Breakage Marker bindings with serious injuries

[m3ec55]

Hello to all users of the forum.My name is Davide and i live in Italy.
I want to tell you about a serious accident that happened to me and i want inform about the eventuality of possible defects of Marker bindings.
Everything began in winter 2012 when i decided to mount a pair of Marker jester schizo bindings on a pair of Armada Magic j.
The skiman and the shopkeeper noticed a strangeness (one of the tips of the bindings was "dancing"(tottering) with a bad game).
We decided therefore to replace them with a pair of Marker Griffon schizo.(I inform you that the bindings were new and packed in their original packaging).
The next day,after a couple of laps,the left heel of the binding broke,literally "exploded",causing me a desastrous fall.
I violently banged my head on the snow (on the left side),losing consciousness.(Thanks to God i always wear a helmet).
Immediately rescued by ski Police patrol,i was bleeding from my nose,my mouth and my left ear and i was told that i was in complete confusional state.
When i arrived at the Hospital i was submitted to various an several medical examinations and they found that the impact caused me serious injuries.
The following month,have been very hard form me due to my psychophisical situation.
Also the following medical examinations (Tac,Vestibular testing ecc...) found that the accident caused me serious injuries.
I informed Marker and their insurance company and i'm still waiting for the resolution of my case.

Sorry for my bad English...
Thanks Davide

[Harry]

Your problem is not with the bindings, your problem is with the skis. Armada Magic J's are known to cause people injuries. One brand of skis that never cause injuries are Rax. You should have bought them instead.

www.raxski.com

[Percy Rideout]

Davide,

Marker pre releases were a thing of the 80-90's, but have seemingly been stopped with the release of the royal family of Marker offerings.

My question is why did you go from a 16 din to a 12 din binder if you clearly skied hard enough to need the holes helicoiled? (I guess you aren't being specific. Did the binder rip the screws out of the ski, or did the binder disintegrate while leaving the screws in the ski>?)

[wyeaster]

sorry to hear about the injuries, davide

[garyfromterrace]

Yeah, this sucks. Sort of reminds me of TC's incident. Hope this gets resolved in your favour Davide.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Thanks for posting this. I appreciate hearing about any unexpected binding failure.

[NW_SKIER]

I would also like more specifics on the failure. Pics would be helpful. Vibes for a full recovery.

[Bronco]

Hoping you garnish their wages!

[itsnowjoke]

Sorry. Pre-releasing is one of my worst fears. In the '80's we used to call the Marker Rotomat the Explodamat because they had a reputation for pre-releasing and disintegrating. I never had the guts to use them. Best wishes for a full recovery.

[Shredhead]

They were called Explodamats, because in the late 60's they came apart by design.
They were one of the best bindings at the time and up thru the MRR.

[MMP]

Good luck with your lawsuit.

[itsnowjoke]

They were called Explodamats, because in the late 60's they came apart by design.
They were one of the best bindings at the time and up thru the MRR.

Do you know the engineering philosophy as to why they would come apart by design? That sounds like an awful idea. Was exploding supposed to be a back-up redundant system?

I was racing pretty seriously in the mid to late 70's, and knew some guys who were seriously injured -and some that got lucky- because the binding would disintegrate at inopportune moments, usually in a racing environment, usually after landing an air going 80mph. Based on what I saw -binding parts strewn around like a Hot Wheels car crash- I never had the guts or need to ever try them. Salomons always worked for me.

The OP caught my eye. I never did trust those things!

[galibier_numero_un]

Davide - get better soon!

As far as the Rotmat design:

Sorry. Pre-releasing is one of my worst fears. In the '80's we used to call the Marker Rotomat the Explodamat because they had a reputation for pre-releasing and disintegrating. I never had the guts to use them. Best wishes for a full recovery.

They were called Explodamats, because in the late 60's they came apart by design.
They were one of the best bindings at the time and up thru the MRR.

Do you know the engineering philosophy as to why they would come apart by design? That sounds like an awful idea. Was exploding supposed to be a back-up redundant system?

I was racing pretty seriously in the mid to late 70's, and knew some guys who were seriously injured -and some that got lucky- because the binding would disintegrate at inopportune moments, usually in a racing environment, usually after landing an air going 80mph. Based on what I saw -binding parts strewn around like a Hot Wheels car crash- I never had the guts or need to ever try them. Salomons always worked for me.

