
    been through 3 of

    these piss poor design failures
    "When the child was a child it waited patiently for the first snow and it still does"- Van "The Man" Morrison
    "I find I have already had my reward, in the doing of the thing" - Buzz Holmstrom
    "THIS IS WHAT WE DO"-AML -ski on in eternal peace
    "I have posted in here but haven't read it carefully with my trusty PoliAsshat antenna on."-DipshitDanno

  19. #19
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    You had parts to zap together?

    When mine exploded everything was lost in > half a meter of super light pow and i ended up spooning a tree so we had to strap the boot to the ski
    Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by SchralphMacchio View Post
    The Speed Classic heels looked most bombproof.
    +1

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by skifishbum View Post
    been through 3 of

    these piss poor design failures
    Hah!

    Here is my buddy's that I fixed with the same "tools" as you
    Note that the lifter didn't fail, but he clipped his binding with his other ski and the plastic housing of the heelpiece just completely exploded.



    Quote Originally Posted by XXX-er View Post
    You had parts to zap together?

    When mine exploded everything was lost in > half a meter of super light pow and i ended up spooning a tree so we had to strap the boot to the ski
    It took us 5 minutes but we found all the springs, also within about half a meter, thankfully we were on a ridgeline of wind affected chalky snow so we didn't have to sift through powder to find this stuff.
    _______________________________________________
    "Strapping myself to a sitski built with 30lb of metal and fibreglass then trying to water ski in it sounds like a stupid idea to me.

    I'll be there."
    ... Andy Campbell

  22. #22
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    I happened to be guiding my yellow friend the lawyer and he helped strap the boot to ski, i am just happy i didnt get a huge bill.

    we were in a huge pow cycle and the parts were just gone
    Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know

  23. #23
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    When mine blew it was the two forward top plate screws snapping. I ski strapped the boot to the ski and called it good, then skied two more runs. I run rad toes and vert heels now. Only bust heel posts now, but that's undoubtedly due to ski flex.

  24. #24
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    Yup same here, I swapped rad for vert heels on my main skis and I put those rad heels on my rock skis, same hole pattern so its an easy swap
    Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by XXX-er View Post
    The. Verticals were the most trouble free tech binding but they don't make anymore
    Good half dozen years of 100+/- days on my verts, 15 years or so of less use (lately) on the tlt tourlite techs and no failures, just simple overuse wear and tear for the old schoolers well past their best before date. Tourlite techs heel pieces have ovalized plastic in the housings that mates to the spindle/shaft so they rock back and forth but still hold my boots onto skis. Good enough for me for for now on non life or death fall you die terrain and I ain't a hucker. Continuously variable binding ramp angle. Probably gonna experiment with some j.b. weld or something to fill the gap and ream it out with a round file manually if I get the time to see if that brings 'er back into spec and who knows if it'll last. Time/fatigue/moisture corrosion cracked alu base of the shafts/spindles so i j.b. welded the broken pieces and filled the fore/aft vacancies with ptex to keep it all tight in the fore/aft adjustment cavity. Seems to work.
    Last edited by swissiphic; 01-24-2016 at 01:54 PM.
    Master of mediocrity.

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