Letter to Marker Re-Kingpin

[nickel]

I think the heel piece is failing because the risers are connected to it. The torque from levering on them is wearing out the connection on the rails. That's just my WAY though.

[Bragelonne]

Nyskirat,

Not sure if you sent out the letter already or if you're still compiling data and pics; if it's the later, well here's some pics of my 3rd Kingpin failure.

How it happened will be hard to believe, but this is it: I stepped in the binding this morning on my way for the first run of the day and felt a little weird wobble at the heel. I pulled back the heel piece - with my pole; not by stepping on it - and this happened (the best explanation so far seems to be plastic fatigue):

[XXX-er]

I think the heel piece is failing because the risers are connected to it. The torque from levering on them is wearing out the connection on the rails. That's just my WAY though.

I hadnt thot of that but it could ^^ be a pretty good WAG !

All the exploding dynafit heel pieces were all due to the skin up and so could the kingpin situation

ergo the skiers who never use their lifters on Kingpin should not break heel pieces, but would still likely break pins ?!

[brown9]

Do you need that part?

Seriously though, wtf

[XavierD]

[GPP33]

I don't think so at all. I think the pins are made of a substandard metal. I am in no way qualified to offer up such an opinion so feel free to discard it.

This has kind of always been the way with releasable tech anyways hasn't it? Vertical/rad1, ion etc etc all have some "elasticity" in the heel and a completely rigid toe. The kingpin just holds the heel down. If anything, I'd think your foot would move less as the heel connection is much more rigid.

Or a manufacturing defect, possibly from the assembly process? Some of these sound like they are failing too quickly for even a pin made of dog shit.

[Cocximus]

Metal... breaking? No way...

[profahoben]

It's not meant to be a letter to Marker, my mistake with the title.

It's meant to go out to influential media players in the ski world. They can run it as-is or they can take the pictures and data and do what they'd like with it.

Hopefully one or two of them actually bites and runs it.

I imagine Newschoolers would. If they do, perhaps it starts spreading around the web and marker has to address it.

I'll finally have time to work on it tonight/this weekend. A saddle sore is keeping me off the bike and I'll have nothing else to do.

My first thought was NS as well.....might be the way to go to get the ball rolling. I know there are quite a few newschoolers on here including myself.

[nickel]

Nyskirat,

Not sure if you sent out the letter already or if you're still compiling data and pics; if it's the later, well here's some pics of my 3rd Kingpin failure.

How it happened will be hard to believe, but this is it: I stepped in the binding this morning on my way for the first run of the day and felt a little weird wobble at the heel. I pulled back the heel piece - with my pole; not by stepping on it - and this happened (the best explanation so far seems to be plastic fatigue):

That's not likely to buff out. Congratulations on finding a new failure mode for the paper maché bindings.

A+

[nyskirat]

I've been swamped with work and studying for graduate school exams but this is on my to-do list that is growing by the day.

It hasn't been forgotten.

[stoepstyle]

Did this to two toe pieces in two months... only got one warrantied by the shop, once I broke the second they said sorry tough luck

Both failed in tour mode either that day or the day after I had a long section of touring when i had to kick steps into a hard crust, 200 lb skier

[nickel]

Go back and tell them tough luck, warranty your shit.

[LiveLarger]

Go back and tell them tough luck, warranty your shit.

^^ this.

[TahoeJ]

And start going to a different shop after that.

[My Pet Powder Goat]

Go back and tell them tough luck, warranty your shit.

Are you the one that got a used pair for warranty replacement?

Sent from my SM-G955U using TGR Forums mobile app

[GPP33]

^^ this.

X3. Fuck that, talk about a shitty shop.

[nickel]

Are you the one that got a used pair for warranty replacement?

Sent from my SM-G955U using TGR Forums mobile app

I would make the biggest scene. I most certainly am not.

[skibrd]

Even though I seriously think everyone is over reacting and less then 5% (my guess, no proof behind this) of Kingpins are failing, I Just traded my Kingpin 13s for a pair of Dynafit TLT Speeds. A buddy ordered a few pairs of Speeds and they are too much for his GF so I’m getting the Speeds

[GPP33]

Even though I seriously think everyone is over reacting and less then 5% (my guess, no proof behind this) of Kingpins are failing, I Just traded my Kingpin 13s for a pair of Dynafit TLT Speeds. A buddy ordered a few pairs of Speeds and they are too much for his GF so I’m getting the Speeds

If you’re right a 5% failure rate is huge for something that is safety related, affects the primary function of the binding and fails without warning. High severity, high probability of occurrence, low probability of detecting a pending failure. Hmmmm.

[sf]

Even though I seriously think everyone is over reacting and less then 5% (my guess, no proof behind this) of Kingpins are failing, I Just traded my Kingpin 13s for a pair of Dynafit TLT Speeds. A buddy ordered a few pairs of Speeds and they are too much for his GF so I’m getting the Speeds

5%.........jeeeez. Anything above, I dunno, 0,1% would be a fucking scandal. I don't think DIN would accept anything close to that either.

Hi, we're Marker, and we guarantee our binding will get you home safely on 19 out of 20 tours

[LiveLarger]

Imagine being on top of some often skied no-fall zone. Eg Galcier rond, Comsmique Couloir, etc in Chamonix.

"Hey, this binding has a 5% failure rate" That translate to "Hey, you have an added 5% chance of dying here" ..

Sounds ok? uh?

[nickel]

Even though I seriously think everyone is over reacting and less then 5% (my guess, no proof behind this) of Kingpins are failing, I Just traded my Kingpin 13s for a pair of Dynafit TLT Speeds. A buddy ordered a few pairs of Speeds and they are too much for his GF so I’m getting the Speeds

I suppose you're just as entitled to your opinion as I am.




















My opinion is that you're an idiot.

[auvgeek]

Imagine being on top of some often skied no-fall zone. Eg Galcier rond, Comsmique Couloir, etc in Chamonix.

"Hey, this binding has a 5% failure rate" That translate to "Hey, you have an added 5% chance of dying here" ..

Sounds ok? uh?

Exactly. Just got back from two weeks in Cham -- I saw lots of Dynafit, Plum, and ATK binders. The few Kingpins I saw were either on pro freeriders or (mostly) gapers. YMMV and those are obviously just anecdotal observations.

[galibier_numero_un]

Exactly. Just got back from two weeks in Cham -- I saw lots of Dynafit, Plum, and ATK binders. The few Kingpins I saw were either on pro freeriders or (mostly) gapers. YMMV and those are obviously just anecdotal observations.

I wonder if Marker is doing an extra step of (non destructive) testing for the pros. Then again, it seems as if bicycle companies treat members of the pro peloton as cannon fodder, so maybe not :-(

... Thom

[auvgeek]

I wonder if Marker is doing an extra step of (non destructive) testing for the pros. Then again, it seems as if bicycle companies treat members of the pro peloton as cannon fodder, so maybe not :-(

I added that part about the "pros" last minute because at least one Cham pro has at least one pair of skis mounted with them (not trying to name drop -- I don't know him personally or anything). But I think most freeriders in Cham usually ski alpine binders with day wreckers (or with a dynafit mounted in front of the toe piece, like you see in La Liste) because they're fit and access is so incredible.

I'm sure peds or someone could give a better description of what Cham locals ski, but my point was it's not a widespread binding used in YFYD terrain.