J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ise

ellistine wrote:
A looser lower ankle clip deffinately allows you to increase the amount of ankle flex. At times this can be a benefit when you want to stop the skis 'swimming' but at other times you may need something stiff to lean against.

If I'm skiing normally I'll have them loose so I can really flex my ankles but if I'm carving I'll crank them up and propperly lean on them to keep the shovel of the ski biting.

I don't think so. Some of that is related to definition, so to make a clear definition, you've got the buckles too tight if either the plastic is being stretched to go around your foot or your foot is being compressed, in practice you'll probably not get one without the other. So a suitable tension will hold and support the foot without that happening, there'll be some small leeway in that, plus or minus for a handful of reasons.

But, if you significantly loosen from that point you're not increasing the flex of the boot, that's impossible, all you've done is increase the diameter of the boot using the buckle and that has no flex at all, in fact proportionally, if you measure flex as the increase in length over diameter under load, you've actually decreased flex. What you have done is allow your foot to move more freely which might be the effect you're after but it's not altered the boot unless your start point was it stretched.

I doubt there's a skier alive who doesn't over tighten their boots from time to time though, I know I do. Sometimes it's to compensate for a bad fit and sometimes it's just when we feel it's going to give more control.

Chap1978 wrote:Hi all,

Just one point to watch out for is that the chains do not go anywhere near your brake pipes. I brought chains for my bmw x5 and was told that my car can only have chains on the rear. The reason being that if put on the front the chain will catch the brake pipe and most probably rip it off. Result being no brakes!!!

When u get them fit them in daylight and get your head behind the wheel and make sure they can't catch anything otherwise you may have more problems!!!

Ohh and guess what..... They never came out of my boot!!!

Have a great trip

Chap

very true, I've heard of some people getting huge bills for damage to their cars from ill-fitting chains, for me it's not worth the risk.

Tony_H wrote:Ise, for heavens sake, we are not taking about performance cars, just your average A4 estate or BMW 3 series.
I dont care what you think or what your opinion is, fact is nearly every car i saw had plain black steel wheels on with winter tyres.

and no one at all cares about your opinion, facts are facts, physics are physics and if I were you I'd stop loudly and belligerently advertising you don't understand

RossF wrote:What is the avvy risk like? Looks good :D

3 generally, those slopes are all pretty safe, part of my routine circuit :D

Some some snaps from today including a rare one of me skiing :D bandit is on a couple a well.

A good day with some exceptional snow.

smirnoff_skier wrote:

Tony_H wrote:Go with a tighter leg buckle and loose ankle. Better flex and more control. Ellistine to thank for that one.

This is an interesting idea. I have always done both leg buckles quite tightly with the thinking being that the tigher the boot is, the more control I will have making short and quick turns.

By having a looser lower buckle and increasing the flex of the boot, does this mean the boot will have more 'spring' in it when turning?

If so, that could work well short turns and racing as you would get more 'pop' from one turn to the next.

Anyone got any thoughts one this?

loosing the lower buckles isn't going to alter the flex of the boot, it's just going to make them loose :lol: Tony's talking about something a lot of people find, it's possible to increase how tight the buckle is until it's right, it doesn't work out to crank it up and try and loosen it back, it's just one of those things.

It's not going to help you racing, it just means you'll need to articulate your leg more before the boot starts to load and transfer the force to the ski. That would be a bad thing.

Having a boot with high flex is good for some people, I like it a lot but if you push it then you'd need a bit of strength to control things.

Tony_H wrote:

karen72 wrote:ok so I think I am going to just bit the bullot and say sod it and get a cheap set off ebay like you say.

Do you think these will do the trick?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Snow-Chains-for-Cars-all-sizes-TUV-GS-Approved_W0QQitemZ380098151421QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item380098151421&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1299%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

many thanks
Karen

This is very interesting. I was told, like you, that no chains would fit my current or previous cars, and was told this was because of the alloy wheels and low profile tyres.

I also saw with my own eyes MANY high spec cars in Austria and Germany all with black wheels, no alloys on, all using winter tyres.

However, the company selling these snow chains says they are approved and that they will fit many different sizes and all manufacturers.

I fully appreciate Ise's experience in this field, as he lives out in Switzerland, but I am afraid that we are talking about UK cars here and tourists wondering whether they need chains or not. Looking at that ebay seller, they are suggesting that these chains are suitable for almost any car, and yet it is being suggested that this may not still be the case.

Are we talking personal opinion now, or are we talking legal requirements and factuals, because I am getting more and more confused on this subject each time it is raised.

I know in Germany they're not good at enforcing proper choice of wheels but it doesn't change the fact that it's potentially fatally bad advice to put steel wheels onto performance cars, it's just physics and you can't alter that as was famously said :lol:

gdbn wrote:You should also remember these laws are mainly for the local population.
You will not see many tourists in foreign cars being stopped anywhere for not having the correct winter/summer/all year tyres.

of course you do :roll: that's the whole point of the regulations that exist, they're for the safety of the tourists themselves and so those of us who live here don't have to sit behind traffic jams of foreigners who can't get up the hill. We've all got winter tyres anyway. There was concern locally last year when the police seemed not to enforce these rules one snowy day and there was chaos on some local roads.