realskiers

Skis and Gear Discussion => Gear Garage => Topic started by: jbotti on April 07, 2011, 10:30:36 am


Title: Demo Bindings on all Wide Skis
Post by: jbotti on April 07, 2011, 10:30:36 am
As many here know, I switched to the Dodge Boot this year. With the switch I went from a 313mm BSL to a 305mm BSL. This means that I had to adjust all my bindings for the shorter BSL. I had mounted my Icelantic Shamans with some Look P14's with wide brakes and when I moved the heel piece forward by almost a CM in deep snow I really noticed a difference. I had them mounted on the line which is probably fine, but for deep days 1cm to 2cm behinnd the line is better and I only ski these on deep days. Now I am 1 cm in front of the line and the difference is very noticeable and not good. I just took the Look bidings off and replaced them with some railflex demo bindings. These give me the ability to not only slide the whole binding fore and aft by 1.5cm but I can also adjust the toe and heel fore and aft by close to 3 cm. In other words I have ultimate flexibility to find the exact mount point that works best in the conditions I am skiing. I am asking myself why I mounted these skis without adjustable bindings becaue I know that it takes playing around before one finds the right mount point.

With carving skis I have much less of an issue and if it has a crve plate then I can easily change the mount without needing to drill. My IM 78's have railflex bindings and these work great and it was very easy to adjust them for my shorter BSL.

At the end of the day, it seems t me more and more that railflex, Power Rail and demo/adjustable bindings are the way to go, from the start especailly and on any wider skis. I know we had a thread about this a while back and I agreed with this thinking then and the I went out and did the opposite. Silly me!! I am now totally on board for this and everyone should consider this with all their fat skis.


The difference between a perfect mount point and a poor one can be very significant!!
Title: Re: Demo Bindings on all Wide Skis
Post by: Gary on April 07, 2011, 01:54:29 pm
Experience is priceless...

I have had to many skis re-drilled to find that elusive sweet spot. For my future fat ski purchases I plan on mounting adjustable bindings with opposable thumbs....huh?  :D

Oh yeah....I like Markers version...sweet.

Right On JB...the right location is dabomb!

G
Title: Re: Demo Bindings on all Wide Skis
Post by: HighAngles on April 09, 2011, 07:55:14 pm
I have to agree - having an adjustable binding really gives you an advantage in getting your gear dialed in.  I wish more binding manufacturers would take this idea to heart and produce great adjustable bindings. The Tyrolia/Head PowerRail is a great step in the right direction.  Some of the other binding systems can mostly do the job also, but I almost ran out of adjustment room on my new Blizzard G-Power skis.  The problem was that the binding system was mounted for the default midsole mark, but I wanted my mount much farther forward.  I ended up at the very farthest point forward on the adjustment scale for the toe and heel just to get my BoF in the right spot. 

So there is a caveat with some manufacturers (including Head).  I almost ran into the same thing with the Head Chip 78 skis I picked up.  They have the integrated Railflex system and I almost ran out of room on the front of the rails to get the bindings where I wanted them.  I usually mount Tyrolia plates based on my measurements and then I have the ability to go back or forward 10mm to fine tune the position a bit if necessary.  Luckily both sets of my new skis are feeling great where I have the bindings so I lucked out without needing to do anything really drastic.