lal_truckee wrote:
On 9/25/16 9:10 AM, Toller wrote:

I guess my question is really if bindings are typically accurate from
the factory, or if they can be significantly off.

Don't know if the industry still operates the same, but used to be each
manufacturer specified how much the set DIN could deviate from the
measured release DIN before declaring the binding unusable and a shop
wouldn't officially set them. (Off the books, shoppies do a lot of
things.) Some brands "featured" significant deviation, often right from
the factory. Bottom line - you couldn't trust the on-binding "DIN"
setting to provide a specified DIN release, even brand new. On the other
hand, near enough is often good enough.
I assume in practice it is still the same.

My two cents would be test the binding.
Had a set of atomics that on the race hill a real atomic rep pointed out
they were installed wrong, he took them apart fixed them.
But it is your body and having somebody with experience checking them is
a good thing. Best to find somebody with real exposure to the machine
not somebody just hired.
My issue is no one will check them at a race setting. It is really not
hard to test, the biggest issue is getting the ski in a locked unmovable
location. Like a heavy test bench. Then use a torque wrench that records
max valve. Do the calculation and you can come up with numbers.
It is a little over simplification of the process but it not impossible.