I have been using this binding for last season on my K2 Seth’s and now it’s time to reviewed it. I bought it last year because of good results on freeskiing websites and also good experiences of freeskiers all around the world, which I read in comments on pages.
Naxo NX21 in reality
Předem upozorňuji, že recenze zveřejněná na www.freeskiing.cz (Naxo NX21 v akci, část 1 a Naxo NX21 v akci, část 2) je velice obsáhlá a přesná, je však zaměřena spíše pro lidi, kteří mají skialpové vázání jen na dojití k žlebu nepříliš vzdálenému od konce lanovky, než že by jej používali na celodenní tůry.
Now, after more than 40 days of using it, I know that it could be somehow used like normal alpine binding, but it’s not a good idea to be used like mountaineering (alpine touring) binding. Why?
Naxo is strong binding
Naxo NX21 – downhill
- It isn’t stiff enough, you can feel clearance between you shoe and ski. The proof is torque test from wildsnow.com – http://www.wildsnow.com/…august-2006/. If you use Naxo on fat ski like mine (98mm under foot), it’s really bad feeling on hard pack snow.
Naxo NX21 keep in proper position
- Also you can feel clearance in vertical. Whole toe unit can be moved up for 2–3 mm. It’s not too much, but it’s really strange.
Naxo NX21 from back
Naxo NX21 – uphill
- As you can see on the photos, the biggest (for me) problem of this binding is in traverses on hard pack snow. Clearance between heel unit and heel lift is really big, in all steps of heel lift.
- You can also move up toe unit like in downhill mod, but now it’s not in 2 mm, but around 1 cm.
Naxo NX21 from back
Naxo NX21 is in middle
Toe of Naxo NX21
And don’t forget about the weight. Where is place for Naxo NX21 on market,
with weight of 1191g / per binding?
If you want to climb more, you probably buy Dynafit (FT 12, weight: 560g, DIN
12).
If uphill and downhill is 50:50, the best choice is some of the Fritschi
bindings (Freeride Plus, weight: 1022g, DIN 12).
And if you prefer downhill and you don’t care of weight, the stiffest binding
on the market is Marker (The Duke, weight: 1334g, DIN 16).
(Weight specifications are from wildsnow.com, http://www.wildsnow.com/…weights.html)
Toe of Naxo NX21 is far up the ski
Conclusion
NAXO NX21 is good for walking on flat surfaces and for gently going up the hill on low angle slopes without traverses. This is its only advantage. In all other features it is far behind competitor's bindings. I don’t know, for whom is this binding designed. From my point of view, this binding is dead end of evolution and will be abolished soon.
