HOW TO Adjust Marker Bindings (Duke, Baron, Jester, Griffon, etc.)

[carvehard]

I made this how to guide so I would remember and so others could refer to it as well. I'm not a licensed binding tech, but I've been doing my own adjustments and ski tuning for many years and have scoured enough resources to feel confident enough in this advice to follow it myself. That said, the safest way to have your bindings adjusted is always to have it done by a licensed professional.

Step 1)

- Put your ski boots in the bindings and check the forward pressure indicator. This is a screw behind the heel of the boot that runs forward parallel to the plane of the ski. (Search for pictures if needed.)

- The top of the screw head should be flush with the housing. If it sticks it out it needs to be tightened, and if it's recessed it needs to be loosened.

- Remove the boot to make adjustments and then test again with the boot in the binding. (This is done out of an abundance of caution to prevent damage to the screw's threads. Many people say this is a worthwhile precaution, but others, including Marker's technical manual, do not say it is necessary.)

Step 2)

- Adjust the toe height on the AFD (anti-friction device). The is a screw in front of the toe that runs backwards parallel to the plane of the ski. In tehnical terms, there must be a clearance between the AFD and the toe of the boot of 0-0.5mm. What this means in practice is that the AFD must have either a very small gap with the boot or be just touching. If it is touching with too much pressure then the binding's ability to release is compromised, and this is dangerous. If it the gap is too large, then you may feel a looseness or movement up and down of your boot in the toe of the binding when skiing. Therefore, shops use special tools to make sure there is a gentle contact with little to no gap. We will describe a method here to approximate that result without special tools.

- First, take the boot out of the binding and place a thin paper card (such as a business card) on top of the AFD plate. Place the ski boot into the binding and close it. Pull up on the toe of the boot in the binding by pulling backwards on the cuff of the boot. When you try to pull the card out, there should be some resistance, but it should not be so difficult that it rips or scratches the card. It should be very difficult to impossible to reinsert the card with the boot in the binding.

- Slowly turn the screw to make adjustments, as needed. (Different models turn in a different direction to tighten versus loosen, so just do it slowly and feel the change.)

- Double check the setting with both of your boots, especially if the soles are somewhat worn. Always pull the toe of the boot up against the binding before testing. If one boot is tighter than the other, use the tighter boot to adjust the height on both skis.

Step 3)

- After adjusting the AFD, put your ski boots in the bindings and recheck the forward pressure indicator (Step 1).

Step 4)

- Adjust the toe DIN setting. The adjustment screw runs sideways through the toe piece parallel to plane of the ski. This adjustment can be made with the boot still in or taken out.

- Selecting the proper DIN setting for your weight and skiing ability is beyond the scope of this guide. If you don't know how to do that, you probably shouldn't be messing with your own binding adjustments either.

- Always begin by loosening the screw past your setting, and then tighten the screw until the indicator in the toe reaches the appropriate marker for your toe DIN setting.

Step 5)

- Take your boots out of the bindings and then snap the heel piece back into its vertical position as if the boot were in the binding so you can adjust the heel DIN setting.

- The heel DIN setting adjustment screw runs from the rear of the binding heel piece downward nearly perpendicular to the plane of the ski.

- Always begin by loosening the screw past your setting, and then tighten the screw until the indicator in the heel reaches the appropriate marker for your heel DIN setting.

Step 6)

- Snap your boots back into the bindings and double check the toe and heel DIN settings are correct. You may need to repeat the adjustment process above a few times on new bindings to get just the right level.

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That's it for the guide. Here are some links to technical manuals that were used in the creation of this guide...

Marker Bindings Technical Manual 2016/2017
http://www.markercertification.com/d...Tec_Manual.pdf

Salomon/Atomic Shop Practices Manual 2014/2015
http://www.salomoncertification.com/...al_2014_15.pdf

[carvehard]

If anyone provides input, I will make edits to the above to improve it.

[Duffman]

I could be wrong, but I've always adjusted the AFD on Barons/Dukes much tighter than that. I never can slide a business card in when a boot is in, rather I can pull it out with moderate resistance without it tearing. I think the way you do it allows too much space.

[straightlineorbust]

Dude a day or so ago you were posting asking if the way you were adjusting your bindings right. Why the hell do you think you can write a guide?

