G3 ZED touring binding

[Eluder]

Hi, is anyone using the zed 9 bindings? Have you seen the issues with the heel pieces that the older ones had?

It uses the same housing as the 12 so it should be fine.

[dschane]

G3 Zed question - I just mounted a pair for a friend -- Zed 12 with brakes. The brakes come with a "snow shim," and the instructions say to install that underneath the brake once you've installed the brake and turret onto the plate. I must be an idiot because I cannot figure out how those fucking pieces of plastic get installed and I feel like Nigel Tufnel complaining about the backstage arrangements.

Can anyone school me on how that thing slides into place?

[Wapow]

It's easiest to install them the way they come in the box, mostly installed, but not slid fully into the slots/prongs on the brake. If you have them totally removed, back the binding back off the track, pull the brakes off and install them as described above. Even with the brakes off it's a little tricky to slide them in there. Just push them on, they won't break. Takes a little force. Once you mount the brake and turret back onto the tracks, you can seat the plastic thingy onto the prongs, and you'll know they are set when they "click" into place. I had a bunch of issues w/ these brakes at first, but after making a mod to them, they've been working well for me for the past season and a half. Circle back if they fall apart on you and I'll share the fix. I think it only happens w/ certain boots/sizes (I'm in a 28.5 ZGPT).

[dschane]

Squeezed the bugger to slip into place - thanks!

[meadow_skippin]

I bought the first gen ZEDs in fall of 2018 and skied them for two seasons as my daily driver for the BC. I realized the toe was wiggling which was worrisome. Further inspection of the toe piece revealed a large crack all the way through the aluminum baseplate. If you think of the baseplate as clock, the crack was from the center out past the screw 5 o'clock. Inspection of the other toepiece showed a hairline crack in the same location. G3's customer service reply said "Sorry to hear about your bindings. Unfortunately, they are no longer covered under the 1-year warranty period." Seems like a design flaw to me. Check your toe pieces if you have Zeds! I am 5'10" and 165lbs, and am not an aggressive skier.

[XXX-er]

I

"""bought the first gen ZEDs in fall of 2018 and skied them for two seasons as my daily driver for the BC. I realized the toe was wiggling which was worrisome. Further inspection of the toe piece revealed a large crack all the way through the aluminum baseplate. If you think of the baseplate as clock, the crack was from the center out past the screw 5 o'clock. Inspection of the other toepiece showed a hairline crack in the same location. G3's customer service reply said "Sorry to hear about your bindings. Unfortunately, they are no longer covered under the 1-year warranty period." Seems like a design flaw to me. Check your toe pieces if you have Zeds! I am 5'10" and 165lbs, and am not an aggressive skier. """


couldnt read your blue out but here it is ^^

[Benneke10]

Post a pic and we will bust out the pitchforks and torches! Burn G3 burn!

[grinch]

Ive heard of zsd stories/issues. Im impressed with my ions. They work well everywhere. Even ski well on the hill

Sent from my SM-G950W using TGR Forums mobile app

[XXX-er]

i heard the Z heel piece breaks cuz its all plastic even the post?

[waxman]

"""bought the first gen ZEDs in fall of 2018 and skied them for two seasons as my daily driver for the BC. I realized the toe was wiggling which was worrisome. Further inspection of the toe piece revealed a large crack all the way through the aluminum baseplate. If you think of the baseplate as clock, the crack was from the center out past the screw 5 o'clock. Inspection of the other toepiece showed a hairline crack in the same location. G3's customer service reply said "Sorry to hear about your bindings. Unfortunately, they are no longer covered under the 1-year warranty period." Seems like a design flaw to me. Check your toe pieces if you have Zeds! I am 5'10" and 165lbs, and am not an aggressive skier. """


couldnt read your blue out but here it is ^^

sounds about right, aside from G3 proform to everyone with a pulse their warranty support is mediocre at best and slow as he!!
when the rep comes to do our clinics he's always saying that G3 is a company of engineers and how everything is over thought, so I ask him if anyone tests the stuff the engineers "overthink" because the breakage rates are crazy

[Jongle]

sounds about right, aside from G3 proform to everyone with a pulse their warranty support is mediocre at best and slow as he!!
when the rep comes to do our clinics he's always saying that G3 is a company of engineers and how everything is over thought, so I ask him if anyone tests the stuff the engineers "overthink" because the breakage rates are crazy

I think their products are definitely undertested, and I say this as someone who has two pairs of Zeds (plus one for my wife) and am generally a huge fan of the binding.

Exhibit A - After a TGR user experienced double heel turret explosion, G3 sent out a bulletin that contained the following head-scratcher: "After collecting data on 32 models of alpine touring ski boots we noticed there were some big discrepancies in boot sole height when measured from the tech insert at the heel. We were unaware there are many alpine touring ski boots in the market that do not conform to the recognized industrial norm for positioning tech inserts in their boots."<-- Really?? You didn't test multiple boot models during development and didn't know that touring boot sole designs are all over the place?

