How do I choose bindings?

[MrsPlow]

I like Look Pivots for the heel release and the promise of increased knee protection.

Although I'm rethinking this because of an issue with the half-moon piece in the heel piece - just had it fall out of a 1-year old binding. Similar issue with another pair about 3 or 4 years ago, but they'd been pretty well used.

 

[WaterGirl]

Another dissenting voice - have only marker squire on all alpine skis DD and I are under 130 and 22.5.
Light weight ski well.

Wow interesting on the ramp angle for the dynafit bindings ... wonder what they are for the scarpas ......

 

[santacruz skier]

+1 dissenting voice on the Marker Squires. No trouble whatsoever and I'm a total lightweight.

 

[SnowHot]

Paging @SnowHot she will know!

Sorry I didn't get this message until now.
There is a significant difference in the ramp angle of the Attack 11 vs the 12 and 13.
But, the Fischer Attack 11 has the same ramp as the 12 and 13, while the Tyrolia 11(not branded Fischer) has more ramp.

This is interesting enough to copy and paste:

Here's the binding delta angles for the different binding manufacturers:
Marker Duke/Baron/Tour 0mm (with alpine boots)
Marker Duke/Baron/Tour +6mm (with AT boots)
Atomic +2mm
Salomon +2mm
Head/Tyrolia/Fischer +3mm
Marker Jester/Griffon+4mm
Look/Rossi/VIST +5mm
Look/Rossi Pivot/FKS +5mm (only flat with their 5mm toe shims)
Dynafit Radical Speed/ST/FT +15mm (with Vulcan/Mercury boot)
Dynafit Radical ST/FT +12mm (with Tecnica Cochise boot)
Dynafit Beast 16 +6mm (with Vulcan/Mercury boot)

This list is not super accurate, mostly because it doesn't break down some of the binding models and/or model year.
Example:
The Royal series bindings from Marker (Jester, Griffon, Squire, ...) have less ramp (almost 0) this year, where previous years had 4mm

The Tyrolia bindings have changed over the past few years as well.

 

[skibum4ever]

I 100% agree with staying away from Marker Griffon binding. I demo'd a pair last year and they were really hard to step into. I'm almost 5'8" and weigh about 170# with above average leg strength and they were still ridiculously hard to step into on hard packed snow. I ended up buying Look SPX12 binding and absolutely love love love them. Apparently, everyone I talked with in the ski shops run Look bindings too... #ITrustLook! I have no idea what official level skier I am, but would describe myself as mid to advanced intermediate.

I know I'm late to this thread. But today I decided to ski a pair of Nordica Nrgy 90's which I've owned for several years but did not enjoy. I really liked them today. Except...for the Marker Griffon demo bindings. I CANNOT click into them so I have to resort to pulling the bindings up with my pole strap. I really hate doing that but I have no choice.

 

[scandium]

I do not like the Marker Squires - I have posted about my experience with them in other threads. They wanted you to actually stamp on the bindings to get in them. I never have trouble on Marker Squire demo bindings though.

I have had good experiences with my Atomic Warden MNC 11s although they sometimes feel a bit chunky when packing to fly (important for me as I fly for the majority of my skiing) and I recently got the Tyrolia Attack 11s for my newest skis (2019 Kenjas) but have not skiied them yet. I have a friend who has Look Pivot 12s on her skis and they are a dream to click into.

 

[fgor]

Not such a popular binding but i have two skis with Look NX12 on them (one demo) and they're really nice and easy to step into with a smooth release. I also have a set of pivot 12s and.... I do not find them to be a dream to click into haha! They're not really hard to step into on flat ground, just slightly more finicky than the nx12's and i have to stamp slightly harder, but on soft snow I find it very easy to get a "false" click in, where the heelpiece pops up but the brakes aren't fully retracted because my boot heel isn't fully in the binding. It's not the end of the world and I'm told they are actually very easy to get into in soft snow because you can just pull the heel piece up to engage it!

I've definitely been on demo skis that took more effort to click into than the pivots though and I don't consider them bad, just a quirky binding haha

My newest skis have Warden 13s but i haven't had them on snow yet.

My alltime favourite bindings to click into are some Head (Tyrolia) Joy 11 system bindings on a pair of 2020 Head Total Joy demo skis.