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Gremlin

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Everything posted by Gremlin

  1. That's a great idea. Thanks dhamann.
  2. Thanks pokkis. Now I just hope virus will sell me a set of insert extenders and I don't need to make them.
  3. Or at least let me know if there's a molded insert in there?
  4. The recently resurrected thread reminded me I was going to do this, now that I'll actually get on snow this year. Can somebody post a picture of the attachment point of a bumper? Not sure what the best way to go about securing them is and want to see how it's been done before.
  5. As others have said, width. Overwhelmingly the thing that matters in deep carves with low angles. I wear 10.5 boots on a 28.4 waist, and still sometimes boot out. One of the main advantages of softboots is the range of motion available with a free ankle joint. Stiff boots will move your flex up the chain away from the snow and push your weight out over your heel edge. Use your ankle stregth to improve terrain absorbtion and adjust your edge angle rather than relying on a boot shell. Length is only important the faster you go or the harder it is. Soft boots, low angles, wide board.
  6. Sugarbush has more open and forgiving terrain for carving than Stowe. The layout also lends itself to spreading people out more. Look at the trail maps of the two and it will be evident. Stowe is a significantly older mountain and has classic NE skinny, windy trails. The grooming at Stail is disgraceful at this point. They lost a bunch of veteran groomers during the acquisition and it's been absolute trash since. In regards to terrain influence on turn and riding style, 14-15 was brutally cold and there was pretty much nothing in the way of non-locals. Everything was smooth and ran downhill. From extremely narrow single track in the woods to bump fields, everything. Then presidents week happened, and things were as mentioned. Short skidded turns, fear bumps in and before every corner, no flow to be found anywhere. It's not the fault of the terrain.
  7. Thanks. I've never had any friction issues in boots, plastic has a pretty low coefficient. My rear pivots are spherical bearings for other reasons though, and there's no compressive force transferred into the cuff. I'd guess your boots together weigh less than one of mine. Not built with uphill in mind. A good idea to use donor plastic as hot glue. I surprisingly have very minimal ingress unless it's actively wet out, so I'm not worried for now.
  8. There's footage from last year in this thread. Boots (especially the rear) are lacking a lot of range of motion there, and underfoot geometry is different. Flexion/extension wasn't nearly as free. Unfortunately nothing from this year. Getting a buddy to film, on a clear enough day, in decent conditions, is challenging in the east. I also only got three weeks in this year, and two of them were in powder.
  9. Thanks. Yeah, probably around 3/8. Pivot was relocated on both sides of the rear boot. Done at @Beckmann AGs suggestion to allow the cuff to travel more up and out around the ankle rather than down onto the foot. Seems to have the intended effect. Have never had a want or seen a need for them.
  10. I've had some requests to post photos of my Langes. They are very much still a work in progress. Boots are 150 flex plugs. I thought the stiffer plastic would be a benefit when cutting away and adding new T-nuts. It might be, but I will choose a softer flex next time. Getting in and out is not my favorite part of the day. I only got in two weeks on my hardboots this year, so development and testing wasn't ideal in time or conditions. I like the response and feedback that the solid sole and good plastic provide. This made tuning underfoot geometry significantly more effective, and somewhat easier to find the correct ballpark as a result. The front (right) boot is very close to correct. It needs an update to the spring system to hold forward lean, as the set collar doesn't cut it. It also needs a stiffer spring setup. The rear boot is still giving me issues. I had mobility problems, which have been eliminated within the range I require when staying on the ground in soft snow. However in hard snow, coming out of the air, and in bumps or rough terrain, the end of that range is still abrupt and very stiff. After several days riding spring conditions with often questionable or no groom, the top of my foot in front of my ankle ached for at least a week. I'm also having some issues which seem like cuff alignment, so I rode with just my booster strap secured. The stock cuff pivots don't have provisions to adjust cant for some reason, and my pivots will require tools I didn't have access to. End result is good flexion and extension through turns, very solid underfoot feel, and a much more upright and neutral posture than regular hardboots allow.
  11. Upz 165ish. My boots are Lange plugs that I've made a spring system for and cut away material to allow greater range of motion.
  12. I learned: How to modify my boots to allow better flexion between turns. That I'm able to ride stiffer boards much more easily without the excessive ramp of my old boots forcing me onto the tail. How to extend off my board in the turn rather than relying on the cuffs to support me.
