Knee-Friendly Binding Invented in Stowe. By the Guy behind Solly's 555

[TurxSki]

Thanks to Betsy on SnowJournal.
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v...yID=19133&on=1

A revolution in ski-binding safety? Stowe man's research may pay off in 2008
By Jesse Schloff
Rick Howell of Stowe has been working on the new binding for five years.
Howell blames ski bindings for the most common skier injury: tears or strains in the anterior cruciate ligament, the ACL. The ACL is one of four ligaments that are critical to the stability of the knee joint.
An ACL is a debilitating, painful injury. Recovery often requires surgery, weeks of rehabilitation, and thousands of dollars in medical costs.
Howell thinks his research and engineering work has produced a ski binding that will minimize ACL injuries among skiers.

That product, called KneeBinding, is in the final stages of testing, and Howell plans to introduce it by the fall of 2008.

Howell plans to introduce the binding at the world’s major snow-sports trade shows, including a world trade fair in Munich and a major ski show in Las Vegas.
From there, Howell expects to the first orders for the binding from ski shops.

Howell said the staggering frequency of knee injuries was hard for him to ignore. He says knee injuries jumped after the introduction of shaped skis, which in the past 20 years have become the industry standard.
“Last season in the United States, there were 17,000 ACL injuries,” Howell said. “Combine that with Canada, and there were 24,000 in North America alone, and worldwide there were 70,000 knee-related injuries.”
The National Institutes of Health figures treating an average knee injury, including six to nine weeks of rehab, runs about $15,000. Multiply 70,000 ACL injuries a year times $15,000, and you have a $1 billion medical bill.
“If you were to ask me, that’s a pretty significant problem,” Howell said.

Howell’s KneeBinding is designed to release when a twisting fall puts direct strain on the ACL. Current bindings are unable to release in that motion, and the problem is compounded because shaped skis stay hooked to the snow while on edge in a turn.
From a physics standpoint, Howell’s design is relatively simple. The toe piece is generally the same as on today’s bindings, but the heel piece has an extra release mechanism, which allows for lateral heel release in a twisting fall — the kind in which the knee is most vulnerable.
In Howell’s design, dual pivot points on the heel piece essentially sense the twisting motion at the front and back of the ski, and release when the pressure becomes too great.
“This new class of ski bindings will revolutionize skiing and ski racing,” Howell said.
Howell has been working in the lab, and on the snow this winter, proving that the binding does what he says it will.

At the Williston-based company MicroStrain, whose equipment can test strain levels of different products, Howell and a team of technicians have put the binding through rigorous testing.
They built a device that senses different pressure points generated through the ski and into the binding, and measures how much stress is focused on different points of the leg.
With data from the testing, they were able to adjust the binding to improve its unique release capabilities.

Howell has patented the KneeBinding design. The research and construction have been pricy. The molds and tooling alone for the binding will cost more than $700,000.
Howell said the retail cost of the binding has not yet been set.
This winter, Howell produced a short video, showing a skier aggressively skiing toward the camera, chattering over bumps and carving hard turns. The skier then stops and, with a twist of his knee, easily pops out of the binding.

One important aspect of KneeBinding, Howell says, is that it does not “pre-release under the normal vibrations and strains” that occur while skiing.

Sports tinkerer

Howell has been tinkering with ski bindings since he was in high school.
Back then, he took a pair of his ski bindings to a machine shop and created wider heel and toe cups, which increased the performance — and safety — of the binding.
His sister, then a member of the U.S. Ski Team, swore by the creation and brought the bindings on tour with her. The ski company Salomon saw his creation and enlisted his help in designing a new line of bindings. The result was the Salomon 555, which became the top-selling binding in the world.

Howell’s interest in physics and technology led him to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was one of the first to study ski vibration.

He worked for the German ski binding company Geze for eight years, first as product manager, then as director of marketing. In that time, the company’s products went from worst-rated to best, and its market share rose from 2 percent to 20 percent.

Howell moved next into bicycling, where he developed the world’s first clipless bicycle pedal and shoe system, CycleBinding. That product has become a major bicycle accessory in the after-market-category, selling more than a million pair per year.

After Howell sold CycleBinding, he joined the Tubbs snowshoe company, then based in Stowe. There, he came up with the first metal-framed snowshoe, and it became the top-selling snowshoe in the world.

