Scarpa F1 with Atomic Salomon touring binding. The boot toe locator stop, as pictured, just doesn’t work for me. Ectomy time in the Rockies.
It’s no secret that the Atomic/Salomon Backland/MTN (Atomisal) is one of my favorite ski touring bindings. I’ve experienced near flawless performance going on years now, with one concern. Maybe it’s my personal style, or physical limitations, but the boot toe locator doohickey always seems to get in my way more than it helps me — specifically with my Scarpa F1’s. While I suspect many of you don’t have this problem, for the record and in the storied tradition of WildSnow, here is how I remove the boot locator. In detail. Jokes about extreme gear mods accepted, but please be kind.
Step 1: mount Atomisal binding toe on a board and fixate the work.
Note: If you have or construct a binding spacer like the one I picture below in step 13, that holds the binding toe in the on-boot position, you can install the spacer from the start and eliminate some of the opening-closing steps below. I thought it more instructive to present most of this how-to without the spacer. If you care to make a spacer, experiment and you’ll easily see how it helps. To be clear, the spacer imitates having a boot clicked into the binding.
Step 2: grind the head of the lock lever pivot pin so it’s flat, and just thick enough to avoid accidentally grinding the aluminum lock lever body. Instinct told me to do this on the non-peened side, assuming it would be less work-hardened. Probably doesn’t matter. Important: Do this step with the binding in the closed (as if on boot) position. Otherwise you risk the binding springing apart and shooting parts across the room. Having taken tech bindings apart before, I should have remembered this step, but I took one for the team and almost lost one of the small black-plastic parts.
Step 3 & 4: center punch, then drill the head off the pivot pin. I stepped up from a 1/16″ bit to something just about as large as the pin head.
Step 5: drive the rivet out, use a wrench socket (not pictured) as support to receive the driven pin, to avoid damaging the binding.
Step 6: Cover the binding with a heavy towel or plenty of shop rags — as padding and parts retention. Be sure the edges of the cloth are down on your workbench, then use a flathead screwdriver to pop it up into the open position while gently pressing down with your padded hand to attenuate the explosion. As you do this, the left and right parts of the mechanism will come apart somewhat violently. Watch your hands, and don’t do this in a place where you could lose small parts.
Step 7: remove the lock lever and boot toe locator stop. If the springs and small black plastic bits have come off, reassemble so the binding appears as pictured.
Step 8: Cut the boot toe stop off the mushroom shaped stud. IMPORTANT: While cutting, do so in such a way as to leave a long metal nib perpendicular to the stud shaft. After cutting, smooth the edges with an appropriate tool See next two photos regarding cut length.
Arrow shows where you need to maintain length of metal nib perpendicular to the stud shaft. The nib prevents rotation of the stud after it’s installed in the binding. Take your time with this, a few millimetres longer than what’s shown here would be ideal.
Another view. Again, I cut it a little short.
Step 9: Drill out lever and chassis pivot pin holes to 3.5 millimeter, this is slightly over-sized from stock, to fit a 6-32 x 1″ socket-head stainless steel bolt.
Step 10: Examine the center stud head. When you reassemble, the reduced height side needs to face up, compare to non-modded binding.
Step 11: carefully position the center stud between the plastic bits. Again, compare to non-modded binding.
Continuing step 11, binding assembled, line everything up as close as you can to factory positions, as your next step is to snap the binding closed, which will bring the lock lever close to proper position.
Step 12: With the binding assembled, and in the open mode, cover again and press down the center until it pops into the closed (on boot) position. The cover is insurance, in case you mess up, the binding pops open, and parts take flight.
Step 13: Okay, it’s getting tricky now. On first glance, you’d think you could just insert the new pivot bolt and be done with it. Not so fast. The pivot hole in the lock lever won’t quite line up with the holes on the chassis. To remedy, you need to hold the binding in the on-boot position. I use a sample boot fitting for this, but an actual boot will work. CAUTION: While inserting the spacer or boot, don’t attempt to completely open the binding over-center. If you do so, it’ll explode. Instead, gently insert the spacer or boot while opening the binding as little as possible.
Ah, finally. While manipulating the lock lever a bit for final alignment, insert the stainless steel socket-head 6-32 x 1″ bolt, dab the threads with thread locker, and finish with a stainless locking nut.
WildSnow Wrench Rating: 9/10.
