Firm flexors for Nordic skates

March 30, 2026

Why we firmly believe that Nordic skate bindings should always use firm flexors

Most of the time, upgrading outdoor equipment is expensive. It’s easy to spend hundreds of dollars changing bindings on a ski, swapping out a worn crankset on a bike, or replacing an old puffy that’s lost its loft. Outdoor experiences are priceless, but the gear often comes with hefty price tags.

In that light, upgrading your Nordic skate bindings to firm flexors is a breath of fresh air. In fact, there may be no better bang-for-buck upgrade to outdoor gear out there. This upgrade can cost as little as ten or twelve bucks, takes only a few minutes to perform at home, and will substantially improve the performance of your Nordic skates.

What are flexors? Flexors (often called “bumpers”) are the rubbery, squishy blocks on your bindings that butt up against the toe of your ski boot. Toward the end of a stride on a Nordic skate, your heel begins to lift off of the binding and your toe presses into the flexor, compressing it. Then, as your weight fully comes off of the skate, the flexor rebounds and causes the skate to flip up under your heel. This prevents the tail of your skate from flopping around and dragging across the ice.

Firm red flexors on Salomon Race Skate bindings and Ermine A110 Nordic skates

So what’s the problem? Most bindings come stock with medium (typically black) flexors. While these flexors do function properly with Nordic skates, they were designed for skis. Nordic skates benefit from a stiffer flexor that flips the skate up faster and more forcefully. Recall that long track speed skates are sometimes called ‘clap’ skates because of the sound the skate makes when it flips back up under the boot. We don’t need our Nordic skates to flip up that quickly, but the speed skaters have this figured out: when we’re skating, we want to get the blade off the ice as soon as our weight is off of it.

Most outdoorsy people know the sluggish, squishy feeling of a bike with tire pressure that’s a bit too low. As soon as you get your tires pressurized correctly again, the entire bike feels more agile, responsive, and alive. That’s a bit like how it feels to install firm flexors on Nordic skates.

Firm flexors give Nordic skates a snappier, more responsive feel and prevent the tails from dragging on the ice

Luckily, all major binding manufacturers offer firm flexors for their bindings. Making firm flexors red has become an industry standard. Firm red flexors are available for Salomon’s Prolink (NNN) bindings, Rottefella NNN BC bindings, and Rottefella’s Sport Screw bindings (note that the original Sport Screw firm flexors were gray).

By default, Ermine installs firm flexors on all bindings that leave our shop. But for those who have bindings with medium flexors, never fear. We carry firm flexors for both Salomon and Rottefella bindings, and purchasing a set is quick and affordable. Flexors can be swapped out without specialized tools (a screwdriver or similar implement does help), and without removing bindings.

If only every upgrade to your outdoor kit were this easy!”

- Paxson Woelber has been a dedicated Nordic skater and advocate for wild ice skating since 2016. In 2021, he founded Ermine Skate, North America's first Nordic skate company. Today, Ermine offers a range of premium Nordic skates and Nordic skating products designed for wild ice.