The Bandit number had to do with the waist size. Going from memory, The B3 was HUGE at about 85mm. The first generations were pretty much a breakthrough ski. And they did truck in the powder. Cantunamunch is right in agreement with me. The older iterations of that ski were not good at all. something just went wrong.
The B4 was, I bet mid-90's. They were a hell of a ski. I visited a buddy in SLC, and we got a lot of snow and he put me on his. I think about 193cm......a couple of my best deep snow days EVVVahh.
My crappiest ski purchase ever was a pair of Lacroix something or others. Bought without trying them. Was assured that they would ski great. Like a race ski, but so smooth. I knew within about 100 yards that they just sucked. Back to the shop, back on rack as "skied one day". That day cost me about $200 back when skis were not that expensive. These things wereShop sold me a pair of trusty Volkl GS at their cost.
In college, I badly cracked a pair of Lange's, about 1975. I really needed boots that afternoon for the next day. Shop at Sugarloaf {the Ski Rack} had no Lange's, and no normal Nordica Grand Prix race boots in my size. But, they had these brand new, delivered that day Nordica boots that were supposed to be just the best ever performance boot. The things had no hinge, and six buckles. The top buckle was on the liner. Let's say the cuff was "kinda" tall. I lasted about one day in those, and luckily they were able to get me new Lange's in my size. I pity the poor guy who bought those next. Great lightly used deal. Why on earth would you need to flex an ankle?
Bought a new pair of boots around 1982, another bad non-Lange experiment for me. Maybe early Tecnica's? They had a leather liner. I was pretty darn sure of what I wanted for size, but the "master boot fitter" was adamant that the liner would not stretch that much. Sure it wouldn't. By the end of three days, I felt like I could stick two feet in the boot. Awful. I go back to the guy, and he explains that the boot's new and that he really wasn't sure how much it would stretch. He offers to pad the outside of it.....ahhhh, NO. Back to a Lange {constant theme, 1968-2004 and 2013 to present, hiatus to a Dobermann in between}.
In 2004, I had a pair of Stroltz boots made for me. Not cheap. The leather liner was a thing of beauty. The most high volume boot that I have ever seen, though. I really had doubts as they were building them. I felt like a clown skiing in them. Again, about three runs into it, I'm thinking "what the hell have I done?" My wife and daughter appear on the scene. Daughter is in a ski academy, has the weekend off, skiing with mom. They are doubled over laughing at how huge the boots are, and when we go to ski, it's worse. Stance just sucks, and I literally can't ski. Crying they are laughing so hard. I meet up with our son, who is older, and has the day off. What's up? He's meeting his boot company guy who's dropping off a couple of pairs of new boots for him. I invite myself along. Come home 4 hours later, having been fitted to a new pair of Dobies which the rep happened to have in his van in a 305mm BSL. Cut the saddles to soften them. Little bit of grinding here and there. All good. Sold the Strolz on Epic for $100 about five years later. Slight loss. That's my biggest boot loser. But it sure gave two ladies that I adore a TON of laughs.
That was actually the first ski that I bought -- it was second hand, but almost unused. So I'm a bit biased, but I thought it was a great ski, and I never had problems with the bindings. Really fun, fast carver. I gave mine to my dad after I realized that I was spending all my time on my Volkl AX4 724, and he still loves that ski for the few days he gets out each season.
