lets be honest 90% of us won’t notice the difference between the different skins in terms of usage up and down the hill. We will notice how easy they are to apply and remove from a ski.
Clean scrape most of the old stuff off but don't fuss. Yeah get a medium iron, plenty of paper to lay the skins on, so no dirt , iron on and let cool . They will be very sticky and hard to separate if you fold together warm or use the storage sheets .
Does anyone have any experience with Majesty skis? I have just been reading about their new touring range. The Superwolf, new for 20/21, at 91mm sounds really interesting. and a width that sounds like it might work in Aus. Blister have just posted a flash revue and it sounds interesting. Just more confusion for those of us still to commit to a touring ski.
I liked mine to death, but others didn't like them as much. Horses for courses, or maybe my "bizarre" centre mount was what did it for me. I am tempted to go them again.
A friend of mine likes his TeleBolts - I don’t know much about them. They’re not a current model but were going ‘cheap’ a few years ago. Sorry I can’t offer BC info - he’s not into wide skis and skins - prefers skates or skinny classics. (;-) https://www.cloud-9.ch/pi/en/Cloud-...emark-Skis/All-Mountain/Majesty-TeleBolt.html
Mine are the year before that, I think I can get a hold of another pair. Do you go the same again when you find a happy place, or start searching? I like them more inbounds, but I think thats the heavy clunky binding. Hmmmm One thing I would say with Majesty's is follow their mounting info, mine look so wrong, but ski so right. I note on the Superwolf its pretty standard though.
Thinking of setting up a pair of Annums 78 to be use with Scarpa F1’s purely for Australian use. Has anyone used them?
https://www.wildsnow.com/28016/contour-climbing-skins-2019-2020-review/ A review of Contour skins from Wildsnow. Worth a read.
Cheers Spence. Seems like a thorough review. FWIW: I haven’t cut My Contour Hybrid skins yet - my First attempt is imminent with the snow season close. Fortunately there’s a few videos on YouTube showing the way.
Bruce at Wilderness Sports cut mine (thanks Bruce!) and the actual cutting bit didn't look too bad, but the rivets for the attachment looked so fiddly, I'm glad I didn't attempt it myself
I did this at the beginning of January for the first time in preparation for Japan. It was a bit nerve racking. But its actually not to tricky with the provided cutting tool. More a little bit awkward. I think I read in the instruction pamphlet (or it may have been somewhere else) that if you don't have a bench and vice set up then to hold the skis in a vertical position and work from the top down. This and the clever way the backing film has been designed so that you can stick the skin in place, down the centre, whilst you cut the edges without having to do the whole 'repositioning the skin from one side to the other' thing, make the task a lot less fiddly. And you don't have to be perfect. Small spots where its a bit uneven are not the end of the world, as long as the ski edges are exposed. There are a few wonky edges on my skins. It adds character . Oh and I'm certainly no expert on this so listen to other wise heads before you listen to me.
Yes snappo re WS but I’m ‘stuck’ in Vic so it was a ‘mail as is’ scenario? I watched Doug cut my G3’s at EMC so I think it’s worth a go. I wasn’t aware Bruce fitted the tip. Rivets can be tricky things. The foldover clips viewable online look pretty neat if length adjustment is needed. Wouldn’t want the DIY tip to fail in the BC though - always good to have a spare (kicker?) handy to get home?
cheers Spence - I have trimmed the tails of BD kickers in the past (less likely to lift!) - so I’ve found large sharp scissors work pretty well to trim edges. I have access to a fake B& D workbench with soft jaws so hopefully can minimise ski wobble as I cut. (I sort of pity XC/BC skiers wanting to DIY but lacking a garage and workbench; even waxing becomes a chore!)
Or maybe a voile strap? He sells the spare velcro tabs that go on the tail attachment, which is good as I think they will be easy to lose with cold fingers EDIT: front attachment, not tail
Just on cutting skins, if you are up to do it yourself, G3 have the best cutter and well worth spending a few $ to get one. No need to reposition skins to ensure the edge is exposed.
