AT Binding Shims

L

loopie

Member
Anyone have any experience using shims with their AT gear? I

I skied frame style bindings for three years and then swapped to Dynafit radical FT 2.0, Scarpa Maestrales, and ON3P Steeples . This was a huge upgrade on the uphill side of things which was awesome but I found the combination to be lacking on the downhill. They just aren't as aggressive as I'm used and I can't hold an edge at speed.

I'm looking for what I can do to still use AT style bindings but make them more aggressive. New skis, stiffer boots, shims? I ski backcountry 95% of the time.

Open to any ideas/opinions...
 
95% of the people who ski backcountry only could use some resort pound laps days

to improve their skiing

sure its a "ski" day but goin up dont make you a better skier

aka the poor craftsman blames his tools

that being said i really dont mind the 4mm shim of the binding freedom dynaduke plate

on my lotus 138 but cant stand the added stack height or how they ski in dukes

if your refering more to toe shims to change your ramp angle

you probably have better results with the backcountry tecno gear geeks that frequent lous

wild site
 
13759138:SFBv420.0 said:
95% of the people who ski backcountry only could use some resort pound laps days

to improve their skiing

sure its a "ski" day but goin up dont make you a better skier

aka the poor craftsman blames his tools

that being said i really dont mind the 4mm shim of the binding freedom dynaduke plate

on my lotus 138 but cant stand the added stack height or how they ski in dukes

if your refering more to toe shims to change your ramp angle

you probably have better results with the backcountry tecno gear geeks that frequent lous

wild site
Click to expand...

I skied resort for about 15+ years of my life, I competed in big mountain comps, I even had a few occasional heli trips to BC (one of which I was air lifted to the hospital fun times), but being from UT I can't stand the resort lift lines here. This is why I mostly ski backcountry now. I agree lift resort days are nice, it's just a different style of skiing but I don't like UT resorts. I'll save my lift serviced days for traveling out of state.

Yeah I'm referring to ramp angle. What web site is this you are talking about?
 
i bets if you were to google binding ramp angle

that which you seek would come up first

it did for me

but no one would know how rad you are in the bc

but you probably just suck at searching

no worries its a special millennial snowflake thing

but im sure you crushed it hard in bmf comps

lous super rad 1st to bag the brolorado one four teeners

the sites gots lots of info but tends to be a circle jerk of the same 20 experts

strokin each others expertise egos

and if you sponser/advertise or give lou free stuff your stuff seems gets better reviews

rackin downhill vert will always matter

and if you cant set an edge in soft snow maybe some more time on the hard tamed snow

will help in the wild.

or if you go down to bd and grab a toe shim your gonna fix all your poor skiing habits

through technology
 
I shim my Plums 7mm at the toes with LDPE chopping board. I like it, feels similar to my alpine setups with alpine boots or alpine setups with touring boots. I know very good skiers whose alpine and touring setups have different ramp and they don't seem to notice or mind. There's lots of variables involved and it's pretty much a feel & preference thing. Wildsnow has ramp/delta tables if you want to geek out.

Jam your touring boots into your alpine bindings, ski them carefully and take some measurements if you want to experiment. Or stand in your touring setup with the boot heel jammed in so that the heel pins sit on top of the heel lug instead of in the heel socket and you'll get an idea what a 10-12mm toe shim would feel like.
 
I just added the 4mm shims to my speed radical toes this year. After mounting them up and clicking in, they a lot better with a more neutral ramp angle. I haven't skied them yet, but I cant wait to try them this weekend.
 
OP has a hard time setting an edge in bounds, on a pair of BC touring specific skis designed to be floaty and surfy "catch free ride" , with a mid flex touring boot .. and somehow we jump to shims and ramp angle right away?

Sure, adjusting your ramp will be the cheapest option here... but the biggest factor here (IMP) is that you are asking a ski to do something that it wasn't designed to do very well, with a boot that isn't really designed well to that task either.
 
13760241:LC. said:
I shim my Plums 7mm at the toes with LDPE chopping board. I like it, feels similar to my alpine setups with alpine boots or alpine setups with touring boots. I know very good skiers whose alpine and touring setups have different ramp and they don't seem to notice or mind. There's lots of variables involved and it's pretty much a feel & preference thing. Wildsnow has ramp/delta tables if you want to geek out.

Jam your touring boots into your alpine bindings, ski them carefully and take some measurements if you want to experiment. Or stand in your touring setup with the boot heel jammed in so that the heel pins sit on top of the heel lug instead of in the heel socket and you'll get an idea what a 10-12mm toe shim would feel like.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the replies.

I agree with what you are saying. My touring set up feels way different than than my resort set up. What I'm trying to do with this thread is decide whether shims on my current set up would help me out with my problem or if I should just get a new and more aggressive ski with tech bindings.

I love my current set up, but it's just different. I don't know how to describe it, but it's just not as aggressive. My other set up was Volkl Ones with Salomon Guardians and Dalbello Boss boots. I'd love a compromise between my tech set up and resort set up. Would adding shims help me or just start over from scratch?
 
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