I'd like some help setting up binding angles for a newbie

[kinjachris]

OK, new in that I've only been out once or twice in the past 10+ years on ancient gear in ski boots. I've just kitted myself out with used gear from the BOL community and i'm just about ready to go give it a go. I picked up a prior 4WD and the deelux track 700s with a set of TD2s with the step in heels.

I set up the bindings today and was trying to minimize the angles without the toes hanging over. i ended up with 55 degrees on the front foot and 60 degrees on the back foot.

what i'm wondering is....

1) should i be setting the very tip of the front toe inside the board edge, at the edge or hanging over.

2) does the rear toe also need to fully clear or can it hang out a bit?

Sorry, these seem like silly questions i guess but I'd appreciate some input, perhaps i need to move them to clear even more? pictures are below.

Thanks for the input.

[kinjachris]

more pics....

[kieran]

hmmm. a little hen-toed there. ideally your front foot should have a marginally higher angle than the back. try setting the back boot with good clearance, then setting the front boot 3º-5º higher, then mess with (back) heel and (front) toe lift for comfort.

[michael.a]

Having the rear binding angle greater than the front is unrideable for me. I cant even ride with parallel angles, the back foot always to be at least 3 degrees less.

[Jack M]

A few people ride pidgeon-toed, but it is generally not a good place to start. Set your back foot angle first, then either go parallel or +3 degrees on the front foot. This will probably result in the front foot being a little inside the edges, that's ok. It's due to the flare of the sidecut, the board is wider under the front foot toe, and narrower under the back foot toe. Just make sure both boots are centered lengthwise on the binding. While you're getting started, you can accept a little boot overhang past the edges. As you get better you will need to eliminate it.

Some tips on getting started and setting things up are linked in my signature. Definitely try some toe lift on the front foot and heel lift on the back foot to make things more comfortable.

[kinjachris]

i have the front bale of the TD2s in the "back" position to try and push the boots to the heel as much as possible. there is still more room behind the heel than the toe. i'm assuming this is as much as I can move it, unless there is some way to move the base of the plate system that bolts to the board and get some adjustment to heel side there??? it seemed to me when i put them together that the base was centered on the holes of the board to start with. should i try rotating the base below the binding to move them heelside? i've got a lot of room under the heels to the edge.

[newcarver]

You want the center of the boots alligned with the center of the bindings. There is a small reference line on most boots to mark the center point. As far as angles, you might need more or less angle split between front and rear. This all depends on your natural stance. Try jumping up and see how much your feet are angled appart when you land. My feet splay appart and I'm most comfortable with between 10-15 degrees more in the front than rear foot. I don't have any trouble with boot out though since I wear a small size.

[Ian M]

i have the front bale of the TD2s in the "back" position to try and push the boots to the heel as much as possible. there is still more room behind the heel than the toe. i'm assuming this is as much as I can move it, unless there is some way to move the base of the plate system that bolts to the board and get some adjustment to heel side there??? it seemed to me when i put them together that the base was centered on the holes of the board to start with. should i try rotating the base below the binding to move them heelside? i've got a lot of room under the heels to the edge.

Unlike newcarver, above, I have biased my bindings as Jack describes in his 'How to set up your plate bindings' tech article. I have good cause to though; size 29mp boots. I'm not sure about the TD2's, but on my TD3's there is a fair amount of range to bias my large boot one way or the other; I just started at around center, then moved the heel block (rear) back a few notches and the toe block to match. The center disk is still centered on the board, and fine-tunes my stance width.

Hopefully someone who knows TD2 vs TD3 range can add to this. Enjoy your new carving gear!

Cheers

[Sultan Guy]

In my limited experience I need about 5 degrees less angle on my back foot then my front foot. Same angle is almost unrideable for some reason!

I do have my boots slightly offset of center to deal with this but this seems less important.

TIP- Bring a T-wrench with you in your pocket. Do 2-3 runs at slow/medium speed practing easy turns. Make ONE adjustment and repeat until you feel improvement or go back.

Those binding are super easy to adjust on the fly.

[Corey]

TIP- Bring a T-wrench with you in your pocket.

Better than a T-wrench: one of those little folding hex key sets from a hardware store. They're much less likely to poke a hole in your kidney in a crash. ;)

If you hadn't already heard: Be absolutely religious in clearing the snow out of the bolts before trying to tighten or loosen them! The smaller sizes on that folding set work very well for this. If there's snow in the hole the hex key can't insert deep enough and you can strip them easily. That sucks.

[kinjachris]

good feedback and yes i rather like my kidneys whole. now that you mention it, i have a lightweight hex set i bought at a bicycle store that has plastic sides and is compact. i've just added it to the back pocket of the new dakine heli pro backpack i picked up yesterday to haul around all this stuff!