Black Crows Freebird + Tele. Real world experience?

[KingDuckbill]

I know Black Crows voids the warranty if I rip of the top sheet using Tele bindings on their Freebird line, but is this a problem in the real world for all Freebird skis? I have a beat up pair of Navis Freebird that I like to put some Rottefella freedom or 22 Lynx on. I've read that people have used the Navis Freebird for Tele, it would be interesting to know if it went well or ended in disaster.

I like my setup not overly active and always mount using slow curing epoxy. Ski deep if needed but not always and may hit the knee to the ski when things go wrong.

[Woodserson]

What generation Freebird? The earlier ones had a longer titanal plate that spanned the mounting zone, but the newer generations have the smaller outlined "squares" for the heel and toe pieces, to save precious little grams for the weenies.

It's bullshit. I've written about this before:

The Black Crows Freebirds USED TO HAVE full titanal plate over the mounting area. I have seen that in some models recently the plate has been separated into two sections for a toe and heel piece. A standard 4 screw tele binding won't fit into this smaller area, you can get two screws in, but not all four. Maybe in a six screw binding you could get 4 out of 6. I do not know specifically about the Orb. It's a sweet ski, but this could be an issue if the larger titanal plate is gone from the Orb too.

It's bullshit. They are shaving grams to please the gram-weenies but the smaller mounting plates restrict personal preference in mounting location and discriminates against tele bindings. More Black Crow baloney, catering to the few chi-chi $$ skiers and not the ones that really want to ski them but want some binding security. Mind boggling.

Edit: OK i just looked at the website and Yes, they went to smaller mounting zones. DUMB.

Who knows, the paulownia is pretty flimsy. I think if you do the epoxy route that may help you? 6 screw bindings with 4 in the square would definitely help you.

I had a pair of freebirds older generation with the full titanal plate and the mount was SOLID. The new ones, not so much, I ripped up a hole really easy while mounting some OVAs, tore it right up, had to move the binding.

[KingDuckbill]

Actually I don't know which generation Navis Freebird I have. They haven't got any marking on where the titanal reinforcement is, so I guess it's the old ones then? It could be a large titanal plate or none at all.

It seems really strange to make such a thing to make the skis a tiny bit lighter, it's not a very light ski anyway, I mean, wight weenies would look elsewhere.

[Woodserson]

The old generation, you can just see the plate by holding it to the light, it's slightly raised under the topsheet, to a degree that you can't feel it but can see it in the right light and squinting. It's triangle shaped on the ends.

The new generation the mounting area is demarcated by a square for toe and heel. They only draw out the corners on the topsheet, so there are 4 little "<" at each corner.

It's dumb. It's so dumb. Even if I was an AT skier with tech bindings I wouldn't get the new Freebirds because I get hardly any room to move my binding around to where I want them and the Paulownia is super shit. I don't know what they were thinking. And they aren't the lightest skis around anyway, like you said.

I'm so frustrated because the skis usually ski nicely, they actually nail the design pretty well. My Camox Freebirds were awesome. I think the Navis will be too. Check for those little corner markings.