Johnny, Pierre, and the beast. Or the new Telemark Tech Norm (TTN) vs the future of XCD (NTN-BC)

[lowangle al]

I'm not lookin for power from my boot.

[Johnny]

I'm not lookin for power from my boot.

Get a pair of 500g skating shoes then... Add a few grams for tech inserts and you have NTN-BC leathers...

[turnfarmer]

SWEET JESUS Bobby... You have been digging very deep since you crossposted my post on EYT... Wow, this Rotte prototype is just awesome... Spring loaded, but it seems like there is two attachment points? Some kind of crossover between the Salomon pilot and NTN duckbutts!?! Wow, wow and WOW!

So that was 2001, years before NTN but really, not so long ago... Super interesting... Maybe Rotte are wiser than I think... Probably that the XCD/leather demand was at its lowest back then... And the idea evolved into NTN... Woaaah, this thing looks very light, and pretty much what I dream about... Even more interesting, look at the picture below... The boot has EYELETS! Definitely not intended for 4 buckles plastic boots...

Ha, I've been digging into this stuff for quite a while. We're kind of meeting in the same place but from different directions. I train & race skimo style, but can't give up the tele turn. I'm trying to build something that's light, durable, and fast to transition. I currently use a DIY TTS that weighs ~110g on the up, and though I can install the cable without having to click out, I'd still prefer something that stays on the ski full-time. A spring-loaded toe bumper might be the answer, we'll see.

I'll never give up my plastic boots, though. I tried "skimo-ing" with Rossignol BC-X12's & Voile HD's, and there's just no comparison, at least for my needs. But, if modified leathers meet other folks' needs, I'm stoked and happy to help. If you need components 3D printed for your "projects," let me know.

I've played with bumpers with a hacked TLT 5 boot on a bench. I don't think the toe extension on an AT or NTN toe has enough lever arm for the bumper concept to work. My next project is to fabricate an underfoot toe lock down similar the lock down a 7TM tour used the attaches just in front of the flex zone to mimic a 3 pin like feel. Then I would just add an AT heel piece if I needed more control.

I even considered using BTS Dynafit toe fitting as an aft pivot point and then using the regular toe fitting to act as a bumper, but that's to much fabrication work for me.

If I come up with something workable I may hit you up on your 3d printing offer.

[bobbytooslow]

I don't think the toe extension on an AT or NTN toe has enough lever arm for the bumper concept to work... I even considered using BTS Dynafit toe fitting as an aft pivot point and then using the regular toe fitting to act as a bumper

Yes, I agree. You'd need to build up a big tall square-ish front on the boot for it to get the right leverage. It's on my list of things to do.

I have some much-improved bolt-on aft fittings if you do decide to go that route.

[turnfarmer]

What's new on those fittings?

[paulzo]

On the bumper idea - I've been thinking of similar possibilities for a while, and the Voile toepiece they use with their splitboard rigs and now their TTS binding seems to be the one to use - but my concept I think is different, in that all I am thinking the bumper would do is just give you that little bit of resistance you want for K&G. It would have nothing to do with downhill performance, some variation of TTS with cable or wire would do that. So what think you guys in regards to getting that amount of resistance with a bumper and voile toepiece and Scarpa F1 Race toe?

[Johnny]

It seems like my dream will finally come true. Not exactly the way I envisioned it though... It would have been sooooo simple to simply make tech leathers, but it seems like the empire wanted it all, focusing on having the whole monopoly for themselves instead of making things simple and choosing the open-collaboration way.

The Rottefella Explorer binding will be on the market next season. A bit different than the "Backcountry System" prototype but quite similar. Ski manufacturers are ajusting their next year models to fit the new standard. Boot companies are making new models and adapting the current ones to the Explorer standard. And of course Rottefella is making tons of soles for everyone.

According to various sources, the new Rottefella binding will become THE standard for everything: XCD, cross-country, snoeshoes, norpine, skating and everything you can think of. I felt quite sad when I first heard the news... Because the prototype was light years from being mindblowing. An semi-interesting idea at best. But the possibility of having Alfa 725g tech leathers combined with the 440g Meidjo with ALL the holy grail features we could dream of, this was indeed totally mind blowing. The powerful Rottempire decided to create yet another system instead of joining forces on the proposed TTN norm. (See original post on page 1...)

But hey, who knows, this could be it. I actually could be very excited about this. I doubt they will come with something lighter than the 440g Meidjo with all the same features. But if they can add the one single missing feature on the Meidjo, I will probably be sold: Adjustable moving plates. If they were able to do it with NTN 13 years ago, I see no reason why they couldn't do it in 2020. If they don't, well, I'm afraid there won't be any reason for us to replace any piece of our equipment for this non-proposed "standard"...

[turnfarmer]

Any more info on Explorer binding? Linky?

[Johnny]

Any more info on Explorer binding? Linky?

NDA's are everywhere...

Q: How many Rottefella engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, they will just redefine darkness as the industry standard...

Seriously, I really hope they will deliver something significantly advanced instead of just finding a way to bypass other more advanced products already on the market...

[TeleMarcin]

Any more info on Explorer binding? Linky?

If this is next season then probably they will disclose everything on Ispo 2021 which would be held at the end of January 2021