bigwavedave

I'm gonna agree with Marvin (and Jack) here. Never seen a setup like that. Looks scary. I would forget about measuring numbers/degrees and try starting where others have already landed with their setups. Then tweak for comfort from there. Everybody here talks degrees because that's the way Bomber bindings are setup. For F2's: Start with 1 large block toe lift in the front. Put a smaller lift in the rear by stacking 2 of the thin cant wedges and 1 thin wedge. Then get those boot cuff cants balanced (they still look off). Maybe start by getting the cuffs symmetrical and neutral (no inward or outward cant). Probably a good idea to get the same spring system in both boots too. Put your feet in the shells (sans liners) mounted in the bindings and adjust the boot cuff cants and/or your binding cant/lifts to get your legs somewhat centered in the boot cuffs. At your weight and age, you might want something with more flex like dgss with soft springs. You can set the front more upright and preset the rear with some forward lean if it feels good. Then you can make incremental changes from there to tweak for personal preference. PS: I think Cory was using 6° (large lifts) front (toe) and rear (heel) with UPZ's. That might have worked for me if I widened my stance. So you might play with stance width while your at it. Or at least take one of those big lifts from the front and put it under your rear heel. It should achieve the same thing as you've got.

I was very disappointed to find that you hadn't hiked up to make first tracks before the lifts started. ...Even if it was just to see the looks on the faces of all the folks waiting in line.

What, no sauna? My sailboat is my "house" boat. Self steering is a wind powered vane. Those lift lines at Buck were longer than Spirit's.

Never did go over to Indianhead. Saturday crowds, not worth the drive. 2-3 inches of dry fluffy snow last night. The 1st inch got groomed in last night and softened the base. Blue sky and 2" fresh on groom this morning. To the top of the hill for first tracks with the swallowtail (just for fun). Soft snow carving, finally! After an hour it was pretty tracked and rutted so switched to the 180 Coiler Rev with Gecko's which rode like a dream through the soft push piles and ruts. Finished out the day over in the park with some smooth sweet sweeping surfy turns. Ran into Jane carving up the park on her Coiler bxfr. Then Ken wandered over from the other side, which had turned into a zoo with XC races and the first fat bike Sunday. Saw Collin from the express chair, riding his 163 Donek FC. Rode from 8:30-noon. The formerly ice groom on SkyHooker, Gandy, CinderSnapper etc, is now a penetrable crust and I expect will be gone after the new snow gets groomed in.

I can over power my Contra AT on firm groom with regular hardboots, and I don't like that much boot for soft snow, so I've been riding my Contra AT with softer hardboots, like Raichle 323's, or these nifty AT boots I picked up in the classifieds here. Pictured is a 165 Contra AT, 23 waist. Angles ~51° fr, ~45° rear, slight inward cant wedges with lifts, rear heel, and front toe. Backland boots with dgss springs. I tried soft boots way back when they were essentially glorified Sorrels, so I have no reference for how much support the new stuff has. I suspect they're comparable to soft hardboots.

Sorry, I was just joking about buying. I had a Super made to my specs, but I really did like this one. And I actually have a new stomp pad here waiting for my next Thirst which just came out of the press yesterday! You're putting a lot of nice boards out there at bargain prices for some lucky carvers. Thanks for that!

That looks a lot like the demo I first rode. Maybe not the same board, but similar vintage with a carbonium topsheet. I'd almost consider buying it, but for the stomp pad. That's a deal breaker. I liked it so much I asked if I could buy it after riding for an afternoon, and he wouldn't let me have it.

I bet Mario knows from personal experience. While blissfully carving down a run at MCC#1, I suddenly found my board being redirected in an 8" deep trench and heading for the trees. Somehow I mustered the strength to extricate myself from what I later learned to be a "typical Mario trench" and was welcomed into the fraternity with tales from other survivors.

Yeah, swellbow. Mine's is not as bad this time, but still kind of a weird water balloon look about it. I had wondered if I permanently destroyed the bursa last time, but apparently it's still there. At Spirit Mt today, a nice sunrise this morning got me up and moving for first tracks. It was -1°F when I got to the top of the hill and then the sun disappeared behind a heavy blanket of clouds. Flat light, icy hard groom, silly me, I was hoping for better after a few grooming cycles. At least the ice chunks were gone and there were no lift lines. Over in the park and found snow that I could get an edge into, barely. Only rode for an hour. Might head over to Indianhead tomorrow for some turns in softer snow.

I've got a new 4.5" Cake Eater on the front (4" back). Gonna add studs to the outermost knobs...and try lowering the pressure.

Often the best snow and untouched groom is found in the park between and around the jumps... Man-made snow just doesn't feel the same, but I'm not complaining.

Pretty nice day. Rode for 3hrs on the 171XC. Snow is a little better today, still firm to hard & chunky in places. Nice carvable groom was found. Sunny & blustery with little snow squalls. And the one harmed boarder patroller made an appearance. Instead of getting busier late morning, the whole place emptied out from about 11:30-1pm. I found untouched groom over in the empty bigair park. Posting a photo in tracks... Should be nice tomorrow. Cold, but sun and another day of grooming. Plus I tried to make deep trenches so the groomer will have to set the tiller deeper.

Looks like price includes shipping. @MIROSLAV What is the width at nose and tail on the AX?

