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binding swap kerfuffle

KustyTheKlown

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i'm pretty bummed right now.

i've had marker barons on my moments for the past ~6 years or so. apparently the bindings are circa 2010. still indemnified.

yesterday i brought the moments into my local shop, along with my new black crows, and asked them to remount the barons. paid $120 for the dismount and remount of equipment i didnt buy from them, which felt steep, but its nyc and an independent shop who i like to support, so whatever, i paid.

tech calls me about 30 minutes ago, says they dont have the jig for the old version of the barons and neither does marker. i begrudgingly agree over the phone for them to mount the ski with new griffon 13s, and i would owe them an extra $100, covering the retail cost of the binding and no service work.

i call marker. they do have the jig, but it will cost the shop $125. i then call basin sports at killington where i recently bought my girlfriend boots. they have the jig ("yea its old but its a very popular binding, of course we can still mount them").

i call my local shop back asking them to hold off. they've already mounted the griffons.

so i'm out money i didn't need to be out and don't have a tourable ski anymore. sweet.
 

kingslug

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Well..that sux.
I had a similar problem when I had my new AT boots set up for all my skis in CT..they took the touring lugged soles off the boots and put on the hard plastic ones..had no idea what to do. Brought them to Mountain Ops in Stowe..they knew what to do..cost me 50.00 but whatever...guess CT shops don't get a lot of AT boot/ski work.
sell the Griffons if possible and get what you want.
 

KustyTheKlown

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its too late. they drilled the ski. i'm not gonna dismount them and re-drill a brand new ski.

i'm going to save the barons, acquire a cheap or used touring ski, and remount them when i get a chance.

i don't tour much, but i really like having the option, especially when skiing out west with friends who do tour often.
 

abc

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Well, you still have the Baron on the Moments, right?

I know it sucks to use the Black Crow on lift served terrain only. But how often do you tour anyway?
 

KustyTheKlown

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the moments are shredded. unusable. they were my rock skis the past few years. on my last day of the season at K last year, a core shot kept expanding and expanding and packing with snow between the base of the ski and the core of the ski. by the end of the day i was chipping a softball size chunk of packed snow/ice out of the bottom of the ski after every run. i skied >200 days on those skis and got my money's worth, but they are useless now.

the black crows aren't specifically a touring ski (i have the corvus, whereas the corvus freebird is the dedicated touring model).

my best bet will be to remount the barons on some unidentified new ski for touring. i don't tour much but like being ready for any situation.
 

gladerider

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so you are complaining about a legit reason to expand your quiver? ;-)
 

kbroderick

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If the shop is competent, they should be able to mount the bindings without having the jig. They may not want to, as it takes a fair bit more effort and provides more opportunity for error, but it's not rocket surgery, either. Did they offer you the option of a template-based mount (with the risk of things being less than perfectly centered laterally) or just tell you they couldn't do it without the jig?
 

KustyTheKlown

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lol. k2 public enemy 85s, dps wailer 105s, black crows corvus 106, kastle bmx 118s, an old shredded set of moment belafontes.

i'm quivered! i didn't need a 6th (5th functional) pair of skis!
 

KustyTheKlown

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If the shop is competent, they should be able to mount the bindings without having the jig. They may not want to, as it takes a fair bit more effort and provides more opportunity for error, but it's not rocket surgery, either. Did they offer you the option of a template-based mount (with the risk of things being less than perfectly centered laterally) or just tell you they couldn't do it without the jig?

i asked them if i get them the template, can they do it. they said no, they need the jig.

i've generally trusted these guys to do most work for me, but am having major second thoughts about anything more than a tune up in bay ridge brooklyn.
 

abc

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I don't know how much you want to pursue this with the shop. After all, it's a shop you "want to support".

But they kind of lied to you about Marker no longer have the jig, which was probably why you agree to purchase the Griffon? You could argue they shouldn't charge you retail on the Griffon.
 

kingslug

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Its funny..all my skis have touring bindings but I havent toured in a long time..the AT boot makes everything better though..walking around and up and down stairs..like a human...light as hell too.
And yes, your shop could cut you some kind of deal.
 

tumbler

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I don't know how much you want to pursue this with the shop. After all, it's a shop you "want to support".

But they kind of lied to you about Marker no longer have the jig, which was probably why you agree to purchase the Griffon? You could argue they shouldn't charge you retail on the Griffon.

