Front Binding Location- historical question

[cruznski]

Hello, Forum folks. From NorCal I am writing as since there's so little snow I got my water ski out and revisited front binding location. For example, on an old 66.25" Goode the technical manual recommendation is 29.500" (note the three decimal places!) from the tail of the ski to the inside of the 'horseshoe' that mounts the rubber. Now I run Large plates, and I wonder if that distance should vary by plate size- it seems that the center of gravity of that front foot would be much further forward on Large plates with size 12 feet than small plates with Size 7 feet. I also seem to recall that a lot of folks running large plates run them 'one hole back' but I have no real statistics on this.

This has been the case for a long time- that there is a location defined for the back of the front foot, and then you go from there.

I understand the counter point might be that with the rear foot then your still centered over the ski. What do you think?

One more point on this too is that you would think that if you adjust fins to within .001" the binding adjust would be more resolved than bolt hole selection- I mention this as once years ago I drilled a split between holes on HO bindings as there was a big difference between recommended and a whole bolt hole back (on a Sixam).

 

[andjules]

Not an answer but to add to the discussion, when mounting snow skis, you're typically looking to position bindings based on the beginning of your instep, not the back of the heel. If memory serves, that's how I was taught to position my trick ski binding back in the 80s/early 90s before inserts. I realize that measuring to the inside of the heel horseshoe (or rear stitches on my radar bindings) is more exacting, but to your point, my center of gravity is not at the back edge of my heel.

 

Of course, it's quite possible that binding manufacturers try to keep the instep in a constant position when building small/medium/large plates.

[disland]

revisit micro adjust on this forum.

[cruznski]

THanks for the tip, I checked out the micro adjust device- interesting it settled on one would work per plate, which makes sense to me. So indeed some very experienced skiers identify this as an issue, and it is still an aftermarket solution. My point here being that plates have had the same hole spacing for 30+ years. Maybe there's not enough demand for that level of adjustment, and it will remain aftermarket or those that like to modify their gear.

[cruznski]

Here's an idea that would not be an expensive add and would work with inserts in market now.