Foot Ski Dilemmas

By: R Kimball Albuquerque, NM

I would like to tell you that I have never worn foot skis in my life like a business associate I work with that lives in California. (Ha!!) But alas that would be a lie. It would also insinuate that I have issues with foot skis and those that use them. I do not. I merely stand on my soap box and request the same access that my riding companions that wear them do. Enough already. With all that said, a common question that arises is were to get foot skis for Skibiking and where to get short ones. (<65 cm) It seems too often that my foot skiing friends are forced to cut there skis or wear ones that are too long. This in itself is not always the best answer. In an attempt to get a pair from a well known Skibike manufacturer that makes them in 55cm, my purchase was declined when they found out I did not own their particular equipment. (Yes, it was a rude as it sounds)  So what to do with this dilemma? The ASA site (www.Ski-Bike.org) has an article that talks about mounting snowboard bindings to shortened regular skis. This is an alternative but what if you want to keep your ski boots? What if you are not handy with a saw or mechanically inclined?  In my search for foot skis to use while demoing my bikes with beginners, I stumbled across a practical and very affordable alternative. Enter the 61cm Salomon Snowblade Grom.

The Salomon Grom is a snow blade designed for kids. There are built well enough to handle using them as foot skis for skibiking. I would like to state the disclaimer: "Do any/all of the modifications at your own risk". I figured that because I would not be Skiing on them, it would be safe enough to use for foot skis on a skibike for adults. I was able to find several pairs of these kid blades during a local ski swap here in my home town. I was able to pick them up very cheap for around $45 used. I'm all about bargains. The only issue I kept running into was the bindings are a bit smaller and did not fit a very large ski boot. (Up to size 8 tops) After carefully assessing the situation, I found that the very front and the very rear adjustment slot for the bindings had been blocked off creating this issue. See Fig#1 below.

With these extra positions blocked out, the ski will only accept a ski boot up to maybe size 8 max. If only a fellow could modify these in a way to accept a larger boot. I went digging through my tool box and found a small round file. See Fig #2.

I was able to use this small file to remove the plastic material in the blocked out position on the plates to allow the adjustable bindings to use those previously blocked out positions. See Fig #3 below.

Fig #1

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Fig #2

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Fig #3

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With that said, I was able to file out the blocked out positions and was able to get the Salomon Groms to accept ski boots up to about size 11. This is more then enough to cover over 90% of those foot skiers out there. The ski is twin tipped, short and will do exactly what we are trying to get them to do for us on ski bikes. Give it a try, and watch early season ski swaps for these kids blades. I literally find piles of them on tables at early season ski swaps. Hope this helps you out.

Please drop us a note on what you have done to address the foot ski issue yourself. rk