Fritschi Tecton

[nickel]

Searched the thread but seems there was never a definitive answer to crampon sizing. Anyone able to comment on internal widths of crampon sizes? Tis the season...

[kid-kapow]

90 mm are 92mm inside - mine are at least. Do not have my 115s available for measuring, but they seem true for size - so nothing like the brakes.

[SupreChicken]

The wide ones I have touch the sides of a 120mm ski. Work great on a 115. So I’m guess 118 internally

[nickel]

Gotcha. Sounds like it's safe to assume I need the 100s for a 94 mm ski and that I'm SOL for a Protest.

[Magic Carpet]

There is a risk in using all that plastic. The end tab of the heel lever broke off 3 days into a hut trip (and 3rd day on this particular set of tectons). True WTF moment. I was able to jury rig a temporary solution out of an old ski pole. I’ve had another setup with tectons for two seasons without problems, but this makes me question their durability.

[kid-kapow]

There is a risk in using all that (insert material).

There is a risk with any design and/or material, yet Vipecs and Tectons seem no more suceptible to breaking than most other designs - in spite of all the plastic. Was the error caused by inherent properties the material or more of a fluke/lone occurance though? I have yet to see lots of people complaining about this issue, if I understood what happened correctly.

It might be me being lucky, but with well over 100 days on both designs with zero major issues I am very impressed with how they perform.

I am sorry to hear that you have not been as lucky, and fluke or no - it is very unfortunate when one looses faith in gear, regardless of whether the loss of faith is objectively warranted or not.

Hopefully your faith in Tectons will be restored with the new pair you'll get through the warranty.

[Magic Carpet]

There is a risk with any design and/or material, yet Vipecs and Tectons seem no more suceptible to breaking than most other designs - in spite of all the plastic. Was the error caused by inherent properties the material or more of a fluke/lone occurance though? I have yet to see lots of people complaining about this issue, if I understood what happened correctly.

It might be me being lucky, but with well over 100 days on both designs with zero major issues I am very impressed with how they perform.

I am sorry to hear that you have not been as lucky, and fluke or no - it is very unfortunate when one looses faith in gear, regardless of whether the loss of faith is objectively warranted or not.

Hopefully your faith in Tectons will be restored with the new pair you'll get through the warranty.

True. They ski great and they release when they should, so I’m not giving up on them. Hopefully this was just a fluke, haven’t heard or read about others having that happen and as mentioned my other pair has been flawless.

[SeatownSlackey]

sorry for not reading the full thread.

anyone know the Tecton heel track adjustment range? couldn't find in on the Fritschi website.

i think i read somewhere there is a demo heel track out there too?

[nickel]

25mm total if I'm not mistaken.

[kid-kapow]

25mm total if I'm not mistaken.

25mm it is

You can potentially go a bit past, but people have experienced issues with the brakes not staying put while touring when going beyond the stop mark. A rear demo rail has 60mm of adjustment, so if you need more adjustment, getting one of those might be the way to go.

[twat]

Ok. I got some tectons mounted and need to adj to my mtn boots.

I cranked up the din to 11and it was a pretty hard screw. until 8 it was fine, then it got quiet stiff. Guess thats normal when compressing the screw. Toe piece was specially difficult as the angle of aporoach is fucked up in my opnion. Or am I too stupid?

Second, anything i have to watch out for adj the heel piece? The heel catch lip should be snug. Correct? Rather a mil gap then overpressure...
Thanks guys.

[1000-oaks]

It's easiest to set the toe DIN before you install the heel on the baseplate.

Did you try tightening the heel DIN screw with the heel cup snapped down, but without a boot in the binding? Can't remember if that helps with Tecton, but it helps a lot with Salomon STH heels, which are a somewhat similar design.

The heel position should be adjusted for maximum clamping on the boot heel, but with zero forward pressure. If you have forward pressure, it pushes on the toe wings and affects the return-to-center of the toe carriage. After setting the heel position with a boot in the binding, make sure the toe has nice smooth elasticity and quick return-to-center.