Exhibit B: The Zed uses the same crampon adapter as the Ion binding, but the Zed toe piece design places the pins lower down than the ion. As a result, if you use a touring boot with a rockered sole with Zeds + crampons, there isn't enough enough clearance between the sole and the crampon to walk properly. The height of the crampon prevents your boot heel from coming down and contacting the ski, instead holding it a few cm above the ski. Ridiculous that this wasn't caught during testing.

Exhibit C: The forward pressure spring in V1.0 of the Zeds wasn't very stiff, to the point where the whole heel piece would slide backwards when weighted if using the climbing bars. I'm 165 lbs, so this must have been even worse for heavier people. G3 promptly sent me stiffer springs when I contacted them, so credit to them there, but this is another issue that should have been caught during testing.

Again, I'm a big fan of the bindings despite these issues.

[XXX-er]

yeah the tech binding has been functioning for eva without a stomp pad suddenly G3 sez you need a stomp pad which IMO was pure damage control

I asked shop bro what binding gets warrantied the most and he said " G3 but we sell more G3 than any other BC binding "

[Jongle]

Yeah. Anecdotally, I've heard a bunch of reports over the years from the local touring community about G3 skis snapping in half in the field, seemingly more than any other brand. Mostly Synapses and Findrs.

[adrenalated]

Since we're into anecdotes, I have a pair of Ion LTs with many days and a pair of Zeds with a handful of days and they are the most trouble free bindings I've ever owned.
<shrug>

[thefortrees]

I’ve got ion lts, ions, and zeds all on different skis that I ski regularly and I tend to abuse my equipment. No issues with any of them, including zeds with ski crampons and a rockered boot sole. Walking works fine with crampons?

However, the heel piece of the ion melted when it got too close to my sled exhaust on a day it was burning hot.

[meadow_skippin]

Post a pic and we will bust out the pitchforks and torches! Burn G3 burn!

Sorry can't get embedded images or urls to work!
imgur[dot]com/hQaj64Y.jpeg

[ex-powderbroker]

time to go look at mine i guess

[Va Ki Bo]

Sorry can't get embedded images or urls to work!
imgur[dot]com/hQaj64Y.jpeg

Did you use G3 crampons here?

I can easily imagine this would happen if I'll use my bad fitting G3 crampons in flat mode, as it creates enormous leverage on toe crampon slot.

[MegaStoke]

Yeah. Anecdotally, I've heard a bunch of reports over the years from the local touring community about G3 skis snapping in half in the field, seemingly more than any other brand. Mostly Synapses and Findrs.

The only ski I’ve ever snapped was a G3 Roamr 100.

[meadow_skippin]

Did you use G3 crampons here?

I can easily imagine this would happen if I'll use my bad fitting G3 crampons in flat mode, as it creates enormous leverage on toe crampon slot.

No, I have never used crampons with these bindings.

[waxman]

Yeah. Anecdotally, I've heard a bunch of reports over the years from the local touring community about G3 skis snapping in half in the field, seemingly more than any other brand. Mostly Synapses and Findrs.

funny, got a broken Findr 94 in yesterday

[XXX-er]

to be fair alot of what you would be comparing the evil G3 to would be the equally or probably more so evil Rad 1 with the exploding heelpiece, so I imagine it was easy to convert zee guides to G3 after they had blown up a bunch of em.

I know a guide who blew up 6 RAD1's , my ski bud blew up one, i blew up one, not sure about the guide but we aren't hard on gear

I never been a fan of G3 skis I got a ski bud who sold them and never liked any of them, his kids the racers never liked em , but when the rep shows up you gotta book some token skis eh

[thefortrees]

funny, got a broken Findr 94 in yesterday

I'll add one more anecdotal data point. I see lots of people skiing the lightweight G3 skis inbounds, and I always wonder why... I love my Findr 102s for the intended use case. Ski mountaineering and volcano style corn harvest. I can for sure see them breaking if you use them hard for inbounds skiing.

[waxman]

I'll add one more anecdotal data point. I see lots of people skiing the lightweight G3 skis inbounds, and I always wonder why... I love my Findr 102s for the intended use case. Ski mountaineering and volcano style corn harvest. I can for sure see them breaking if you use them hard for inbounds skiing.

true that, same people are blowing up tech bindings because someone sold them a bill of goods "oh, sure you can use these anywhere"

[meadow_skippin]

Here is a photo. This is the more damaged one. The other toe just has a hairline fracture, but in essentially the same spot. G3 says the binding is out of warranty, but I can buy new toepieces for $120 USD each :/