Mounting Salomon Shift with inserts

If you've shelled out for this engineering marvel, you'll undoubtedly want to be able to move it across your many skis.

The Shift is an interesting specimen. I've mounted lots of tech bindings and the odd frame binding, and these things are different to anything I've handled before. Maybe that's due to never really spending much time on alpine gear.

Mounting Template or Jig?

I've been able to use a jig so far, and I think it will be easier to do so given that this binding will be in many places; I guess I'd gotten used to mounting ATK/Trab and other wanky boutique bindings by paper template. It gets a little more complicated if you are massaging your mounting around pre-existing holes, but let's talk about that later.

I haven't seen any paper templates online yet...but that'll change soon I'm sure.

NOTE #1: This is the story of one numbnut who managed a successful mount. It is not a tutorial for first-time users. If you are into this, you've done many of your own mounts before with other bindings. You can anticipate issues, make adjustments and think things through. If this isn't you, just leave your skis at the shop and hope they have a good ski tech dude.

NOTE #2: I'll be talking about screws using the Binding Freedom norms. Check them out here if you aren't familiar with their system.

NOTE #3: I will update this post after getting in touch with Binding Freedom. I'm suspecting that the old low-profile head they no longer advertise will be needed for some of the screws for the Shift.

9 Holes? The toe piece

Let's start with the magical 9th hole. This is a bit funky as you are mounting this thing on your ski:

This is a small circular washer/head thingy that sits on your ski top sheet. The toe piece slides and locks in with it. It needs to be flat, and the screw head cannot be exposed above it and must be flush or your toe will not be able to slide to the necessary position.

Fortunately, I have too many screws of many types laying around, and found something that fitted the bill.

 8mm, conical head with smooth cone surface

Bottom screw - too narrow at the head. Top one is good to go

Another view, top one fits, bottom not so well

I could probably use the Pozi screw above and get away with it, but it's not the greatest fit. This will be a tough one to get right, as I had nothing from Binding Freedom that could do the job. If I had to guess, you'd want a short Flat Head (say 8mm), but with a low profile head that is ground down some in diameter by 1mm. The screw I'm using is actually from an ATK binding and has a hexagonal head on it. If Binding Freedom can come up with a solution, I'll post it here.

 Close fit, but head profile wasn't ideal

The next two screws are pretty easy.

Pozi Flat Head (12mm)

These are for the two rear-most holes of the toe piece.

Now you slide the toe piece back and do the last two holes (don't worry, it will all make sense once you have a Shift in front of you). The last two holes need something like this:

Pozi Small Head (14mm)

Toe mounted. Yes, some of those holes use a liberal interpretation of 5mm apart.

Heel Piece

The heel piece is a bit more straight-forward than the elaborate toe. Just one type of screw needed, and only four of em. However, they need to be pretty long whilst having a low head profile.

Screw on right of pic is too high (standard Small Head), one on left is good to go (Low Profile Head)

Looks like a Pozi Small Head (16mm), but it has a low profile head.

Mounted

So, the total screws you need will be:

2x weird little ones @ 8mm, conical head with smooth cone surface. Best guess is 8mm Flat Head with 1mm ground off diameter (I'll hopefully have a better answer than this soon!)
4x Pozi Flat Head @ 12mm
4x Pozi Small Head @ 14mm
8x Pozi Small Head @ 16mm (but with low profile heads)

A quick reminder - inserts should be 5mm apart (BF say they've seen closer, but don't recommend it. I had little choice, and will post photos of ripped out holes if it happens. Probability feels quite low).

Also, we should be aiming for 3-6mm of thread engagement. Longer screws aren't always better, especially if they bottom out on the insert in the ski.

Massaging around pre-existing holes

I've had dramas with this. By a tragic twist of fate, lots of holes in many of my skis are too close to allow safe mounting. Moving the heel of the Shift is one answer - but beware. The adjustment range is 30mm. If you are using a jig, be aware that shortening/lengthening with the jig is done at both the toe and heel - it can become a goat fuck of second guessing and estimation.

The mounting above was done with the jig, but the massaging didn't work out (heel too far back on rail, preventing appropriate adjustment). I did a hand-drawn template (68mm long, 36mm wide), and that turned out ace. I look forward to someone with more smarts than me bringing clarity to this process - right now, I can produce a successful mount, but it's far less streamlined than I'd like. Maybe just buy some pretty new skis if you get in this position!


The Snow Monkey

It's the season starter, twisted season starter

Welcome to the new blog. I'm still not sure what motivated this move...perhaps it was the inundation of views I had (ha!). I will leave the previous blog up, as it has some useful content.

Here's a link if you feel so inclined: Team Weasel Alpine Chronicle

Maybe it's more that I wanted a fresh start. I feel like I'm no longer a beginner in this endeavor, and perhaps this blog will be more about a forlorn but constant quest for mastery of ski mountaineering and freeriding. And of course, some thinly veiled gear porn.

So...on to the beginning of the 2018 season in Oz.

It's great to see some significant snowfalls so far this season. It's been tempered with some horrendous breakable crust in the BC, but that's started to change.

Somewhere out back of Mt Hotham

Due to weather and snow conditions, I've only done relatively small BC outings - Bogong, Razorback, Hotham surrounds and McKay so far. The snow fell, but clear skies left us with ice at best, and breakable crust more often than not. There was the odd fluffy drift around, but with such high winds it seemed to just push it deeper down the gullies.

I've also done some resort skiing, which is all about putting in the labour needed to improve / rectify my shortcomings as a skier.

Lunch break at the bottom of Eskdale Gully

I'll be getting out and about as much as I can, especially up to Feathertop. The only problem at the moment is from illness - I've managed to cop a tooth with an abscess, and so may have to surrender a couple of weeks to recovery...but with some poor weather about, it's maybe not a bad time to be out of action.

Doing some jump turn practise (shown above) was fun - I realised that I have developed a weaker side. Turning to the left resulted in hilarious backseat landings and shooting across the slope until I got more time back in the saddle.

Familiar territory - Razorback boot and track

Oh, and I've acquired these. Will be skiing them next weekend after the brakes arrive:

Skied the boots a fair bit already - should review them too!

The Snow Monkey