Fresh perspective

After stepping away from the ski world for a time, Howell was amazed when he started paying attention again, and saw the spike in knee injuries.
When he put the data together, the conclusion was painfully clear: The new shaped skis, combined with the old binding technology, were causing the problem.
He thinks KneeBinding is the solution.
“There hasn’t been any major technological advancements to ski bindings in over 20 years,” Howell said. “The end result is that this system is not only far safer, but it will actually help sell skis.
“People have always bought skis and then looked at bindings as an afterthought. Now that will be the other way around, because there is nothing else out there like this.
“The ski industry predicts that this will be a major breakthrough because it will help the industry. Knee-friendly bindings that provide all of the performance that’s already expected of bindings should be a win-win for skiers, ski shops, ski areas and ski resort towns like Stowe, worldwide.”

Wonder if it works with Trekkers
I remember some other binding that claimed to release under twisting falls...wonder what happened to that.
I've never heard of that bike clipless pedal company.

[SkiDork]

lateral heel release. Hasn't that been done before?

[mc_roon]

old look/rossi heel?

[Spats]

old look/rossi heel?

Nope. The theory behind the turntable is that it twists, allowing easier release at the toe, but the heel itself doesn't release to the side.

Tyrolia heels have diagonal release, but AFAIK they won't release purely to the side. In a typical ACL-ripping fall, the heel is actually pressing down on the heelpiece.

It's an interesting problem, and I'm very interested to see what he's come up with and how well it works.

[PNWbrit]

First modern clipless pedal was made by Cinelli in the early 70's.

[bio-smear]

I hope it screws into my Line threaded inserts.

[pechelman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5zi9pH3Tpw

looks like the heel itself is mounted on some sort of mechanical afd ala marker or tyrolia toes
except instead of it popping it out to the side, it looks like it allows the heelpeice to pivot in a transverse plane to the ski so that it picks up a corner of the heel peice allowing your boot heel to slide out.

[Squatch]

Bindings that you can pop out of standing still scare me.

[Sinecure]

As long as the sport keeps moving forward, it sounds good to me.

[nick > jesus]

i would not trust that to keep me in my skis

[cl1953]

The search for a knee safe binding has been long and fruitless. Until now?

The search may be over. Will you choose wisely?

[Caucasian Asian]

Is it just me or does that look a lot like a GEZE heel?

[allenataylor]

I really hope that the binding pops off that easily just becuase they wanted to show it off. I can see lateral heel release as being important but seriously I don't want my bindings to pop off if i have to do a kick turn and hit them wrong. That guy wasn't skiing hard at all either. I'll be sold when I see a pro on one hitting huge cliffs and sketchy lines. I don't want to tear my acl but the harder you ski the more dangerous it is popping out. If you were in a sketchy enough line and came out like you would probably be wishing you only hurt your acl.

Still seems like something they could sell to the general public. Allthough looking at line's attempt, and atomic's neox computer binding the public has been reluctant to drastic change when it comes to their bindings lately. Hell the only real change we have been seeing is an increase in the use of cheap materials that break easily.

that rant felt good.

[laseranimal]

looks like it has the same functionality of a Mojo 15 in terms of heel release

[jerr]

It would be interesting to know what DIN or force the binding was set to release at for that display?

On a slightly different note I'm sure all manufacturers bindings have long lists of impressive lab results but the real world often has different ideas. I do hope this is a magic bullet but I doubt it.

Whatever the eventualities - my opinion's reserved until it's been riden for 2-4 years by big fat demanding skiers.

[BushwackerinPA]

Bindings that you can pop out of standing still scare me.

I can pull right out of mine at 10.....I never prerelease. My bets is they may have turned the DIN down to show what the binding can do and even if they didnt you never drive a ski like that anyways.

[5bind]

As the inventor and developer of the soon-to-be-introduced, KneeBinding, I'd like to respond to the notes in this blog.

Skiing knee-injuries are by far the #1 injury in alpine skiing, comprising approximately 22 to 25% of all types of skiing injuries. 'Phantom Foot' induced knee injuries accoount for approximately 65 to 70% of all skiing knee injuries. Phantom Foot induced forces cause ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries. It is estimated that last season there were approx 17,000 skiing acl-injuries in the US; 24,000 in all of North America; and 70,000 worldwide. An ACL rupture typically costs approx $20,000 for diagnosis, treatment and rehab. This equals over $1-billion PER YEAR - and these costs do not include lost-work, early arthritis and skier attrition (skiers who don't return to the sport). Everyone who incurrs an ACL rupture never recovers to full athletic prowess. Skiing ACL injuries are frequent and severe - and deserve an engineering solution.

Recent research by U. Montreal (2003) has proven that lateral heel release will mitigate ACL injuries.

