Altai Kom 162 vs 174

[Woodserson]

I have the Voile Traverse cable on the 162's and the Hardwire on the 174's but I could have gone with a cable. Regardless, both are great, and other bindings are great on this ski too, all comes down to personal preference. The cables and hardwires on the Voiles tuck behind the heel pad and get out of the way on the up so you don't have to take them off, but they come off super easy anyway (in case you get the basic Voile 3pin with cable, no real heel pad, it's like the Mountaineer HD). Or you can do what Lo-Fi does.

I'm happy with my cables on my plastic boots (which I use with my KOM's) and I'm happy with my cables on leathers on my other skinnier skis.

The 162cm KOM is a SKI, not a ski-shoe, skiboard, whatever you want to call the HOK's (which are excellent in their own right). It will be way different. If you are super concerned about stuffing them, the 174 is available.

Lots of great experienced advice on this entire thread with different opinions, all good.

[yoyoing]

Thank you all for your suggestions!

[FortyFour]

Thank you all for your suggestions!

Let’s us know how it works out for you later in the season.


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[yoyoing]

*ping*ping*

If anyone's still out there... Any chance you can tell me what the deal is with binding risers and whether they'd be well suited to the Koms or not?

FYI, I'm taking everyone's advice to go with the 162s and voile hardwires (when I finally see some!) so I just need to figure out the best way to mount these bindings.

Cheers

[Andy M]

The Voile hardwires come with a built-in riser. See the photo below -- the riser is the gray part under the toepiece. So if you use the hardwires, you will use a riser by default -- which should be fine with the Koms.

[yoyoing]

Ok gotcha.

Guess I'm thinking back to lofi's rig, since he had them mounted flush.

I may also have a line on some crb's but I'm thinking that I would want to ditch the baseplates in that case to lighten things up...

[Andy M]

In that case, you should consider going with the Voile 3-pin cable rather than the hardwire. The 3-pin cable is meant to be mounted flat on the ski, while the hardwire is not. Sure, you could mount the hardwire toepiece flat, but then you would have to get a different heel piece, or go w/o one (and w/o a riser) -- otherwise, your heel would be too high.

Also, the 3-pin cable is almost half the price of the hardwire. By the way, on the Altai website, the 3-pin cable seems to be the preferred binding for the Kom.

https://us-store.altaiskis.com/product/ ... rettyPhoto

The following is an excerpt from their Kom ski info pdf (which can be found on the main Kom ski page):

KŌM SKI INFORMATION

MOUNTING –We recommend mounting the Kōm with a 3 pin or 3 pin cable (or equivalent telemark binding). AT bindings are also an option for use on the Kōms

Most telemark bindings use the imaginary pin line as a reference for mounting. Our measurements are based on this pinline. All measurements are straightline from the tail of the ski to the pin line. 150 Kōm - 78.5 cm 162 Kōm - 86 cm 174 Kōm - 92.3 cm

The old standard of balance point (xc skis) and more recently, cord center, is NOT recommended. The Kōms are designed to be slightly forward mounted to improve their balance and swing weight, as well as to break trail in deeper snow with more even ski penetration.

If you need boot center for mounting (as with AT bindings), boot center can be found by measuring your boot from toe to heel (minus the duckbill). Measure ½ of this distance back from the pin line to your boot center mark.

[yoyoing]

Ah now that complicates things haha
Appreciate the feedback

[soffa]

I just struggled with the 162 vs. 174 question for a few months. I'm 6' 215lb and have been on Rossi BC125s (the older yellow ones with no rocker) for about five years w/ Excursions. After being honest with myself about the fact that I mainly yo-yo on short and steepish hills with trees and other objective hazards, am not a great skier, and have other longer skis I finally settled on the 162. I mounted them with 3 pin hardwires (actually 3 pin cables on risers with a set of hardwires from a set of CRBs) using quiver killers as I'd like to consider getting Switchbacks at some point.

Due to the little early surprise of a few days with 8"+ of snow on the ground in early November (unusual for Western NY) I had a chance to take them out once already. I hit up one of my regular spots and I was able to smoothly ski stuff that I really struggled with before, first time out for the year. I'm very happy with the choice for that reason.

That being said, you aren't going to keep up with the skinsuit crowd on these things. I would say they are 30% better downhill and 15% worse at going in a straight line for K&G than my BC125s which were not exactly race skis. Your mileage may vary and I only skied them twice so my opinion might change...

In any case I think the Koms are awesome! I struggled with choosing between them and the Ultravector BCs and again it came down to what I really am going to use them for.

[Nitram Tocrut]

Anybody know if the Kom will be available on the Canadian store this year? I am really not suppose to buy any more skis this year but for that I should stop reading TTalk

I wonder if TTalk is not run by skis company and do all this posting so that we buy, buy and buy until our money dry...

I should especially stop reading this thread as the Kom’s seems to be the ski I need to ski my backyard forest...