New Dynafit Freeride Binding - Beast 16

[Spyderjon]

Are you measuring in the right place, ie between the front face of the binding just above the pins and the flat horizontal face on the rear of the power insert in the boot heel?


Use a 0.004"/0.1mm feeler gauge or a sliver of standard weight 80gsm copier paper.

[El Chupacabra]

I'll check again - thanks for the close up pic.

On this heelpiece, do you adjust that pressure with the boot clicked into the binding? (like with all alpine bindings)

[Spyderjon]

I'll check again - thanks for the close up pic.

On this heelpiece, do you adjust that pressure with the boot clicked into the binding? (like with all alpine bindings)

On alpine bindings it's best practice to adjust the forward pressure with the boot removed and I'd include Kingpins in that as they have true forward pressure.

On all other tech bindings there's a boot heel gap (so no forward pressure) albeit that the gap on the latest generation of din certified tech bindings is just a whisker so the adjustment can be made with the boot installed.

To eliminate the backlash in the adjustment screw I always start off with a noticable gap and then push the heel forward on it's track and then slowly adjust/close the gap until the gauge/paper is just lightly gripped and can be smoothly pulled out. If you go too tight then back off a turn so that you're then closing then gap again from the same direction - if that makes sense?

[El Chupacabra]

I did the adjustment again with a strip of paper, and everything worked normally. Dunno what I was messing up yesterday, but today was fine. Thanks for the input.

Haven't skied any Beast bindings yet, but on the workbench and moving the boot in and out of the binding by hand, the boot seems to hang up on releasing from the binding heel more than the old Dynafit. Maybe it's just the shape of those pins.

[Spyderjon]

The pins are bigger but it doesn't affect the release, in fact a the Beast heel is the most accurate/consistent releasing binding that I've ever torque tested.

You'll also need to check the heel rubber on your boots around the pin slots don't catch on the larger pins when in tour mode - see posts #892 & 893 on this thread. If they do then 'funnel' the rubber until they miss and the sole is sitting nice and flat on the climbing riser.

[El Chupacabra]

Thanks - I'll take a look at that.

[vasja]

Beast 16 toes need regular (ie every week of use) lubrication with a PG75 grade grease to ensure correct function (ie easy to open with a pole) in the areas marked in red below.

hi, I'm trying to follow instructions from this post. I already had to replace one toe and would prefer to avoid further problems.

But the grease bought from The Piste Office is really "thick" it does not go into moving parts but I get impression that it just stayed on the surface, therefore not really being effective.

Would applying something more liquid like WD-40 also work? Would that be better? Or how to get the grease into moving parts?

I've also noticed that it's important to remove all snow from the toe peace before engaging the binding!

[sethschmautz]

Have you tried to reach out directly to Jon from the Piste Office? What instructions did he give?

My own personal experience with Jon is that he has great advice and his experience comes from his own personal use with those bindings. I would start there.

Seth

Sent from my Pixel 2 using TGR Forums mobile app

[Skidog]

Any chance to fix it? Binding froze open in the middle of nowhere and had force it to close, now it has too many moving parts... Heard afterwards that you should open and close the binding couple of times when you take it off. And always keep it closed when it's not on. Not the best backcountry binding I guess.

So my buddy has a pair of these. Boots are bd quadrants. When stepped into toe in touring mode the little metal piece in the center of the toe box adjust lever sticks out. The boot is super easy to pop out of the binding with the slightest side to side movement. I have never really played with the beast 16...is this just a missed adjustment? boot issue? What gives folks? Without boot and pins clamped the metal part sits flush like in above pic.

Thanks.

Sent from my XT1650 using TGR Forums mobile app

[Spyderjon]

So my buddy has a pair of these. Boots are bd quadrants. When stepped into toe in touring mode the little metal piece in the center of the toe box adjust lever sticks out. The boot is super easy to pop out of the binding with the slightest side to side movement. I have never really played with the beast 16...is this just a missed adjustment? boot issue? What gives folks? Without boot and pins clamped the metal part sits flush like in above pic.
Thanks.
Sent from my XT1650 using TGR Forums mobile app

When clicking in if the Toe Box Adjust lever does not automatically close flush with the top of the binding then it needs to be pushed down flush. When the lever is proud it is indicating that the pins are not fully engaged in the boot. Pushing the lever down flush ensures that the pins are fully engaged in the boot.

The Toe Box Adjust mechanism is the problem with the Beast 16 toes. The initial model didn't have it and although it was prone to icing it was very durable. I ski them a lot and sold loads of them without issue and one of my customers has over 300 days on my old pre-production pair and they're still going. However the initial design was not tolerant of boot toe inserts that were not to Dynafits spec so they added the Toe Box Adjust mechanism to allow for those variations. This is were it all went wrong. The multiple linkages involved just make the icing worse and as those linkages are loose/weak they're really prone to bending/cracking/snapping when the frozen binding gets 'lent on' by customers who's solution to something obviously frozen up is to apply more pressure!

