Telemark binding repair hack: Freeride NTN pivot bar & flex plate replacement

[mn_teleswede]

I know that Telemarking is stupid & Freerides suck. However.........

I had a pair of freerides that developed cracks in the flex plate underneath where the power tubes insert (see image below). Contacted Scarpa/ Rottefella for new flex plates which went fine, but they do not offer a replacement pivot bar as the OEM piece is a press bushing/ rivet style.




After a little searching on line, I found that Grainger sold a Stainless Steel Barrel Bolt/ Sex Screw with the exact dimensions as the original pivot bar (3" x 5/16") A bit pricy at $20 a piece, but $40 is much cheaper than buying a whole new binding. I then went to hardware store and picked up a couple stainless steel 10/32 button heads and washers to go with the barrel bolts as the sex screws were flat heads. Ideally I wanted the button heads to have a larger head to dispense with reduction washer, but made do with a 2 washer system.



Step 1- Drill out the end of the pivot bar flange on 1 side to allow original pivot bar to slide out. This was the most time consuming of the process as I did not want to damage the actual frame of the binding.

Step 2- Using a drill bit, I had to open up the toe cage hole and the binding frame hole about 1/16" of an inch to allow the last 1/4 of new barrel bolt to sit flush (has 1/16" increase in diameter texture on it) If you can find a barrel bolt without this - better yet.

Step 3- Put it all back together, using loc tight on the button head into barrel bolt threads.



Going to test it out on our small ski area groomers to see if the button head stays threaded on tightly before working the binding back into rotation on my other skis. It should as barrel bolt can rotate if needed. I will update this post after getting a few days on them.

[wantriot]

Psyched to hear the results after some on snow testing! Thanks for sharing this. Quality work!

[PB]

Definitely getting your money's worth out of those bindings!

[freerobby]

You wore out a pair of freerides... respect!

Props on a clever fix, thanks for documenting it.

[mn_teleswede]

Psyched to hear the results after some on snow testing! Thanks for sharing this. Quality work!

Circling back around to share that bindings are still in rotation with no signs of decreased performance.

[PB]

Forgot to mention previously - glad to see your Freerides are as superficially chewed up as mine!

[Tom_H]

I had the upper wings on my Freeride toe cages bust off at the end of last year. Fey Brothers/Telemarkdown had the replacement toe cages and new axle bolts. $40 and back in business. The bolts they sent were torx heads which was nice - less likely to strip out vs hex/allen heads.

[nickinbc]

I've had the same thing happen with the toe bars on my Freedoms. One cracked and then lost an end last season and the other did the same this season (wish I had thought to buy two replacements last year!). Reused the original bolts (my Freedoms came with torx bolts).

[Danno]

your commitment to the tele dirtbag way is impressive

[chedman]

just here to share the tele stoke