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| Bindings Part DeuxAt the end of December 2001 I bought the Salomon SP5s to replace my old bindings. In December of 2003, I noticed that the heel plate was tearing up around one of the pivot points. Not very good. I tried contacting Salomon but they never returned my calls. I went to Salomon dealers, but they didn't have any heel plates as spare parts. Finally, whilst in Jackson Hole in March, one dealer said he'd contact Salomon on my behalf. 3 days and as many calls to them later, they eventually got back to him, but the news wasn't good. Salomon's customer service sucks. I can forgive a binding for breaking, these things happen, but not being able to get a replacement part is bad. By March, the tear in the heel plate was almost complete. I was on borrowed time, and something had to be done. 
The tearing started on the edge of the binding and worked its way back and down. That plastic feels pretty durable with built in flex, but it couldn't handle less than 10 weeks of riding. I'll tell you what did not cause it - a chair lift. This is my front foot binding, so there's no way it got squished by a chair one day. Given the state of them, the fact that I had some serious riding to get done, and not a hope of Salomon actually doing anything, I voted with my wallet and bought some new bindings from another manufacturer. Enter some Burton Mission Greed bindings. Early impressions are good. I'm not totally convinced about the whole toe strap thing, but that's another story. However, they work. And as one dealer said to me: "Burton call you back". |