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saw these in a store, they look pree legit. anyone ski on them and have opinions?
if you havent checked them out yet, http://www.kneebinding.com/KB-Intro.aspx
and i love the retro look too
FKS14 has a plastic toe.
FKS18/180 is effectively 'all metal' - there top of the heel is indeed plastic but it's basically a cover for the spring housing and gives you somewhere to poke your pole when you want to get out. All functional/structural parts of the binding are metal.
Hi – JSM here.
Maxwell666, sorry for not responding sooner.
KneeBinding DOES mitigate knee injuries, and it is the ONLY binding brand that can make this claim. All ordinary bindings (and also KneeBindings) offer lateral toe and forward heel releases. These have been standard on all alpine bindings for decades, and do a good job of mitigating broken legs. But they do not do anything to prevent knee injuries.
Your statement that the forward heel release reduces knee injuries is misguided. All alpine bindings have forward heel releases. They all do the same thing, and they do it about the same way. Yet there are now 70,000 ACL injuries (and countless other knee ligaments torn) every year on skis. Remember - all ordinary bindings have had forward heel releases during the entire time that the rate of knee injuries has risen dramatically – now accounting for about 1/3 of all reported ski injuries. There has never before been a specific type of injury that contributed more than about 1/10 of all ski injuries. All ordinary binding brands have participated in this dramatic rise in the injury rate.
The way knees are injured on skis has been well-studied, and the causes are well defined. The only proven way to mitigate knee injuries on skis is with a lateral heel release. And only KneeBinding offers this kind of release. Not only is KneeBinding the only brand that can mitigate knee injuries, all other brands of alpine bindings specifically caution that THEY DO NOT mitigate knee injuries.
Arguing that ordinary bindings reduce knee injuries is like arguing that a wool ski hat will reduce head injuries. In fact, they weren’t designed to, and they don’t. If you want to ski safer, you should purchase a good helmet - and a pair of KneeBindings.
Check this video for more information: KneeBinding PureLateral Release – Why Don’t Ordinary Bindings Do This?
John Springer-Miller - Chairman, KneeBinding
I’ve used them so I can add my take. I was aware of Knee Bindings over 2 years ago, but like many have said their looks were somewhat uncompelling. Then in Spring 2011 I bought them when they offered a red and black carbon-fiber version. So after skiing park in them for about a year I can give my thoughts:
I only ski park hitting 20-30 foot jumps most of the time, occasionally something bigger. While learning 3’s I frequently crashed and landed backseat. Many were spinning rear-weighted falls with the left leg splayed out. Not sure how many were classic Phantom Foot falls, but spinning crashes would seem to be a fertile environment. So with the kind of encouragement one would expect from the 14-year-olds on the chair lift, I eventually turned my 200-lb crashes into recognizable 360s. Some thoughts:
1) There were no ACL tears; lots of bruises, though.
2) Occasionally I switched out my Knee Binding skis (173cm Dynastar Distorters) for my old 161cm Salomon 720s with S912 bindings. Back came an old left knee pain between patella and shin that I’d forgotten about while using the Knee Bindings. Perhaps the elastic release was mitigating whatever torsional force was occurring while popping switch, landing spins, etc. In any event the Salomons transferred this pain to my knee where the Knee Bindings didn’t.
3) There’s definitely more control with the Knee Bindings. Where previously I could carve a sloppy turn with the Salomon’s, now I would drive in an edge with the same maneuver. A more subtle pressure would provoke a greater response. This forced me to clean up the turns.
4) I don’t know if the lateral release – the one that saves your ACL – ever engaged. I do know the skis flew off many times and I never injured my knee. Unfortunately there’s no way to tell if the lateral release was the reason for the ejection. It’d be cool if a plastic tab popped out to announce one had occurred (or better yet in my case, a counter.)
5) It takes more effort to get the boots in. I don’t know if this is a thing with just Full Tilts or all boots, but gearing up in the old S912’s is much easier.
Included a pic of my setup.
mad props to the chairman for coming on newschoolers and argueing with some egotistical ski bums.
