Karakoram Prime Connect-CI

[scottishsurfer]

Well after ripping apart numerous previous bindings i think i may have found a some bindings that should hopefully last me a few seasons.




Rider/set up
height          =180cm
weight         = 92kg
Bindings      =Karakoram prime connect-ci
stance         =56cm wide 33/-3 regular
Boots           =10.5 US Modified Salomon lofi(almost no flex at the ankle)
Boards used on   =Donek Incline 162cm(carving), Lib tech Hot knife(pow/tree riding)
experience = 5 years riding(10-20hours a week all year round)

Previous bindings/failings
SP rail (snapped chassis in half)
SP team (to much sideways flex due to no solid heel cup)
Rome 390 boss(weak orignal disks failed often, a bit soft for my riding now)
Union ultra(chassis laughable soft and easily overpowered build quality on carbon highback was terrible)
Rome Targa(weak orignal disk, lasted about 2 years before ultimately dying of metal fatigue)
Union atlas(disks were so weak it was a joke, chassis to soft and overflexed allowing snow build up between binding and board, there now fransteins carbonfibre modifed monster)

So having left alot of broken bindings in my wake I was wondering where to go next and decided it was worth trying what are essentially splitboard bindings on a solid. Karakoram pitch this as being a resort binding that can quickly swapped between boards due to the quiver connector system and can also be used for spiltboards, my logic was if its strong enough to hold a split together hopefully they should be strong enough for me not to rip them apart.... Inital impressions were very the quiver connector system locked down strongly with no real play in the system and was incredible responsive so just what the doctor ordered. That was until boxing day where on the edge change going from heel to toe i ripped the rear quiver connector in half.... It turned out due to me getting the intial release variant of the binding i had also got an older and weaker design of the quiver connector. Karakorams customer service was great i got a reply the next day even though they were all on christmas holiday and replacements of the new design sent out to me the first day they were back in the office. So big giant A+ there in terms of how they deal with issues. Now i should point out that i knew exactly what i did what caused them to fail and that is my edge change is extactly the most gentle of things. Exiting turns i very often counter pedal the board to build up significant amount of tortional twisiting force  that i then release to cause the board to snap on to the next edge. My boots are incredibly stiff and so is my donek tortionally normally the bindings are the weak link and eventually they fail or in the unions case overflex. This was what caused the the quiver connector to fail more so boxing day is the only time my local indoor slope has hard conditions so i had been more aggressive than normal to get the edge to bite hard.

Roll on a week the new connectors had turned up and fitted back on my donek, and after a few laps riding them somewhat gingerly looking for any sign that the replacements might fail I began to let them properly have it. Happily they seemed to be be up to the job but i was still somewhat a little nervous as my trip to bulgaria was only a few weeks away and that would be the true test. Up until actually packing my bag i was still pondering taking my frankenstiend union atlas as a back up but the weight limit on my board bag meant i was just going to have to roll the dice and hope for the best. Fortunately the bindings performed exceptionally well the combination of the donek these bindings and my super stiff boots meant i had incredible power and response. The chassis design in combination with the strap mean if you crank down the straps tight you are very much locked in, any movement that i make gets transmited directly to the board. Its so good in fact id say its on par with my hardboot setup in terms of support and response(heresy i know) I did notice few little niggles while on my trip, my versions have the slightly older locking tabs that pivot down to hold the mounting locking lever in place. Due to it just pivoting down on low heel edge carves alot of the time it gets grabed and flicked up but fortunately this isnt an issue as the actual locking lever pretty stiff due to the way it locks shut and i dont it would ever unlock short of a massively catastrophic accident. It wasnt that big but i did have a pretty big bail when i began to pull the board backwards under me to change edges which resulted in the board digging a 2 foot deep trench in a suprise soft patch of snow. This led to the inevitable VERYVERY sudden stop and front flip from about 20mph which put massive amount of sideways force on bindings. After dusting myself down i uncliped the bindings from the board fully expecting to find cracks in the quiver connector but very pleasently no damage and no sign of overflex and the resulting snow/ice build up this was pretty suprising because to be honest if i hadnt beefed up my boots so much i dont think my ankles would have survived the sideways force so i was fully expecting something to have broken. The other little niggle was a few times on the final day my rear binding ankle strap ratchet wouldnt lock down due to freezing on the lift but this wasnt to hard to fix some vigurous racheting and holding down the locking tab got it to work again with little effort.

Now on to the pros and cons:

Pros:
Incredibly responsive and supportive for a soft boot binding.
no noticeable overflex or sideways chassis flex
low profile heel cup
alot of adjustment in highback forward lean
good ankle strap and a nice simple toe strap
quiver connector system is great for board swaps it literally takes seconds.
karakoram customer support is great(they even offered to machine up metal quiver connectors for me)
build quality is very high and they are nicely put together

Cons
There pricey
older quiver connectors arnt that strong
ratchets are a sticky when new
the ratchet ladders are wider than normal so if you need a replacement ratchet you might have an issue finding compatible ones at a resort
older locking tab is pointless
maybe a bit narrow for bigger boots

Would i recomend these very very much so if you dont mind the price, with exception of a few things i have mentioned these bindings are pretty incredbile and asuming i dont suffer any failures i can see myself running these for a few years to come.


