Sometimes recommended mount positions are wrong

[Lindahl]

Was bored and revisited this thread. Didn't see anyone post this, but if I'm skiing hardpack or firm snow, I like a mount point that puts my ball of foot at the center of the sidecut, erring on the side of further back. For powder, I'll often go -1cm back of that, and even more if the ski has a softer tip. I hate overflexing shovels when moving at speed in powder. It makes the ski unpredictable in how it flexes into a smaller radius turn and tosses you across the fall line when you may not want that.

I almost always ignore manufacturer recommendations.

[stuckathuntermtn]

I think how much you ignore the manufacturers' recommended line depends on the manufacturer. If it's a K2, yeah, they're all over the place, but a smaller company is probably gonna have more people test their skis and take more time to figure out a good mount scale.

[philth]

This tech weenie dork parade of a thread is fun to read.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Coming soon: more discussions on edge angles, followed by detune or not to detune. Say tuned!

[old goat]

The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of skiers, including most of the people on this forum, will never ski enough different skis with enough different mounting points to really know, which is why manufacturers mark the skis. And if you mount on the line and the ski is great, do you know it wouldn't be even better with a different mount. Yeah a manufacturer can screw up but it's hard to imagine a new ski being marketed without a fair amount of testing of the mounting points. And yes, companies do realize people use different mounts--that's why so many skis these days come with lines for alternate mounts. For people obsessed with this stuff the only thing that makes sense is demo bindings, if you're willing to accept the negatives of those--at least until you figure out you always like the mount a certain way. Every ski I've ever been on has skied differently--with a new ski it can take a little time to figure out how best to ski it. We ski differently in different kinds of snow and on different degrees of stiffness, sometimes changing technique on a turn by turn basis. Doesn't seem a lot to ask to adjust technique to the ski, including its mount.

[CaliBrit]

+/-1-2cm to me can make a really really big difference to ski feel. Get a pair of skis with decent demo bindings like marker royal family and play.

Quite an eye opener.