Hi! Very usefull explanations! I have a pair of Dynafit Khion whic I love both for tech bindings, and for piste skis. They fit some grip walk bindigs, and others seem to require a "slimmer" space in front, where the proper GW soles have that plate. Do you think it's worth it to "grind" that area to.make it fit better? Or I will risk the binding not properly release when needed?
First of all, know that that boot is extremely dangerous to ski in, and know that it was recalled many years ago by Dynafit for very good reason. It can cause serious injury if you continue to use it. I know this might be pretty unfortunate news, but it's true and I highly recommend you discontinue using this boot. Trust me when I say this. It's not something you want to mess around with. Second of all, the Khion (and the Beast that came out later) uses a different standard than gripwalk - it uses ISO 9523 as opposed to ISO 23223. It is not at all the same as gripwalk, and the soles cannot be replaced. The khion is not supposed to be used with any alpine step-in binding that does not accept an ISO 9523 sole either natively, or via adjustment of the Anti-Friction device or the toe height. Do not "grind" any area of your boot in order to fit into a binding. This is not something you want to DIY at all. Especially with that boot.
Touring boots like my Atomics come with glued on gripwalk soles, so presumably nothing can be done there (not possible to cut off & glue a sole back on?).
I was curious about this. That's a good news. Except, the traditional soles aren't that easy to get. At least in my case. I bought new boots and I have fairly recent skis and bindings, '18 model year. The store where I got the boots couldn't get me the flat soles. Contacted mfgr a couple of times and didn't get anywhere. Big store, major mfgr... without naming names... I ended up buying GW compatible bindings because I can't spend the rest of the season chasing soles. But seems like I still don't have a straight forward option on dialing in the canting on my new boots which I was interested in after watching your videos. In this transition period mfgrs should include both with each pair of new boots.
Yep, in pushing GripWalk so hard, the manufacturers are not doing users who need canting any favors. We're still about a year away, so it seems, from having tooling and gauge blocks to make it easier for shops to route/mill off the boots with GripWalk outsoles. We didn't cover it in the video, but a careful shop can manually adjust the height of their router to properly route with GripWalk outsoles installed. But switching the router height back and forth between alpine and GripWalk is time-consuming and an opportunity for a costly mistake if they forget. To route alpine outsoles, many shops set their router height permanently to the ISO heel standard height (30 +/- 1 mm) and then put the boot sole in an aluminum 'sled' (like a tray) to route the toes. The sled elevates the boot above the router table the proper distance, thus effectively lowering the router blade to the ISO toe standard (19 +/- 1mm). Much easier than loosening the router collet, reducing the height to exactly the toe standard, then re-tightening the collet. Of course the new GripWalk ISO standard has different heights at both toe and heel so the existing sleds don't work and tool vendors are not yet offering new ones sized for GripWalk. Installing alpine outsoles, as we show in the video, is faster and, hopefully, less prone to forgetfulness, than changing router height back and forth between the two ISO standards AND between toes and heels. But a careful technician CAN do that.
Hi! Very usefull explanations! I have a pair of Dynafit Khion whic I love both for tech bindings, and for piste skis. They fit some grip walk bindigs, and others seem to require a "slimmer" space in front, where the proper GW soles have that plate. Do you think it's worth it to "grind" that area to.make it fit better? Or I will risk the binding not properly release when needed?
First of all, know that that boot is extremely dangerous to ski in, and know that it was recalled many years ago by Dynafit for very good reason. It can cause serious injury if you continue to use it. I know this might be pretty unfortunate news, but it's true and I highly recommend you discontinue using this boot. Trust me when I say this. It's not something you want to mess around with.
Second of all, the Khion (and the Beast that came out later) uses a different standard than gripwalk - it uses ISO 9523 as opposed to ISO 23223. It is not at all the same as gripwalk, and the soles cannot be replaced.
The khion is not supposed to be used with any alpine step-in binding that does not accept an ISO 9523 sole either natively, or via adjustment of the Anti-Friction device or the toe height.
Do not "grind" any area of your boot in order to fit into a binding. This is not something you want to DIY at all. Especially with that boot.
Touring boots like my Atomics come with glued on gripwalk soles, so presumably nothing can be done there (not possible to cut off & glue a sole back on?).
Check out our video on canting with tech bindings. In short, you must place the cant under the binding
Do not cut off and glue your sole back on. period.
So can canting help if you tie in with one foot?
Of course, but you only get half as much value ;-)
I was curious about this. That's a good news. Except, the traditional soles aren't that easy to get. At least in my case. I bought new boots and I have fairly recent skis and bindings, '18 model year. The store where I got the boots couldn't get me the flat soles. Contacted mfgr a couple of times and didn't get anywhere. Big store, major mfgr... without naming names... I ended up buying GW compatible bindings because I can't spend the rest of the season chasing soles. But seems like I still don't have a straight forward option on dialing in the canting on my new boots which I was interested in after watching your videos. In this transition period mfgrs should include both with each pair of new boots.
Yep, in pushing GripWalk so hard, the manufacturers are not doing users who need canting any favors. We're still about a year away, so it seems, from having tooling and gauge blocks to make it easier for shops to route/mill off the boots with GripWalk outsoles. We didn't cover it in the video, but a careful shop can manually adjust the height of their router to properly route with GripWalk outsoles installed. But switching the router height back and forth between alpine and GripWalk is time-consuming and an opportunity for a costly mistake if they forget.
To route alpine outsoles, many shops set their router height permanently to the ISO heel standard height (30 +/- 1 mm) and then put the boot sole in an aluminum 'sled' (like a tray) to route the toes. The sled elevates the boot above the router table the proper distance, thus effectively lowering the router blade to the ISO toe standard (19 +/- 1mm). Much easier than loosening the router collet, reducing the height to exactly the toe standard, then re-tightening the collet. Of course the new GripWalk ISO standard has different heights at both toe and heel so the existing sleds don't work and tool vendors are not yet offering new ones sized for GripWalk.
Installing alpine outsoles, as we show in the video, is faster and, hopefully, less prone to forgetfulness, than changing router height back and forth between the two ISO standards AND between toes and heels. But a careful technician CAN do that.