For ski mountaineering racing and speed touring, Dynafit has been at the forefront of innovation for years. Long ignored by the American market while we obsessed with that silly red-headed stepchild of skiing, telemarking, (btw, I was one of those lost souls for about 23 years!), Dynafit has really come into their own lately, slowly grabbing the lion share of the market with super-light bindings, skis, skins and, now, the must have boots for touring, the TLT 5 Performance. Sure, there are still plenty of folks click clacking along in their Fritchis, Dukes and other heavier bindings but the fast and light crowd is strictly tech binding equipped. That market is being flooded by small companies producing elegant versions of Dynafit's original idea now that patent issues have gone away but the company continues to push the technology forward.
Most skimo racers have developed their own attachment systems for their skins but Dynafit has always had a ready-right-out-of-the-box system that is simple and effective. Initially, the pull tabs were too light and rotted within a season or two and would then fail at the most inopportune moments during races. The new versions are much beefier and are replaceable due to a Velcro attachment system at the tip. All good news. The narrow slot at the tips of Dynafit skis lends itself to using their skin system, as well. Of course, this forces the consumer into buying their skins. Not necessarily a bad thing. However, if you have a set of skins that you wish to convert to the Dynafit tip attachment system, all is not lost. I recently did exactly that with a set of skins and thought I would share it here as an addendum to the previous Skin Tech post.
I had a pair of the newly designed rubber tips on hand. Although I have not confirmed this, I assume that one can buy these replacement tips from the company. Why else would they create the Velcro-based attachment system on the skin front? Seems logical but a call to Dynafit would confirm this. Once you are in possession of the tips, the process is straight forward.
First, you must prepare the front of the skin but cutting it appropriately. As I described in the previous post, I use a template as shown below. This works for any bungee system or this Dynafit one.
Then, with a leather punching awl, create a hole that is slightly smaller than the rubber tip you wish to pass through it. After that, cut a small slit that will allow passage of the tip. This slit should be perpendicular to the orientation of the metal retainer so as to prevent accidental slip through during use.
Once through, simply fold over and sew closed with heavy needle and thread. Finish with the usual blob of Seam Grip to complete the job.
The nice thing about this is that it allows you to use your favorite type of skin whether Black Diamond, G3 or anything else and still use the nice Dynafit pull tab. I have even done a skimo race pull on the front of my 180 cm Black Diamond Verdicts.
The "all-about-the-down" crowd don't know what to make of that. Speed up!- Brian