Outcast vs Meidjo, my thoughts with far too little experience
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:40 am
I have spent this miserable winter slowly transitioning to NTN. The draw is three-fold: I am interested in releasability (Meidjo's), the extra locked-in lateral control and subsequent power, and the lightness. Hovering around these three interests are also the possible extinction of the 75mm world (yet to be proven) and the fact that I am somewhat limited in boots since Scarpa decided to arbitrarily exterminate my 30.5/31.0 boot size and I wanted to find solutions sooner than later (do I build a stockpile for the rest of my life or move on to NTN?).
I am specifically attracted to the Meidjo for its releasability aspect, purported natural feel, and lightness. Intellectually I am biased to preferring this binding.
Boot wise: Fortunately for me I was able to fit into the 29.5/30.0 TXP. I lost some toebox room but it's acceptable and I have no pain in the boot. So that's a gigantic relief. There is a little more room I think in the 29.5/30.0 TXP than the 29.5/30.0 T2 Eco, so there is some allowance for big feet people to get into a shell. For reference, I had oodles of room in the Crispi EVO, but that boot just fit funny.
Once I secured the boot, I picked up a 22D Outlaw X and dropped it into my skis with 22D inserts. The Outlaw X skis fantastic. Really incredible inside-ski control, I roll it over and the ski sets into the turn and I can forget it, very little management is required. That was very cool. Other than that, it felt very much like the Vice/Axl on #3, which is how I ski that binding inbounds (#2 when touring/soft snow). It did have a hard stop at the bottom however that I wasn't too keen on. I did some reading, and decided to remove the inner spring (very easy) and went with one solo normal spring. Much better! The binding really had some flow to it then, and the stop at the end was a little softer.
Then I borrowed a pair of skis with some Meidjos. Same ski as I had with the Outlaws (Fey Bros Outcast 97), mounting point within 1cm, and did a direct side-by-side comparison of the two bindings on the same day at the same hill on the same trails. I would take a few runs on the Outcast, then a few runs on the Meidjo, rinse and repeat. Outlaw was set with 1 spring #3, Meidjo set with 2 normal springs and #2.
Skating over to the lift the Meidjo had a real immediately snap to it, instant activation, no slop. I felt this was going to be a real nice binding. I got to the top, pointed them down a very mellow trail that I had just skied on the Outlaws, dropped my knee and almost fell flat on my face. I felt like I was in Switchbacks, and not the X2. I recalibrated for an instant, made sure to drop straight down onto my heel, same feeling. Floppiness. I pulled over to the side and jacked the screws to #3. Hardly and difference. In the turns the inside skis wandered left and and right and took seriously management to keep them under control. They were getting tossed. I paralleled to the bottom (very nice) and then jacked the Meidjo up to #4.5, almost to the limit of 5. Stiffer, more active, and better feeling when dropping the knee but the inside ski continued to porpoise left and right wandering around like a drunken eel. Very humbling moment, I felt like I have serious technique issues that the Outlaw provides cover for that the Meidjo does not... but I don't know.
I swapped back into the Outlaw-- 1 spring, #3, and went back out, skied the same trail, no problem. Inside ski set itself when the knee dropped and I just forgot about it. Absolutely wonderful control.
So that's where I am. I was moving quickly, making shotgun purchases and trying to make big decisions before a ski trip coming up at the end of March but I am going to have to hit the brakes big time and revisit this. I have a friend who is going to lend me his Ripstick 96 w/ Meidjo since he's out on injury for the season, and I am going to spend more time playing with them. I'm not writing them off completely, but it would be foolish to launch in the backcountry on a new binding that I wasn't familiar with. I am a bit bewildered as I had my heart set on the Meidjo and its releasability function, but the Outlaw X, in my very limited testing, absolutely crushed it into the ground with an iron fist.
Anyone have any ideas?
I am specifically attracted to the Meidjo for its releasability aspect, purported natural feel, and lightness. Intellectually I am biased to preferring this binding.
Boot wise: Fortunately for me I was able to fit into the 29.5/30.0 TXP. I lost some toebox room but it's acceptable and I have no pain in the boot. So that's a gigantic relief. There is a little more room I think in the 29.5/30.0 TXP than the 29.5/30.0 T2 Eco, so there is some allowance for big feet people to get into a shell. For reference, I had oodles of room in the Crispi EVO, but that boot just fit funny.
Once I secured the boot, I picked up a 22D Outlaw X and dropped it into my skis with 22D inserts. The Outlaw X skis fantastic. Really incredible inside-ski control, I roll it over and the ski sets into the turn and I can forget it, very little management is required. That was very cool. Other than that, it felt very much like the Vice/Axl on #3, which is how I ski that binding inbounds (#2 when touring/soft snow). It did have a hard stop at the bottom however that I wasn't too keen on. I did some reading, and decided to remove the inner spring (very easy) and went with one solo normal spring. Much better! The binding really had some flow to it then, and the stop at the end was a little softer.
Then I borrowed a pair of skis with some Meidjos. Same ski as I had with the Outlaws (Fey Bros Outcast 97), mounting point within 1cm, and did a direct side-by-side comparison of the two bindings on the same day at the same hill on the same trails. I would take a few runs on the Outcast, then a few runs on the Meidjo, rinse and repeat. Outlaw was set with 1 spring #3, Meidjo set with 2 normal springs and #2.
Skating over to the lift the Meidjo had a real immediately snap to it, instant activation, no slop. I felt this was going to be a real nice binding. I got to the top, pointed them down a very mellow trail that I had just skied on the Outlaws, dropped my knee and almost fell flat on my face. I felt like I was in Switchbacks, and not the X2. I recalibrated for an instant, made sure to drop straight down onto my heel, same feeling. Floppiness. I pulled over to the side and jacked the screws to #3. Hardly and difference. In the turns the inside skis wandered left and and right and took seriously management to keep them under control. They were getting tossed. I paralleled to the bottom (very nice) and then jacked the Meidjo up to #4.5, almost to the limit of 5. Stiffer, more active, and better feeling when dropping the knee but the inside ski continued to porpoise left and right wandering around like a drunken eel. Very humbling moment, I felt like I have serious technique issues that the Outlaw provides cover for that the Meidjo does not... but I don't know.
I swapped back into the Outlaw-- 1 spring, #3, and went back out, skied the same trail, no problem. Inside ski set itself when the knee dropped and I just forgot about it. Absolutely wonderful control.
So that's where I am. I was moving quickly, making shotgun purchases and trying to make big decisions before a ski trip coming up at the end of March but I am going to have to hit the brakes big time and revisit this. I have a friend who is going to lend me his Ripstick 96 w/ Meidjo since he's out on injury for the season, and I am going to spend more time playing with them. I'm not writing them off completely, but it would be foolish to launch in the backcountry on a new binding that I wasn't familiar with. I am a bit bewildered as I had my heart set on the Meidjo and its releasability function, but the Outlaw X, in my very limited testing, absolutely crushed it into the ground with an iron fist.
Anyone have any ideas?
)