The OP caught my eye. I never did trust those things!

Never skied close to 80mph and not ashamed to admit it.

The various versions of the Rotomats, combined with the M4 toe were one of my favorite designs ever.

As release tension builds at the heel, both springs compress, and at the release point, one of the springs "pops out" as a pin on the end of the spring assembly passes through a hole. The binding looked as if it were coming apart.

It was IMHO, a brilliant, simple design, easy to operate, light weight, and all of the technology was clearly visible.

Cheers,
Thom

[californiagrown]

so let me get this straight: You bought a pair of bindings, saw they were malfunctioning, but instead of warrantying them, you mounted them up and then were surprised when they malfunctioned? and now you feel as though it is someone else's fault?

[adrenalated]

^^no, he had a pair of Jesters, they were malfunctioning, so he mounted up a pair of Griffons instead. I realize OP's engrish isn't perfect but he stated that pretty clearly.

It sounds like the heel tower sheared off the guide rails. This is a well-known failure point for the Royal family bindings with plastic heel towers. Several years ago when I worked in a shop we warrantied 5 or 6 pairs of Barons with this failure out of maybe two dozen sold that year.
(Stole this photo from gapic)


Injuries suck, good luck with your recovery OP.

[TWINS]

At first I thought this might be a troll but not anymore
To the OP,
Hope you are able to heal up again.
Wishing you good luck on getting compensation for your injuries.

[old goat]

Bleeding from the ear = basilar skull fracture with potential for leakage of cerebro-spinal fluid, meningitis, not to mention whatever underlying brain injury there was. Serious injury for sure. Davide--not clear from your post--did the injury occur in 2012 or is that just when you mounted the Jester and your replaced it with the Griffon recently. Good luck with your recovery. If in fact the binding broke you certainly deserve compensation--subject to the laws in Italy I guess.

[m3ec55]

Thank to you all,for your interest.
Here below,i post some pictures of the Marker Griffon that has caused me serious injuries.

[powdork]

wow!
the case is strong with this one.

[garyfromterrace]

^^no, he had a pair of Jesters, they were malfunctioning, so he mounted up a pair of Griffons instead. I realize OP's engrish isn't perfect but he stated that pretty clearly.

Several years ago when I worked in a shop we warrantied 5 or 6 pairs of Barons with this failure out of maybe two dozen sold that year.

Nice response to californiagrown whose grasp of english comprehension is shit. Anyway to the point, that return rate is astoundingly high (25%). If that rate was typical, I'm surprised we didn't hear about this. Good luck dude from Italy.

[galibier_numero_un]

Thank to you all,for your interest.
Here below,i post some pictures of the Marker Griffon that has caused me serious injuries.

Wow! That is terrible, Davide. I hope you're doing well now.

Cheers,
Thom

[Percy Rideout]

Thank to you all,for your interest.
Here below,i post some pictures of the Marker Griffon that has caused me serious injuries.

Whoa. On my old Duke's, these heel towers were titanium. What material are they on the Griffons?

Heal up, looks like a catastrophic failure on behalf of the binders. Best of luck with compensation/recovery.

[DropCliffsNotBombs]

Everything is capable of breaking (regardless of design). Sorry you got hurt but if everyone that has ever bopped their head when a piece of their gear broke sued the manufacturer, the outdoor gear industry would no longer exist.
A running shoe's sole can delam and cause you to fall, A mountain bike wheel can taco and cause you to fall, A kayak paddle can break and cause you harm, A ski can snap in two and cause you to fall, etc,...

[sfotex]

What material are they on the Griffons?

Looks like cast aluminum or magnesium. Could be a void in the casting, contamination, damaged by impact in the factory, etc.

I had the cast dropouts on a Fox Shock fail in a similar spectacular manner years ago.

[galibier_numero_un]

Looks like cast aluminum or magnesium. Could be a void in the casting, contamination, damaged by impact in the factory, etc.

I had the cast dropouts on a Fox Shock fail in a similar spectacular manner years ago.

I wonder if adrenalated's shop's experiences represented output from a small (bad) batch. Obviously, the photos are not confidence inspiring, but an overall failure rate of 25% seems high.

I'm not buying any on the used market, however, to test out the theory.

...Thom