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Tecton Trouble 1/25/18 Silver Fir
- ridngoofy
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I've Vipec 12 bindings since 2014 as they ski great and release as advertised. Now the Tecton is claimed safer so I purchased them for my wife. She enjoyed skiing 8 days with them in temps ranging from -8 to 20 degrees F mounted on her Black Crows. So when our local hill, Snoqualmie, was closed I decided to take them for a spin with my new Atomic Hawx 130 boots. I set forward pressure as described (flush screwhead), set DIN 6 and did a few laps around the piste. The snow conditions were large flakes to grapple to sleet at about 33 degrees F on top of many inches of new snow that received several inches of rain the previous day. It's the kinda snow that quickly forms a block of hard styrafoam under your boot heel while skinning and it has to be removed forcefully with a pole tip several times on ascent. Every PNW backcountry skier knows what I'm talking about. On my last descent I relaxed on the piste flat and let the crows run. In the blink of an eye one crow caught an edge and my left knee was looking at my backpack. After ankle plate and screws I'm trying to determine what went wrong. Forward pressure too strong? Umm, I doubt it.Â
Here's what I believe happened. Every tech pin toe collects snow between the boot and binding while skiing.  In the older Vipec (with the wire trigger) the boot sets about 6mm above the binding and the surface of the toe is rather flat with minimal plastic edges to catch snow. This allows snow to escape the rear of the boot toe easier than the Tecton. It has 1mm of clearance between the binding and the boot toe. The trigger sets on a large ridge that forms wells on each side of it due to the additional plastic edges. I believe skiing coupled with the side to side motion of the toe piece packed snow into the little wells much like the syrafoam action under the heel ( icing). So now instead of DIN 6 I'm skiing >= DIN 10 maybe. A Fritschi engineer may claim I'm full of it. But you examine these toe pieces and tell me what you think. All comments welcome.Â
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- haggis
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- ridngoofy
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- haggis
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- sgertz
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www.wildsnow.com/21232/skialper-binding-intro-translation/
www.wildsnow.com/15123/tech-binding-rele...ting-acl-broken-leg/
www.wildsnow.com/21152/ski-binding-release-avalanche-safety/
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- ridngoofy
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Here's URL to pics of my Fritschi toes. Notice the metal piece just under the middle of the boot sole on the Tecton toe. That is the jaw close trigger that sets really close to the boot and snow has to move around that.Â
Thanks for those links. All this is interesting about how manufacturers test these things. Having machines test them in a nice dry shop is one thing and having people test them in various snow is another. I'm certain the testers are expert skiers who never need to release anyway. I think the only real way to test bindings is to give them to 500 skiers of all abilities and see how many injuries come back Â
This assessment is my average Joe non professional opinion. I mean one could argue that the side to side movement of the Fritschi toe helps clear the snow from under the boot. And maybe in the old Vipec white it does. The only fact I am certain of is this: Over the years I've owned Fritschi Freeride, Fritschi Vipec, Dynafit comfort, G3 Onyx, Dynafit speed and Marker Kingpin. They have all released when called upon. Tecton missed the call.Â
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- ridngoofy
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www.wildsnow.com/21232/skialper-binding-intro-translation/
It reports wide range of results from the Winterstiger for touring bindings except ones claiming TUV certified to DIN/ISO. Tecton and Vipec do this as well as Dynafit radical 2.0, beast and Marker Kingpin. However, they did not test the Vipec due to legal issues in Italy. Humm. But that is understandable as they state in some Europen countries the Winterstiger results are taken very seriously. I mean Fritschi has made a big deal of advertising in the USA that Tecton is certified to be as safe as an alpine binding. But the user manual has embedded a disclaimer that this can't be verified for all skiers in all snow conditions. Makes sense. This cool url was included in your post and it claims I'm setting my DIN properly.
www.mechanicsofsport.com/skiing/equipmen.../din-calculator.html
Anyway when I can walk around again I'm taking Tecton to REI to have them function and stress tested And I'll post results. And I'll purchase the english version of the SkiAlper report. Lou Dawson claims its a winter's worth of reading and I've nothing else to do. I retired (again) mid January ,so. Thanks for the feedback.Â
Hey I want to give a shout out to RustyKnees who helped me crawl out of the ski area and the snow moblie driver who gave a final ferry to my car. "Thank You"
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- Don Heath
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I just had my own season ending injury.  We can rehab together!
Don
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- ridngoofy
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- ridngoofy
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- sgertz
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Every time I've taken gear to Sturdevant's, I've been very impressed. They know their stuff.
I finally had the bindings function tested at REI and they failed. One binding required > 2x force to release. So mystery solved. No weird boot placement nor tricky snow as I was guessing in the initial post. Just simply defective gear. BTW, I did not buy these at REI. But -- a moral to this story -- if you are riding the new Fritschi TUV toe it may be a good idea to get them function tested. REI will do it for $25 and if they fail you get your $25 back
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- ridngoofy
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- ridngoofy
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- sgertz
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While we agree that the release values are all over the board, if they're claiming to be certified, then they should stand by that certification.
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- Randito
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- ridngoofy
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My accident was rare for an ankle in that it is reproduced in high performance athletes or automobile accidents. Fractured fibula with dislocation and deltoid ligament damage. Since I'm not high performance mine is more the latter. I was hoping for a Memorial Day tour but Ill have to wait until next season. And I'll probably be on a Marker plate. That's right. Its now release ability over tour ability for me.Â
Should you read this and wonder about a Tecton purchase, for backcountry travel, I think you'll do just fine. My wife really likes the way it skies and tours. But should you find yourself feeling like a high performance athlete sailing down the piste on this binding you better double check your stuff. You could end up in a car wreck right there on the slope.
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