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Impressions on new Fintecs


Algunderfoot

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I just took delivery on two sets of new Fintec heels and I was curious as to the forums overall reception to them. Short of a poll, I was impressed by the overall design and they exceed my original expectations. I will ride them this weekend at June, but from what I see we all need to collectively give Fin a shout out for stepping up to include these in their already impressive effort to support us and this market.Thanks once again Bomber for doing what you do!

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I am most impressed with the designs of these beauties. The steel pins used to replace the plastic tabs on the original Intecs is fabulous - you want the load on the tabs-now-pins rather than the pins that lock into the heel receiver, so this is just super. The heel pad actually slides into the heal assembly and then is held down with no less that 4 screws. Beefy aluminum, super slick slide action on the engagement pins -- just fabulous!

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I have a question though I didn't try them on real snow yet. I have dialed in my FinTec heels on my Track 700. Set them up on my TD3's. The pins engage just on top of the engagement wholes of the receiver and my front is just as closed as can be. Still I have some side by side movement in the heels of my boot in the steel receiver from my TD3's, about 1mm I think. Is this normal? (I have a mondo 27)

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I just got my Fintecs the other day as well. Bout time...

I was going to test fit to see how they worked out.

As it turns out, the hardware that is on the UPZ RTR boots is TOO BIG for the Fintec assemblies. If you have UPZ boots and want to upgrade to Fintec, you NEED to T-NUT the boot.

I was planning on doing this mod anyways for safety sake...

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I have a question though I didn't try them on real snow yet. I have dialed in my FinTec heels on my Track 700. Set them up on my TD3's. The pins engage just on top of the engagement wholes of the receiver and my front is just as closed as can be. Still I have some side by side movement in the heels of my boot in the steel receiver from my TD3's, about 1mm I think. Is this normal? (I have a mondo 27)

Fin got me out of the trouble, thanks Fin. Now I have no slop anymore.

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Lengthen the toe bail by two turns from the end. The heelreceiver one step more inward to the middle so the pins went more backwards in the receiver, got a little more tension on it so no wobble anymore. Just a firm click when I get in. I'll see how it behaves in the snow. Needs a little more pushing to get in now.

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And I'd be riding them today if I weren't so lazy. I'll ride 'em tomorrow. Here are some pics of what they look like on a pair of OS2's.

One of the nice things I've noticed about them - it seems that you can move your heels back a little further on OS2 short plates if you want, particularly if you have smaller feet! You can't move them quite as far foward, but for me, that is not something I would want to do.

post-2204-141842269261_thumb.jpg

post-2204-141842269265_thumb.jpg

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+1 on all the nice things being said about FinTecs. Very positive step in action with the TD3 steel receivers on my TD2 bindings.

The heel pads are much harder than I was expecting, they're about 20x (unscientic guess) than the Bomber replacement toe/heel pads. They should wear well but are a little slippery on hard surfaces. You can actually feel that the rear edge of the pad has been extended rearward, walking feels more natural.

There haven't been many pictures of these beauties so I snapped some.

04.jpg

11.jpg

Highlights

General pictures on boot:

http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/01.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/02.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/03.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/04.jpg

Replaceable heel pad: http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/05.jpg

It has a lip all around that slides into a groove in the heel to ensure it doesn't come off, quite a nice little detail! The screws just keep it from sliding rearward out of the groove.

http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/06.jpg

Internal guts: http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/07.jpg (the 'fuzziness' is lube, they really filled these puppies up with some slimy stuff to prevent any future friction issues!)

http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/11.jpg

The FinTec cover with cable guides, extra reinforcing rib between cable guides: http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/08.jpg

Regular F2 Intec heel for comparison:

http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/09.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/ckdyck/fintec/10.jpg

On the whole, these have the same fanatical attention to detail and utilitarian simplicity that Bomber is famous for. Love them! :1luvu:

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I noticed a tiny bit of rocking in the boot when I first got my new set up put together at home, so I decided to cheat a bit and tighten down the receiver about a millimeter further back to take a bit of the play out of the pins.

