Rear boot - knee pain

[OldboyII]

I skied in RTP from the day one. This year I tried rear Venom (one size larger than front boot) and really liked stability and concistency that it gives. But: within a week the knee of rear leg started little aching. The longer - the more aching. Within two weeks pain become a noticeable and finally something "clicked" in the knee and I needed to take 10 days break and return to RTP.

Did anyone bumped into similar proplem?

Is there a solution for such situation, like, for exapmle rotating rear binder to "duck stance"?

Or two boot setup is contraindication in this case?

Consultation with couple of doctors gave nothing - they simply do not understand what Im talking about ))

Thanks!

[A_B]

My guess is that you move your heel around more than you realize and the boot didn’t allow that to happen and you were putting torque on your knee. A loose boot should allow the heel to go up and down so wouldn’t think that would be a problem.

[aupatking]

I had to cant my rear boot a bit or my knee would kill me. If I run a rear toe, no problem. It took me surprisingly little angle to stop it from bothering me

[Deanoski]

ditch the back boot go back to a kicker or get a Wiley 3/4 rear boot

[OldboyII]

@aupatking Thank you for answer. Could you please describe "cant"? Rotating binding inward or outward in flat position? Or canting like in alpine ski - inclining toward to inside or outside edge?

@A_B It does make sense. Interesting angle of view!

@Deanoski Thanks. I am afraid that swapping Venom to Wiley 3/4 would not change much. I have both of them - by feel and hold they are nearly the same. Though Venom is a bit softer.

 

[A_B]

Some people like a wedge under their rear heels, makes them feel more athletic and on toes. Rotating is done by rotating the rear or front binding toward the little toes. Canting is a wedge on one side of the biding that raises a side of the plate, so best to raise both plates, the theory is that as your feet seek level you are pushing the raised edge of the ski deeper in the water, so typically done to help the offside lean.

 

I have tried pretty much all of the above, and like my bindings dead straight, as close together as possible. I always cut the front of my rear Animal binding off and ground the raised logo stuff off the back of the front boot so my toes could ride up on the back of the front boot. I felt better centered on the ski, I also have size 12 feet so didn't like the weight spread out that far if toes were not jammed into the back of the front boot.

 

I have been enjoying the Radar Hybrid Toe Plate as it allows my back heel to move up and down but doesn't allow my heel to move side to side.

 

 

 

[Wayne]

@OldboyII canting a binding is where you lift the “inside” of the binding so instead of the binding foot hole pointing straight up, it’s at an angle. You can twist your foot in rubber bindings to the same effect. When I was on Animals I always noticed I would cant my foot so all my weight was on the outside edge of my foot.

 

I went the opposite way you did and switched from double Radar Vectors to using a Radar ARTP due to knee pain. I’m missing 60-80% of my meniscus in my left knee. I ski RFF. I noticed both a full binding or a 3/4 boot limits the ability to rotate my heal. So when I get into position for my off side wake crossing, it puts a twisting moment on my left leg. My knee takes the brunt of it and I can feel it twist which makes it unstable. My skiing days were probably coming to and end of it wasn’t for switching out my rear binding. Same as you, I had lots of pain from skiing with double bindings.

 

My observations from this season are that I could probably go to a rubber rear binding with a lot of flex, like the new HO venom or a wileys) or stick with the ARTP. The ARTP offers the most freedom so I’m sticking with it.

 

I’m a large supporter of “if something causes pain, you need to stop”. You can try canting your binding but if you still notice any pain, stop. Switch to a different set up and reassess. I won’t go into detail, but I should have switched to a different binding setup 10 years ago due to discomfort and more recently pain.

[aupatking]

I may have misspoken. I meant rotate toe outward. On my R-Style I left the rear mount screw of the boot in the center of the plate and turned to toe out.

It immediately resolved the knee pain and didn’t seem to affect my skiing adversely.

[OldboyII]

@aupatking Are you LFF or RFF?

I'm not familiar with R-Style, could you pls give more info: where on the binding plate is a "pivot point" - under the middle of foot, in the front or under heel?

Is a pivot point in the centerline of the ski or displaced to the left or right side?

[aupatking]

@OldboyII i took mine off last night to show you. I circled the stock mounting screws. They would normally be in the middle holes. I have added extra screws just to make certain I have extra strength holding the boot to the plate. I don’t like the idea of a single screw being all there is.

 

 

[OldboyII]

@aupatking Thank you! Great idea to move boot on the plate instead of rotating the plate against the ski.

Will start new season with this setup!

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@OldboyII modifying and rotating the rear boot may reduce your symptoms and pain but I will bet a few cold ones you will be asking more questions next year if you start with the boot. Your best option is to forget about a rear boot and stick with the RTP.