And what made is worse was that many Beast 16 toes were shipped from the factory drier than a witches tit with no lubrication applied at all so were really tight/sticky from the get go.

And Black Diamond toe inserts seemed to be more out of spec than any other brand so even with the lever down flush I'd want to do some decent bench testing before I trusted them out in the wild. Initially Black Diamonds boots could not be used with the Beast as the Power Insert wouldn't fit in their boot heels (my mate had Factors at the time which had this problem) but I presume that BD have now changed if you're buddy has mounted the Power Inserts successfully or did he have to do some dremeling etc?

[Spyderjon]

hi, I'm trying to follow instructions from this post. I already had to replace one toe and would prefer to avoid further problems.

But the grease bought from The Piste Office is really "thick" it does not go into moving parts but I get impression that it just stayed on the surface, therefore not really being effective.

Would applying something more liquid like WD-40 also work? Would that be better? Or how to get the grease into moving parts?

I've also noticed that it's important to remove all snow from the toe peace before engaging the binding!

I use a wooden coffee stirrer to apply the wax and push it in to all the gaps. Then cycle the binding open/closed a good number of times to work the grease in etc. Apply plenty of grease and cycling the binding should smooth out the mechanism.

Check that not of the linkages are bent or cracked.

Plenty of wax in the mechanism to help prevent icing.

It's really important to keep the toe ice free so as to avoid excessive force to open/close it etc.

[smooth operator]

It's really important to keep the toe ice free so as to avoid excessive force to open/close it etc.

Which is near impossible ..... unless you are skiing reaally cold blower all day and no sun shines on your (black) bindings.

I will look into applying some wax though. Any specific wax or will anything do?

[Skidog]

When clicking in if the Toe Box Adjust lever does not automatically close flush with the top of the binding then it needs to be pushed down flush. When the lever is proud it is indicating that the pins are not fully engaged in the boot. Pushing the lever down flush ensures that the pins are fully engaged in the boot.

The Toe Box Adjust mechanism is the problem with the Beast 16 toes. The initial model didn't have it and although it was prone to icing it was very durable. I ski them a lot and sold loads of them without issue and one of my customers has over 300 days on my old pre-production pair and they're still going. However the initial design was not tolerant of boot toe inserts that were not to Dynafits spec so they added the Toe Box Adjust mechanism to allow for those variations. This is were it all went wrong. The multiple linkages involved just make the icing worse and as those linkages are loose/weak they're really prone to bending/cracking/snapping when the frozen binding gets 'lent on' by customers who's solution to something obviously frozen up is to apply more pressure!

And what made is worse was that many Beast 16 toes were shipped from the factory drier than a witches tit with no lubrication applied at all so were really tight/sticky from the get go.

And Black Diamond toe inserts seemed to be more out of spec than any other brand so even with the lever down flush I'd want to do some decent bench testing before I trusted them out in the wild. Initially Black Diamonds boots could not be used with the Beast as the Power Insert wouldn't fit in their boot heels (my mate had Factors at the time which had this problem) but I presume that BD have now changed if you're buddy has mounted the Power Inserts successfully or did he have to do some dremeling etc?

He had to do a little work btw the tests I did we're totally dry on a table in his kitchen. Are you saying just push the metal piece down? Didn't feel like you could do this by hand.

He did get the heel horeshoe on and it looks flush. Round ends could be ground down, but that's only if he needed to use in apline binding and he won't.

Thanks for the info.

Sent from my XT1650 using TGR Forums mobile app

[Spyderjon]

........Are you saying just push the metal piece down?.....

Yep.

......Didn't feel like you could do this by hand......

Firm pressure steady pressure should do it (ie don't hit it!) and it can be done with a pole tip in the field. If it won't close it's proof that the inserts in the boot are way out of spec and the boot shouldn't be used in that binding.

[Skidog]

Yep.


Firm pressure steady pressure should do it (ie don't hit it!) and it can be done with a pole tip in the field. If it won't close it's proof that the inserts in the boot are way out of spec and the boot shouldn't be used in that binding.

thanks again. I did read the quadrant had issues but they all seemed to be with the heel horseshoe not the toe inserts. I will have him give it a shot and see what happens.

[Skidog]

Thanks. That was the answer. He's happy.

Sent from my XT1650 using TGR Forums mobile app

[RudyGarmisch]

Following up - dynafit gave me a brand new toe, thank you! Still not impressed with blowouts touring on anything sidehill and steep in tour mode - and with the Kingpin incompatibility, may be hard to reconcile these and put them into the current quiver.