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3D Vintage Ski Bindings - Rick Glesner

Brian Finch

Privateer Skier @ www.SkiWithaGrimRipper.com
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Careful Rick Howell ‘bout to drop ya a C&D for stealing his technology
 

Tony Warren

Me on the left, The Padre on the right
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The best binding of the era, its only flaw was the cam that the rollers needed to overcome for release. My solution was to ski fast so there was loads of energy to blow the boots out when needed. I can say that in thousands of hours of skiing on these bindings, I never once had a pre-release or a late release, nor did I ever 'walk' out of my skis when the flex of the ski changed the forward pressure on the toe and caused too much friction for effective release. Since then, I don't believe bindings have become all that much better. Claims of all angle release reducing injuries may be true, but pre-release is much more common in my opinion.
 

Bill Talbot

Vintage Gear Curator
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The best binding of the era, its only flaw was the cam that the rollers needed to overcome for release. My solution was to ski fast so there was loads of energy to blow the boots out when needed. I can say that in thousands of hours of skiing on these bindings, I never once had a pre-release or a late release, nor did I ever 'walk' out of my skis when the flex of the ski changed the forward pressure on the toe and caused too much friction for effective release. Since then, I don't believe bindings have become all that much better. Claims of all angle release reducing injuries may be true, but pre-release is much more common in my opinion.
Those rollers wore out in no time and became egg shaped and/or lose.
I'd take Look Nevada/Grand Prix Comps (red) over them every time.
 

Tony Warren

Me on the left, The Padre on the right
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I travel a lot.
Those rollers wore out in no time and became egg shaped and/or lose.
I'd take Look Nevada/Grand Prix Comps (red) over them every time.
Hmm, interesting. I probably skied 200 to 300 days on one pair of S 505's without the rollers getting far out of round. The problem with Nevada's was that they required zero forward pressure on the toe, to get full elasticity. When the ski flexed the distance between the heel and the toe was reduced, and as torque was increased the toe would not return to its center point. The solution was that most users used too high settings for the toe. Statistically Nevada's caused more injuries per user than Solomon, Tyrolia or Marker. My guess is that you like other good skiers had the suckers cranked down hard.

When those bindings were popular, Gordon Lipe (The Father of Ski Safety) was sponsored by Ski Magazine to tour around testing binding technicians. I was the highest rated binding tech in Alberta (I worked at a really small shop in Sherwood Park). He bought me and a few other guys dinner and we discussed binding issues from a physics standpoint. That guy knew everything about the topic, and we got into the weeds about vectors of release, and Hooke's law and whatnot. One of the points of discussion was the difference between Nevada in theory and in practice. Theoretically the Nevada was a great idea because it put the tibia right over the turntable, which should have resulted in lower torque being transmitted to the tib and fib and knee. Shorter moment between the heel and the bones. The Solomon with the heel piece being the pivot created a longer moment and was at least in theory more likely to put higher forces on the bones. Unfortunately the theory was rendered less effective for the reasons I previously stated.

In the later 70's Nevada tried to remedy the problem by putting compensation springs on the heel piece, however it was not a great solution because they were exposed and often froze.

All that said, skiers fell into two groups; Solomon lovers/Nevada haters or Nevada lovers/Solomon haters. There was a side group of imbeciles who though Tyrolia and Marker were great. Of course all bets were off if you had ski sponsorships, then whatever came with the skis, you used!

Remember these?

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Bill Talbot

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Yes, I've got a Release Check here in the shop (and a VSSE tester too).

Not a Salomon hater at all. Almost all the early Equipe models were fantastic and durable. Still ski some of them.
The 60's through the early 90's were interesting time for ski bindings. Everyone trying different ways to get things done. Lots of mixing and matching different brands for toe pieces and heels too.
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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Yes, I've got a Release Check here in the shop (and a VSSE tester too).

Not a Salomon hater at all. Almost all the early Equipe models were fantastic and durable. Still ski some of them.
The 60's through the early 90's were interesting time for ski bindings. Everyone trying different ways to get things done. Lots of mixing and matching different brands for toe pieces and heels too.
Most of the mixing and matching of toe and heels ended by the early to mid 70's. Binding manufacturers strongly discouraged the mix and match idea for several reasons but it did wake them up to what customers wanted. Most of the customers wanted the step in heel like the Tyrolia Clix 90 for it's easy in and out features.
 

Bill Talbot

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People that 'ski' wanted step in heels. Skiers wanted the best performing bindings!
Many people that 'ski' couldn't bend over to latch a heel so....
 

Bill Talbot

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Well @RickyG has once again upped his game with these videos!
I can't thank you enough for preserving all these great bindings for folks to learn about their function, design and history.
Just a fantastic job.
Thank you Ricky! :thumb:
 

RickyG

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Well @RickyG has once again upped his game with these videos!
I can't thank you enough for preserving all these great bindings for folks to learn about their function, design and history.
Just a fantastic job.
Thank you Ricky! :thumb:
Bill, thank you! I do enjoy this and eventually I will get all the videos up to the voice over of my wife, and the short history of the companies that produce them.
 

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