There were impressive plumes of snow billowing over the hill in near zero temps for the past day and ½. I went up for a couple of runs this morning to try the AT boot setup on the Contra AT's. I think I need the stiffer (blue) springs for more leverage. Home for a bit and then back out on the 171XC when the sun came out. The new man-made snow needs a few more skiing/grooming cycles to get some consistency. There were hard icy brown (river water snow) areas interspersed with some decent carving snow. Went down SkyHooker, which was all ice cubes down the middle, and over to check out the park in search of some smooth groom. The light went flat again, although the park had a consistent but hard groom. There is now a mountainous stash of man-made snow at the bottom of Gandy. On an unrelated subject... I've been growing pretty confident on icy surfaces with studded tires on the fatbike. So I decided to go out onto the wide open expanse of the river ice yesterday. I had a very pleasant ride until I went to turn around and the tires lost their grip and down I went. Whacking my elbow and hip hard on the ice. It's hard to fall gracefully on a bike. Your kind of stuck in a bad position. I wrenched my knee a bit too, but I think it's ok. I broke the bursa again on my elbow. It has some ugly swelling. Fell the same way, same side, as 2 years ago, but I don't think I fractured my elbow this time. My knee was just starting to feel back to normal from the last time! Hope I didn't set it back. I sprained my PCL last time, and with the resultant instability I developed some lateral meniscus issues. Looking at my tires, I see there are places to install additional studs on the outermost treads. I need to go see the Chiropractor.

XC has been my favorite ride so far this season (not so last year). Turny enough to maintain a comfortable speed for low visibility (we've had a lot of overcast and foggy days with flat light), and long enough to smooth out the variable snow surface we've had lately. Somehow, I am surprised how each of my Thirsts have a noticeably different personality, though obviously from the same family. Where are you riding?

"The plastic is reluctant to form with heat, and does not readily inform it's willingness to 'give'. So if you plan to do any serious forming, book plenty of time with your fitter, and bring snacks." from Beckman's observations in the linked thread above. It is worth heating the shell (ZipFit method) to help form the liners to the shell.

Apparently that was his technic to get close to the gates. Before skiers started bashing them (wonder who started that?). It was elegant and stylish. It became his signature style. I have a collection of old ski movies that has some great footage of Stein from John Jay films. John Jay was the Warren Miller of the 50's and 60's. I remember seeing them. He traveled the country with his films and narrated from the back of the theater. https://www.vintageskiworld.com/DVD-Box-Set-Classic-Ski-Films-7-Films-p/dvd-classic-7-films.htm

Just looked up at the hill and they've got snow guns blasting all over at the top! Guess I finally shamed them into making new snow after a rain/ice event. I had a dream they'd bring the guns back out and touch up the hill. ...and 12 hrs later...1/19/21 ...this morning they have moved the guns down the hill. Now I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

I grew up skiing in the 50's and 60's. I remember, "Ski like Stein". Who's Craig Kelly? Right after Stein died, I was riding up the chair with a skier old enough to remember who Stein was. I asked him if he'd heard. He said yes, in fact he first met Stein when he competed in nordic combined at the same Oslo Olympics where Stein won alpine gold. Turned out this old guy was George Hovland who started Spirit Mt in the 70's. He had a good story to tell. Saw him out skiing the other day and he was very curious about my board.

Clouds cleared out just before opening this morning. It was a very firm and fast surface groom. 1 inch trenches at best. Spirit has perfected the art of "surface groom"—an inch or so of groomed sugary ice shavings over groomer tracked washboard ice. Once carved and skidded it breaks loose and exposes the naked ice. Ken & Jane were there, he on the 4pipe, she in the park. I rode for a couple of hours. The 171XC seems to be the best board in my quiver to control speed on ice with shorter radius carves, yet enough length to smooth the ride over a rough surface. As is typical, slightly softer, wide expanses of virtually untouched groom was found in the bigair park. The low clouds on the horizon are Lake Effect snow coming off Lake Superior over northern Wisconsin. A bit farther East in Michigan's U.P., Indianhead should be getting some of that.

Overcast flatlight all day and Spirit looked crowded on the webcam. I went up this evening, mainly just to see how the hill was when I saw lots of empty chairs on the webcam. Well, it was one run and done! Boilerplate ice (from all that rain) under loose sugary snow that was all in push piles on the ice. Geckos weren't enough to make the ride comfortable. Should'a taken the Rev with Boilerplate. Might go for morning groomers tomorrow if the sun makes an appearance. Let's see if they can still make that surface groom. Forecast looks good for a few inches of Lake Effect at Indianhead over the next few days. So, there's that.

Did you have fun carving on the easy runs? That's the most important thing. It's one reason Buttermilk is so popular for carving. It's also less busy and people are going slower, so less chance of getting clipped by some aggro skier. Then go do a few runs on something that challenges you, that makes you focus on technic (and grunting), and then when you go back to the easy run and you'll find you've gotten better.

Lurch is out. Still for sale.

TD1 3° cant discs and bumpers $20 shipped CONUS Looks like these will work with a Burton 3 hole pattern also.

Bump for a pretty board. Very soon, I won't have room for it on the rack (bigmario's 10 board rule) No longer accepting TP or ammo for trade. I know, call me crazy.