The cutter that came with my Contour skins does this also. Very clever design that uses the edge of the ski as the guide but cuts at a rebate of two or three millimetres to expose the ski edge. Also nice safety feature were the blade edge is out of the way of fingers. You would have to really make an effort to cut yourself.
I dont think I’ve seen such a beast? Might look on-line. Great to have a small, cheap, simple fail safe. I Do have some of those orange Voile & BD straps - all are pretty useful - especially preparing skis and bindings for a flight. Would be a real emergency job to have to use a Voile strap on a skin! (Limp home mode?)
Prob the most widely used tourer around. There's not much competition. Fischer has something similar if you can find it. It has more pop for kick and glide. And there's a Rossi BC that only WS in Jindy stocks.
I just mean spare ones of the tail connection - I assume the ski and snowboard have a similar type arrangement. Like this EDIT: I just did more googling and it appears these are for the splitboard model only. So never mind me as you were Haha most likely! I daresay I'm literally the least qualified person in this thread to comment on this anyway, but that's what I was imagining I'd do if a connector came off the skin, just to get home.
cheers for that pic/info! Isn’t it a spare front? Looks similar to my front clip secured by 2 rivets. (;-)
My rivet clip is separate to my Velcro clip. The Velcro one comes fully off and I’ve dropped it even just playing with it around the house
cheers - yes split boards a different beast! Some whacky angles there! I’m intrigued by the Velcro bit. It looks like if I ‘lost’ a front wire I could cut the rivet end off and add the Velcro attachment? Maybe not?
Maybe? I have no idea. Might it depend on the camber of the ski? I am literally just guessing here lol
Hmm! The Seperate Velcro End enables the user to adjust the angled front which must depend on the 3-D shape of the board. A simple fixed (45 deg?) angle probably won’t work well for All spliboards? Hence the 2 piece job? My theory? (I’ve never snowboarded before - never mind splitting straws ... Er splitting boards!)
Hmm yes maybe the angle would depend on the shape of the tip (yay I got it right this time!). I think the two piece system is also so that you can get the second attachment on (you put the tail attachment on first, not sure what you do for skis), since the buckle type attachment thingo I've seen for skis online wouldn't fit on the tapered end of a splitboard.
going off some of the information here I might need to amend my ski decision before hitting the checkout button. I was looking at Rossi Soul 7 HDs with tech binding package. They are 106 wide. Seems like I might be better off with something a little less wide as I will only be using these in Australia.
Soul 7s we’re getting quite a workout (on piste) from someone in the lodge at Hakuba - well until they decided to descend to base on a day where downloading was recommended. Not the skis fault! seriously, Soul 7 are a popular ski in Japan with their frequent dumps. Seem to be a very Rockered ski for a 106. I believe they’re less suitable on firm piste than less Rockered wide skis. Is this where the experts suggest a look at Black Crow Navis or Camox Freebird - the latter is lighter& narrower at 96mm waist - I’d like one but not recommended for Tele bindings. Keep asking around? Folks here will know. (;-) Atomic & Soloman both do good 95mm waist light ATs - but they’re more tour than turn I understand.
They have the navis and the orb as options for a BC package online. Navis come with Fritschi tech bindings, the orbs with a G3 zed 12 binding. The difference in bindings is all foreign to me. I would have to get new boots, which is the reason I have been stalling.
As I have said before skis for Australia do not need to be wide about 90 mm IMO is plenty, its mostly hardpack. Soft snow and powder are usually over 4hrs after the last fall.
Anybody got some advice on how I should be storing my Contour skins back home? I don’t have skin savers, currently they are just rolled up in the bag they came in, in my garage.
In summer I keep my skins in the fridge. At present my skins are in my ski bag in the cellar. I am not sure If will be allowed out to ski again in 2020. There is not much snow in VIC. and we plague i stanis are under lockdown , again. I use cheat sheets to keep them from sticking to themselves. Black Diamond usually include the cheat sheets with the skins.
Mine are the same, but they did come with plastic bits. I haven’t put those back on, read somewhere it wasn’t necessary for short term storage?
Have had skins for 30 + years have about 6-8 pairs of different widths . They are fine just folded together and not kept somewhere too hot in the house but never the fridge .