On 09/25/2016 09:10 AM, Toller wrote:
On Saturday, September 24, 2016 at 3:47:08 PM UTC-4, Richard Henry
wrote:
On Saturday, September 24, 2016 at 8:28:10 AM UTC-7, Toller wrote:
I just bought a Volkl 81ATM. The binding just slide on and
fasten with a screw (though they don't give instructions, to try
and stop you from doing it...).

Is it necessary to get them checked, or can you assume new
binding are accurate? The charts say to set them at 6, but I
always use 5 and find it works fine; so I have a little margin of
safety if they are off a bit. If they are too low I guess I will
find out quickly enough.

I don't mind the $20, but no one around here does it.

While I am on the subject, the bindings say they have "triple
pivot elite" toes but don't say anywhere what the triple means.
Do they also open if you fall straight back? Pretty sure I've
never done that, but maybe some day.

I can't imagine anyplace you would go skiing that does not have a
pro shop at the base that is capable of doing a basic safety check
on the bindings.

They do, but they don't open until maybe December.

If you have any mechanical training or experience, the concept of a
safety binding is pretty simple. A spring or something similar
holds everything together until an unsafe force overcomes the
spring force, allowing the binding to release. Any user can set
his bindings to whatever he wants and perform simple functional
tests, but the professional gets paid because he has the test
equipment and knows how the bindings work, what settings are
appropriate for which users, and how to test for proper function.

They release when I force the heel forward or the toe sideways; so I
know they "work", but my shove isn't well calibrated.

I guess my question is really if bindings are typically accurate from
the factory, or if they can be significantly off. The only pair I
ever had were spot on, but one sample isn't really proof.

My Atomic heelpiece (replaced free when the bindings were recalled due
to heelpieces breaking in half) broke in half after 37 days (fewer than
100 hours) of blue-run skiing. I guess they didn't solve the problem,
and I'll never buy anything Atomic ever again. Sport Chalet (the
original one, where people were supposed to know what they were doing)
swapped out some newish bindings I had on some other skis for free, and
if I hadn't had those (I took the easy road) I would have sued SOMEBODY.

Some factories are better than others. Spend the money and have them
checked. There are no guarantees, but every little bit helps.

--
Cheers, Bev