just looking at two pairs of boots, one is a BSL of 320 (outriders/megarides) and the other 322( ZZeus). My TLT’s are mounted for 320 and primarily I use the Garmonts with them but I’m looking at the Zzues and thinking it’s “only” 2mm, what are the chances of using either boot without messing around?

On Fritschi you’d about get away with splitting the difference, set it for the smaller boot and give it half/full turn off and it would be fine, the release wouldn’t really be compromised. I’m more nervous with the dynafits about doing that.

And, then I realise I don’t know how much variability there is in dynafit inserts. the rear’s a fixed point but do the toe inserts move? Could it be that 2mm in BSL is nothing compared to the alternate insert point anyway?

I will try the boots and see but I’m curious what the feeling is.

Maybe try with a 3mm gap?

Too close and the boot touches the binding when skinning and also may prerelease or jam as the ski flexes when skiing as the heel of the boot come in contact with the heel piece.

Too wide and the boot can prerelease when skiing as the ski flexes.

so opening it up by a couple of mm might be fine? i.e. looser is better than tight?

I think it’s about 3mm now, I just tried it.

The red boot is a Garmont Outrider (320mm) and the brown one a Zzeus (322mm)

So I think there should be more gap on the Garmonts but I don’t think there’s much in it. I can’t lay my hand on a feeler gauge right now to check.

That looks OK to me.

it looks ok, did you try the one with the smallest gap in walk mode? Does it clear by much? I’ve found if the gap is too small you can get the heel of the boot touching the rear binding when you torque the boot on traverses which can spin the binding down changing you to downhill mode. So you need a fraction more than a hairsbreadth gap.

It feels ok in climbing mode but it’s hard to know without trying it, I’ll try it when the snow arrives outside.

I’m not terribly bothered, the Garmonts are fine for touring with those skis (voodoo’s) and the Zzeus were for my kilowatts really. I was just curious how the voodoo would ski with those much stiffer boots.

Finally tried that, without any adjustment it’s just fine. There’s certainly no problem in ascent and descent felt fine although I didn’t push the release at all.

late followup....

Just tried a feeler gauge in that gap and it’s a little odd. The shorter boot leaves less gap, around 0.1mm less I’d say. Which means that the BSL measurement isn’t reliable, my guess is that it’s fine for fritschi and is measuring what it says, ie the Boot Sole Length. On the Dynafit inserts it’s not measuring the distance between the centres. You can see why some mail order places won’t ship with dynafits drilled.

So my gap is around 3.9 and 3.8 depending on the boots which seems fine. I was thinking of sticking the dynafits onto another pair of skis so I’d drill them the same I think.

As you say that is a bit peculiar esp where someone goes to the trouble of specifying a precise BSL of 322 mm.

Are you getting ready to go skiing? I hadn’t seen any snow on the way but maybe in CH?

I suppose they say BSL not “Distance between Centres of Dynafit Inserts” .

Not much skiing yet, I just had a feeler gauge in my hand and it was on my mind about moving my TLT’s onto some other skis. Nov 3rd for lifts on Glacier 3000 apparently which is a good chance to see if the gears’s all working.