Weight reduction per binding (since someone will ask): 8 grams.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
14 comments
Lou,
I really like the Backland binding also. I have had this binding on a number of setups since the binding first came out.
Do you have a fix to tighten up the “lifter lock” mechanism?
I find that the cam” lifter lock” action wears after a while especially on the high lifter.
Thanks for any creative fixes that you have.
Thanks
DavidH
I tied some large-diameter polyester sewing thread around the pivot, between the two heel risers. It stiffens the rotation of both heel lifters considerably, particularly in cold conditions. (I suspect the thread becomes wet and expands on freezing.) If the heels work loose again, just add another piece of thread.
David, the loose lifter is a known problem of the binding’s first iteration, and can happen with later, heavily used iterations as well. There is not much to how the lifters “cam” against the heel unit. It’s just aluminum on aluminum. You could perhaps fix by inserting a thin steel shim in the gap between the lifter and the heel unit. But from what I see on my bindings here in the shop, it would be hard to make this a workable mod. Bottom line is that all machines wear out, including ski bindings.
This mod makes me so nervous! ha! I expect so much from my toe pieces that the thought of holding a dremmel anywhere near them almost gives me cold sweats! Lou, what do you think of ATK bindings? I just bought a pair and have been very impressed in the short time i’ve been on them. Would love to hear your expert opinion.
I’ve been sporting the same boot / binding combo for a couple seasons, and I also find it a bit irritating to step into. FWIW making my foot approach angle a bit steeper when I step in seems to help quite a bit, so for anyone else annoyed but not yet ready to do surgery on their toe pieces, experiment with pointing your toe down a bit when you step in and it might aid in navigating the “helpful” stopper ¯\_(?)_/¯.
I’ve not used as many bindings as Lou, obviously, but in my experience, with three different boot models is that for easy of step in at toe, it’s
ATK R12/Hagan Core 12 Pro. Best
Dynafit Vertical ST. Nearly as good. G3 Ion about the same.
Salomon MTN/Atomic Backland. Not nearly good, by a significant margin.
I agree with Chris about pointing the toe, but that’s difficult on a steep icy slope. These bindings drive me nuts and I keep thinking of replacing them but don’t really want to have to drill new holes.
I’ve been using the ATK Trofeos with Atomic Backland boots. Easiest and most positive toe entry in my experience. I regret that I have not modified the Trofeos following Dawson’s motto, “Everything shall be modified!”, but if it ain’t broke . . . .
Wait! Does putting split rings on the toe levers count as a mod?
I’ve thought about doing this because the boot stop does nothing for my snub nosed Hoji Tour boots. Now that I’ve seen what it takes, I’ll just leave that boot stop right where it is and stop worrying about those grams.
Ditto on Chris’s tip about tilting the F1 boot to help insert in binding. Where the problem seems to be is the sole of the F1 isn’t quite the right shape to interface with the binding. And in my case, when I get a little snow between the boot and the locator-stop, that exacerbates the situation just as it does during attempts at heel-flat entry. I’ve got a sample boot here, perhaps I can compare to the sole to a different model boot and re-shape it. Stay tuned. Lou
That’s a good question. Why ski touring boots manufacturers didn’t do a dedicated design of the sole lugs to interface well with the binding trigger?
It’ doesn’t seem to be so dificult to put a rectangular and wide lug in the center. Something similar to the interfacing between the sole of alpine boots and the alpine bindings toe.
I Know that not every pin binding has the same trigger location, but the area its well defined and i think it would be very easy to make a special center lug to activate most binding triggers .
At least to not put a space between lugs just in that area…
I am running 5 of these 2021 Atomic bindings & skis (78 – 117) with 3 different Atomic boots. Almost always effortless click in the first time – even in deep difficult snow.
For me the Atomic Backland series is the current best all around comprehensive product line. That said, Atomic’s customer service sucks and is literally non-existent. I tried to buy a power strap listed on their website for the light weight boot. The Europe website finally responded after multiple requests saying that they have it but will not sell to me in America. The American customer service and all the American reps have never returned any of my phone calls or emails. Even Atomic retailers have had no response on this simple request back from Atomic.
Devil’s advocate: wouldn’t it be easier to just remove a bit of material from the boot toe? That said, I totally agree with the premise of the mod. I’ve never had much of a problem entering pin bindings and thus don’t get the need for silly toe locators. Remember the term “Dynafiddle” from the early days:)
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