Binding placement

[Skihack]

This is a question for those with some binding setup experience. How does the ski factory determine the factory recommended binding setup? Is it based on the ski length? Or based on something else such as sweet spot or so on?

Thanks.

[Bud Man]

That seems to be a great question skimech. I hope we get some accurate answers.

[Skihack]

I was just curious, so I laid out all my old skis: EP's, Jobes, HO's, Iconns to some of the newer ones: Goode's and Radars. I wrote the factory recommended settings for bindings on each ski. I then measured the tail and tip rockers, slid a piece of thick paper under the ski across the table from both ends to get the length and placement of the flat spot. The older skis have more rocker and the newer ones do not. All of the skis are of the basic same shape. I really found no relationship to the recommended binding setup to the flat spot. I would have thought that it would be relative. What got me interested in this was the recommended setting of 28.875 for the 64" Goode and  65's from other manufacturers were in the 29" range.

[aguylikeshark]

The ski flat spot tends to concentrate pressure - so i think it is certainly one of the factors in front boot position. I like to feel that pressure under the middle of my front foot as much as possible through the turn and in the work zone of the pull. At the other end the rear boot activates the ski's rocker for cast out, speed and for turn completion. So the rear needs to be in the "sweet" spot in the tail section of the ski to do its work. Smaller skis you would typically see tighter boot spacing, larger skis larger boot spacing. These days a 66 or 67 ski I found that if my boot spacing it too close (e.g less than 11.875") I lose some of the dynamic of the ski's design.

 

 

The Elite is an interesting experiment on what happens when you start moving flat spots(FS). The ski that I had the FS was very short and between the two boots. What this did was create a pressure point between my boots, lifting the ski as soon as I generated any sort of speed above 34 mph. I called it levitation. It was really strange. With that FS so far back, getting speed cross course is a no-brainer, it was fast but I had no pre-turn, no contact to setup the turn until the ski slowed enough and then boom. One set was all that took.

[h2odawg79]

Interesting thought. My Rs-1's are size 11 and will only go 12 1/8" min. (this is were i have always had them)and the above post got me thinking about if I should try a little wider span on my 68". Seems, This could to some degree also effect the proportional load on the "Flex" of the Ski by Increasing/decreasing the size of the Footprint.