Voile cartridge stiffness

[Woodserson]

Is it safe to say that the HW Blue cartridges are the least stiff, the Red SB's are medium, and the Black SBX2's are the stiffest?

I would say they are all interchangeable too, agreed?

[lowangle al]

I thought the blue cartridges were the short ones and the red were the longer ones. I don't know about the stiffness.

The black ones may be stiffer but I don't know. As far as them being interchangeable the red and blue ones are. If my wife wears a pair of my skis with SBs she just changes the heel throws. Did you ever get to try the black ones on your SBs?

[fisheater]

It is nice to know that the red and the blue can be interchanged. Are red stiffer than the blue? As for skiing the blue, I just give mine an extra turn or so, and find they are plenty active for my T-4's.
I have read that the black SBx2 cartridges cannot be interchanged with the red SB cartridges.

http://www.voile.com/mm5/graphics/00000 ... 0x1000.jpg

http://www.voile.com/mm5/graphics/00000 ... 40x540.jpg

If you look at the photos, you will see the heel throw on the SBx2 has shorter arms. At least that is what I think I see. Also, the pivot is further toward the boot heel on the SBx2. It is possible the black cartridges could be interchanged with the right combination of arms. I guess the best thing to do is ask Voile what can be interchanged. If it can be done you would think they would not mind selling additional arms and springs.

On a side note, I finally took my new (used) Hammerheads out for a spin. I knew I was in trouble, when they felt less active than my Hardwires, with The HH's on the stiffest #5 setting. The used springs were toast. I had the heel throws as tight as they could be, there really is no other adjustment. They skied right off my boot. I need some new screws, Gorilla glue is tough stuff, and the screws were not new to start with. I have springs, might be some time before I ski the HH's again. I really expect the new springs to be at least as active as my Hardwires.

[Woodserson]

I thought the length was dictated by the rod length. I am up to my neck in random bindings pieces right now. I'm going to try.

LowAl I got the SBX2 on the Vectors now, I like the activity of that binding more than the SB, but I wanted a slightly softer spring on it. We'll see what happens here.

[Woodserson]

The cartridges are all the same, the only difference is the shape of the heel and how that contributes to the width at the top of the cartridges. Blue and Red have the same width difference, black is wider, but my blues fit on the SBX2's just fine because there's some slop in the rods coming off the toe pieces. Maybe the blacks are wide to deal with beefy boots? (EDIT: they are wider because the rods come off the bindings 2cm back from the standard SB, and so they are already further apart at the start) I was thinking of dropping the reds on the SBX2's and seeing what happens. I know I can just turn down the black but I'm playing around with ideas right now.

Any reason to NOT do this? Is it going to rip out a knee or something?

[Rodbelan]

I called Voile a year or two ago... In terms of stiffness, they are all the same EXCEPT the black ones (SBx2) which are 25 % stiffer and a little wider and shorter like Wood 's saying. The guy told me I could put them (black ones) on my 3 pin HW. I think I have enough play in my rods to do so... 3pin HW never felt really active to me (comparing to Rotte R8 and Telebulldog)... My cartridges might be a little shut though...

[fisheater]

Thank you gentlemen, That is great information. Let us know how the cartridge swap works out for you.

[dorthman]

So the red carts (og switchback), blue (hardwire) and green (women's) are all the same stiffness and travel??

[dnt_upton]

All the cartridges are interchangeable. The difference in the shape of the black cartridge set up results from the fact that Voile moved the pivot rearward to make the X2's more active, so the distance between the cartridges and throw was shortened (as show in the pictures. I think the widths are the same though.)

Note that if you do try to use the black cartridges on regular Switchbacks or Hardwire bindings, you may need to switch out the connecting rods. It depends on your shoe size.

And yes, my understanding is that there is no difference between blue, red, and green. Black is 25% stiffer. Someone at Voile could confirm all that.