[natebob]

I'm curious to hear anyone's feedback on long term toe piece durability. Seems like there is a lot going in inside that toe, potential for things to get dirty, gummed up, not release as well as it should.

[tgapp]

I'm curious to hear anyone's feedback on long term toe piece durability. Seems like there is a lot going in inside that toe, potential for things to get dirty, gummed up, not release as well as it should.

It's the same toe as the Vipec Evo, and both bindings have a pretty good track record. I've experienced no major issues with mine (other than slight icing, but that happens on virtually every binding), and I've skied them probably 50 days now in and out of bounds.

[NorCalNomad]

I'm curious to hear anyone's feedback on long term toe piece durability. Seems like there is a lot going in inside that toe, potential for things to get dirty, gummed up, not release as well as it should.

Been rocking my Vipec toes for 4 seasons now and no problems.

Toe piece was specially difficult as the angle of aporoach is fucked up in my opnion. Or am I too stupid?

Yeah the toe adjustment screw is in a less than optimal place. But at least it's oversized and you can use a flat head or a #3 pozi. (unlike Salomon Wardens where you need a size bajillion flat head)

[twat]

Pozi #3 is the way to go. I was to lazy to get it : () from my bag! Way more easy.

[natebob]

Thanks Tgapp and NorCalNomad. Good to hear.

[MegaStoke]

I'm curious to hear anyone's feedback on long term toe piece durability. Seems like there is a lot going in inside that toe, potential for things to get dirty, gummed up, not release as well as it should.

I’ve run Tectons since they came out, and sell a bunch of them. The only issue I’ve seen is the brake assembly breaking when they’re packed full of ice and then stomped into the lock position. To avoid this, get into the habit of pushing the brake pedal down, and then put the binding into tour mode to gently lock them into place.

[1000-oaks]

^ That breakage happens even if there's no ice, definitely push down the brake pedal by hand prior to shifting into tour mode. The Fritschi video showing someone stomping the brake was a bad idea.

[MnO_____]

I changed my toe pieces out yesterday from the old version to the new one. I just thought to share some shots of the change. The toe stopper pad have beed widened and reduced in thickness so it now gives a greater range of motion in walk mode. Very appreciated since I found the old version to be a bit tight at times. The boot dent problem might not disappear totally, but the risk of it happen is definately reduced.

I tested the lateral release also btw in the situation where the heel releases upward in a rotating movement, but when you are not going quick enough over the handlebars. Very unlikely maybe, but still, it can happen atleast in theory. If the heel releases after a hard impact on a slope, and you don´t fall over forward, but step down, you will most likely not get into the heel piece again because of the twisting forces applied. So you will stand ontop of the binding. If you in this moment get a rotational backwards fall, the release forces of the toe piece are very high. You would think they would release easily like other pin bindings, but it takes quite a brutal force actually to make it release. The toe wings never fold out then and the forces are so high that I thought I was going to brake the binding before it released. It also caused a quite big scratch in the boot's metal inserts and plastic around it. I highly doubt that my knee would make it through such an incident.

Anyway, here´s the upgrade:

New vs old


Old


New

[NorCalNomad]

I don't get why they walked away (forgive the pun :P) from the older design (Vipec black and earlier, evo was when they changed) that still released your toes in a forward fall even in "semi locked" mode.

[bean]

Brake sizing doesn't seem to have changed, I just mounted a "L" aka "100mm" aka "fits up to about 108mm" (per BD) on a pair of 112s and it's a perfect, as-if custom, fit to the ski. Any bigger would have interference but it clears and opens fine, no bending.

[montpow]

Question for those that have mounted their own.
I don’t see a template other than the Wildsnow copy. It’s pretty basic. How have you figured out your length with no bsl measurements on the template?
I’ve mounted other bindings successfully with the handy templates found on here. Can anyone help please?

[NorCalNomad]

Same template as the Vipec. And no BSL measurement is fine if you just do some careful measuring and dry fitting. And if you're mounting your own bindings you're not going to notice if it's a mm or 2 off.

[galibier_numero_un]

I'll dig one up that I published a while back.