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hello and a question from new member

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:25 pm
by oftpiste
Greetings,

What you guys are doing is really terrific. I wish I had the facilities (not to mention faculties) to build my own, but for now I am indulging my interest in handcrafted skis by reading everything I can find online. Kudos to you all, and if anyone ever needs a test rider in the pacific NW.......

Apologies if this is just more newbie blather, but here's my question: I recently bought a pair of these (which you may be familiar with):http://www.lightningboards.com/newskisgif.htm. Really great, passionate guy making these.

I got the Lunar Landers with steel edges. I was kind of preplexed about where to mount alpine bindings because when I measured and eyeballed the toepiece at the center point ( I think this is referred to as 'half-cord'?) it appeared this was way too far back in terms of where the thickest part of the ski was and just visually, so I moved the toe forward about an inch and a half and mounted up.

I'm a late forties, reasonably conservative expert weighing in at 180 and 6'2", and my experience in skiing with them (only once and will try again soon) was that when I used my normal, aggressively weight-forward skiing position I had a hard time controlling them. When I got a little more upright and let my weight settle a little tiny bit into the back seat they seemed easier to turn. In soft, deep, wet snow I also felt like they wanted to submarine. Perhaps they would submarine - being very stiff - no matter where the bindings were mounted?Are these sensations because I mounted them too far forward? Would mounting them further back (at the benchmark halfway point) allow the forward part of the ski to have more input into turn initiation? When you mount your homemade boards do you vary the position depending on the ski itself or the type of skiing you anticipate doing with them?

I should also say that because this is a solid wood ski it is EXTREMELY stiff, and perhaps it is just the nature of the beast combined with my technique or lack thereof. They definitely challenged me and let me know that I'd better pay attention to how I was riding them. I'd like to know if I can tame them and make them work because they're so pretty and I love the idea of the solid ski. It occured to me in a non-engineer way that the challenge might simply be that I couldn't get the ski to flex. There were moments they felt great (choped up heavy crud, soft groomed snow) and others where they were less so (soft, deep and wet, and hard groomed snow).

Any thoughts on binding positioning and its effect on the feel of a ski would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 7:27 pm
by Greg
I can't find the discussion right now, but somewhere on this site we discussed binding location. The comment was that the center of your boot should be mounted such that 42% to 44% of the ski's surface area is behind the center of the boot. This can be kind of hard to judge if your ski has lots of shape, but with a straighter ski, it is pretty easy, and having followed this rule on my last few pairs of skis, I can tell you that it works.

With the Bremallows, I used demo bindings that allow for a huge amount of adjustment in the location of the toe and heel pieces. I initially mounted them more forward, but found myself leaning back a lot to keep them stable. The next day out I moved them about 2" back, and my back got really sore because I was constantly leaning really far forward. Finally I moved them between the two settings, and I found that they now feel well balanced. This just goes to show how much an effect binding location can have.

Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:37 pm
by kelvin
These look like pretty interesting skis. How much camber do they have? Our experience is that a stiff ski with a lot of camber is bad, especially in softer snow. They want to submarine. Changing the binding position could help though.

Do you have any pics of the skis in action? All our skis right now are mounted tele, but I have a pair of demo alpine bindings that I've been meaning to mount. Send me a PM and maybe we can ski. I'd like to see your lightning skis up close as well.

Kelvin