Message #17551

[ToddW]

memo to me:  first experiments with binding position on Icon TT 80 170cm tuned 0.5/3.0

After a couple months of weekly noncrystalline precipitation events and brown slopes (with or without a smattering of white), winter has arrived in VT and my rock skis have rotated to the back of my locker.

I spent 3 hours today on the Icon TT 80s trying out different binding positions.  They're the newer ones with powerrail adjustable in 4mm increments rather than the older ones with railflex and 15mm adjustment.  I was surprised how much of a Goldilocks story emerged (too much, too little, just right.) 

Today we had the sort of nice, crisp hero snow we usually get with temps below 0.  So these results are on good snow and groomers only.  No bumps, no ice, and nothing steep since coward me wanted to get a first read on the effect of binding position in friendlier circumstances.  I also spent the morning doing drills on kers supershapes to establish a baseline in my mind.

default position: produces nice turns when foot pull-back and early counteracting are working just right.  Tight brushed turns require some focus on these tasks or else medium radius turns result.  Any technique hiccough or laziness widens the turn.  I can't bend the ski as much as I'd like to; real g forces are just beyond reach.

forward 4mm: produces nice, tight turns even when movements are only 90% there.  Carved or brushed, the turns are just sweeter and tighter.  In brushed turns, the tails felt slightly loose but I'd been skiing supershapes all morning which is a bad reference point given their wide tail.  I hiked back up and examined the tracks of several short brushed turns where I felt this.  There were always two distinct tracks, so the skis were brushing and not skidding.  Skiing perception versus skiing reality again. 

forward 8mm: turned on some warning bells in my mind.  The tip felt oversized like a supershape ... and that's contrary to the ski's design intent.  It skis okay, but the tip is aggressive and I suspect the tails would slide on ice.

forward 12mm: yikes!  In the liftline, I sensed that the tails were light.  After about 20 turns, I stopped and reset the bindings to +4mm.  The tails were on the verge of switching to windshield wiper mode on short "brushed" (actually skidded) turns.  In lower energy carved turns they held with appropriate fore-aft working of the ski, but I wasn't interested in trying to push them harder and holding a yard sale.

forward 16mm:  I didn't try this, but it is basically what jbotti uses on his railflex binding.  I wonder if Head has mounted the powerrail bases more forward than they did the old railflex bases?  Or perhaps John's long femurs require a markedly different fore-aft setup than my short legs/long torso body.

to do next:  ice and bumps at -4, 0, +4mm.

(There's more that I can't remember right now, but this will have to do as a record since I have a 5 hour drive ahead of me and have to work tomorrow (MLK Day.))