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Hey Ian. Removing any material will only weaken your setup. Sounds like the touring bracket has been bent. Depending on how old the brackets are I would either just bend them back or get new ones. I don't own Sparks binders, but if I remember correctly, they go outside of the brackets verses the Voile using the inside. Using Voile slider plates for any length of time would most definitely cause the brackets to widen due to sideways pressures while traversing in tour mode. If you decide to bend them back, Take them off the board and use a vise or screw them down to a 2x4 or something to eliminate the risk of damaging your board. Use an adjustable crescent wrench instead of vise grips to avoid leaving sharp material and prevent excessive damage to the bracket further weakening them. Good luck getting your setup dialed and enjoy those new fuse plates.

Ken

You could also order up some of Spark's new touring brackets. Will had them on his board at the Baker Splitfest. They look lighter and are undoubtedly designed to work with the Fuse. Machined from aluminum means no more bending Voile brackets.

treepilot - i dont see anywhere that is offering sparks touring brackets? very interested to see these.

treepilot - i dont see anywhere that is offering sparks touring brackets? very interested to see these.

Thanks for the sugestions rughty and treepilot,oh and great blog.
As Skatebananas posted, i can't see the Spark touring brackets on Will's site so i guess they are not ready to go yet.
I will try the rughty fix untill i can get the new design Sparks.
Thanks again.
Ian.

The rughty fix worked.
But i did end up taking a file to the touring bracket above the pin hole.
There is like a sharp peice of steel left over from when they were manufactured that was gouging the fuse plate so i took that off,also one around a 1/4 of the pin hole.
It only seemed to be on one end of each bracket.
All sorted and ready to go.
Ian.

any news about Spark's new touring brackets?

Yes indeed there are new touring brackets in the works. Insider report is...

Check the website in a week or so for more info.

http://www.sparkrandd.com/

thanks a lot, we really need the new bracket....

and if I can.....I think about other possible upgrades:
1. a best locking system of the crampon (I've lost one in a difficult zig-zag up, on hard and steep slope)
2. extend a bit the lenght of the crampon teeth (voilè lenght works better)

Any updates on this,couldn't see any mention on your web site.
Ian.

I'm rather surprised that the wearing-pin issue is still going on. The problem is fairly simple: on the Voile pin and slider plate, the plate rotated on the pin. Thus the wear occured on the slider plate (it being the softer material). The pin itself did not move with regard to the touring bracket, hence no wear between the two.
With the Spark set up, the pin rotates in the touring bracket - as the bracket is stainless and of relatively thin construction the pin is what wears.
The cure, it seems to me, is to redesign the pin to prevent it from rotating in the touring bracket.
The binding/pin contact point is relatively wide and the wear will be minimal (likely much less than that occurring on the old Voile Slider plates). And for those still using the original Spark bindings, the nylon spacer in the binding would likely never wear out.

Redesigning the pin is much simpler than rejigging the touring bracket.
respectfully,
gary