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My first binding was a frame binding. I don't even remember who made it, only that while it got me up hills, it was far from ideal. I used it for a season or two, and then upgraded to the G3 Onyx. The Onyx is... an interesting binding, that is pretty heavy, is said to prioritize the downhill, but with the unfortunate manufacturing defect of the toe pin shearing (yes this happened to me), it can only be relied on so much. When I was looking for a binding for my new babies (my Voile HyperVector skis), I knew I wanted a binding that was lightweight, and that could crush the downhill. The G3 Zed 12 looked like the ace in the hole for me, and I was excited to try them out. G3 essentially took their well loved Ion binding, and made it even lighter with the Zed. Weighing only 358g, it fit my bill of lightweight, and with G3 advertising the binding as having all the power and performance of a heavier modern touring binding, I was intrigued.
UPHILL PERFORMANCE:
With getting a lighter ski, I really wanted to make sure I got a lighter binding that also improved my uphill times. Being 358g, the Zed fit the bill quite well. The Zed also has two heel riser options, which while some skiers "poo poo" this as a feature to consider while getting a binding, it can really help on long arduous uphills! Don't listen to the naysayers. If it's a feature you want, then this is the binding for you. Range of motion with the toepeice is great, and locking it in to walk mode is as easy as a flick of the ski pole. One thing about the uphill performance of this binding, is that the use of the Ion ski crampon is questionable. When using the ski crampon, the sole of my boot rests on the crampon much before it rests on any other part of my ski, therefore creating a lot of leverage on the toepeice. I am worried it will hurt the pins on the toepeice, so I end up using one heel riser to keep the torque not so high. A little funky.
Look at these nice little squiggles you can make with 'em!
DOWNHILL PERFORMANCE:
Okay, so this was the thing that I didn't want to compromise with my bindings. Sure, I could have gone with the BD Helio binding, which is lighter (200g, holy moley!) but what is that sacrificing? The Zed has a din up to 12, and has a unique feature that is great for the downhill - their forward pressure on the heel. This is, they say, to maintain consistent release in the heelpeice. Does this actually have an effect on the downhill performance in practice though? Ehh, it is hard to tell. One thing I can tell you is that both me, and my co-worker experienced this binding release way earlier than we wanted it to. Mine popped out on me when I was simply traversing underneath an overhanging potential Glide Avalanche (not good - we were trying to go fast to get past it, but instead, I popped out and had to futz with it while in the danger zone). My co-worker had his pop out right at the steepest part of the White Salmon Glacier. Also not good. Both of us ended up turning our dins up a bit, and haven't had any problems, but we ended up with dins higher than we were used to on other bindings.
Pros:
Super intuitive to use
Heel risers are real slick
Pretty light
Easy to step in to
Cons:
I've had experiences with it releasing when I didn't want it to. I turned the din up, but it stays on my mind sometimes.
Not the lightest out there
People with the Gen 1 of the Zed reported heelpiece failure. This should be fixed in the Gen 2, like what I have, but I am a little worried every once in a while
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