In reply to Shearwater:
True enough about being a guinea pig, but for me personally I have eliminated all other options....
- Dynafit still only have low DIN bindings available (other than the Beast for next season which I'm not willing to part $1000 for, and I would be a guinea pig anyway).
- The design of the Duke has multiple flaws including weak plastic around the pivot where metal would prove stronger, a badly designed ski - tour lever that puts a huge amount of pressure on the centre screw in a tail heavy landing, as well as high stack height and sharp dildo to stab you in the arse in a crash.
- The Trekkers are somewhat inefficient to say the least, and whilst they are the only solution that give you a true alpine binding for descent, the amount at which they twist on steep slopes is somewhat worrying.
- The MFD has an inefficient pivot point and there have now been several warranty claims from twisted plates.
The Salomon and Atomic teams have been skiing the Guardian for the last few years and have not had any issues. There has been one known failure so far, but this is likely due to icing under the toe piece, and could be considered user error.
If, however, you are light enough (or ski smooth enough) to ski dynafits, then the swap plates / inserts make perfect sense.