Hardshell comfort

[roda]

 

I've been using FM's for a few months now and I have started to wear a hole in my leg where the top of the liner presses against the outside of my front leg.  This is due to the shells being vertical on the ski, and your leg is angled out towards your hip.  Has anyone heated up a shell and pulled it to the side on the top to be more in the natural shape of your leg?  You could shim the bottom of the shell to make the top line up w/ your leg angle but then your foot would not be flat on the ski (I'm guessing that would be bad).  I have heard of others cutting down the shell so it is lower on the leg, is it for this reason or for more fore/aft ankle flex? 

-Rod A.

[Director Darwin]

I had the same problem w/ the back of the binding cuff rubbing on my leg.  The liner (blue one) did not come up high enough even after multiple re-formings.  I cut a piece of thick EVA from an old binding and lined the inside/top of the cuff.  Not only is it more comfortable, it took away some of the slop.

[Chuck_Dickey]

I just make sure to pull the liner up higher than the cuff while heat forming it. Never had a problem with it. 

Saw DW shim up the inside edges of his rubber bindings with washers, stacked under the plate, quite high to allow for a better / mor natural stance on the ski. Very interesting approach.

[DW]

Yes, called canting in the snow ski world. Most snow ski bindings have a provision to cant the boots to roperly align your legs with the ski. Before that, hence the idea of using the washers, was to put plastic shims under the bindings to do the same thing. As Chuck mentioned, I did it to get a more natural stance on the ski and even out the on/off side turns. If you try it, you will need to get longer screws to attach the plate. I think for hardsells, I would cant the boot on the plate itself.