UKC

Long shot this but does anybody have an idea if the Grivel Air Tech Newmatic is a decent fit for the Scarpa Freney XT older GSB model ?

I aksed this ages back but just made do with my DMM Aiguilles which never really fitted very well (points were under inside of foot) these have now moved on so need replacing.

No intenetion of climbing ice falls or steeper stuff so dont need the G12's and the sorter points of the airtech are going to be better for me scrambling about and walking, they will also be going on my Scarpa Maestrale touring boots.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:
Not tried the air techs but the G10/ 12/ 14 are not a good fit on the freneys in a 46 (may be less of a problem on smaller boots) as newmatic crampons (and I think the airtechs are a very similar fit). The front section rear inner points over hang the sole of the boots by quite a bit and the points on the other side aren't far enough over on the sole if you know what I mean The asymmetric bars are not to be advised as although they improve the conformity of the points to the sole the front points end up pointing in at a silly angle (although maybe you won't mind this for walking?)

The issue is of course that Freneys are very asymmetric and fitting to crampons can be problematic in the larger sizes as the bend is accentuated.

I did eventually get a reasonably good fit to my freneys from my crampomatic G14's by using the Rambo iv asymmetric front bails (but the standard middle bars).

Crampons I found did fit freney's well include the bd sabretooth C2 fitting and Rambo IV's

In reply to Dark-Cloud:
They fit fine on my size 43 Gortex Scarpa XT Freney's without the asymmetric bar. I've been using them ever since the XT boots came out with the Newmatic bindings.
I've worn out at least four pairs of the Freney's during this time working on winter courses and as the boots were so comfortable bought several extra pairs when they discontinued the Freney!
The boots are also fine with the Grivel G12's, G20's and G10's using the Newmatic bindings.
The newer Airtechs and G12's with the yellow toe-bales also fit the Scarpa Guides better than the older Airtech's and G12's with the black toe-bales allowing much more of the front points to protrude due to thicker yellow plastic in the toe post rivet area which is what Stevo was elaborating about.

In reply to Ron Walker:

Cheers, mine are a 44, are yours the GSB model, I found that there want much point out the fonot on my older DMM crampons.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

Yes, boots all GSB model but have never ever used the GSB and use the Newmatic binding with toebale. Look at my YouTube Channel playlist on boots and crampons!
Cheers Ron

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5IalMM086HjeBoJRRhY1S-DBmPgmPTfr

Not sure why the link doesn't work on my PC but it should work if you copy and paste or do a search on my Channels as the link shows the Scarpa Freneys fitted to the Grivel newmatic crampons!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5IalMM086HjeBoJRRhY1S-DBmPgmPTfr

Cheers Ron

In reply to Ron Walker:
I wasn't talking about the front point protrusion more about the how well the downward facing points cover the sole on the front crampon section. It's possible that Grivel have redesigned the crampon a little to better accommodate scarpa boots as many of them are pretty asymmetric. I last tried this probably around 4 or 5 years ago. As mentioned its because Freneys are one of the most asymmetric boots out there so the crampon doesn't tend to cover the outside front / side section of the boot very well in the larger sizes the crampon protrudes the boot on the inside. However in the smaller sizes this is definitely less of a problem (as the bend of the boot is less and the boots aren't as wide).

In reply to Ron Walker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0rbrL3Lys

You can see the issue a tiny bit with your size boots (at 1:36 an d 3:11) - on the front crampon section the rear inner downward facing point is slightly protruding from the sole to the side and the points don't cover the outside edge of the boot as well as they cover the inner edge. The larger your foot size the worse this gets.

In reply to CurlyStevo:

You can also see the issue I am talking about where pretty much half the front point is under the boot !!

In reply to Dark-Cloud:
You won't have that problem with sabretooths The down points are quite short but the front points have very good protrusion - maybe too much for your needs?

In reply to Dark-Cloud:
Just on the off chance they're any use to you, I've a set of GSB binding Airtechs that I'd sell for £25 plus postage, have used them all along on my Freney's and seemed good fit. Downside being the limited binding system. Fairly minimal use. Need a resharpen though. Drop me a mail if you're interested.

In reply to Nigel C:

Hmmm may be tempted, send me some photos over and I will have a think, may be changing boots soon but i think you can get front bails for them to make them full step in, will PM you.