Dynafit toe piece lifts

I'm curious of any of you using dynafit bindings have wondered about, or done any about, the height of their dynafit toe pieces. After mounting a new pair of Kilowatts late last spring with my dynafit comfort bindings, I skied them a few times, but not enough times in varied enough conditions in order to have an opinion. However about 5 weeks ago, right after the first big dump at Paradise, I had the chance to ski them in 18" of new, pnw powder. They skied like crap ('09 185 cm, with binding and boot sole centered on the designated mark on the ski); I am using the new Scarpa Maestrale, which toured fantastic and seemed to provide enough stiffness for downhilling. I felt like I was falling over the front of the skis, couldn't find the sweet spot, and came home feeling like chucking the skis. After relaxing and letting a few days pass, I first hit the internet, thinking maybe I needed to shift the bindings forward or back - but found nothing of interest re randonee, only a little info re tele-skiing and binding placement. But then I thought OK, despite having size 31 boots, the center is the center, and how much off could I be on a pair only 185 long? (This as compared to the days when skis were 207-215 cm, and binding fore/aft placement could really make a difference). I also read Lou Dawson's Wild Snow blog, and read that several of his Denali team last spring skied Kilowatts; +, it's the second generation of the Kilowatt, with the newest 3rd gen ski for 2010-11 in the shops, so the ski couldn't seem possibly to be as lousy as it skied for me.

So, I started talking with skiers and knowledgeable shop folks, and lo & behold, there are some number of skiers who have taken to lifting their dynafit toepiece, often by as much as 1 cm. Looking at the stock mounting position, there is a decided slope to the boot sole when locked down in ski mode - close to 9mm; that combined with my Maestrale's forward lean of from 18 or 23 degrees made me seem to be falling over the front of the skis, moving my center of gravity way to far forward. So I looked around for some 1 cm thick plastic to make a lift shim, and found one in a kitchen shop. Yep, a Teflon cutting board. Scribing the binding base to the plastic, I used a jig saw to cut out two blanks, then drilled them out for the dynafit toepiece pattern. Then mounted the plate and toe piece with longer screws, set in epoxy.

The ski/binding with lifts/boot combo now ski way, way better. I may even come to really like the skis. I sure like the boots - the best touring boot I've ever been lucky enough to fit into. Keep in mind here that is not a huge number of different boots, since my size 13 -1/2 feet have fit into few boots - euros having notoriously small feet.

Since doing the modification myself, I found, unbeknownst to me , that one of my friends had done the same thing! Furthermore, there is a rumored aluminum plate close to being produced in order to more professionally solve this problem. So my question is, how many of you out there have had the same problem, noticed anything like this, or have tried to solve the problem in this manner? Or found another solution? Or am I just an anomaly (which is always possible). I'll be curious to your response. As one shop owner said, there have been over 1/2 million dynafit bindings produced over their history - can a handful of us in the NW the only folks who've questioned that ramp angle?

In August 2009, I was participating in a Ski Alignment Clinic at Timberline.  Besides ski clinicians, physical therapists and equipment specialists.  Jim Mates from Custom Boot Fitting in Ballard was there evaluating our boots and mounting of bindings.  This was the first time I was exposed to the ramp angle on my Dynafit bindings which are the older TLT's.  Jim provided me the shims to make the modification.  I had shims added to a pair of skis and found a neutral ramp angle did not load my quads and I was in a more "stacked"/ balanced body position.

There was a thread on TAY last year regarding ramp angle - I think Marcus started it - try search.

But to your question I've skied dynafits with 3 different boots, and 6-7 ski combinations, and only felt that tippy sensation on one of the combinations. Since I've switched around boots with skis it makes me think mounting placement is a factor as well. If I remount those skis (currently out of circulation), I'll move the binding placement to see the effect. Good to know about shimming the toe piece as well.

www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...ex.php?topic=12524.0

Yeah, that was me. My wife's yet to make the adjustments to her bindings -- new boots (Dynafit Zzeros) allowed her to get a more upright stance overall, with less burden on the quads.

There was a bunch of good info in that old thread. Anastasia's still thinking about doing it, for all the reasons you and Zap describe.

It's not a new subject by any means. Mates engages me in this ramp angle discussion whenever I bring in a pair of Dynafit-compatible boots to fit, most recently a couple of weeks ago, but the truth is I've never felt like I was "up on tiptoes" in nine years or so of using various models of Dynafit bindings, even though I ski other, flatter rigs throughout the season as well.

Marcus is right, different combinations of boots, footbeds, and forward lean make a big difference as well. My new boots feel like they are more upright and the heels lower, giving me more of a "back seat" sensation, but it could be just a matter of getting used to them.

... Then mounted the plate and toe piece with longer screws, set in epoxy.

Gerry - Where did you find those unique Dynafit screws in a longer length? Or did you just switch to some, locally available, longer countersunk phillips head screws?