[wooley12]

It's called learning and sharing, sonny. Try it.

[carvehard]

I could be wrong, but I've always adjusted the AFD on Barons/Dukes much tighter than that. I never can slide a business card in when a boot is in, rather I can pull it out with moderate resistance without it tearing. I think the way you do it allows too much space.

No, you are not wrong.
The official spec used is that there must be a clearance of 0-0.5mm between the AFD and boot toe. Apart from using the specialized shop tools to measure this, various people have described different ways to achieve this result "at home." I'm going to review and change the wording I used to be more precise. Thanks.

[carvehard]

Dude a day or so ago you were posting asking if the way you were adjusting your bindings right. Why the hell do you think you can write a guide?

Yes, I was asking recently for assistance on a specific issue regarding a peculiarity in setting the heel DIN on Marker royal series bindings. And it was largely because of the difficulty I had in finding an authoritative answer on this question that I was inspired to write this guide to help others. As I wrote in this post, I would not overstate my qualifications and say I'm a licensed binding technician, but I have spent enough time in shops working around them to feel comfortable working on my own gear. Let's be honest, it's not rocket science. Advice on the web should always be taken with a grain of salt, but if you google for "Griffon binding adjustment," you might agree that this guide I just wrote is more thorough and accurate than some of the other guides out there written by professional-seeming sources. If you have any specific input or critiques please share so I can make the guide even better. I'm also going to add links to a couple official tech manuals to provide references to my sources.

[skifishbum]

as a licensed binder tech for 2 decades
i recommend
step 1
pull those shitty markers and replace with any of the numerous better ski retention devices available in the market today

[mcski]

I was just perusing bindings yesterday and the store sales guy made a point of telling me that marker were the most popular and reliable bindings out there.

[Muggydude]

Well they are the most popular. Least in the states

I never had problems with them tbh, but I only ski STH2, pivot, or attacks now

[XXX-er]

Picked up some used Barons this year, its my first time owning a Marker, they are maybe a little harder to step into but other wise I haven't figured out what I am suposed to hate ?

[straightlineorbust]

From my understanding older Marker bindings used to literally explode, so they got known for being shit.

With the Royal family they've been making solid bindings now, there's some critique that they develop toe slop hence the Jester Pro having a metal bar across the toe, but they're pretty much no reason to hate them anymore.

though I will say the toe piece on my Duke is really easy to get full of ice and have to fuck with it to get my toe in.

[carvehard]

On the quality topic, I've used Marker bindings since the 90's. I think they were known back then for good quality and being very easy to get into even with a lot of snow. I had a pair of Geze bindings explode on me once, but, to be fair, they were super old when that happened.

However, more recently, I had a pair of 2013 Marker Baron bindings that had a catastrophic failure while skiing normally on a groomed run. I was carving very hard in a left turn when (I think) the inner right brake caught the snow and the heel piece (which is attached with plastic) was torn off the binding rail. The ski went flying off with no braking device any longer attached to it, and I went down in a hard slide. That kind of failure could have been extremely perilous in a different situation if I hadn't been on a wide open groomer. Searching on the net after this incident, I found stories of several others who had similar failures.

When buying a pair of Griffon's recently, I had some hesitation as they have the same heel/railing attachment design in plastic as the Baron's, but ultimately I decided to go ahead.

[Core Shot]

AFD adjustment is important

Bought a pair of Brahma's that came with Griffons. Skied them last year no prob.
Got new boots and had major up and down looseness in the toe. That is when I noticed they had adjustable AFD.
Took 2 and a half turns to get it to snug up. A lot more than I expected.

FYI, the pulling up on the boot is important. But also, the AFD itself tends to spring up to meet the boot. So I found that I had to tighten it more than expected when I actually used a piece of paper to test it.
Yes, you can in theory make it too tight, but I think most folks have them too loose.

PS - scary that some say not to tighten the forward pressure with the boot in. If that breaks a binding, the binding is crap anyways.

[skimaxpower]

Not all Marker "Royal Family" binding models have toe height adjustment. Older Jester/Griffon models had automatic toe height. Newer models all come with manual toe height adjustment, making your guide correct for nearly all of the Royal Family.