This worked good within the confines of my nice warm house, but binded and would not release at Lake Louise today in ankle deep pow.

I found that the tolerances are there for a reason and once I had everything lined up properly, stepping in and releasing is much better than my old TD2's.

I also noticed that with the thinner steal receiver, it was easier to verify the pins are all fully engaged prior to take-off.

Thanks Fin!

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I liked the idea of a light or a beep when you're fully engaged. Especially after seeing Intecs in person. seemed like more trouble than it's worth, when I can click standards on while standing up, although admittedly I end up 10 feet down the trail sometimes!

just wait til your old and fat like the rest of us:eplus2: you'll understand:1luvu:

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I liked the idea of a light or a beep when you're fully engaged. Especially after seeing Intecs in person. seemed like more trouble than it's worth, when I can click standards on while standing up, although admittedly I end up 10 feet down the trail sometimes!

Clicking in with standards must be tough...never occurred to me to even try! But on our short lifts where we can log 60 runs in a 4 hour session.....(f)intecs speed up the lap time

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4 minutes for a run and a lift?! How do you manage that? Either your name is completely fitting, or you have a small mountain. :lol:

Look on the left side of the map, the high speed quad takes at least 4 minutes, then it takes a good long time to cover the whole run on the far left, especially if you're getting a lot of mileage because you pee yourself when you get going too fast..err I mean you spend a lot of time perpendicular to the fall line to collect your thoughts.

0809-Trailmap-600.jpg

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4 minutes for a run and a lift?! How do you manage that? Either your name is completely fitting, or you have a small mountain.

It's a high speed quad on a 330 foot hill. On the weekdays I can glide up to the line and step out of the binding, sit down, zip to the top, do a quick 180, click in, and head down again. 11-14 short round arcs later it's back on the line and up again. Running this way you can do a lap in 3 minutes, sometimes 2:55, skiing with somebody else or once a few other people show up it will slow you to about 17 or 18 per hour, on a busy day it's a whole different story. 1 hour there, 1 hour back, 35$ ticket, 3:45 on-snow, 20K feet, it's the best deal I can get.

Heading to the land of big lifts, Sun Valley, next week, for me it's like heaven! 3000 feet in one shot, I usually have to stop 10 times LOL!

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A high-speed quad on a 330' hill? I'm envious. Seriously, I have a 7 minute lift ride on a 350' hill, then about 45 seconds to 1 minute down. http://www.frostfireskiarea.com/images/frostfire_trailmap.pdf

or

http://www.holidaymountain.com/libraries/misc/Trails.jpg

I probably get a few extra runs a day with step-ins. [on-topic]FinTecs make every step-in a pleasure. ;) :biggthump

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A high-speed quad on a 330' hill? I'm envious. Seriously, I have a 7 minute lift ride on a 350' hill, then about 45 seconds to 1 minute down. http://www.frostfireskiarea.com/images/frostfire_trailmap.pdf

or

http://www.holidaymountain.com/libraries/misc/Trails.jpg

I probably get a few extra runs a day with step-ins. [on-topic]FinTecs make every step-in a pleasure. ;) :biggthump

Yeah, it used to take 5 or 6 minutes or something now it's like...not sure but maybe 2 minutes? I wish we had a big mountain to ride around here but I'm grateful for what we've got :)

http://alpinevalleyresort.com/index2.php

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Maybe I'm not skilled enough with the step-ins yet, having only used them about 4 days, but they dont' seem much faster or more convenient to me. Clipping in is a bit easier and faster, but not much. I still need to stop to step into them. The only advantage is that I don't have to bend down, but that's not a big deal.

Unclipping actually seems easier with standard bindings. Just bend down and flip up the toe lever. With the step-ins I need to push my boot down to get them to smoothly release, and there really isn't any difference between bending down to grab the intec handle or bending down to undo the toe lever.

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