tough question for a beginner...

How wide should my bindings be set? (I'm not sure if my sentence is correct
but I think it's understandable - 4give me - I'm a foreigner)
The only thing I know is that it depends on the width of my hips, doesn't
it? Please, help me.

too wide is better than too narrow.. That's the only help I can give
you.

It's roughly the width of your hips, or the distance from your foot to
your knee... but it varies from person to person depending on their
flexbility, bone structure, etc. Wider is more stable, but unwieldy
once you go too wide, in either case you should be able to bend your
knees and shift your weight without getting "stuck" because the stance
is too narrow/wide. If you are between 5'6" and 5'10" (168-178cm) I
would go for something in the 19"-21" (48-54 cm) range. Aside from
that, there is a LOT of personal preference, so you'll eventually have
to just try each setting out. Make sure to ride the setting for at
LEAST half a day, maybe a full day... even if it starts out feeling
completely wrong as you need to get used to it. Work in small
increments.

ego wrote:
How wide should my bindings be set? (I'm not sure if my sentence is correct
but I think it's understandable - 4give me - I'm a foreigner)
The only thing I know is that it depends on the width of my hips, doesn't
it? Please, help me.

16" - 18" for carving hard boots and plate bindings.
20-21.5 for soft boot freeriding.
20-23 for tricks, flatland styling, rails, and landing jumps.....

LeeD wrote:
16" - 18" for carving hard boots and plate bindings.

Alpine boards typically come with a range of 16-23" but the narrow end
of that range is not much in use anymore. 17" stances are definitely
old-school alpine - they don't allow you to use your legs independently
very well. Most people go wider these days. I ride 19" with a 32"
inseam and I'd wager a lot of the pure carvers would say I'm too narrow.

Neil

Neil Gendzwill wrote:
LeeD wrote:
16" - 18" for carving hard boots and plate bindings.

Alpine boards typically come with a range of 16-23" but the narrow end
of that range is not much in use anymore. 17" stances are definitely
old-school alpine - they don't allow you to use your legs independently
very well. Most people go wider these days. I ride 19" with a 32"
inseam and I'd wager a lot of the pure carvers would say I'm too narrow.

Neil

Just for more data points. I have a 30" inseam and I ride 19.5" for
alpine. 20.5" for freestyle/freeride. I can go up to 21", but any more
than that and I can start feeling my ankle and knee get tweaked as it
can't bend as naturally and they are sore by the end of the day.

Generic stance widths are an EXTREME dis-service to be posting when it
should vary according to height. And those carving widths are really
out to lunch...

"LeeD" )
writes: 16" - 18" for carving hard boots and plate bindings.
20-21.5 for soft boot freeriding.
20-23 for tricks, flatland styling, rails, and landing jumps.....

Not only are those carving stances out to lunch (I still use 17.5),
but my freestyle centered stance is 22"!
So I'm REALLY out to lunch, eh?

LeeD wrote:
Not only are those carving stances out to lunch (I still use 17.5),
but my freestyle centered stance is 22"!
So I'm REALLY out to lunch, eh?

Heh, we knew you were out to lunch BEFORE you listed your retro
'90-style stances.

Who knows? maybe the current stances are just a fad and alpine stances
will narrow up again, and the freestyle stances will become wider
again. Regardless stance setups are pretty personal and so you are
going to have to experiment to find out what works for you - whether it
be a 13" stance for a 5'11" person, or a 0/12 front/back angles for
someone with a reconstructed knee (both of which I seen, although I'm
not sure I agree with).

Not only are those carving stances out to lunch (I still use 17.5),
but my freestyle centered stance is 22"!
So I'm REALLY out to lunch, eh?

Heh, we knew you were out to lunch BEFORE you listed your retro
'90-style stances.

Well, stanhces, board lengths, sidecuts, construction, board widths, usage
pattersn seem to change over time for all of the above. But yes, in the
past 10 years alpine riders have typically widened their stances.

My data:

31" inseam
5'10" height
"broad shoulders, average hip width"

soft boots: 19.25" on boards from 160 - 168
hard boots: 19.75" - 20.5" depending on the board. I tend to ride wider
stances on my all-mtn alpine boards and my long GS board, and the 19.75 is
Freecarve and SL boards.

Yes, that's right, I use a *wider* stance in hard boots. Some of this is
due to the fact that I use a little heel lift (3*) on my back foot, which
enables a wider stance. But these widths are what "feel right" to me and
allow me to have the best balance of stability vs. board-bending power.

A wider stance for hard boots may seem counter-intuitive to some, but I am
not the only one doing it. See:

http://www.catek.com/forum/read.php?...676#reply_1709

"CMC" and "PSR" are both very knowledgable and very experienced.


Mike T



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----