 

[Lurch]

The vast majority what @scottishsurfer has written reflects my experience with the Prime CI's, although I have had no issues with ratchets.

They are solid. Couple of additional points that may be of interest to some:

1. There is no adjustment to allow highback rotation. To be fair, I don't know of a binding on the market that will allow highbacks to be rotated enough for high angles anyway (I run +30/21).

2. I doubt you could fit a boot much larger than my sz11 DriverX without significant toe overhang of the footbed. This will be more of a problem if you decide to convert them for splitting, as you have to trim the footbed to install the tour pins.

3. I like to run the toe strap around my toe, rather than on top. In this position, the lower part of the strap is not snug against the boot and I have had it snag and pop the toe strap off. Could just be the interface with the specific brand of boot.

4. I have yet to try mine, but there is a factory option to add a quick-release "third strap" (flex lock) to provide some additional lateral support which some might find useful. Strap releases when angle rachet is opened. 

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Lurch
I before e

[dhamann]

nice feedback on this binding, but i think you guys are crazy to ride this solely on hardpack for the intentions of lift accessed carving indoors or outdoors. any binding with a quick connection like this is too much of a vulnerability/liability of wrecking yourself. not the same as a TD 2nd board kit, although the theory of it. regardless of great customer service. personally i think the way it performs on hardpack is great for accessing the side country at resorts and maybe riding back on groomers with confidence. a hardpack softboot carving binding? not a chance. i've never tried it and would never even consider putting myself at risk with such a piece of equipment. it is a nice piece of equipment, just with another purpose. i would've drooled over these when i lived in Montana, but then again i would probably be riding Spark's.

 

@scottishsurfer what is boxing day?

[Lurch]

@dhamann I run hardboots for day-to-day carving, but I've found these to be quite a bit burlier than the diodes they replaced, and certainly have no reason to think they are any more likely to fail than any other binding that uses a plastic disc to connect with a board.

Given scottish surfers extensive history in pushing bindings into failure, I would imagine he is better placed than most to make an educated observation on the bindings being up to task he requires?

 

 

[scottishsurfer]

@dhamann boxing day is the day after christmas day here in the Scotland its good for riding at the indoor slope due to the it being closed christmas day giving the groom a good 24 hours to set nice and rock solid.

As for the bindings I fully understand your scepticisim, I kind of see myself as some what being the cannary in coal mine in regards to if they fail or more likely when they fail. All bindings under me generally eventually suffer a pretty spectacular failure at some in there lifespan. So far with exception of the intial failure of a part that they had already redesigned and replaced on all bindings made 2018/19 season onwards they have proved stronger than the traditional disk mounted bindings i have used.

Now if there was an option of a traditional binding that was as likely to be as strong id probably be on them instead but until maybe Ride A1 bindings come out next year with there metal base and metal disk there isnt much around. Until then ill be on karakorams and ill update this topic if and when i do come across more issues with them

[dhamann]

nice. thanks for the response guys and thanks for the boxing day explanation. seems like a great day to ride! i too have failures of softboot bindings every year. solid traditional bindings. the most recent being odrives. i've never ridden a more solid binding with the least amount of failures, given the use they get. if a traditional binding is failing, i just can't justify karakorams for resort riding. given @scottishsurfer extensive experience of binding failures, it's shocking to me that a backcountry binding performs better than anything else he can get his hands on. they're still new and i guess time will tell. i don't think odrives are available in Scotland or he'd try those? i still highly recommend them even though they've failed me once, but this is the second year i've had them. customer service had me new parts in about a week too. i feel more confident with metal base plate for sure like on my NX2-CX. they're just a nuisance to deal with and prefer the odrives. keep pushing it and ride it til it breaks fellahs! that's why they make this stuff.

[scottishsurfer]

I tried Now recons a few years ago and was resonably impressed but not blown away i wasnt a big fan of the top strap design and lack of moveable heel cup which meant all the centering was done via the disk. The now overdrives are available here but when i was looking for new bindings the cheapest ones i could find were around 415. The karakorams i found the inital release ones from the end of the 17-18 season new for 320 so my descision was partly finacial. 

these are the ride bindings that have peaked my interest, the straps look a bit me but i like how the base chassies is essentially a single bit so aluminium with padding either side of it + the moveable heel cup and metal disks are very interesting prospect
 

 

[dhamann]

ya. that's a tough video to get through, but thanks for sharing. i'll keep an eye out for those. from what i can see, i like the highback, toe strap (not the buckle) and the fact that the base plate/chassis is metal. the rest is questionable. even the 'mechanics' in which the heel cup adjusts. idk about that one. i broke an adjustable metal heel cup a few years ago on a rossignol xv. too small of a chassis for my size 12 boot, small highback and flimsy; not recommended. these a-10 chassis' look almost similar in size. if we keep breaking em, they keep making em and hopefully improving them. however, i would rather have my bindings break before a board and a board before my body.