Bluebird Day Heel Throws

[woodchuck]

These things http://www.telemarkdown.com/store/bindi ... el-levers/

Any experience?

My latest Craig's List skis came with old G3s with heel levers that lack the "walk mode" position. Weirdly, I found that I actually miss this when skinning.

[Woodserson]

They have ski mode, tour mode, and beer mode. There's a nice explanation and mounting instructions with flow-chart on the Bluebird Day site. I emailed the guy yesterday and got an answer quick (to confirm there is tour mode)

https://www.bluebirddaygear.com/store/p ... evers.html

[woodchuck]

Living as I do in a town where there is a better selection of telemark gear than groceries, I stopped in to Fey bros. last night and bought some. He's got a bunch in stock, $35/pr. Erik had some pretty amusing comments on 75mm in general. Summary: "75mm is so *over*". He's more resort NTN focused. Going to try the new heel levers out tonight at Pat's. See ya.

[oggopoggo]

I tried them on G3 Targa's and Moonlight TTS then ordered a couple pairs. I just wanted something that's easy to snap up and won't fall off. I'm happy with them. Didn't try the tour or beer functions.

[lowangle al]

I forgot about the tour mode heel throws on old bindings. I guess it's a good idea, but too bad they don't make one with a corkscrew.

[woodchuck]

I forgot about the tour mode heel throws on old bindings. I guess it's a good idea, but too bad they don't make one with a corkscrew.

lol. In for the corkscrew.

I skied these last night and they work fine. Didn't test the beer mode, probably a good thing because I got pulled over by one each Officer Colby of the Henniker PD for not stopping completely at the intersection of Flanders and Rte 114. Mr Colby (who was friendly, professional and let me go with a warning) cares about that stop sign. Now you know.

So, the heel throws work just differently enough from G3 to worthy of a comment here. There's a distinctly larger difference in tension between ski and walk modes on the BB lever vs G3. Normally, I clip the G3 lever over the heel. When adjusted for proper walk mode (just barely taking up the slack in the cable, no spring tension to speak of) there is no way the BB lever will go over the heel. It gives quite a snap going into the groove. I have the weakest springs (silver) on these skis, at that. Anyhow, it works fine. The "block" in the BB lever is a friction fit affair that puzzles me a little. It's only apparent purpose is to keep the lever from falling off the cable when not in use. It isn't in the load path (at least on the G3 binding). The result is, the lever will happily slide around on the steel tube that the cable runs through when not engaged. One more thing that makes it slightly fiddly when strapping in.

Walk mode is very helpful if you have skinny heels that like to lift regardless of how tight your boots are (which is me).