Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Thanks to your powers of persuasion @fisheater , when I'm ready for my next rig, I may bite the bullet and spring for a downhill oriented Åsnes ski mounted Rotte with cable.

How about I persuade you to meet at Midwest Telemark Festival February 10th? I’ll let you ski the FT X and my Tindan. I’ll probably have an extra beer too!

One more question Tom. How does the stiff flexor affect your kick as far as ROM? Is it doable or does there too much tip pressure for acceptable glide?

lowangle al wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:19 am

One more question Tom. How does the stiff flexor affect your kick as far as ROM? Is it doable or does there too much tip pressure for acceptable glide?

You can still kick and glide with the stiff flexor. They probably should have labeled it as "more resistive" as it is not as hard as many would expect it to be. You certainly don't need to remove it for the kick and glide return to the car. The end result feels very different from what a hardwire offers. Check out the video that I put together last year regarding the flexor. I think it would be possible for Rottefella to create a flexor with more resistance, but there is a limit because of the way you insert the boot into the binding. If the flexor is too hard, I think it would make it more difficult to lock the boot into the binding.

fisheater wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 03, 2023 10:19 pm

How about I persuade you to meet at Midwest Telemark Festival February 10th? I’ll let you ski the FT X and my Tindan. I’ll probably have an extra beer too!

That sounds fun, Bob, I'm not sure this noob is ready for that. Don't want you to spend all your time picking up the pieces . Now if it was Faceplant Fest, I'm your man! I'll PM you.

I’m not proud to admit this, but skiing on Falketind X and Alaska, I had a women my age blow by me. She was on a Voile Vectors, Outlaw NTN, and four buckle plastic boots. She was a really good skier, but she was a women my age!
I spend most of my time on the trails. I promised myself to force myself to ride a chair at least once before Telefest. My point is that I’m not that young, charging, chair rider I once was. I enjoy the up as much as the down now. I’ll be mostly riding chairs for two days at Telefest. I wouldn’t be slowed down to much, and I would worry about keeping up with a hard charger for more than one run. After which I would thank them for skiing with me, but let them know their pace was too fast for me.
My ski buddies tell me they’re too old to ski. I usually ski by myself or with my dog. If I meet someone and we ski together that’s great. If our pace doesn’t match, or personalities don’t match, it isn’t a big deal to me.

Tom M wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:43 am

lowangle al wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:19 am

One more question Tom. How does the stiff flexor affect your kick as far as ROM? Is it doable or does there too much tip pressure for acceptable glide?

You can still kick and glide with the stiff flexor. They probably should have labeled it as "more resistive" as it is not as hard as many would expect it to be. You certainly don't need to remove it for the kick and glide return to the car. The end result feels very different from what a hardwire offers. Check out the video that I put together last year regarding the flexor. I think it would be possible for Rottefella to create a flexor with more resistance, but there is a limit because of the way you insert the boot into the binding. If the flexor is too hard, I think it would make it more difficult to lock the boot into the binding.

Very interesting and informative video, @Tom M Shows a quantifiable difference in the pressure needed to deflect the boot against the flexor.

It would be interesting to repeat the experiment with scales under the front and back of the ski. That would quantify the difference in tip pressure. (You’d likely have to put a 10 lb weight under the centre of the ski to keep the ski from lifting, but that wouldn’t affect the “delta” in values.)

My theory is that the tip pressure change is small. This is based on the difference in what you measured in your experiment (which is significant but still quite small relative to skier weight).

My theory may be proven incorrect. (It is only a theory, after all). Or it may be correct. Either way, a second experiment could provide some interesting info on tip pressure differences created by the flexor alone.

Thoughts?

Tom M wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 03, 2023 6:14 pm

Hopefully this gif is someone's idea of humor. Believe me, the binding does not flex as shown in the above. I guess I'll add to the humor. If rubber is good enough for the boot's soles, then it should be good enough for the binding.

Yup, another example of you can’t believe what you see on the internet. In reference to the gif, NOT Tom.

GrimSurfer wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 9:10 am

Tom M wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:43 am

lowangle al wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:19 am

One more question Tom. How does the stiff flexor affect your kick as far as ROM? Is it doable or does there too much tip pressure for acceptable glide?

You can still kick and glide with the stiff flexor. They probably should have labeled it as "more resistive" as it is not as hard as many would expect it to be. You certainly don't need to remove it for the kick and glide return to the car. The end result feels very different from what a hardwire offers. Check out the video that I put together last year regarding the flexor. I think it would be possible for Rottefella to create a flexor with more resistance, but there is a limit because of the way you insert the boot into the binding. If the flexor is too hard, I think it would make it more difficult to lock the boot into the binding.

Very interesting and informative video, @Tom M Shows a quantifiable difference in the pressure needed to deflect the boot against the flexor.

It would be interesting to repeat the experiment with scales under the front and back of the ski. That would quantify the difference in tip pressure. (You’d likely have to put a 10 lb weight under the centre of the ski to keep the ski from lifting, but that wouldn’t affect the “delta” in values.)

My theory is that the tip pressure change is small. This is based on the difference in what you measured in your experiment (which is significant but still quite small relative to skier weight).

My theory may be proven incorrect. (It is only a theory, after all). Or it may be correct. Either way, a second



experiment could provide some interesting info on tip pressure differences created by the flexor alone.

Thoughts?

The pressure change might be small, but it makes a noticeable difference in your skiing.

lowangle al wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 9:43 am

GrimSurfer wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 9:10 am

Tom M wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:43 am

You can still kick and glide with the stiff flexor. They probably should have labeled it as "more resistive" as it is not as hard as many would expect it to be. You certainly don't need to remove it for the kick and glide return to the car. The end result feels very different from what a hardwire offers. Check out the video that I put together last year regarding the flexor. I think it would be possible for Rottefella to create a flexor with more resistance, but there is a limit because of the way you insert the boot into the binding. If the flexor is too hard, I think it would make it more difficult to lock the boot into the binding.

Very interesting and informative video, @Tom M Shows a quantifiable difference in the pressure needed to deflect the boot against the flexor.

It would be interesting to repeat the experiment with scales under the front and back of the ski. That would quantify the difference in tip pressure. (You’d likely have to put a 10 lb weight under the centre of the ski to keep the ski from lifting, but that wouldn’t affect the “delta” in values.)

My theory is that the tip pressure change is small. This is based on the difference in what you measured in your experiment (which is significant but still quite small relative to skier weight).

My theory may be proven incorrect. (It is only a theory, after all). Or it may be correct. Either way, a second



experiment could provide some interesting info on tip pressure differences created by the flexor alone.

Thoughts?

The pressure change might be small, but it makes a noticeable difference in your skiing.

Let’s just take things one step at a time…