Dynafit has offered the TLT Speed Radical binding design for 2011/2012. By now, many of you have seen – and some even bought – these tech binders. Rather than solely spinning the heel piece to achieve different heel lifts (or locked in, ski mode) as past generations of Dynafit bindings required, the Radical design offers a speedier, easier riser height adjustment.
Two risers mesh together and await the user employing their services. One riser position – attained by flipping one lever – for more moderate skin tracks, and a maximum height selection – attained by flipping the second riser into place – for even steeper skin tracks. Voila, all was radically designed.
The news has been out for several months about the TLT Radical series requiring a technical upgrade. The reason for the upgrade is that a weak pin sometimes breaks on some users in the field. Dynafit calls this a non-critical upgrade, and it sounds like it’s probably not a huge deal.
A bigger deal involves the Radical binding failure I witnessed today. The upper plate on the Dynafit TLT Speed Radical’s heel piece is presently made of plastic. The two risers are attached to this plastic plate. Put too much stomp into your step while the risers are employed, and you’re looking at what my ski partner experienced today: risers that completely break off and fall into the snow. Ouch. After he noticed the issue and I sifted through some snow, I found the pieces. The plastic had broken into numerous parts.
How it should be on the right - risers intact - and how the day panned out on the left - risers broken completely off the binding.
The shorn pieces, including the small, separate black plastic in the gloved palm.
Of bigger concern is that when this happens, all ability to utilize any sort of riser is eliminated (on one side), and the skier is left to tour with their boot flat on the ski. Not too efficient when it comes to climbing up the skin track! I suggested my partner twist the heel piece to at least achieve one modest climbing position, as in the way older Dynafits function. Within about 50 steps, the heel piece had rotated clockwise a ¼ turn, and his boot was flat upon the ski once again. These binders are simply not designed to offer a riser mode without their incorporated, flip-style risers.
A close-up look at the remaining plastic, shorn around the four retaining screws.
It seems that once this failure occurs, the user is going to get a good old fashioned calf workout during their efforts to get back to the car. Have you ever tried ascending steep skin tracks in flat mode, with no riser at all? Not too fun.
And one more look from the side...
Guessing this won’t be the last time a Dynafit TLT Speed Radical breaks in this way. Time to offer up an (ever-heavier) metal plate to replace the weak plastic part? The classic TLT Speed binding used a metal heel plate which withstood all sorts of abuse. It would be a shame to see the new Radical Dynafit bindings suffer durability issues, after so many other Dynafit models withstood the tests of time so well.
Tests of time? The last pair of classic TLT Speeds I used regularly had seen about 500 skier days. They exhibited little sign of damage on the metal riser plate, aside from the expected cosmetic wear. Today’s Speed Radical incident happened with a pair of bindings that had seen a maximum of 15 days in the field. Inauspicious. Time to beef it up, Dynafit?
bad news for me with my brand new TLT speed radicals.
I spent about 40 days on a pair of Speed Radicals… and although they didn’t fail catastrophically on me in the field, I swapped back to an older pair of Vertical ST’s last week. Dynafit dropped the ball with that one.
Pondsy – I know a good half dozen people who chose that binding this year. Disappointment may become a common theme..
mt surf – Curious about the reason(s) behind your swap, and if you’ll elaborate? ‘Dynafit dropped the ball with that one’ is not a cheery assessment.
I did think after playing with it a bit that the risers look pretty flimsy. I guess I have to get them out there and try it to find out for myself. soon!
No doubt, Pondsy. Skiing the Harvard steps isn’t going to cut it!
Same thing happened to me
My binding broke two times in the same way. I tiered waiting for my binding repair and i’m tired going to my dealer and discuss with him. After one month the winter is finished.
Norgas – Sounds annoying for sure. That’s the problem with just offering parts for replacement – folks with the binding have to wait for it to break, then wait for it to be repaired. In a crappy season like this one, waiting for a repair could cause a skier to miss some of the rare good ski days…
The new Speed Radical looks like a step back in terms of the heel assembly, as the ski pole cannot be used to switch positions, and also because of the weakness of the plastic top plate. Does anyone know if you could replace the Speed Radical plastic top plate with a metal top plate from an older Speed model heel unit?
Mark – As I noted in the article, “These binders are simply not designed to offer a riser mode without their incorporated, flip-style risers.”
While it’s possible that you could switch out the plastic top plate for a metal one from an old Speed model – the holes look like they’re in similar positions – doing so would eliminate the capability of having any riser at all. The only position(s) that the bindings would remain in place for would be 1)locked in to ski, and 2) boot flat on the ski.
That said, it’s possible that the binding would stay in place when spun so that the built in riser on the old Speed’s faced forward. (I’m not certain if this position locks in place or not.) In that case, you’d have a 3 position binding – locked to ski, boot flat on the ski, and one riser position – the highest one. This setup would eliminate the most commonly used height, the ‘middle’ position. That doesn’t seem like much of a solution to me.
Exact same thing happened to me. My local dealer in Revelstoke is being super cool about it, warrantying it for me. Still. Now I’m gonna have 2 brand new useless heel pieces. Time for a recall, this is ridiculous. And as for “A-OK”‘s comment that maybe you could just spin the heel piece for at least a first stage riser. No. It won’t stay, best case scenario it’s really really irritating, maddening even. Worst case scenario, you could hyperextend your ankle/hip and/or knee joint.
BTW, my local Dynafit retailer told me you can order the classic heel pieces for about $100/piece (CAD). So, it’s sort of a $200 repair I guess.
Jody – Useless is a hard word to define. Broken heel pieces = cool office paperweight. Interesting desk decor. Spare part source. Hipster necklace. Hood ornament. Good place to learn how to maintain a Dynafit binding with cleaning and lubrication.
As for a recall, my understanding is that one won’t happen unless enough bindings percentage wise break. Until that point, they believe it’s best to just warranty the breakages. Not an uncommon approach in the business world, unfortunately.
@ $200 repair – let’s just say they dropped the ball on this design. Classic Speeds are bulletproof.
Happened to me yesterday in Glencoe (Scotland). Very poor design indeed, now I look at that plastic retaining plate closely …. in shattered pieces on my table.
That is a bummer, Hugh. Not that it helps your skiing today, but I believe Dynafit will fix you up for no charge (except your lost ski time).
Hard to put a price on lost ski time though..