Boot Size for Catek OS2 Long vs Short

[Wolf]

In the classifieds, the question came up about boot size limits for Catek OS2 (or OS1) short plate bindings.  I thought I would put the answer here so it's available as general information.  The "short" answer is I think short plates will top out at a boot sole length of about 301mm and the long plates top out at 341mm.  This is how I got to that conclusion:

Here's a photo I took a while back, showing a long and short plate, with the long plate set up for a Raichle SB series mp26 boot (see red circles).  The sole length of the boot is 285mm.  As you can see on the adjacent short plate, this boot would set up one hole in from the maximum position on both toe and heel blocks on the short plate.  I measured a 2cm spacing between three holes, or 6.7mm per hole.  So the short plate would go to 285+6.7+6.7mm, or about 298mm at the outermost holes.  Additionally, relative to the setup shown, one of the toe/heel blocks could be moved outward to the second position, giving another 3mm of length, for a maximum sole length of 301mm for the short plate.  Similarly, the long plate has four more mounting holes at each end, adding 26.7mm at each end, plus the 3mm for the block, topping out at 341mm sole length .

Member pokkis was good enough to post a table of boot sole length versus size for Deeluxe/Raichle a while ago, and I'm also showing that below.  You can look up in the table which boots have a sole length of 301mm or less to work with the short plate.  If anyone has tried different boots in Raichles and can confirm or update my estimates, that would be great.