 Poster: A snowHead
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I had an old pair of skis (Atomic 9.22s) lying around that I wanted to equip for resort use to try some of this “piste skiing” I’ve been reading about. It sounds like fun. Apparently they have large machines that run up and down the mountains smoothing out the snow to leave a nice smooth finish and the cherry on the cake, rather than walking up they have installed lifts! Crazy stuff I know, can you imagine it, lifts in the mountains? What will they think of next.
Anyway the only two problems were the old skis had holes in them and I didn’t have any of these “downhill binding” thingies. First stop on Saturday afternoon was to Mr Bricobraque for some 4mm solid plastic dowel and some two pack epoxy. Then I went by my local ski shop and picked up a pair of Salomon spherical bindings in red. 41 euros the pair. Now here’s something, apparently with these bindings if you fall over your foot will actually release saving your leg from a potential injury. Progress huh?
Anyway back home I cut a dozen 1cm lengths of the dowel; filled the old holes with araldite and hammered the pieces in. I then cut the tops off with a hacksaw to leave the base of the ski flat.
Now to fit the bindings. I figured it can’t be that hard so put my ski boot over the center line and pushed the toe into position marking the end of the binding with a felt tip. I then put both skis vertical and continued this marking onto the other ski.
I then removed the binding base plate, lined it up with the toe marking and made marked for where the holes should go through the plate with the felt tip. Using a ruler I double checked that the plate would be central and aligned with the middle of the ski. I then drilled holes for the toe using a 3.5mm self centering drill bit. I filled the holes with araldite and screwed the toe in place.
Placing the boot in the toe I then put the heel in place making sure it was adjusted to the center point. I marked where the holes where to go. Double checked with a ruler and drilled. Heel fitted. This was repeated for the other ski. All seems pretty straightforward. All this took about an hour.
The main problems were fitting the brakes which were a bit of a fiddle and ensuring that the bindings were screwed down onto the skis but not over tightened. I’m also not totally convinced that redrilling foam cored skis is a great idea.
I’ve not tested the ensemble yet, will post back later if I rip the bindings out of the skis.
Anyway it doesn't seem to be rocket salad.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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davidof, The usual drill size is 4.1mm and the original holes wouldn't have been 1cm deep, but you did write that you cut off some of the plastic dowel. Shops have small plastic beads that they use to fill old holes.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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"What will they think of next."
I have heard that they actually employ someone to place long coloured poles along the edge of these smoothed out tracks they make. Amazing really, and thats not all, these poles indicate how steep the slope is. I believe you should stick to the green ones as the brackets holding your boot on your ski are only held by a bit of glue. If you ever get some better skiis you should try the slopes that are marked out with black poles. On these they have a machine that makes bumps all the way down.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| davidof wrote: |
| I’m also not totally convinced that redrilling foam cored skis is a great idea. |
It's not, you should really wash off the gillette shaving foam before drilling.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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David you don't need to go all the way up to the mountains. They have one of those lift thingies in Grenoble. And somebody has kindly bashed out a smooth path back down to the town. Of course the snowline needs to drop considerably before it'd be much use!
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| davidof wrote: |
| Then I went by my local ski shop and picked up a pair of Salomon spherical bindings in red. 41 euros the pair. |
RED?
Oh dear. The red ones were only designed to go on Atomic 9.21, otherwise the colour scheme is all wrong.
As you say, mounting bindings isn't exactly new clear fish cakes.
(the old fashioned way of doing it was to put the boot in the binding on a piece of paper, and make a template with it, then stick the paper to the ski, and drill that way.)
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Not sure I would have used an epoxy with a foam core, but way to go!
rjs, 4.1mm? why?
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Well they seem to have stood up to a day's abuse at l'Alpe d'Huez
and I wasn't going around in circles or anything weird.
Most skis seem to have a hole size marked on them somewhere. I think Foxies template idea is the best solution.
The Grenoble Bastille used to have a chair lift at the top which skiers used during the winter back in the day. Plus ca change, plus ca change!
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