However, all previous forms of lateral heel release caused massive pre-release problems. Previous bindings with lateral heel release that pre-released include - Americana, Alsop, Burt, Besser, Gertsch, Eckl, Moog, Ramy, Cober, Head, and others... Each binding failed because skiers will not put-up with pre-release under any circumstance. As a former Can-Am downhiller who successfully competed in 80 mph races, pre-release is not an option for me.

That's why the new KneeBinding technology provides powerful retention, holding-power and edge control - while also providing lateral heel release, and it will meet all international safety standards ( DIN / ISO ). The new technology differes from all previous lateral heel release bindings via its patent-pending mechanical "Binary Filter" and "Progressive Cams" that block skiing-control forces from "confusing" the binding when it comes time to respond to ACL-injury forces (Phantom Foot forces). The lateral heel release is pure-lateral -- it only activates when the signature Phantom Foot forces enter the binding. And of course, it only activates above a selected lateral heel release setting value that's adjustable.

In the skiing video that's noted in the blog, we are showing that lateral heel pre-release does not occur even during normal skiing - and even when the lateral heel release is set at a low setting. We posted a sentence next to the intro to our video in our website that states what we are demonstrating, which statement does not show-up when the video is activated directly by U-Tube.

During normal use, the lateral heel release setting is much higher than what we're demonstrating - in order to deal with much more aggressive skiing than we show in the video.

As correctly noted above, Tyrolia Diagonal heels only release laterally at the heel AFTER they move upward, first -- in response to forward twisting events...they cannot release laterally at the heel in Phantom Foot events that include the simultaneous combination of: (1) backward-weighting; (2) inward-twisting of the upper leg (femur) relative to the foot; (3) abduction (abduction is lateral action of the foot relative to knee). The backward-weighting component of a Phantom Foot event needs a binding that releases purely-laterally at the heel, not upward, first.

(( Regarding clipless bicycle pedals -- I invented the world's first 'hands-off' clipless pedals (Chinelli required that you reach down and throw a lever to get in and get out). ))

The main point is that KneeBinding has been developed here where we live -- and where we ski almost every day -- in Stowe, Vermont. We've logged over 500,000 vertical feet of skiing on the binding this past winter with no pre-releases. We are skiers who love this sport - and this binding functions in order for us to enjoy our lifestyle. The website, kneebinding.com tells more.

[TurxSki]

Hey there and welcome.
Very cool to get your input!
Be warned, you may just be "yelled at" by some Maggots, who might consider your post Spam

You should definitely post up on SnowJournal, out of New England, where I first saw details of your binding.
http://snowjournal.com/page.php?cid=topic11305
Best of Luck

[Yossarian]

Sweetness, thanks for the time to reply 5Bind.

He won't get yelled at for SPAM, cause he didn't start the thread, and he's responding to the discussion.

If you're a rep, manufacturer, retailers, etc, a direct, calm, honest response (no matter what the tone of the queries from the rabble rousers here) is always the best move.

[leroy jenkins]

I wouldn't even use those things as paperweights, but I can see them being useful for older folks, and people with beat to hell knees, that are just looking for a way to keep skiing.

[Atlas Q. Powmonger]

I'm all for progression in bindings. I'll wait for some mags to test it out; we'll know soon enough if it prereleases.

[Phill]

I wouldn't even use those things as paperweights, but I can see them being useful for older folks, and people with beat to hell knees, that are just looking for a way to keep skiing.

If they work, as in don't pre release why in the hell wouldn't you use them. I'd certainly like a pair.

5Bind - what din ranges are you looking at producing. I just hope that you guys plan to make some for more aggressive skiers in a 16/18 din version.

[C.O. Jones]

I'm far from an engineer, so help me out on this.

Thinking about the movements I make when alpining, isn't there a ton of lateral heel pressure any time you're tail gunning/get in the backseat and steer out of it? I thought the problem was that when you're in "okay" form (backseat but correcting it/slowly standing up but still exerting pressure on the edges through your heels) you are actually creating more lateral heel pressure than the phantom foot scenario? The issue with the phantom foot is that, by means of poor form, you are compounding the heel pressure with a locked femur so the forces get "trapped" in your ACL.

It's far from a scientific explanation, but I thought that's essentially how it works. If I'm right (and I'm not saying I am), then I see a problem of degrees: if you have phantom foot release, you also have all kinds of "in the backseat" releases, because under normal circumstances you CAN deal with those forces without exploding an ACL.

Any thoughts?

[RootSkier]

I wouldn't even use those things as paperweights

Worried they won't be compatible with tailgunning?

[stew130]

Spademans.