Problems with Fritschi Freerides

[Vargo]

Has anyone had any problems with the Fritschi Freeride. I have skiied mine for two seasons now and yesterday while skiing at a resort I had the heel peice go into touring mode twice while skiing. I don't know if it was from my other ski hitting it or from the pressure on the binding while turning? Has anyone had similar problems? Will a ski shop be able to test this? Thanks

[BrianK]

I've never seen it but I have heard of freerides doing this. I heard a story of a guy landing a 30' cliff and they came undone and he tore his quad, they seem to have this problem more than the naxos, but they are lighter. I think he freerides are better for touring, but the naxos are better if you want to ski hard.

[WhiteLightning]

I've heard that the freerides are better than Naxo for safety of release.

[Mike Harvey]

I have skied the Freerides in and out of bounds for the last two seasons and have had that accidental release once. I like to huck a little so I have always sort of waited for them to have trouble but they have not. I have not heard any consistant complaints about accidental touring mode issues. I would look at it like if you can make the binding go into touring mode with your ski pole or hand, then once in a while it is possible for it to happen accidentally. I did get a set up for the area this year with alpine bindings just so I did not have to worry about destroying my Freerides but overall I would say they are bomber.

[roper]

The thing is, you gotta make sure your using the right setting while touring, if your hitting the bottom of your heal peice instead using a high enough adjustment, you'll creat a divet, and loosen up the heel peice, make sure your hitting the top of the stops or higher so you don't ruin your bindings.

I saw I guy the other day that was touring this way with his new fritche's and broke his bindings in half in zero creek, he degraded his bindings so bad they had too much play and came loose. Quite the learning experience.

[d.e.]

You have to make sure the heel piece is mounted correctly.If mounted just a little forward or too far back,when the ski flexes it will pop out. I've mounted skis with Fritschi's and mounted them about a eigth of an inch to far forward and had problems.I have two pairs of skis where the heel piece is mounted correctly and haven't had any problems.If the wings that hold the arm down in ski mode on the heel piece and the wings on arm are flush the heel piece is too far forward.I've seen have other skiers experience the same problem.Definitely check with a shop before you start ripping your ski's apart.Hope this helps.