Marker Alpinist heel question

[redbarnPD]

So my only pair of Alpinist brakes, broke. The spring finally gave up on my fitness skis. I don't use Alpinist brakes except for up the resort because, well, they don't really work. And, I don't think they add any real underfoot support since the brake pedal just flops around and the stomp is well below the boot sole...

Looked at the brake & decided to go into development mode. All I wanted was the "box" that houses the spring/arms, so everything but the steel box & plastic stomp went away. G/Flex epoxy'd the plastic stomp plate back on, then cyanoacrylate bonded some 1mm PTFE sheet to that. Net result was 14.2mm height and a 0.5mm gap to my boot sole. That gap will be essentially zero when weighted, thus the PTFE AFD to ensure correct binding function.

Tested the final prototype in a shop with a Vermont DIN tester for lateral release (weighted). With the binding set at 9, the DIN release was ~8-9. Happy with that.

Will it ski better? Dunno, let you know later. Will it hold up to 10,000 stomps? Again, no idea, but at least I used up some broken brakes that never really worked to begin with. And FWIW, the new Alpinist Free "performance booster" only works with the brakes, and has an oddly aggressive texture that I'm questioning for correct lateral release. I like this better, but let me know if you think it's whacked.

Hope the image uploads OK, the interface here is pretty 1980's bulletin board...

[Lord Thomas]

I've been thinking of doing something like this for a couple of years now. Glad to see someone actually got it done - I need the inspiration. Will have to dig into the parts box and see what I got. Had been planning on starting with a pair of orphaned KP brakes, but we'll see.

[redbarnPD]

I've been thinking of doing something like this for a couple of years now. Glad to see someone actually got it done - I need the inspiration. Will have to dig into the parts box and see what I got. Had been planning on starting with a pair of orphaned KP brakes, but we'll see.

Get it. The only minorly dicey part is bonding the Teflon sheet. Cyanoacrylate complete with etching solution & activator is the key (brought me back to proto making days), but it's a bomber bond. Everything else is basic, easy to find.