Voile TTS Transit

[iBjorn]

Is now official:

[bobbytooslow]

I notice that it has black long travel spring cartridges. I'm curious to find out where they rank in terms of tension and travel.

[telenerd]

Dam I can’t wait to buy. I’m going all in for Voile!

Im sure it skis similar to my Voile TTS manual toe. The heel cable hooks for going into the block some people might think that could be the weak link, but I find Voile steel rods to hold up to a ton of abuse. Not sure if that block is aluminum or plastic.

The adjustable activity is nice. I find my current Voile TTS with the long travel springs very active in the nuetral position. But the flex is so much smoother than my lynx. Can’t imagine how stiff position 3 would be. Probably similar to position 3 on Lynx. Which I found to be unskiable for my skills.

[SPQR]

Looks cool plus is that a new ski or just a new color scheme on existing ski?

[Woodserson]

Really loving this new and improved binding.

Looks cool plus is that a new ski or just a new color scheme on existing ski?

Came here wondering the same, then queued it up on the bigscreen: At 2:50 I can read 177 and "vector" so I'm assuming "ultra" is hidden underneath the strap.

[jtb]

It does look cool. I'd love to know what the rods pivot against. Stamped steel under the plastic maybe? Has anyone used the Moonlight binding? I would guess the construction is similar.

[jnicol]

More options for consumers is a great thing!!

[xmatt]

Awesome. I was hoping for slightly lighter weight, but that might be the price to pay for the larger amount of adjustability compared to custom TTS, plus having two climbing bars. I have Moonlight and I like it. This looks like they thought out the clip behind the heel piece better than Moonlight did.

Thinking of buying some Ultravector BC with this in the fall. Or V6? Probably Ultravector suits my style better, but not sure....

[Turnfarmer]

It’s hard to tell from the available photos/ videos but could the Trab releasable toe piece be easily swapped in?

[djhutch]

Good for Voile for using Plum to make the toe. After taking a few steps backward with Olympus TTS and 22D toes, it will be nice to hit the ground running with a refined tech toe.

It requires a custom ski crampon to fit around the block, but hooray for Voile for making a ski crampon compatible binding!

xmatt agree about the weight. My full ATK Haute Route bindings with adjustable release weigh less than these with the rods/springs removed, which simply means the pivot block and heel risers weight more than a lightweight AT heel.

I'll probably buy because tele gear manufacturers are one of my favorite charities; and then probably bitch when I bottom out the springs - which my one friend who tested at World Tele Day at Alta was able to do.

[dschane]

I'll probably buy because tele gear manufacturers are one of my favorite charities; and then probably bitch . . . .

Back in the day of signature lines, this would have been a keeper.

[xmatt]

I'll probably buy because tele gear manufacturers are one of my favorite charities; and then probably bitch when I bottom out the springs - which my one friend who tested at World Tele Day at Alta was able to do.

Do they wear really large boots or something? I thought Voile was putting long travel springs on these.

[jasonq]

Do they wear really large boots or something? I thought Voile was putting long travel springs on these.

26.0 boot and i bottomed the original red LT's. unless they got extra LT in the newer ones, i have no doubt they can be bottomed. See thread about all the bent LT heel wires. that is exactly what happened when mine bottomed.

[bobbytooslow]

I've written this in a million threads, but it bears repeating here:

The amount of spring travel taken up as you lift your heel is affected by many things, including binding geometry (activity), boot size (boot sole length), and boot sole flexibility (not to be confused with cuff and/or bellows "softness").

I can ski the short travel stiff black X2 cartridges with my 28.0 F1 Carbon boots (very thin flexible sole) and not bottom out the springs. The boot sole length (the straight-line distance from toe attachment point to heel attachment point) shortens dramatically as the boot roundly flexes.

When I use a 28.0 TX-Pro boot in a binding with the same geometry and even the red (soft) Long Travel springs, I bottom them out. The boot sole does not flex as roundly, and thus doesn't shorten as much.

It could be said that Voile is taking a bit of gamble here, but it's a calculated one:
- It seems like Long Travel springs will be the only option
- Scarpa's forthcoming boots supposedly have a more round flex pattern.
- Some folks have F1's/F3's they plan to use.
- Folks bashing bumps at the resort all day probably want something else anyway.
- Not everyone has big feet.

[jtb]

Do they wear really large boots or something? I thought Voile was putting long travel springs on these.

I wear 26.5 boots and only use long-travel springs, mostly with F3's which are very soft. My pivots are all between 45 and 50mm back from the pins, i.e. very neutral. I don't normally bottom out my springs, but I have bent just about every part in my bindings... heel wires, spring cartridges, hardwire rods, pivot axles, and broken heel throws. BTS is right -- these bindings are not for bashing moguls. But you can, if you're prepared to do some tinkering.

Maybe this belongs in another thread, but I don't think accelerated wear with TTS is purely about spring travel. I skied my Meidjos just as hard, for more days, mostly with TXP's, and didn't bend things nearly as much. And Meidjo has less travel than Voile LT springs in a neutral position.

My theory is that repeated contact between the boot and wires/spring cartridges in deep turns (not necessarily bottomed out) initiates bending, and once things are bent, the springs don't travel as smoothly, which causes more bending. Bent hardwire rods put lateral pressure on the inner spring tubes, which causes them to bend, then they don't compress smoothly, which causes the heel wire to bend. I've observed my spring cartridges getting stuck in various positions of compression after a hard run.

Note that this never happened in the backcountry, where I use ~1kg skis, 1-3 runs per day, mostly untracked snow, and not skiing super aggressively. It started happening when I did resort laps on tracked up crud with 2kg skis.

All of this is to say, I think Voile's TTS will be very well suited for the intended purpose -- backcountry skiing with the occasional resort run. If you use it as your daily driver, you will bend things, but that's not unique to Voile. The same will happen with any binding of similar design (OMG, Kreuzspitze, Moonlight, etc.).