Touring Bindings & the New G3 Zed

GEAR:30

BLISTER

Arts, Design, Skiing, Snow, Snowboarding, Sports, Outdoors, Bike, Technology, Gear

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

G3 (aka, Genuine Guide Gear) is introducing a new touring binding — the Zed — that they’re calling the lightest fully-featured AT binding on the market. So we talk to G3’s engineers about their design philosophy and development process, current trends in AT bindings, and the compromises inherent in any AT binding.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Introductions (2:15)
When did work begin on this binding, and what was the primary aim? (4:55)
The “Dark Swamp of Despair” (8:03)
The difficulty of naming products (11:09)
The G3 ION as the precursor to the ZED (12:37)
Cutting weight on the ZED (17:14)
Why choose the ION over the ZED? (26:03)
Why choose the Zed over "ultralight" bindings (29:07)
Using ultralight bindings on wide skis (30:19)
Carbon reinforced plastics (33:51)
Current binding trends and U-Spring bindings (37:15)
Understanding the inherent compromises in bindings (44:55)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Blister podcast, Gear 30.
0:08.8	I'm Jonathan Ellsworth, the founder of Blister, and as always, you can check us out online at blisterreview.com.
0:16.8	Today on the podcast, we're talking about alpine touring bindings, including a new one that we're very interested in, the Zed binding from G3.
0:25.5	So Blister editor Sam Shaheen joined me to talk to three of G3's finest, Cam Schute, G3's director of product, binding engineer Simon Hammond, and Mike Colletti, who is a product development engineer at G3 for skis and bindings.
0:41.6	Among the things we discuss are the design philosophy and development process of the new Zed binding,
0:47.9	current trends in AT bindings, and the compromises that are inherent in any AT binding.
0:55.0	Before we get started, I want to remind you that we continue to churn out more deep dive
0:59.9	comparison articles and more flash reviews on the site, so to get our immediate initial
1:05.7	impressions on, for example, the new Technica Zero G Tour Pro AT boot, or our deep dive comparisons on the
1:13.7	Rosignol Sol 7 HD or Blizzard Rustler 11, become a blister member and you'll get access to
1:20.2	every single thing we publish, and we'll also send you in the fall the print and digital edition
1:25.6	of our 1819 Winter Buyers Guide.
1:29.4	And you'll also get a number of great money-saving deals from a number of ski companies
1:34.0	and some of our Blister recommended shops.
1:37.1	To learn more about the details and to become a blister member, just click on the navigation bar
1:41.6	on the Blister website, where, as I always like to point out,
1:44.8	it very conveniently says, become a blister member, and you'll be on your way.
1:50.1	And of course, your support is what allows us to continue to stay 100% independent,
1:56.3	and to continue to take no money from any of the product manufacturers we review.
2:02.1	So that's that.
2:03.6	Thanks for becoming a member.
2:05.0	Check out those deep dive comparisons and flash reviews.
	...

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