When I was younger, I really wanted an off-road motorcycle. I had no means to own a motorcycle but could afford the next best thing; that being many copies of DirtBike magazine. If I couldn’t ride it, I’d read it. The late 70’s through the mid 80’s saw several important developments in motorcycle design, all of which were discussed ad nauseum in the magazines. Water cooling delivered more usable power from a given engine size. Improved suspension…
6th in a multi-part series on skiing/snowboarding on hard snow. Deliberate fore/aft pressure modulation allows the athlete to better manipulate the relationship between their base of support and their COM. Through refinement of this relationship, the athlete has yet another means of maximizing available edge grip and arc stability on harder surfaces. Fore/aft pressure distribution determines where along its length the gliding platform has the deepest ‘bend’ once the platform meets resistance. This can effect the shape/duration…
After removing the bulk of excess posting material on a purpose-built machine, I do some finish work on the spindle grinder. The hindfoot and forefoot need to be in the same plane, with the low spots in the molded contour showing through the posting material. This establishes the ‘neutral grind’; the state of the footbed prior to fine tuning with the client. This particular client has high arches, and his foot is mobile to the lateral side.
Part 5 in a multi-part series on skiing/snowboarding on hard snow. As the athlete glides from arc to arc, and as the angle between the edge of the platform and snow surface changes from one turn to the next, the load expressed on the platform (pressure) will also change. This overall (net) pressure rise and fall should be fairly consistent throughout each arc, and proportional to the edge angle. This may seem simple in theory, but may…
