Thank you to all who replied sharing their experiences and advise and humour.
Before expanding upon my own views and experiences I must first address Tony Storaro directly !
Pivots, wide ski, carve….one of these don’t belong in a sentence with the other two…
Hi Tony two points first is i advise you my friend to never make assumptions i made no reference to 'carving' and having read God only knows how many posts of yours and laughed a lot I thought you had learnt that any ski with a waist 70+ is a 'fat' ski and is not for carving. Now at what point i would regard as clinically obese I have not yet got the data sufficient to put out a health warning on them
General comment for those who suggest "dont over think it" thank you i get what your trying to say which is linked to just go ski and enjoy it, don't waste too much energy on things which are not critical. However IMO there are those who can go and ski well without thinking about any of it very much, they are lucky like that. For some others it is essential to think about all aspects of their own skiing and there are reasons for this, and i am one of them. Some people have biomechanics which allow great skiing with "off the peg" gear. if you're like me even buying short trousers still results in them dragging on the floor.
For myself i know that unless i had put in the time the money and the considerable effort i would not be able to skis as well. My pleasure in skiing is there when i ski well I am in balance making the turns i wish to make and in control crashes hurt trust me i know and not just from skiing.
History I began skiing age 25 43 years ago, first skis i got injured due to broken bindings (rental. and bad shop attitude actually seriously bad i remember the man even today). Back then i skied 190 slaloms at 163 the gold Dynastars and K2 KVC my favourites. Back then i always thought that the Look pivots and Raichle flexon were the correct gear but always somehow ended up with Salomon SX 91 then 92 and Salomon bindings.
The Look pivots were an itch that never got scratched. I have 'carving' skis not please note Tony the Atomic FIS SL although the ladies version is one of the best/easiest skis i've tried. My 'carvers' include Atomic GS double deck in 166, Head I-speed V3, Head ISL Dynastar Masters slalom. Also as to boots i've used not 3 but 6 pairs this year, always with a reason and always with a learning experience. Four of these are plug boots with various liners added in including atomic foam and zip fit WC, but a Dalbello Krypton 2 also.
Having got to ski this year for the first time at what is now my local to me resort (Bad KleinKircheim) and being much older knowing injuries dont heal quickly any more and with two less than bullet proof knees here we are.
So early season (for me mid Jan) starts with learn or relearn to ski and looking to optimise set up. My aims were up my level, enjoy it more, be kinder to my body and have FUN FUN FUN without injury if possible. The pistes were hard or icy with a lot of sugar from artificial snow. All good and i decided for me the Atomic GS is a great ski, the I-speeds, ISL, Dynastar's were tools to learn with.
I played a lot with base boards but also binding delta. The current conclusion is a flat binding with heel 6mm high boot board is close to being good for me.
Getting the plates shims and especially the necessary longer screws to gas peddle toe pieces or binding tracks on even three pairs of skis was to say the least time consuming and tedious. The Atomics had previously been done at the factory and i also did this for my wifes skis, she is also short with a short BSL and the +8 mm delta on her set up sorry but ridiculous IMO she is now very happy with the addition of new boots also.
The gas peddling varied from 3 - 6 mm due to no consistency with the bindings i have.
I will throw in here that i asked the original questions as to go to a pivot would not be simples for me. None of the local shops carries this binding nor the jig to fit them therefore this would all be on me as a first time mounting bindings.
As the not great season progressed by which i mean low snow fall and higher tempts, i found i was skiing very variable conditions hard perhaps rutted through to sugar the wet the lumpy etc.
In trying the MX skiis in these conditions i found i could ignore the conditions and focus on my skiing entirely which was an eye opener.
Here there looks to be a good amount of area between the pistes which others have clearly skied during good conditions and in looking to next year, and liking the idea of options away from the race tracks were others are again ready take me out from behind the idea of skiing the less populated parts appeals to me.
The MX 83 is available to me at a good price flat or mounted in a 168. Having demoed the Stockle GS 170 and the SX 165? I figure the MX in 168 would be about right. Note I demoed the Stockle's mostly due to reading the threads here liked the GS but less so than my Atomics and thought for me the SX sucked could have been the conditions or tune dunno.
Knowing i can get injured (some of us do more than others by the way, which in my case i put down to laxish ligaments so less joint stability) from a prerelease just as much as from a binding hanging up I tend to ski at the top end of what is acceptable DIN.
All the above brings me to this point. I like the idea of being confident i wont PRErelease and can reduce the DIN setting a little.
I would hope to have settled on perhaps two pairs of boots. 1 pair of plugs for 'carving' and maybe the cabrios for the off piste, but anyway my understanding is that there is a mk 2 pivot coming that has double the adjustment range among other updates.
I am not averse to work as is obvious and do all my own ski work, so i hope that if i wished to change boots this would not become a major issue.
So what remains.
1) concern that i might find these grossly wide fatties (83mm width, yes you are all allowed to laugh at this who ski modified water skis)
would too tax my ability to tip or cause my knees to spit their dummy
in complaint
2) I would likely be on my own for mounting the bindings and to have to learn how to, and buy tools etc
3) i could mess up the mount point, especially if not settled on a boot sole length.
I note the Attack was suggested as having the lowest stand height, thank you but it also has more delta and therefore the toe piece would be raised 4-5mm, the pivot only 1-3mm
In the end the only way for me to know is to try, but figuring out how much the ski would benefit me and what the implications of wider ski with lower stand height would be like is a bit of concern as i have no personal experience to back this up and mounting the binding im nervous however good i am with tools and careful i am about my work to error is human so that would suck big time.
Thanks again to every body for taking the time to share
who like elasticity and rotating heels and stuff…
