Pivots vs Knee bindings

itzPebbs

itzPebbs

Member
Has anyone here used the Knee binding? Was curious to see how they compare to pivots in terms of releasability and overall quality.
 
Pivots are certified to the same standards as Marker bindings or Tyrolia bindings. The turntable heel design helps with potential releasability in the tie, they do not release in the heel contrary to popular belief. Knee bindings are the only bindings to my knowledge that are certified as having releasable heels and toes. They’re heavy, the stack height is high, and 99% of people don’t need heel releasability. They’re designed mostly for people who are way too paranoid about a knee injury, or those who have already had a knee injury. Just my $0.02, pivots have been doing the job for me just fine, releasing when they need to and not when they don’t.
 
If you plan to ski even somewhat aggressively, don't get knee bindings. They're great for boomers looking to improve technique on groomers with their PSIA level III instructors, but want to be very tentative to avoid injury. The knee binding just isn't made to withstand the abuse of jumping, spinning, sliding rails, and skiing variable snow fast and aggressive.

Pivots aren't perfect, no binding is. However they are a tried and true, solid choice; one of, if not the best bindings.
 
Don’t get knee bindings. Get something that people on here have put a ton of days on to test out. STH2, tyrollia attack, and pivots are the ones people here usually go for
 
I've had pivots and knee bindings and STHs fwiw. The Knees aren't really comparable because you compromise a lot for a questionable increase in safety. It's just whether you think lateral release makes sense as a safety mechanism and what compromise you're willing to make. The general consensus on newschoolers is that it isn't worth it, which is totally legit. The rationale does make sense to me in theory so I do use them on my main setup. Knees are heavier, harder to setup and don't cover as high of a DIN range. Even the carbon model is significantly heavier than other bindings. I would never ski knees if you hit rails, they'll release on you left and right since the same mechanism that laterally releases, you need to keep your ski on, on a rail. Though they were never designed for park in the first place, despite what their marketing videos say. I have had a toe piece explode on me as well hitting jumps which was covered under warranty.

I had a bad fall last year overshooting the landing on a kicker and ended up with a grade 2 mcl tear that I'm pretty sure would have been worse if the bindings didn't release laterally.

Anyway, what's my rationale for using them? Despite the compromises with weight and finicky setup (and the toe piece exploding on me), I don't hit rails and they are not so awful (in my opinion) compared to pivots or STHs that I've used. On my current pair I've got over 70 days on them and haven't had any issues since. I don't ski any differently on them compared with any other setup. If there's a 1% chance they will save my knee from a worse injury then, it's worth the weight/stack height and trial and error getting them setup correctly. Just my 2 cents using them for the past few seasons.

Here's a pic of the exploded toe piece

**This post was edited on Jul 18th 2020 at 3:47:21am
 
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