Grizzly GR 98 Binding

Does the grizzly 98 have a crampon option? I am hoping to repurpose these for a backcountry spring set up and need to have crampons. Thanks.

Entry and exit into these bindings is just not as good or as fast as a traditional toe piece. I practiced and practiced but it never comes close. If not in a hurry they seem to work fine, but why buy 700 dollar bindings if you’re not in a hurry?
They never failed on me and I never crashed hard enough to test the release truly. I had one minimal crash and they stayed on, which was a good thing in the situation. One time the heel piece rotated and released as I tried to quickly get out of them to put on skins. I had to twist it back into place before skinning.
I never experienced flopping of heel mechanism, but if it does happen there does not appear to be any way to tighten it.
I regret buying these. Can’t imagine this company will be around long.

I have been using the GR98 for 3 outings and find them pretty difficult to get into. Granted, I'm not the most flexible person, but getting into them is really frustrating as I have to hold the little tab open with my hand while trying to get my boot into place. I'm so bad at it that I have been tearing by boot up.

Is there an adjustment to make the open setting more open so the boot fits more easily and yet when closed it is still properly tight and safe?

I bought these directly from Grizly for the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse. With the move towards requiring brakes in skimo races, with their light weight, they seemed like a good bet, despite the high price. I mounted the bindings on a brand new ski and trained a handful of days on them; enough to familiarize myself with the setup and develop sufficient slill with the unusual entry and exit.
I never got the brakes to reliably deploy. Worse is that the red heel riser softened up during the GT such that I had to tape it down to keep my heel from locking in while skinning. I tried to find a reliable fix to no avail. I contacted Grizly but they didn't respond. Overall, this is the most expensive and worst binding I've ever used in decades of back country skiing (tele and ATl) Unfortunately I have a direct race mount ( no adjustment plate ) so don't have an obvious clean solution to solve the conundrum. I'm definitely disappointed in the binding failing after perhaps 20 hours of use and wouldn't reccomended them to anyone.

Disclaimer: I have only used the GR98 toe piece on a telemark setup and therefore cannot speak to the efficacy of the heel piece. That said, I am very happy with the toe. I like the lever wing on the toe, with a little practice it is very easy to line up your inserts and engage the toe on your first try every time. As far as retention goes, I could not be more pleased. As I said, I have been telemarking on this toe and have had zero issues with durability or prerelease, despite the lack of a traditional lock-out lever. In fact, I have found the downhill retention more consistent/reliable than the Ski Trab toe or even a locked-out Dynafit Speed Radical toe, which I find quite impressive.

The brakes are frankly not the most functional out there, but they do work with a little TLC. I found that storing the skis with the brakes deployed helps them to keep their springiness, and you can refresh the brake deployment by opening up the base of the rectangular middle part of the brake using a spreader tool or some rigid pliers. I ended up removing my brakes as the rotation of the boot in my tele turn would often re-lock them anyway. I'm not sure that they would stop the ski in icy or hardpack conditions, but I can't say for sure because toe is strong enough that I have yet to release in the field. Either way, they are a super-light way to meet new ISMF brake requirements.

This is an interesting binding and personally I'm a big fan of introducing brakes into the race scene. It will be interesting to see how this space innovates as other companies release race bindings with brakes.

The GR98 skis well and feels secure. I'm not a huge fan of the way you get in and out of the binding and the brake system has its moments. The side lock to get in and out of the binding (Grizzly Lock) is interesting. It is different and at first I thought it would just take some time to get used to as every other tech binding uses basically the same system with the same general motion.

In my opinion, it's not as efficient and requires more attention than a typical pin race binding toe piece does. It definitely adds more time. I personally find it fine to get into the binding compared to other race bindings but getting out of it just hasn't been as good. My boots constantly get caught in the front pins after I undo the side lever to try and get my boot out of the bindings. On rare occasions I turn my foot at the perfect angle and it comes out smoothly but that's not a regular occurrence.

The brake system also has its moments. One of my brakes deploys most of the time and the other deploys 50% of time when I take my skis off. The one that deploys 50% of time generally requires a manual flick to get it to work for the day. Ice and snow can build up and keep the brake from engaging as well. I like the overall system and placement for the brake but a brake that doesn't engage everytime without help is kinda pointless.

Overall I would say proceed with caution. It certainly could be user error on the transitions but I spend a lot of time skiing and have spent a good amount of time on these bindings and other more traditional tech bindings. The brake issue is annoying as well. Thankfully haven't had a crash or something that would require the brakes to engage but if that ever happens we will see if both brakes engage or not.

What are the differences between the 98 and the olympic? It's not clear. I see release value, removable brake, maybe a crampon difference, and maybe some adjustment bar for boot height (not width) difference. Confirm? Is the Grizzly toe and heel drill pattern shared with ATK? Thanks

What heel gap do these use? Also, how do you get the boot to sit flat on the ski with the brakes under the boot? ( Bend the brakes?)

I'm considering upgrading to these bindings on my race skis (Ski Trab Lirace). Currently they have Plum 99 bindings. Is there any chance that the toe and/or heel hole pattern would line up?