  13. Currently at 18 front -12 rear. 2° inward cant on both feet. I ride with my shoulders mostly inline with the board.
  14. I've recently been experimenting with heel lift under softboots. The last three days have been my first on snow this year, and I decided to revisit my setup. Board is a Rome 148ST with a 284 waist. (Excellent board, A+) I was having trouble bringing my heel turns around and remember having difficulty last year as well. After some consideration I realized I was trying to fall and then muscle my way into it rather than bringing the board under me with my feet before standing on it. This manifested in pushing against my highbacks and using my knees and squat to force the board up. Having your knees responsible for edge angulation leaves your suspension greatly diminished. This reliance on shin angle for board angle resulted in a braced squat during the turn. Not adaptable nor comfortable. On realizing this, I made a conscious effort to bring my board under me with my feet and use only my ankles for turn shape control. Heel turns immediately improved to parity with toe turns. However, I now felt that I was actually holding the board up with my feet and my rear heel was floating behind me. Solution? Aluminium tape. I stacked strips to make a single one approximately .125" thick and then stuck it on my board. It supports both the binding structure and the foam footbed. After some riding and tuning, it's at .050" and will likely end up .030-.050" tomorrow. Initially I felt what I would normally associate with highbacks too far forward, despite them having no lean. Difficulty transitioning from heels to toes in a tight skidded turn, overly aggressive engagement skidding on heels. Those decreased along with the thickness of the shim. Also, make sure your tape backing is easy to peel or roll a strip inside out. I picked way too many apart before I thought to roll it.
  15. My stance is fairly narrow. My boots are stiff, and their geometry makes a wider stance currently impractical. Width will be revisited after further bootwork. I was full forward on my rear insert set in front and front insert set in the rear. I do tend to have issues rotating my hips out of my turns. I'd marked it as a width issue, but watching this video I'm suspecting my cant. I worked on my one foot some yesterday and realized my front foot is all out of wack anyways. I have to intentionally keep the board carving on my heels, and can't get it to skid on my toes. I've moved both my bindings back one notch and will try that today. Will also mess with my cant. From :28 onward you can see me trying to make equal skidded turns on my toes and heels. Please excuse the hunchback. My back protector is bulky.
  16. BlueB I mostly got rid of the twist with the heel lift. The cuff mitigation was testing before I picked up the heel more. The tracking isn't a sensation of twist, but excessive nose pressure causing the board to want to dive or fishtail. barryj Volkl Renn Tiger 19.5 in the waist (I think) Scr tight, don't know the number Lange plug boots in Catek WCs 13 years riding, 4.5 in hardboots It was good. Incredibly slow and soft. The lack of crowds was a relief. Stail now gets absolutely overrun by tourists because of the aquisition.
  17. Splay is largely a byproduct of feet that collapse medially. I ran 2.5° or 5° before I had footbeds made. With footbeds my rear knee was uncomfortable when splayed. Now that my legs are aligned, my ankles and knees travel on or close to the same path. It makes absorbing and reacting to terrain irregularity easier and faster, countersteering with the ankles is easier, and my feet and ankles don't change shape or alignment when weight distribution changes.
  18. Additional info upon finding a level. 55° on both bindings. .5° - .8° front cant 2.5 - 3 toe lift 6.2 - 6.5 heel lift .2 - .5 rear cant Cants are outward. Boots have an internal ramp of 4°. Forward lean is slightly reduced in the front, and stock in the rear. My rear lift seems high to me, but the board had a tendency to twist down the front heel and rear toe otherwise. This effect is reduced but not eliminated with my cuffs undone.
  19. The knee looks that way, but doesn't feel it. I'm not sure it matters unless it's indicative of a separate issue. Soles strike flat when walking, cuff pressure to the sides feels relatively even turn to turn. I do have to be careful not to relax and unintentionally pressure the front cuff in the rear.
  20. Additionally, I'm having trouble with my rear boot bottoming out on flex. I could and may create more forward RoM in the shell, but there's already a decent amount. My intent is to decrease the internal ramp, and possibly also the forward lean.
  21. Hello all. I've recently acquired a pair of Lange plug boots that I'm in the process of modifying for flex and range of motion. I've narrowed my stance one position on my WCs. One footing feels pretty even one edge to the other. The board feels unstable and prone to catching if I'm trying to track straight, considering moving both my bindings back one position. In the video I'm hanging off the back. I think a large part of that is fighting how soft and slow the snow was today. My front quad was smoking, but it was hard to tell what was the snow and what was poor alignment. Breaking out of a carve into a skid and back is fairly even one edge and the other. On the toeside it requires a little more intentional pressuring of the nose. Thoughts? Thanks.
