freeride mounting on Atomic skis??

[SNOBLIND]

I just bought a set of Atomic beta cruise 9-22 skis at a garage sale for $20.00. They're sweet, only a few scratches on the top sheets and the bottoms and edges are perfect, what a deal! Anyway, I've been told to mount the bindings ( freerides) forward of the center line that is on the ski from the factory, supposedly atomics line is to far back? I'll be skiing with scrpa denali boots which stand me up a little straiter, I don' want to be in the back seat!! Especialy on the steep stuff at TUX! Any thoughts or suggestions??

[jshefftz]

Wow, $20, nice deal!
Anyway, Austrian and German skis tend to provide suggested mounting points that are further back compared to French skis. I have generally found that an aft-biased mounting point makes turn initiation more difficult, although it does not affect fore-aft balance.
For any ski, the exercise I go through is:
- check out where the suggested mounting point puts my boot;
- check out where the Ball-of-Foot (BOF) method puts my boot; then,
- if they differ just a little bit, go w/ BOF, if they differ dramatically, go with a compromise.
Here is how to determine BOF:
1. Find center of the running length, as follows.
a. Hold skis very firmly base-to-base (i.e., so that camber is flattened out), mark where the tips diverge from each and where the tails diverge from each other, then mark the midpoint.
b. Or press the ski flat against a hard smooth level floor and mark where the tips and tails curve up from the floor.
2. Find ball of foot, as follows.
a. Unbuckle the boot, locate BOF depression in footbed, then try to mark the outside of the shell that corresponds with the point you’ve located inside the boot.
b. Or, remove liner, place footbed in boot (by itself), now place your foot inside the shell, resting on the footbed, and attempt to do the same.

[Justin]

Originally Posted by jshefftz

Wow, $20, nice deal!
Anyway, Austrian and German skis tend to provide suggested mounting points that are further back compared to French skis. I have generally found that an aft-biased mounting point makes turn initiation more difficult, although it does not affect fore-aft balance.
For any ski, the exercise I go through is:
- check out where the suggested mounting point puts my boot;
- check out where the Ball-of-Foot (BOF) method puts my boot; then,
- if they differ just a little bit, go w/ BOF, if they differ dramatically, go with a compromise.
Here is how to determine BOF:
1. Find center of the running length, as follows.
a. Hold skis very firmly base-to-base (i.e., so that camber is flattened out), mark where the tips diverge from each and where the tails diverge from each other, then mark the midpoint.
b. Or press the ski flat against a hard smooth level floor and mark where the tips and tails curve up from the floor.
2. Find ball of foot, as follows.
a. Unbuckle the boot, locate BOF depression in footbed, then try to mark the outside of the shell that corresponds with the point you’ve located inside the boot.
b. Or, remove liner, place footbed in boot (by itself), now place your foot inside the shell, resting on the footbed, and attempt to do the same.

Ya, All that jibber jabber aside, I concur. I've been skiing Atomics for a while and thier recommended position is usually a little back. Last winter I mounted a pair of TM:X's with tele's and some teledaddys with freerides. BOF was a wee bit further forward on both.

[ATP]

A wee bit? Try two inches on the RX. I bumped mine forward an inch to split the difference (but that compromise was partially determined by previous drill holes).

[Justin]

Originally Posted by ATP

A wee bit? Try two inches on the RX. I bumped mine forward an inch to split the difference (but that compromise was partially determined by previous drill holes).

WOW, that is alot more than a wee bit. My RX's have Alpines on them... My TM:X's had a 3/4 inch discrepancy.

[SNOBLIND]

OK now you guys are confusing me!! If I use the described BOF method is it going to be OK on the beta cruise 9-22's. should the ballof my foot be in line with the new "center line" Thanks everybody!!!

[Justin]

Originally Posted by SNOBLIND

OK now you guys are confusing me!! If I use the described BOF method is it going to be OK on the beta cruise 9-22's. should the ballof my foot be in line with the new "center line" Thanks everybody!!!

Snoblind, It does get confusing even conflicting. Go here for the best instructions I know of.

[SNOBLIND]

Thanks Justin, I'm gonna go with that and hope for the best. Now if it would hurry up and snow, I know where there is this great big rockpile to try them out on!!!!!

[ATP]

Yes, do as Justin says. The fact of the matter is that the guy who wrote that teletips mounting tutorial is the same guy who coached me on my second bounding mount (first one being by the Atomic COB mark) and who did some of his method development work on some of JShefftz's boards (which is to say, It's a small world - you have 3 shared opinions supported by the same dataset - not exactly independent thought going on here). Nevertheless, BoF CoRS is as close as you'll get to a universal, non-expert-sytems method of fore-aft mounting. Those pesky Germans just think that everybody is a racer, regardless of ski construction, so they throw everything back to make the ski stable, rather than putting it in a sensible middle spot to allow for some nimbleness as well.