BD Neve crampons in "walk" mode design flaw?

are you certain this would result in a failure of the strap?

Steve, look at the picture I posted. The straps are attached at a point of friction. That's just sloppy design.
They don't need to be there. In fact, as mentioned, the post has been been re-designed. Probably precisely for that reason, though BD would never admit to that.
I got my new posts in the mail today.

The webbing setup you show in your picture is different from any of my crampons. My webbing goes strait through past the bail height adjustment thumb screw, while yours has a two piece strap type of setup. In the abuse case you described where the webbing would abrade, mine would smoothly ride up onto the plastic of the bail. My BD's and Grivels are both arranged in the fashion I described.

Obviously there are many generations of these available, so can anyone else confirm that incorrect webbing setup might be the issue?

Send 'em back no matter whose fault it is or design flaw or not.

Why.... cuz you got the wrong un's.

These are what you need.

www.camp-usa.com/products/crampons/xlc-nanotech-180001.asp

I have these and they are a little work of art... like a dynafit binding! I like to fondle them they are sooooo nice.

Edit to add: I stayed in a Holiday Inn express the night before I bought these and tried them on my boot in the shop!

...

Randy -yes (as mentioned above)yes that's the lecture I got from BD too (as mentioned above) and (as mentioned above)I'm already enlisted in the BD remedial shopping program... 

Seriously though, have you hauled your boots all over town doing this? And calculated the time it takes to do this? Not to mention doing this when most stores have already shifted their inventory because supposedly the season has changed (hey, where's my corn? it's not even here yet..!).

And besides, is it totally unreasonable to trust manufacturer's claims?
My experience with BD is that yes, it is...

I haven't hauled my boots around town to buy crampons -- because I'm still using the Selawah crampons I bought decades ago.

Personally I think your expectations are somewhat screwy -- 1) You somehow think that the BD engineering department needs to test the fit of their crampons with what amounts to thousands of different boot designs (if you include all manufacturers and say ten prior model years)
2) You somehow think that the BD marketing people actually listen to the BD Engineers -- I suspect the engineers said some thing like "we've tested it them with all BD ski tour boots" and the marketing folks expanded that.

As for trusting a manufacturers claims -- remember those claims aren't written by the engineers that design and develop the product -- they are written by the marketing people -- "How can you tell when a politician marketing person is lying? -- their lips are moving"