Long shot I know, but here goes...

Ordered some BanditXX's from letsbuyit (before they went under) and were due for delivery early Jan. Suffice to say thet have'nt come and I'm off skiing in Italy this weekend.

As much as I LOVE hire skis I was wondering if any of you keen skiers have a set just lying around waiting to be lent out!!

Cheers

Justin

 

Trouble is, the bindings on skis are matched to the boots so you'd need someone with the same boot size.

Then you'd have to collect them, transport to the airport and pay for them to go on the plane (£20 approx).

Save yourself some hassle and rent some in the resort where they use adjustable bindings.

You should be able to rent a top set of carvers and decent boots for < £100 for 6 days.

Kevin.

 

What!!!

Abuse the wife, kick my dog, but NOBODY borrows my Atomic Beta Race 10.22 GS race skis.....

 

Thinking about it, Danny Fisher has been given a pair of Salomon 9000EXP skis (from around 1993) which we recommended he chuck in the bin - he could rent them to you instead

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Kevin Greeley:
<B>Trouble is, the bindings on skis are matched to the boots so you'd need someone with the same boot size.

Then you'd have to collect them, transport to the airport and pay for them to go on the plane (£20 approx).

Save yourself some hassle and rent some in the resort where they use adjustable bindings.

You should be able to rent a top set of carvers and decent boots for &lt; £100 for 6 days.

Kevin.[/quote]

BTW - if you use ripoff charter using tour operators these days they will charge you for the skis - its NOT the airlines/baggage handlers that charge - the tour operators will lie to you and say it is - do the smart thing and book your own flight/hire car/accomodation - as cheap, and MUCH better.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Kevin Greeley:
<B>Trouble is, the bindings on skis are matched to the boots so you'd need someone with the same boot size.

Then you'd have to collect them, transport to the airport and pay for them to go on the plane (£20 approx).

Save yourself some hassle and rent some in the resort where they use adjustable bindings.

You should be able to rent a top set of carvers and decent boots for &lt; £100 for 6 days.

Kevin.[/quote]

BTW - if you use ripoff charter using tour operators these days they will charge you for the skis - its NOT the airlines/baggage handlers that charge - the tour operators will lie to you and say it is - do the smart thing and book your own flight/hire car/accomodation - as cheap, and MUCH better.

 

Thanks for the response peeps, in the end it all worked out okay.

I travelled with Equity whose price really is all in - no charges for boots and skis on the plane etc, lessons and ski hire inclusive - they deduct money if you don't require these.

Went to Fopollo (or Foppolo) where there was loads of snow - in fact it snowed every day - problem was the visibility was down to 20 yards at times, or whiteout if not near a piste marker!! Trust the clouds to be the same hieght as the resort

I paid 50,000 lire extra to hire some carvers, a result as they were brand new - kind of offset the disappointment of my skis not turning up on time...

Kevin, I didnt realise that some bindings were'nt adjustable - only ever seen the hire skis type. What happens if you change boots? There must some kind of adjustment to get them on the "fulcrum" of the ski (if you see what I mean).

Dave yep agree totally about the tour operaters bar equity, we would have done it ourselves (and if would have been cheaper) but we had two novices in our group, one of which had never skied before so it was best thought we'd let the reps look after them rather then me playing "mountain rescue" for a week

When (and if) my skis finally arrive I desparetly want to try them out, what are peoples thoughts on these snowdomes in the UK? Worth the money? Ski wreakers?

Cheers

Justin

 

If you change boots, they must be exactly the same external size as the old ones.

Non-hire bindings are not adjustable at all - holes are drilled into the skis and the bindings are fixed with large bolts/screw things.

Hire bindings have sliding rear bindings to allow different boots to be fitted, but these are not generally available to buy and are probably not as strong as 'proper' bindings.

Kevin.

 

Most heel pieces can be adjusted enough to accommodate a change of boots. The boot may then not be in exactly the right position over the mid point of the ski. But it will only be out by a few millimetres, which will not be noticed by most skiers. Also if you change your boots, you will probably have to adjust the height of the toe piece and the heel piece. I have done this with Salomon, Marker, Look and Tyrolia bindings without compromising the performance of the binding.

 

Jay m A
Agree with you about Equity - I haven't used them but they seem to have a good reputation.
It's the mainstream operators - particularly Crystal/Inghams to keep well clear of.

Haven't used Excape at Milton Keynes but a friend of mine did last week and said it was good - expensive at peak times though (£20 per hour).

Have used the Snowdome at Tamworth and not bad - could do with being a couple of kilometres longer though!!

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE YOUR OWN SKIS ON PLASTIC SLOPES. IT WILL WRECK THEM!!


Kevin
It's not true that non rental bindings are non-adjustable. There are very few that AREN'T adjustable but the range of movement is less than rental ones.

Atomic use a totally different system - on their race skis and further down the range the raiser plates are fixed to the skis at the factory and the bindings fix to the raiser plates. The bindings are adjustable on a slotted plate that runs between the toe and heel pieces of the bindings.

The only other piece of advice I would give to anyone is do not mess about with your bindings (boot fit/toe and heelpiece clearance/DIN settings/fixing to skis) unless you know exactly what you are doing. You can end up wrecking a knee!

 

Snowdome is fine, not tried Xcaspe at Milton Keynes yet, Snowdome suffers from dirty snow, you need to really clean the base off before you wax your skis again.