Hey this Chris Trunek with Daymaker Touring. I am glad you guys have seen the release of the TEKDAPTERS! I'd love to help answer any questions anyone has and I'd like to address some of the points brought up.
The TEKDAPTERS pick up where the Daymaker Classics left off, and both products are built upon the same ethos, which is a touring system that is independent of the ski. While this might sacrifice some of light weight character of a pure touring binding on the uphill, we feel the tradeoff is worth it in MANY scenarios, including some you might not initially consider.
Variable snow, low cover snow like early and late season skiing, east coast touring or any kind of less than ideal or firm snow conditions are much easier and more forgiving to ski on alpine bindings with elastic travel that can absorb the impacts from the terrain. A Shift or Duke PT can definitely do this, but are you willing to ski that pristine, high ticket setup on less than ideal conditions? With Daymakers you can be bashing rock skis in October or July and keep your good skis nice for when conditions are pristine.
DIN safety release. We feel that if your going to be way out there, knowing you are less likely to get injured is a good thing. Giray and I have both been through multiple knee and leg injuries sustained skiing, and if there's one thing I can say it's you want your skis to come off when they need to, and you want them to stay on the rest of the time. Most of us end up finding a binding we like and sticking to it, so being able to tour on what you already love and trust is huge in our eyes.
Inbounds use- if you're not touring, and skiing the resort that day, your skis are exactly as you'd want them to be. They aren't burdened by extra stack height, they don't have play from a touring interface, and they aren't going to break like some more complicated lightweight hybrid bindings might be more prone to if you're skiing aggressively. In addition, a huge trend i've seen lately is people skiing inbounds on pin touring bindings. This really makes me cringe as there are real reasons why you don't want to do this, but that's another topic for another time.
One and done- Buying Daymakers means you could theoretically never buy another touring binding, no matter how many times you get new skis. We realize alot of people who start off with Daymakers may want to add a dedicated touring setup to their fleet for those big missions, but if you already own Daymakers in your fleet, you could in theory go extra light when you do for an even more uphill optimized setup. Daymakers and Tekdapters prioritize downhill skiing performance more than literally any other touring system out there, so covering your bases and going lightweight makes alot of sense in our eyes.
Touring setup in a pack- your entire touring setup can exist within your backpack and that makes airline travel, van-life, or any other situation where space is at a premium alot easier. You might find a pair of adapters alot easier to travel with than a dedicated touring setup AND alpine gear.
Loaner setup- Daymakers are a perfect tool to get others into the sport who don't own ALL the gear.
With all that said, we think our adapters make more and more sense for alot more people than you might think!
regarding some of the concerns expressed, ill try and address those next!
Stack height- No doubt, you do stand up off the skis on Daymakers and Tekdapters. With the Daymakers, you definitely could feel that translate to some side to side movement of the heel on off camber terrain. We have beefed up the heel bail on the next generation of Daymaker Classics to help improve this, but in anything less than extreme side hills this really doesn't prove to be any kind of issue as the 4 bar tech does alot of the work transferring edging forces.
Now, with the TEKDAPTERS, we could have actually dropped the boot position a bit more, but we really wanted to maintain a position that would allow big, high performance toe pieces like Atomic/Salomon STHs, Pivots, and Marker Jesters and Tyrolia Attacks to all fit without issue or requiring fit kit type solutions. In addition, we wanted to maintain some of that heel drop stance of the Classics and a toe-high position helps allow this. This really does help if you have to descend anything or have long flat sections. In addition, the new Pitch Switch riser system is really cool and features a design that locks your boot's heel in side-to-side as it lands for each position. THIS really allows you to dig your edges in and hold that side edge in a way that wasn't possible on the Classics.
Boot compatibility. Tech inserts are here and they are going to stay. There are TONS of new all mountain boots on or coming to market that offer the same high performance, stiff shell feel of traditional boots while offering large range of motion walk modes and tech inserts. There are even options out there with ultra stiff flex patterns, no walk modes and only the toe inserts for the hardest, most discerning skiers who only plan on using a system like TEKDAPTERS, Cast, Shift, or Duke PT. If you don't have tech inserts in your boots now, there is a good chance your next boots will have them. With the post covid gear pileup, you can find these boots on sale now for incredibly low prices so it would be a great time to consider upgrading (I need a new pair first though so don't buy out the 27.5s!)
Pivot Toe weight- The site is currently a bit of a work in progress as we get everything up to speed, and it was not our intention for that to come off as a call out to Cast. They make a nice product too and we don't mean to come off that way, we'll adjust the wording! We mentioned that binding as it's one of the last metal toe pieces on the market so it is a good comparison weight wise and its one most people are familiar with.
I hope that is able to help address some of the questions and feedback expressed above! I'd really love to help in any way I can so feel free to reach out any time! info@daymakertouring.com is the fastest and best way to get ahold of both Giray and myself, but I will keep an eye on this thread since I know its here now! Thanks again you guys for starting the discussion around these and for considering them!
Thanks again,
Chris
Glad to hear your Daymakers served you well!
