Binding angles

[ncermak]

I always read alpine guys posts, and talk to guys who are constantly striving for steeper angles. My question is this...

Isn't the shallowest angle posible without toe and heel drag when the board is perpendicular to the snow going to give you the greatest mechanical advantage in rolling the board from edge to edge, keeping pressure right out over the edges?

[Jack Michaud]

Putting your toes and heels as close to the edge without hanging over is the right place to <i>start</i>. However there is nothing wrong with experimenting, and if you find you are most comfortable and strongest with slightly higher angles, or a higher angle on one foot, that's how you should ride. However, if both your feet are inboard of the edges, you should try a narrower board and see how it feels.

It is true that the maximum mechanical advantage comes at the minimum possible angles for your board width and boot size. Try binding angles of 89 degrees on a 19cm wide board and you'll know this is fact. However, when talking about small increases to your binding angles, the leverage you get from your legs is more significant than the leverage from your feet.
-Jack

[philfell]

You are absoutly correct. If your angles get too steep for your board you are losing a ton of leverage. Also if your angles are too steep in general you lose balance. It's a give and take with balance, power, and preferance when talking about binding angles.

[rikytheripster]

Take this example.......

imagine you had really small feet so you could ride with angles in say the 30's without overhang, thus like u said obtaining maximum leverage,

however when u go on a heelside carve what will happen?

surely with these angles it would be hard to square urself up with the tip of the board, thus u will be riding more like a softbooter and your ability to effectively pressurize the heelside edge(due to toilet syndrome becuse of stance) will decrease

- not good

thoughts ?

[ncermak]

Originally posted by rikytheripster

surely with these angles it would be hard to square urself up with the tip of the board, thus u will be riding more like a softbooter and your ability to effectively pressurize the heelside edge(due to toilet syndrome becuse of stance) will decrease



You are starting to run the risk of turning this into another soft boot carving post.

That said, I would have to give it a try...with my size 9's, maybe I'll mess with that this weekend and get back to you...

[gdboytyler]

Originally posted by rikytheripster
Take this example.......

imagine you had really small feet so you could ride with angles in say the 30's without overhang, thus like u said obtaining maximum leverage,

On my Donek Incline 160, that is my situation. With size 25 hardboots, I could go with a minimum 36F/30B to prevent overhang. But, that setup felt too slow on edge changes and I would washout on carve too easily. I increased the angles to 42/36 and everything felt more solid.

[JohnSch]

flex pattern of specific boots also has a big impact on what angles feel right.

Riky, you should be able to ride aligned with your binding angles as opposed to the nose without going into the toilet. What specific angle will feel best is another question obviously, as well as whether you want to ride facing the nose.

[ncermak]

john-

the alignment issue which you mention was covered extensively about a month or two ago in another one of my posts: Shoulder alignment question. there was some good discussion of it back then.

-Noah

[Derf]

On a personnal not, I would think lower angles would maximise "toilet sitting". Higher angles (60 for now) helped my technique a lot (compared to mid 50s).

Derf

[rikytheripster]

i ment aligned with angles on heeliside , not square.