Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Just pondering different setups and got to wondering about the practical upper limits of NNN vs NNN BC.

What is the widest ski anyone here has skied with NNN bindings? Not NNN BC, but the straight up NNN bindings you'd find on track skis.

I know that use-case strongly impacts how effective these types of bindings can be, but I'm sure someone here has experimented with eccentric mix-and-match setups.

I should have mentioned that the widest I've gone is on the Madshus Voss at (I think) 60-50-55.

The same ski for me, but it's called the Fjeltech M50 in my version. The limiting factor for me is the boot and binding itself. These are designed for gram conscious racers. The skinny rail on the binding and the plastic boots that are available are uncomfortable by the end of a long tour. That skinny contact point of the binding down the middle of your foot compounded by the thin plastic sole. NNN is on this ski only because I want a movable binding to make the most of the fixed skin. If the BC binding came out in a movable version I would switch in a heartbeat. Skiing the M50 with my leather Crispi Nordland would be more pleasurable on many levels for sure and probably better from a control aspect. The extra weight would not even be noticable imo. I'm not skating it for the most part.

wabene wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 17, 2023 3:31 am

The limiting factor for me is the boot and binding itself. These are designed for gram conscious racers. The skinny rail on the binding and the plastic boots that are available are uncomfortable by the end of a long tour. That skinny contact point of the binding down the middle of your foot compounded by the thin plastic sole.

This is interesting to me because I actually find my NNN boots to be more comfortable over a long day (or days) than my NNN BC boots. My feet like the more technical fit. But different feet are shaped differently I guess.

Yes it is all personal preference. I could see your motivation if you find that system so comfortable.

Lets see the boot you will be using, that will be the limiting factor. I wouldn't go much more than 70mm underfoot. Chances are you'll be controlling the ski with your feet only, with not enough stiffness in the cuff to use your ankles.

lowangle al wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 17, 2023 10:25 am

Lets see the boot you will be using, that will be the limiting factor. I wouldn't go much more than 70mm underfoot. Chances are you'll be controlling the ski with your feet only, with not enough stiffness in the cuff to use your ankles.

Some of the combi boots are actually pretty stiff in the cuff (I'm impressed by how hard I can drive the Madshus Race Speed Combi), but 70mm underfoot sounds pretty daunting. I wonder more about skis with the Ingstad-ish sidecut (62mm I think).

I'd love to magically mount some of my wider skis just to test for a day, but I'm much too lazy to do that.

I always thought a combi boot would make a good light boot but never tried one. I still think 70 is a good width for a light boot. Wide enough for some added stability and not too wide to get on edge.