  22. I don't like racists. They're always trenching up groom and closing good trails.
  23. It does seem like 80/20 could be a bit steep, but I remain hopeful for my future. I've been riding hardboots for about five years now. I started with some beat and significantly too large Burton Winds. Being a longtime softboot carver, I was able to figure out how to throw myself into the cuffs and lay good trenches most of the way down a decently groomed hill. Chop was my limit; things like bumps, trees, steeps, or clean single cat width skidded turns were nigh unthinkable. My focus was always on gross muscular activity. Where my hips were, which way my knees were going, how I was holding my hands and shoulders. They were most of my control and below the knees was dedicated simply to staying upright. Riding usually left me sore with tired shoulders and core. Some UPZs that were too tight enough to start transferring foot motion and a pair of OS1s improved my game significantly. Controlled skidding was available through significant parts of the turn, terrain absorption improved. I could move my feet and ankles to allow them to do more controlling of the board and less struggling to stay under me. Getting footbeds from Beckmann was a paradigm shift. After hours of shell punching, not being numb didn't hurt either. Unweighting didn't allow my feet to change shape under me anymore. Landings and turn transitions lost much mystery and uncertainty. I was more sensitive to small changes in lift and cant. Now when my gear is dialed in, I can link smooth complete skidded turns in a cat track down most things with acceptable snow. I enjoy jumping off of all the things I would in softies, usually more quickly even. Changing the radius of a carve with countersteering mid turn is possible, as is selectively skidding and locking in the edge. Bumps are doable. My upper body is ever more still and relaxed. Currently I've been working with a new set of FullTilts. Everything is terribly off. When I was out last the board was so twisted that I could barely have my front foot in the snow on my heels. The board was snapping around my front foot worryingly, the front would shoot off and there was no appreciable pressure on the back so it came around. I got to that point chasing something I thought was in my feet when it was actually a larger shell fit issue with my ankle keeping me from bearing weight properly on my heel. The boots just don't fit me as well as I'd initially thought and it wasn't evident to me until I rode and fought with them for a while. Beckmann tunes his footbeds with a single piece of gorilla tape at a time, and it matters. I don't see why our more distal transmission and control surfaces should be treated with any less diligence and respect. I understand people not being as dedicated, trust me. This is a serious rabbit hole to fall down. I'm regularly known to stop at the lift each run and change my jackscrews by a sixth or twelfth of a turn. I spend probably a quarter of my time on Spruce lapping a short easy blue working on things. I'll have had six pairs of boots in five years when my Langes get here. Nobody makes what I'm demanding out of a boot so they'll be some Frankenstein creation when I'm done. If somebody is happy getting down the hill and has a reasonable amount of control, good with me regardless of what's around and under their feet. The more people we can get on alpine gear, the larger the market grows.
  24. To borrow Beckmanns analogy and observation, your hips down are the suspension under your bike. A mass suspended over a single control plane that requires counter steering in order to efficiently maneuver that mass into and out of turns. Those counter steering motions are high resolution and achieved by the ankle when there's a sufficient range of motion left there, allowing the rest of the leg to function as springs and dampers. If the rom is compromised, the inputs for that board movement are both pushed further up the chain and reduced in resolution. This will cause those larger muscles to fatigue more quickly and be less available to act in supporting the mass. A more grievous misalignment will require active compensation in order to not provide input to the board, or will provide it unevenly. A board that's twisted while the rider is at rest will track and hold badly, require large body movements to change edges, and be a generally disagreeable ride. The center of mass may not track vertically over the board, causing differential pressuring and edge hold through the turn or over uneven terrain. The inability to hold course without postural contrivance is not a recipe for success. Seat/pedals/wheel don't contact the ground. They don't influence how the car interacts with the ground, just how you interact with the car. It's a less eloquent version of what Beckmann said, but I was proofreading when he replied so you're stuck with it. +1
  25. Gremlin

    Stowe

    Sorry to hear that you called it. Knowing when to bail is a vital Stail skill though. Hope to see you around again later this winter when it's good out. Keep in mind that you were here during the Christmas blackout, and our weather has been warm and rain then just below freezing for the last three weeks. Not a stellar showing. The acquisition has really hurt the mountain in a variety of ways. They're understaffed for a variety of reasons like pay, location/housing, and a loss of a dedicated contingent that left in the transition. The accessibility to the masses with the epic pass has been painful. There used to be fewer than around twenty days a year where the line for the gondola would fill the barn, and extend six to eight abreast the whole way out along that treeline to the corner by the zipline base. Now it's usually two or three days a week on non-holidays. I don't know why they aren't blowing as much. I suspect the staffing has something to do with it generally, as they seem to less even when they can. Recently I don't think they've even been able to much at all with the weather. On a larger trend, we also seem to sit in a weird band that misses the coastal stuff further south and the stuff coming out of the north that hits Jay. As to the groom, see hordes. It's a classic NE mountain with skinny windy runs. A big part of why I like when it's consistently -10 or lower is that the casuals won't brave it and the firm chalky groom stays good all day.
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