Thoughts on Rottefella Freeride

[JohnSKepler]

There are an orange set available locally pretty cheap. Don’t see much about them here. ‘Worth’ a try???

[Montana St Alum]

There are an orange set available locally pretty cheap. Don’t see much about them here. ‘Worth’ a try???

They are VERY active. The first time I skied them, getting off the lift at Brighton I actually thought maybe I'd had a stroke that damaged the small part of my brain involved with the telemark turn.

Also, unlike the toe wings on 22D bindings, these will dig deep into the plastic of the boots at the toe.

And, I broke the wings off a couple of times.

The Freedoms are/were a big improvement across the board, but I tended to break those as well.

[telerat]

Freeride is, depending on springs (currently green and blue, but stiffer have existed) rather active. The first of the orange versions also had problems with breakage, but I believe that was solved. They are heavy and the walk mode is not good, so I'd advise against them if you are going backcountry skiing. Mine are on a pair of old Elan SCX carving skis, but I have Meidjo on my other two pairs of skis.

[JohnSKepler]

I decided to pass on the Orange binding. Seemed like an unnecessary risk. Still want to try a Freeride since it is supposedly releasable. Black and green ones come up now and then on ebay and such.

I don’t think the Outlaws are releasable, are they?

My TXPro boots will fit the Freeride and Outlaws, right? Zero experience with NTN. Only with the tech toe on the Meidjo.

[lemon]

Love the Rottefella NTN bindings. Especially the freedom. I own 3, all skied with a TX Pro. Takes a couple days to get used to them coming from 75mm but I think they are great. I haven't had any issues with mine, i around 80 days on them last season. Lift service and touring. I only ski 75mm stuff now for xcd style skiing.

[telerat]

Freeride with green springs was quite a difference coming from Chili with the original Terminator. The engagement was instantaneous and stiff, so need some adaptation. My Freerides have held up fine, as well as my original orange Scarpa TX'es without the new toe, but I am relatively small and light. I know the binding was updated while keeping the orange color, but don't remember the changes and how to spot them.

While the walk mode felt fine when testing it, I found out (together with lousy personal form) that I got pains in my hip when I took them on a backcountry tour, and reverted back to Switchback with old boots. I have since switched to Meidjo which works great either inbounds or in the backcountry.

You can probably get more input on telemark equipment over at:
https://www.backcountrytalk.com/forum
The Backside Bar & Grill is the most active part there. Good luck wherever you end up.

[Montana St Alum]

I decided to pass on the Orange binding. Seemed like an unnecessary risk. Still want to try a Freeride since it is supposedly releasable. Black and green ones come up now and then on ebay and such.

I don’t think the Outlaws are releasable, are they?

My TXPro boots will fit the Freeride and Outlaws, right? Zero experience with NTN. Only with the tech toe on the Meidjo.

The release feature on Freerides and Freedoms are dependent on activity level - spring strength. If you adjust the spring tension for activity, you'll get a corresponding change in release tension.

With Meidjo the release adjustment and activity adjustment are independent.
The release feature adjustment targets the side loading on the duckbutt, not on the tech toe (though obviously that releases as well).
But the only 2 times I've released was from the Freedom, so it works.
I tend to adjust NTN to be as neutral as possible - for an NTN - which is maybe Hammerhead on 2 or Axl on 1 and more active than 7tm tours, if you're familiar with any of those.

I'm not super familiar with the Outlaws. I know one guy who uses them and loves them. No damage to his boots from the design and he has them set up to be very active, with Tx comp boots.

Your Tx Pros will fit in all NTNs, whether tech toe or not.