Mounting bindings for different length boot soles

[Wetdog]

A quick search turned up nothing I could see, so forgive me if I am walking down the beaten path.

I have a pair of Volkl VTA 98 skis I bought last year with a pair of Marker Alpinist bindings as a light weight traverse/hut touring ski. IE. for anything involving big vertical or long distances. I wanted to make sure I had a good fit in a pair of Tecnica Zero G Tour Pros that I was intending to be my main boot before committing to mounting.

This year, I purchased the Atomic Backland Carbon to pair with the VTA's with the thought that they would compliment the light weight objective better. Ideally, I want the bindings to work with both boots if possible, for versatility. With a 15mm travel in the heel, the Alpinist should just work as the Backland shells in the same size are quite a bit shorter than the Tecnica's, roughly 15mm. So, it will mean using the full range of adjustment in the the heel piece if it works. My first question is whether this is advisable.

Secondly, if it's possible to do it, my dilemma is whether I should find a compromise between the two mounting points for the boots, re the boot mid sole, or mount on the line for the longer, stiffer, heavier boot and have the shorter, lighter, softer boot a bit ahead of the line. It will end up being nearly a cm which on some skis is quite noticeable. I haven't skied these skis yet, so I don't know. My thought is the lighter boot may benefit from a slightly forward mount in easing turn initiation etc. or it may make no difference at all and I am overthinking this. Anyone else been in this position and what did you do?

[XXX-er]

I am overthinking this.

yes

ime you won't notice 1 cm

[rfconroy]

There was a thread about this about a month or two ago. Consensus was to mount between the two sizes between the two mount points and call it a day.

[Spyderjon]

Yep, mount between the two sizes to give the minimal difference in the two boot positions.

I've not actually measured the full travel on an Alpine heel but so I'd recommend checking it as all to often in the ski industry there's a difference between the marketing speak and actuality. You could always swap your bindings for the long base version.

[XXX-er]

I remounted a binding 1cm back from the other and buddy sez he couldn't tell the difference

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Not familiar with the Alpinist bindings but I have a similar issue with Vipecs. When you say the Alpinists have 15mm of adjustment, is that 15mm fore and aft of center? That's about what the Vipecs have

I have 2 different touring boots I like to use and the BSL is 8mm different. As mentioned above , I mounted the toes halfway between the 2 BSLs. The boot sole center is only 4 mm forward or back of the line on the skis. I then ran the heels almost all the way back on the adjustment range and used the larger boot mounted to the already installed toepiece to figure out where to drill the heels. This way, I know they're going to fit the larger boots and have plenty of adjustment (almost 30mm) for the smaller boots.

You can also use this method if you've got heel mount hole overlap...