Making Gear. Cross purposing Gear. Modding.

[anrothar]

Adjustable length skis: http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/projects ... -snow-ski/

[MikeK]

Lots of fractured alphabet around here. I think I want to talk to the kind of Skiiers that go into the backcountry, side country, whatever, chasing distance and elevation in the real world. The only packed trails you use are the ones the guy in front of you just made. Or following a snogo track through some powder, cheating the depth of the bottom.

Don't like lists? I can jumble things into an incoherent mess if that's what you prefer

Hey, just a thought, but if I ain't puttering around in the flatlands on the rare chance there is snow on the ground and I don't have to drive much to ski, I'm usually doing what you are saying. Wilderness skiing, no packed trails, no snowmobile trails. Pretty much the MO of a lot of cats in this cradle. Not sure why you get the impression otherwise?

Anyway, this winter left me with a lot of free time on my hands, and money by happenstance as I wasn't spending it on gas and hotels to be somewhere else, but I still felt no need to make new gear. Felt the need to chase the snow when it was there. But if that's what you want to do, go for it - I'd never stifle innovation... If you want to ski, still say your best bet is updating with some used equipment that some fickle DINK like me decided to change out.

And hey, RJ - maybe I can help you out...

I have a pair of 195cm Eons mounted up with Rotte 3 pins. Fishscales, soft "camber and a half" ski. Pretty easy turning, light ~2.2 lbs/ski without bindings - kind of like an old school tele ski, 83/62/70. Suck on hardpack but good for covering the miles and flex nice and round in soft snow.

My wife skied them once but they are mounted for a 43-45 boot. I have a pair of Fischers for her to try in replacement of these. Provided she likes the Fischers these are for sale. Pretty much brand new, half the cost of retail. I know how to ship skis. Costs about $20 on the EC, maybe $30 to your area.

[satsuma]

Rokjox:

There was an article in Cross Country Skier magazine a number of years ago which was a tour of a ski factory. I can't find this article in my personal archives or on-line. My memory of the article is that the ski manufacturer, in this case at least, produced their own base material to attach.

A ski base which has a positive (molded) waxless pattern is normally produced by the ski manufacturer. The patterns are proprietary and need to be pressed from plastic. Presumably, this could also be performed by a contract arrangement. It is possible to produce a negative base (cut pattern) from sheet. UHMWPE (P-tex) is available, for example, from Crown Plasticshttp://www.crownplastics.com/polymerspr ... /materials and others.

UHMWPE is difficult to adhere to. However, it is possible to impregate a porous (sintered) material with epoxy, or possibly, as the attached article mentions, by roughening the backside of the plastic. The impregnated epoxy can then adhere to the ski and be solidified. Whether YOU could roughen the base and impregnate it wih epoxy successfully , I don't know. A pressure-sensitive adhesive, mentioned in the article, would not produce a bond that would hold-up for skiing.

It would be a lot easier to cut some old skins and attach to the fiberglass with adhesive.

You might get better response in the future if you are more receptive and less insulting. The ski base and camber is actually more critical for track skiing than backcountry skiing.

[MikeK]

You might get better response in the future if you are more receptive and less insulting.

I wouldn't read too much into that. I think it's just his schtick.

I don't know that he actually attacks anyone or anything directly, but more or less gives a good rant about generalities. I think he actually might ski, or used to... so perhaps there is some shred of sincerity in his musings.

[Rokjox]

Thanks for the link to the Adj camber ski, I have looked it over and have got some tinking to do, it shows that others have considered the same stuff, but I don't like the alpine guys solution.

I'm going to return to this as I have mmore time.