Comments on: Black Diamond Factor & Method Alpine Touring Ski Boots

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 09:46:51 +0000

After HALF A SEASON I found on my Factors:

1. „Nibbles“ on the ISO DIN alpine sole on contacts with binding (front as well as rear),
you can see a photo here
http://www.freeskiing.cz/pokec.asp?ch_rel_id=1359&ch_rel_type=c

The bottom of the sole is almost untouched, the damage is not from rocks as this season I did not walk too much.

I had been using the same bindings (Marker Duke) on my Lange 130 and Garmont Adrenaline for many years. The Factors look like my Garmonts after 6 seasons of heavy usage. (and Lange are not even touched on the binding contact area.)

2. Cracked footbeds, (definitelly not caused by pulling them out). The first cracks appeared on the footbed after first day, little spacers under heel got broken afer two days, the whole thing got broken after 5months.

These boots are not skiable after a very short time, simple because the sole is not ISO DIN compliant anymore.

BD local representative told me that I have been using them, that is why they are damaged. I did not get any warranty repair.

Never buy them if you really do skiing!

By: Jason Mitchell

Jason Mitchell — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:57:50 +0000

So crazy, amigo! Did they take care of you again? Yikes!

By: Cristobal Demarta

Cristobal Demarta — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:39:00 +0000

After having buckles and ski/walk switchs failures, Christian and I got finnaly brand new boots from BD in late season ’09. So warranty worked out at least, and as Jason says, buckle failure seems to be an earlier boot problem. But grotesque failures still occured with the new Factors: while side-country skiing, my right boot toe box litteraly exploded. (you can see pics from it in my website)
In case you have these boots or if you are expecting to buy new or used Factors, please first take just a look at mines now. I’m still more awed that pissed, i’ve never seen a boot fail like this before, nor anyone that I ski with.

By: Jason Mitchell

Jason Mitchell — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:24:26 +0000

I’m sure they will take care of you, but that appears to be a common issue with some of the earlier boots. I’ve been told that this has been remedied, but we’ll have to see.

By: Kevin Guettler

Kevin Guettler — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:48:28 +0000

I have about 30 uses on my Factors, 8 of which are touring, and the buckle failed. I have seen two other cases of failed buckles. The shop (Northern Lights Trading Company in Bozeman)was charging me for a black replacement buckle and sent me down the road to a boot cobbler for the installation.I have not given BD a chance to reply but it does not look good.

By: Jason Mitchell

Jason Mitchell — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:32:22 +0000

Christian… sorry to hear about your bad experience and poor customer service with these boots. Seems like they should pony up and fix them on-the-spot. With first-year products, you’re trying to win over your customers and create loyalty… profit doesn’t come in the first year and won’t ever come if you can’t provide quality service in the case of first-year bugs.

Not anything I can do, but I feel your pain.

By: Christian Trautmann

Christian Trautmann — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:55:41 +0000

Probably the worst boot quality my friend and I ever tried. A friend and I bought 20 days ago this boots, the first pair that failed was my friend’s boots at the 4th day of use with a normal use. The ski/walk switch failed and one boot got stucked in walk mode, really nice to ski by that way.

My pair failed the 2nd day of use, a buckle got broken, with a normal use…

I sent an email to BD and they wrote me: “…Also we have new Ski/walk mechanisms that you should both install in your boots…”
I asked in the store where I bought them, and they had no idea about this… Then I replied BD asking how to get the switch, and got no answer.

And they also wrote me: “…This is the first year for these boots and things are inevitable going to come up…”
Just because of this do I have to deal with defective boots?
My friend and my whole backcountry vacations in the Chilean Andes where screwed up.

I would really think about buying this boots.

Christian Traumann

Here you can download pictures of the broken buckle:
http://www.paradacinco.com/aboutfactorskiboots.zip

By: Jason Mitchell

Jason Mitchell — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:16:39 +0000

Franco

Congrats on your purchase and I’m glad you like them! I have yet to ride them, but am looking forward to it this season. As far as the Dynafit/DIN blocks go, it’s up to you to decide.

DIN standards are pretty specific as far as size and shape of the boot sole so as to release with predictability. Only DIN standard blocks are to be used with alpine bindings. Mountaineering or Dynafit soles aren’t DIN approved. They may work, but you run the risk of improper releases which may cause personal injury. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide to accept that risk or not.

By: Franco Ferrarini

Franco Ferrarini — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:02:34 +0000

I recently purchased a pair of BD Factor and tried them for a couple of days. I think they are really great boots but I found it cumbersome to exchange the blocks so is it really dangerous to use dynafit blocks with downhill bindings?

By: Jason Mitchell

Jason Mitchell — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:04:46 +0000

Tom

They very well may have changed the Method for production. I know that they added the BOA to the Method, which wasn’t initially offered, so they may have changed the soles as well. Take a look at the Method above. Clearly it’s using the Dynafit blocks in that photo.

If you look at the actual production model on BD’s Web site, you can see that it’s using the Dynafit blocks:

http://www.bdel.com/gear/method.php