Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Come along with me. Let me spin you a yarn.

Imagine the year is 2020 and there's severe pandemic. Imagine you are at high risk of contracting The Plague because of weak primary immunity. Your partner, who you live with, has a chronic kidney disease, putting her at high risk as well.

In that situation, it would make sense that the two of you would finally pull the trigger on your own XC BC ski gear so as to avoid going to get rentals, and skiing on potentially crowded tracks. Very understandable. Imagine further that you purchased bindings and skis without fully thinking through how you would mount them yourself. :/

In that case, you might come on to a forum like this one to ask if anyone, anywhere, can share some resources about how to mount Rottefella Super Tele bindings, ideally without any fancy equipment.

Is it possible? Are there videos? Guides written somewhere? Can anyone share some words of wisdom?

I'll do it for you for free. Are you in New England?

You can do everything yourself with a drill, a bit, some electrical tape, a sharpie, steady hand, and patience.

EASY

There should be a paper mounting template with the bindings. If not, the ST is 3 screws, the middle screw goes in the middle of the ski. 3.6mm bit, 9.5mm deep. Maybe 9mm. I can't remember. Use the electrical tape to visually know when to stop the drill. A 3.6mm bit is about 9/64 standard and close enough.

You can get a real ski bit at TOGNAR. https://www.tognar.com/ski-binding-drill-bits-and-taps/
You can get a Posidrive screwdriver from them as well, which is the correct screwdriver to use. Prioritize the Pozidrive before the drill bit if you must choose between the two.

Look for binding glue thread.

Can't say I've ever watched a video, but I'll bet they're out there. Meanwhile: Yes, you can do it yourself. Drill and proper bit, an accurate way to measure (a good ruler, or calipers are even better), a #3 Posidrive screwdriver (this is important) and an appropriate adhesive. As Woodserson says, there's usually a paper template. I'm sure we can walk you thru it if you like.

The DIY has a slight chance of error (not noticeable when skiing) with paper templates. By that I mean if you drill all 3 holes and mount the binding in one shot sometimes the heel of your boot is not quite centred if you have long feet. One solution is drilling the single front screw and mounting to check your alignment before drilling the last two holes. A variation is to drill one of the back two holes then mount and check, which aligns closer to the ball of the foot. Sounds weird I know but something to play around with before you drill.

I put a long piece of masking tape on the ski so I can mark it up with a pen. If you are turn focused it can be interesting to compare half chord vs ball of foot etc measurements (likely discussed on the forum somewhere). The B&D shift plates are easy to mount and play around with the binding position.

oggopoggo wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 25, 2020 12:22 am

The DIY has a slight chance of error (not noticeable when skiing) with paper templates. By that I mean if you drill all 3 holes and mount the binding in one shot sometimes the heel of your boot is not quite centred if you have long feet. One solution is drilling the single front screw and mounting to check your alignment before drilling the last two holes. A variation is to drill one of the back two holes then mount and check, which aligns closer to the ball of the foot. Sounds weird I know but something to play around with before you drill.

I put a long piece of masking tape on the ski so I can mark it up with a pen. If you are turn focused it can be interesting to compare half chord vs ball of foot etc measurements (likely discussed on the forum somewhere). The B&D shift plates are easy to mount and play around with the binding position.

I know a source of error in my mounts has been center punching through the paper template. Using a sharp pointed awl for the initial dimple is more accurate. As Oggopoggo points out, checking before drilling helps eliminate mistakes.

hey thanks woods! i might take you up on that? i'm in boston. where in NH are you?

also thanks everyone else!

colonel_sandbag wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 27, 2020 4:51 pm

hey thanks woods! i might take you up on that? i'm in boston. where in NH are you?

also thanks everyone else!

PM sent

Anybody double mount Rotte super tele with Xplore? How is the hole deconfliction?

@JohnSKepler There is an overview of the metrics here:
https://telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5428