Howell Bindings

[cat in january]

I know Rick Howell has been working on a better alpine binding for a while. I seem to remember there was some copyright issues a while ago, but not up to date on that. Outside grip walk adjustment, doesn’t seem there has been much development in binding design in forty years.

Pretty darn expensive at $560 for the 8-12 din and Uber expensive at 840 for the titanium one to 22 discounted now. Not a binding for a quiver, but an every day ski, not much more than my atk bindings.

https://howell-ski-bindings.myshopify.com/

[FloridaSnow]

I’m seeing $800-1200 prices. That’s stupid beyond belief.

[m2711c]

those would look sweet mounted on some shredshox on some Praxis Rx.... total acl safety and a cush ride? sign me up!


fact.

[cat in january]

I’m seeing $800-1200 prices. That’s stupid beyond belief.

Offering 30% off if you sign up for preorder with $80 down.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

It's been a while since I dug into this guy, and I don't remember the details, but I recall being firmly convinced that he is a pseudo-science spewing kook- the ski equivalent of a conspiracy theorist.

[cat in january]

Today, Rick sent me a friend request on fb and I saw and commented on his post publicizing his new bindings. I was definitely intrigued and was strongly considering the $80 deposit offering support for the work.

One of the things I really like about tgr is the wealth of knowledge when it comes to the tech talk section. I wrote the brief blurb and linked his website in the original post to see folks thoughts and perhaps earn some other supporters for his work. Seems public discussion is a fairly well protected right. I sent him a message with a link to the posting here. I did not anticipate the response.

The following shared fb messages from him representing his business to me are after a couple initial ones when he saw this thread.








Needless to say I am no longer inclined to be a supporter of his business.

I also do not like to be threatened with legal action in the initial conversation.

[cat in january]

The messages in our correspondence not posted were corrections Rick demanded I make to my initial thread post. I was walking the dogs. Returning and reading the post I did not see the need to edit. Not a great way to run a business with correspondence like that.

[halliday]

Fuck him. I have closet full of P-15 and P-18 that have never let me down. Maybe he can merge up with the folks over at Knee.

[m2711c]

that threat was based on this thread?

seems an odd reaction...

i got $37 fer yer leagel fund.



fact.






wait... did you call us a bunch of wankers?

[rideit]

“Methinks though doth protest too much”.

[skaredshtles]

WTF is that guy even talking about?

[easyrdr]

dudes resume is solid but man he sucks at interacting with humans

[BCMtnHound]

Sounds like he needs a home over at AlpineZone. Send him Greg’s connections.

[EWG]

that threat was based on this thread?

seems an odd reaction...

i got $37 fer yer leagel fund.



fact.






wait... did you call us a bunch of wankers?

Yes. Yes he did. Fucking rude.

That said, I'll chip in another $37, plus a couple pounds of bacon, and I'll throw in a powder skirt if the trial is in the winter.

[riser4]

Case of Utica Club.

[cat in january]

Of course I will follow the tgr spirit guide and go pro any proceedings front and back.

[Recreationpro]

To my understanding, Howell was the original inventor/designer of the KneeBinding, but was booted out of the company because of "issues." KneeBinding later sued Howell for breach of contract and false statements, and Howell lost in court. Howell has been promising his binding for well over 10 years, taking "deposits," and still has never produced...

[FullStop]

*** Howell SkiBindings is against (a) ski waist widths greater than 90mm AND (b) all 'pin-bindings' (except Trab TR2 and Shift — though do not fall in the touring-mode and neither are ACL-friendly in the alpine-mode) — due to their association with severe, high-energy tibia-plateau fractures. This type of skiing injury matches the growth of fat-skis and pin-bindings. The high-energy nature of this type of fracture involves multiple-fragments, difficult surgical reconstruction, and 10 to 15-months of aggressive rehabilitation. Fat skis on firm snow are a serious problem for the sustainability of our beautiful sport. ‘And ‘pin-bindings’ are hardly “tech”.

Nice

[m2711c]

Who said corporations don’t take a stand on anything controversial?

[tenB]

I’m in for $37. However, he scored 100 in AP Physics in high school, so he will win the lawsuit.

Has anybody even seen a working pair of these bindings? Just see design drawings on his website.

[cat in january]

That’s amazing given the scores only go to 5. No doubt he is a whole lot smarter than me regarding binding design; I only scored a 3, but it did get me out of physics in college. More of a stoner than a student in high school.

[iriponsnow]

He threatened to come after me after calling him out for being unprofessional in refusing to allow demos / testing, despite claims that he had cracked the code to the perfect binding. I invited him to participate in actual 3rd party reviews - he threatened legal, but never produced the goods.

Bruhs hawt air. His binding is no more real than those comic book drawings.

[stealurface831]

at least tom from austria has some charisma.

[cat in january]

Well we are no longer fb friends. The humanity.

Irip, I don’t think there is an actual binding yet as images on site appear to be just computer art.

[m2711c]

Just watch out for those process servers with them papers. If you can duck the papers, you can forget about the lawsuit….



legal fact.





probably.