Marty wrote:
On Mar 5, 5:28 pm, "Alan Fried" wrote:

I'm about to purchase a pair of Fischer AMC 76 Skis for myself and Volkl
Attiva AC2 Skis for my wife.
We know these are the right skis because we demoed them. My local ski shop
did not have them and
the gentleman at the ski shop told me to make sure I get the bindings
integrated with the skis.

Can someone explain to me what he meant by this? He said some shops try to
sell these skis cheaper
because they lack the integrated feature.

For the Fischer, the AMC comes with the Railflex system. I think the
guy meant that you may find the ski for cheap, but make sure they come
with the binding OR make sure you get the correct binding to work with
the railflex system:


Until about 5 years ago, skis were "flat" - that is, they were just a
ski and you could mount any binding on the ski by drilling holes and
inserting screws. Nowadays, most skis come with an integrated binding
attachment system that is compatible only with a specific brand of
binding. This makes it easier to mount the binding, and there are some
engineering advantages to these designs. Anyway, the rub is that you'll
need to get Tyrollia bindings for the Fischer and Markers for the Volkl
- nothing else will fit. (note: I think Fischer rebrands the Tyrollia
bindings so they say Fischer, but they're the same thing)

To further complicate matters, some skis are still available in the
"flat" version. I think this is what the guy at the ski shop was
alluding to - you may come across a flat version of these skis which
will be cheaper than a pair with the integrated binding system. Look
for "Railflex" and "Motion" as the trademarked names for the integrated
binding systems.

I actually prefer the flat version to the Motion system, so I sought out
a flat version when I bought my Volkl 5 stars. But I think I'm in the
minority here. Since you undoubtedly demoed the integrated system, you
should buy the package that you demoed: Railflex for the Fischers and
Motion for the Volkls.

//Walt