Skis purchased in charity shop today!

Good day fellow snow enthusiasts...

So yesterday my new boots (Head Vector 110), bought in Andorra in March, were given their first taste of the white stuff at Snowdome in Tamworth.

Out of the blue i get a message from a friend who has spotted some skis in a charity shop...£20 he says...i'm picturing some 1940s wooden things ha! Anyway, i may well have wasted £20 today but though where better than to get some advice on exactly that than here.

They are 'Rossignol Bandit Respect' (hard to read the text on them1)& have cross country bindings on them so i suppose question 1 is how do i go about getting them off and some downhill ones fitted, is this even possible or are those now on there for life? They are 166cm, i think when hiring in the past i get given 160-163 but i'm 173cm myself and a quick google on size says 160-180 so within parameters?

Any advice and guidance appreciated folks.
Ben

:thumbup:

Well at the very least you've supported your local charity... 8)

From a quick Google, the "Respect" models were lightened for touring/skinning and are considered quite soft for piste (or crud, hard-pack, etc.), and they're about a decade old also so may have lost some of whatever punch they originally had.

Could still be fun in soft/fresh conditions... but maybe you have a large fireplace they'd look good over? :wink:

Definite respect for taking a punt though!

The skis weren't up to much even when they were new, but they are fitted with a pair of 7tm Power Releasable Telemark Bindings http://7tm.de/ which would have cost about 250 quid when new, don't chuck them away.

To remove them you will need a No. 3 Pozidrive screwdriver. Any decent ski shop will be able to mount a pair of alpine bindings on them, the only proviso being that none of the holes needed to mount the new bindings should be closer than 1cm to the old holes.

As the skis are pretty old it would only make sense to put alpine bindings on them if you could find some really cheap and mounted them yourself. You can find paper templates to aid drilling the holes here http://www.bindingfreedom.com/paper-tempaltes/ they will also help you to identify possible conflicts.

Alternately you could take up telemarking.

I'm with swingbeep. Not really worth remounting with alpine bindings. Should at least get your money back selling the bindings though.

Really appreciate everything folks!

SwingBeep wrote:As the skis are pretty old it would only make sense to put alpine bindings on them if you could find some really cheap and mounted them yourself.

Thanks Swingbeep, what would your thoughts on 'really cheap' be? i've watched a decent youtube vid on fitting your own bindings so whilst i'm no usual DIY kinda guy i'd certainly give it a shot. Get the skis on and see how they go.

Brucie wrote:I'm with swingbeep. Not really worth remounting with alpine bindings. Should at least get your money back selling the bindings though.

eBay or too niche for that?

Am I being over-cautious in saying that fitting- and adjusting - bindings is best done by a pro, unless you know what you're doing ?