Post
by GrimSurfer » Wed Jan 11, 2023 7:27 am
Except your Scarpas aren’t in free pivot. The toes are locked and the sole of the boot is providing resistance to movement. Perhaps not enough resistance for your liking, but this is not “free pivot” as one otherwise would get in a NNN BC binding without a bumper (or an Xplore without a flexor) if your Scarpa could be mounted to those bindings.
So what you’re saying is that the resistance in the arc of movement imparted by the Scarpa sole doesn’t “do it for you” but the added resistance afforded by the cable does work. Fair comment and nothing in this statement violates the laws of physics,
It is ironic that the NN, NNN BC, and Xplore bindings all do the same thing. The NN first did it entirely with sole resistance, but that wasn’t enough. So a cable was added later to increase that resistance. Springs of varying stiffness were added, etc.
The NNN BC came later, adding a toe bumper to increase resistance to movement. Soon thereafter, different bumpers were available.
Xplore followed with an easier to replace flexor (try changing a NNN BC bumper on the trail).
As bindings progress, the stiffness of the sole is becoming less crucial to movement control. Other movement control elements are being introduced as part of the binding, rather than as an afterthought. This reflects a progression in understanding, materials science, and engineering.
We get another form of control when skiing through deep powder, which acts against our shins to add resistance. This is why we can do some things easier in deeper powder… the range of movement is the same but the resistance to movement makes a difference.
This is what control is all about.
We dreamed of riding waves of air, water, snow, and energy for centuries. When the conditions were right, the things we needed to achieve this came into being. Every idea man has ever had up to that point about time and space were changed. And it keeps on changing whenever we dream. Bio mechanical jazz, man.