It's a ski shop in nyc, easier to lie. Kusty a lawyer, easy to do due diligence. Keep that one in your back pocket, it will come around.
 

KustyTheKlown

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the whole thing has left a really sour taste in my mouth.

i assume they called marker, and were told that the jig would cost them $125, and decided not to buy the jig bc how many people are really coming in to their shop with 9 year old barons. but instead of telling me that, they told me marker doesnt have the jig. thats where i'm pissed off.

i have a rapport with this shop, i give them lots of business, i recommend them to people who dont want the paragon/rei big box store around here. if they didnt want to buy the jig, fine, but just tell me. they framed it like i had no option to get the barons mounted. it took me 2 phone calls and 15 minutes to figure out that we could either buy the jig from marker or have basin sports do the mount.

granted, i told them to proceed, but in those 15 minutes ALLEGEDLY at least one of my skis was already mounted with the griffon.

so what could have been a $60 binding swap in killington is now a $230 new binding with no touring in brooklyn.

i'm going to talk to the owner on saturday and see if he's willing to do anything for me on this. especially since i was intending to bring my girlfriend in for seasonal ski rentals this weekend (and it's our last chance, we go to CO next weekend).

sour as fuck.
 

Not Sure

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If the shop is competent, they should be able to mount the bindings without having the jig. They may not want to, as it takes a fair bit more effort and provides more opportunity for error, but it's not rocket surgery, either. Did they offer you the option of a template-based mount (with the risk of things being less than perfectly centered laterally) or just tell you they couldn't do it without the jig?

1+ They should have been able to do it without a jig. I would not use that shop anymore !
 

thetrailboss

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i'm pretty bummed right now.

i've had marker barons on my moments for the past ~6 years or so. apparently the bindings are circa 2010. still indemnified.

yesterday i brought the moments into my local shop, along with my new black crows, and asked them to remount the barons. paid $120 for the dismount and remount of equipment i didnt buy from them, which felt steep, but its nyc and an independent shop who i like to support, so whatever, i paid.

tech calls me about 30 minutes ago, says they dont have the jig for the old version of the barons and neither does marker. i begrudgingly agree over the phone for them to mount the ski with new griffon 13s, and i would owe them an extra $100, covering the retail cost of the binding and no service work.

i call marker. they do have the jig, but it will cost the shop $125. i then call basin sports at killington where i recently bought my girlfriend boots. they have the jig ("yea its old but its a very popular binding, of course we can still mount them").

i call my local shop back asking them to hold off. they've already mounted the griffons.

so i'm out money i didn't need to be out and don't have a tourable ski anymore. sweet.

Yikes. That sucks.
 

KustyTheKlown

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just off the phone with the owner. he was decent enough, tho maybe a little defensive, says that their contact at marker did not say they had the jig available, also says they didnt even have the paper template for him. he confirmed that my ski was on the bench for work when they called me and they just proceeded when i gave the green light. pre x-mas, tons of shit in queue, move it along. i get it.

i pled my case and indicated that we still need to come in for girlfriends seasonal rental. he said to ask for him personally on saturday and he'll 'take care of us.' what that means, we will see.
 

KustyTheKlown

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Its funny..all my skis have touring bindings but I havent toured in a long time..the AT boot makes everything better though..walking around and up and down stairs..like a human...light as hell too.
And yes, your shop could cut you some kind of deal.

you use pin bindings and at boots as your daily? yikes. i'd have zero confidence in dropping stuff with pin bindings. as a very minimal tour-er, it's always been heavy frame bindings for me that i trust to be bombproof for the down
 

Not Sure

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just off the phone with the owner. he was decent enough, tho maybe a little defensive, says that their contact at marker did not say they had the jig available, also says they didnt even have the paper template for him. he confirmed that my ski was on the bench for work when they called me and they just proceeded when i gave the green light. pre x-mas, tons of shit in queue, move it along. i get it.

i pled my case and indicated that we still need to come in for girlfriends seasonal rental. he said to ask for him personally on saturday and he'll 'take care of us.' what that means, we will see.

https://www.bindingfreedom.com/paper-tempaltes/

:spin:
 

KustyTheKlown

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in the shop's defense, marker themselves told me that they did a major change to the duke/barons like 5 years ago, so that template is probably not the right one. the template itself says R3 = third revision. and when they said they had the jig, that was after the rep reacting with something like 'oh jeez that is old we may have one or two let me see" and then a 5 min hold
 
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