Bending binding brakes please help! +k

[TheronGustafson]

I need to know how much a ski brake can be bent. Is it possible to bend a binding with a brake of 115 mm to fit a ski with a waist of 81mm, or is that way to far?

 

[Holte]

There are a lot of videos and tutorials online and on NS, but to be honest I've never heard of somebody bending a wide brake to fit a smaller ski. That should be a lot simpler than the reverse.

 

[Nate.Dog]

thats a pretty huge difference, you'd have to bend it twice to get back to the original brake shape, but it could be possible, I wouldnt recomend it though, ive broken binding breaks trying to bend them, and it sucks.

 

[Jarle]

What king of brake is it? It's definately possible but probably easier for you to just trade it for a narrower with someone.

I've done the opposite a couple of time (90-ish to 125) and it should be similar. Just put the brake in a vice (clamp it on the inside of the bend, this can be a bit of a struggle to do good), bash it with a hammer until it's so close to straight you can get it, then clamp it in the vice where the old bend were (this should make it totally straight). Clamp it down again, with the edge of the vice where you want the bend to be and hammer it until it has the right shape (make sure you have the brake so it will be bent a little backwards before you start hammer it, just like the original bend). I've done this to three sets of brakes, all of them turned out good enough, two sets turned out perfect as in you could hardly tell they were bent (aside from the marks from the vice).

I have only done this with salomon brakes and know that some other brakes will snap from this treatment so if you try it make sure to search the interwebs about how much of a beating you brakes can take. FKS-brakes are known to snap pretty easy.

Best option is still to trade them, especially if possibly breaking them isn't an option.

 

[TheronGustafson]

Thanks guys + k

 

[midwestpowhunter]

That's the easiest trade ever lots of guys trying to get bindings for pow skis. U shouldn't have any trouble trading for smaller brakes

 

[montanan]

u should be fine, ive done it. just go slow !!! patience is your friend on this one. you try and do that shit to fast and itll break like t-halls ankles ... not fun.

 

[TheronGustafson]

Thanks and i dont know who would trade cause there brand new look pivots

 

[no_steeze]

bending brakes back down is quite difficult and not really a good idea

 

[Ryno]

Just trade someone. If you bend the fat brakes to fit a narrower ski then you will end up with super long length brakes. Im not sure if the plastic end pieces can be removed to cut the length back to normal but either way...pain in the ass...trade!

 

[rozboon]

Changing brakes on Pivots/FKS is kinda tricky, although there is a very good video on here about how to do it. If you can find someone with a pair of Pivot/FKS bindings with the narrow brake you can swap the entire heel part just by winding the forward pressure rods all the way out, or if they have the same binding as you only with a narrow brake just swap heels/bindings with them.

 

[LC.]

Mount your skis first and snap a boot in with the forward pressure tight. Use two small box wrenches to bend the arms straight slowly at the same time (be careful not to torque the brake housing or things will turn out sloppy). Then one at a time wedge a small screwdriver behind the brake arm and bend around it with a small box wrench or old ski pole.

Unless you have a good bench vice this is the way to go for FKS brakes.