Buying roller-ski experience

Hi,

I went to a shop to get myself new rollerskis. The man, fitter of the
bindings, managed to fit one of the bindings 4 or 5 mm in front of the
other binding. I refused to buy them if he couldn't get them aligned in
the same place on both skis. When I saw him removing the binding with a
knife cause it was glued to the ski I walked away.

Was this bad workmanship or was I just picky?

As a ski shop employee and longtime racer, let me say that this
misaligned binding mountings is certainly a critical mistake, although
one that probably all employees have made once or twice. Certainly
they should not have given you the skis like that without mentioning
and then either remounting them (with rolllerskis this wouldn't matter
at all because the shafts are so strong and most people would say the
same about winter race skis too although repeatedly remounting will
evetually affect the flex of the ski). On the other hand removing
glued down bindings with a knife is actually pretty normal. You need
something very thin and sharp to get between the heel plate and the
rollerski to pry it off. If you don't do it carefully, it is easy to
break the binding.

The upshot is the store was probably careless but had they remounted
the bindings for you they would have been fine.


wrote:
Hi,

I went to a shop to get myself new rollerskis. The man, fitter of the
bindings, managed to fit one of the bindings 4 or 5 mm in front of the
other binding. I refused to buy them if he couldn't get them aligned in
the same place on both skis. When I saw him removing the binding with a
knife cause it was glued to the ski I walked away.

Was this bad workmanship or was I just picky?

The question I have is whether the binding should have been bolted to
the rollerski (as mine are) through the holes in the binding or whether
adhesive is enough.

Chris

Chris Crawford wrote:
The question I have is whether the binding should have been bolted to
the rollerski (as mine are) through the holes in the binding or whether
adhesive is enough.



it's only the rear platform that gets glued. The actual binding that
holds the boot is always bolted to the rollerski.