The Bishop Is Pregnant

by Craig Dostie //Photos by Bjorn Bauer

There’s a baby brewing at the Bishop Binding company. Dave Bombard, owner of the Bishop Binding Company has been tinkering with the next evolution of the Bishop. The plan is to unveil it the first week of December 2016 but I won’t hold ‘em to it if you won’t. It’s just a beta binder; it won’t be available for another year at the least.

The new tele rig, Bombard explains, “isn’t exactly a Bishop. It has the same metal frame and awesome control, but there are a lot of other features added — most importantly it has a free pivot.”

On the computer the new binding looks pretty sweet with many of the standard check list items of the elusive tele grail: It’s step-in, arguably releasable, it comes standard with brakes, a free pivot, and is powerful on the down. It has the same power train as the Bishop 2.0 inheriting a metal knuckle and compression springs, two this time, along with a step-in heel lever. You can use any telemark boot, plastic, leather, duckbilled or NTN; there are two toeplates to chose from — 75mm or NTN.

In tour mode it allows a solid 75-plus degree range of truly free heeled motion. The iteration I saw on-screen at Bishop headquarters showed a lever that flips up to switch modes. As a plate binding, you’ll be lifting the springs and frame with each step, but not the brake or switch plate, where everything comes together.

The integrated ski brake stays attached to the switch plate, not the toe plate, improving reliability for deployment, and reducing touring inertia. You’ll be happy to know Bishop is not using yet another mounting pattern, but has adopted the six-hole 22 Designs mounting pattern.

When the toe plate is locked for downhill, the locking bar holds it with spring tension, so it won’t wobble over time. The power plate is snapped around the heel by a lever that is suspended so you can simply step-in to it. The sidewalls of the 75mm toeplate are shorter than normal, theoretically allowing a possible but unlikely “tele release” — definitely not DIN certified.

“We decided on a heel attachment, as opposed to a second heel attachment, because we believe it yields a more consistent, reliable flex,” says Bombard.

“The heel lever is designed to work when positioned on top of the heel step, not in the groove which,” he added parenthetically, “might not be there with NTN boots.”

What current or prior Bishop owners will recognize immediately is the metal knuckle that extends off the back of the toe plate. It attaches 70mm behind pin line, making the cable tension as or more aggressive than the current Bishop. Arguably more because the two springs adding tension to the system have a large, 15mm adjustment range.

“We put a lot of thought into the springs for this binding. It is long enough that you can’t fully compress it, and more importantly, we wanted to allow enough adjustment range so that you could take what is an inherently active binding, based on the pivot location, and be able to tune it down via spring tension to something softer; not everyone wants an active binding.”

No crampons are planned for the time being, but that could change before a year is up.

 

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Baby Bishop isn’t so much the design, but the decision to transition from a part time hobby to a full time focus including more than one man’s efforts at making this come to fruition. As Bombard said, with humility, “I realized I couldn’t focus on design while simultaneously running the company. It’s also better for the design process to have a team to bounce ideas off each other.”

It may still be a garage band operation, but it’s a band, not a one man show. Peter Van Dyke does much of the modeling and Eric Warmenhoven is, among other things, the resident 3D printer guru. There are also specialized tools to augment product development. Besides the requisite 3D modeling software, Bishop Binding Company makes regular use of a 3D printer. In addition to printing prototypes it is also used to make the current add-on toe blocks for the Bishop (for faster tip engagement). Ryan Portz, another member of the Bishop Binding team, a machinist by trade built another key tool — a boot cycling machine. As Bombard points out, “we don’t just use it for cycling boots, it also allows analysis of boots when flexed in a static position – like when you’re weighting your rear foot.”

When asked how the 3D printer helps improve designs Bombard was quick to fire off, “It’s faster to fail!” He paused before explaining, “We find weak points and can design and fix them faster using a 3-D printer. Product design is an iterative process and 3-D printers speed the whole thing up.”

The only downside might be the weight of the binding. In defense of that Bombard reminds me, “you need some of that weight to deliver downhill performance, but,” he draws out for emphasis, “with a free pivot, the weight only becomes an issue on big vertical days. At two pounds per foot the binding isn’t exactly light, but it’s not heavy either.”

 

Availability
A limited run of beta bindings is expected to be available December 2016, with pairs available for demo wherever and whenever the Bishop Binding crew show up. Bombard said, “We’re doing a demo at Loveland for sure, and will be at Grand Targhee for the Freeheel Life Cup. Our goal for the season is to get as much customer feedback as possible. We want this to be a design built by and for the tele tribe.” Look on bishopbindings.com and their Facebook and Instagram pages for details to be unveiled later this season. With any luck I’ll have a mid-winter report on how Baby Bishop shakes out.

 

More about Bishop Bindings: www.bishopbindings.com