UKC

I'm about to buy a pair of Black Diamond Megawatts for this coming winter but I'm a bit undecided about what bindings to get for them and therefore was hoping for some suggestions.

Ideally i'd like to find an all round binding that'll do me well for long Scottish touring days as well as full days off-piste resort skiing where I won't need the touring mode. I know most modern touring bindings fit this bill fairly well but any specific suggestions would be great!

In reply to chrisprescott:

Black Diamond O1

In reply to chrisprescott:

What boots do you have and are they dynafit compatible?


I'd imagine that most days touring with a 125mm waisted ski will be quite long

One option would be to mount a plate like this:

http://bindingfreedom.com/Plates_c2.htm

The would allow you to get a pair of lightweight touring bindings (e.g. dynafit TLT) and also a set of proper resort bindings. Switching them over takes five minutes and saves a lot of compromises if you only have one pair of skis.

Or, as suggested, go Telemark.

In reply to EwanR: Oops, I should have said, i've got Dynafit compatible boots. I hadn't seen that plate before, looks like a good possible option for the future although if I can find a compromise in a single binding it might suit me better for now as i'm not sure I have the cash to buy two after splashing on the skis!

I'm getting the carbon version of the Megawatts which are much lighter than the normal ones (over a kilo) so should make touring OK.

In reply to chrisprescott:

I've got freeride pro's on verdicts. Good all rounder. im happy with them. I guess if you want to do more freeride than touring then its markers. A lightweight freeride would be the dynafit TNT system, however no real din settings. I certainly don't trust them. Scott do there version of the freeride, 6 and 2 3's really.

So freeride or marker, all depends on how much your touring...

In reply to EwanR: It all depends on how much effort you're willing to put in, my touring skis are 117 at the waist with Duke's and I've overtaken a lot more tourers on skinnies and dynafits than have overtaken me!

Being serious though - it might be worth getting something like quiver killers so you can use dynafits for touring and then get a second hand pair of DH bindings (you can pick them up much cheaper than touring bindings) for your lift-served off piste?

If you really only want one binding I'd personally be much happier with a 'proper' binding for DH days such as a Marker (or the new Salomon one but I don't know if any niggles with it have come out yet) over the dynafit.

In reply to chrisprescott: There are a couple of anti-Dynafit comments here but my tuppenceworth is that, despite the odd foible (which all bindings have) they're well worth considering. I use them a lot and they're way more solid to ski on than appearances might suggest - there's certainly less movement between ski and binding than with Fritchis and they're significantly lighter. At least half my ski buddies use them and that's a mix of ski bums, guides and ski-patrollers so they get a fair bit of hard use in and out of ski areas, heli-skiing and touring. The newer Radical line are a significant improvement on the Verticals - the new heel raiser is much easier to use and toe location has improved when you put them on. The Markers are good but heavy and can be a pain to get back into ski mode if there's any build up of snow on them which there usually is after skinning.

In reply to AdrianC: Thanks for your comments. I've definitely been leaning more towards the Dynafit Radical FT (the heel raiser looks a load better than it used to on the older Dynafits). Although i'm still torn between sticking with a pair of them and just adding a plate like someone suggested above and getting two different bindings.

In reply to chrisprescott:
Dynafit Radical ST. You can get em with 130mm brakes, they're cheaper than the FTs and don't have the pointless 'flex plate' so they're lighter too. You probably don't need the release values to go up to 12.

They're not much fun on hard, refrozen pistes, but you won't be taking Megawatts out on those anyway, right? Unless most of your skiing involves mechanical uplift of some kind, there aren't many reasons to get any other sort of binding.

There's no reason not to trust the release values even in the absense of DIN certification; you can get a dynafit setup torque tested by a suitable equipped ski tech to see that it is entirely comparable to frame bindings. The major problem is that the setup is very sensitive to misaligned bindings or slightly-out-of-spec boot fittings. Well worth getting the bindings professionally mounted for that reason.

In reply to chrisprescott:
Dynafit all the way Chris. You'll be fine on them unless your hitting big drops. I find there is little difference between them and alpine bindings in soft snow. Are you set on Megawatts? Having skied with 100mm underfoot the past season in Scotland I definitely wouldn't go any bigger. http://www.downskis.com/skis/countdown-4 These have been pretty sweet all round. Preseason sale is on now so the whole lineup from Down is pretty cheap.