Rottefella NNN Touring Combi Nordic Ski Bindings - NIS Mounting Plate (For Men and Women)
By TheGuidingMike
from Wisconsin on 01/03/2012
Pros:
Good price, NNN - worthy
Best Uses:
Light touring, Upgrading old gear
Bottom Line:
Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
Pretty basic recent version of NNN bindings. Will work with new NNN boots or old-school NNN boots. You mount a plate to the ski and then slide these bindings onto the plate - should be pretty simple for installation- IF YOU CAN FIND INSTALLATION INSTRUCIONS.WARNING: Special tool needed to install and remove binding from plate/ski. Included with the binding, but if you lose it and want to switch out bindings ten years from now, it will be like trying to find keys for an abandoned car.I have to give the ski gear industry for taking a simple concept of XC-skiing and making the hardware complicated without really enhancing performance all that much. Binding plates, special keyed tools, slight and unecessary binding changes that obsolete generations of boots. These days, XC boots and bindings have to be matched up like power cords to computers - even hardware from the same companies aren't compatible. Downhill gear is infinately more tecchnical, but bindings and boots are interchangeable. These do not have adjustable positioning like the very most recent NNN bindings, but honestly, who is going to be adjusting their binding position anyway?The big complaint I have is the installation instructions. The instructions in the box are useless - lacking in every detail. The Rottafella website installation instructions are the worst jibberish English I have seen since assembling a [*] bicycle. Absolutely useless.I contacted Sierra Designs and asked about installation instructions. Their advise was, "bring it to a shop for installation"...?? isn't that kinda like McDonalds telling me to go to Burger King to get ketchup for my fries?I have mounted many bindings and can probably figure it out, but it sure would be nice to have some detailed instructions to make sure that I wasn't missing something, or learning my mistake AFTER drilling holes.So, bottom line = "A" for product. "F-" for instructions.