Author Topic: Re: New Approach to Binding Mount position; split from Stockli Laser SX review.  (Read 3313 times)

Svend

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Hmmmm....very interesting subject.  For years I used to do the BoF/CRS thing on all of my family's skis, and then found that on some skis this just didn't create a sense of a balanced stance.  Either the tails were washing out, or one would have to get way forward to get the tips under control and to engage.  So I have almost abandoned this method due to too many instances where it simply didn't work -- my wife's im78's, her Progressor 8's, my Progressor 9's.... The final straw came when skiing the Stormriders last spring -- as mentioned, the shop set them up for my friend at the BoF/CRS mark (Knee binding, flat mounted), and it was simply a terrible spot to mount them - felt like it was about 2 cm back of where it should have been.**  The shop owner, who is one of the boot fitters on Epic, has long been a vocal proponent of this method, and was punting it to my friend as the magic spot on the ski and the only way to find a mount location.  So much for that theory.  ::)  They were almost unskiable.

This is no big deal for skis with adjustable bindings or plates, as I have simply moved the binding until the skier feels centered and balanced, and the tips or tails are well weighted and under control.  But for skis that are flat mounted this is a real dilemma.  I have been at a loss to find another method to find a balanced stance, as I am understandably reluctant to go back to the shop for repeated re-drilling.  Both of our daughters have twin tips that are flat mounted, as are my wife's Dynastar all mtn. skis, and I guess I have been lucky that the BoF/CRS seems to have worked well for them - the skis handle well, with no apparent issues - but they are all traditional camber and sidecut geometry.  However, our youngest is nearing the point when she will have outgrown her Fischer twins and will be ready for a longer ski.  Those that I have been checking out for her all have at least early rise, if not some tail rocker too, and I didn't know where to start trying to find a good mounting mark on those, so I had been planning on getting a plate or rail type binding.

Skier stance likely plays a role in this too, I would imagine.  My wife, for example, has as her natural stance a rather forward, low and aggressive position, brought about by years of power skating since childhood.  Our daughters, OTOH, are much more upright, albeit still driving the shovels with shin to boot tongue pressure.  But their fore-aft weight balance is clearly going to be different over the skis.  In your experience, does this have any influence on where your final mounting mark settles? Have you set up skis in this way for others, or just your own? In other words, have you mounted according to measurements, only to find that it didn't work for a particular person because of stance peculiarities?

Overall, though, your description of CEE and narrowest sidecut point are extremely interesting.  Encouraging, too, that I now have a real alternative to finding the correct mounting point on a rockered and/or multi-sidecut ski, leaving the option of a flat mounted binding still open.  You've piqued my curiosity, and I am going to do some measurements of our own skis to see how they line up.  My P-9's would be a good candidate, and my wife's iM78's.  I don't have a digital caliper, but I do have a micrometer that might serve for now.  Re. midsole mark on the boots, I'm not sure if your criteria for a tight fore-aft shell fit is the same as ours, but all our boots are 1/2" to 3/4" gap at heel, toes touching, on a footbed.  Hopefully that matches well to the mid-foot spot.

Thanks, H-A.  Great post.

**Correction: I just re-read my own review of the Stockli's, and found a note that, while the bindings were indeed set up at the BoF/CRS mark, there was also a riser plate of 8 to 10 millimeters thickness placed under the toe piece, but not under the heel.  This would doubtless have influenced my impression of the bindings being mounted too far back. 

« Last Edit: January 02, 2013, 05:18:43 pm by Svend »