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2021 K2 Disruption MTi

SkiTalk Test Team

Testing skis so you don't have to.
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Philpug: You know we were smitten with the outgoing K2 Charger collection; damn, we will miss those extremely underrated and underappreciated skis. Oh well, what is gone is gone, time to welcome the all-new Disruption skis. The flagship model is the 74mm-waisted MTi. MT stands for "medium turn," with a turn radius in the mid-teens. These square-tip skis have one simple purpose in life: to lay trenches, period. They are purpose-built skis that have little or no sense of humor and a soul as black as their graphics.

The on-snow feel is actually best felt when the momentum builds with speed: the faster you go, the more connected you feel to the snow and the closer your hip gets to the ground. This is a ski that will reward great skiers and punish pretenders. If you haven’t noticed, K2 is back in the business of building skis again.
Insider tip: Bring your A-game.​
 
Awards
Who is it for?
Europeans, you have been warned; this is big-block American muscle.
Who is it not for?
Weak game Willy, this ski will take your lunch money.
Skier ability
  1. Expert
Ski category
  1. Frontside
Ski attributes
  1. Groomers
Segment
  1. Men

Specifications

right ad
Available sizes
165, 170, 175, 180
Dimensions
118-74-104
Radius
18.1m@175cm
Rocker profile
  1. Full camber
Construction design
  1. All new
Binding options
  1. System

Philpug

Notorious P.U.G.
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Long term update: Like many skis last season, we didn't get as much time on them as we would have liked. Having many of these skis available to us in our test fleet allows us to circle back and revisit these skis. The all new Disruption MTi is now going to get more time on snow, not only by me but hopefully some of our other Tahoe testers.

The Disruption MTi replaces the beloved Super Charger, so it has some pretty deep trenches to fill and the MTi is definitely up to the task but to the beat of it's own drum. The new Disruption collection is a significant departure from the norm. Where the outgoing skis were very traditional in tip profile and sidecut, the Disruptions have a shorter blunt tip and a sidecut that runs full length to the ski's large flared tail making the design ski the skis full length...and then some.

One word to describe the new Disruption MTi is "Purposeful", this ski feels like it has one goal in life and that is to make the perfect carved turn.
 

anders_nor

Making fresh tracks
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Jan 18, 2020
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on snow
Put binders on mine this morning and checked forward pressure with my different boots. Tune and finish looks good.
 

Hermanator

Booting up
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Aug 20, 2017
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43
What is the turn radius on the 180's? Can't seem to find it anywhere. Thinking about this ski for beer league. Currently on the Rossi Master 185/23r. Looking to pick up some time in the first few gates with a bit quicker ski. Also looking at the Rossi Master 180/21r. I'm 6'3 210 lbs. And, getting older, so easier skis may be faster for me?
 

Philpug

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What is the turn radius on the 180's? Can't seem to find it anywhere. Thinking about this ski for beer league. Currently on the Rossi Master 185/23r. Looking to pick up some time in the first few gates with a bit quicker ski. Also looking at the Rossi Master 180/21r. I'm 6'3 210 lbs. And, getting older, so easier skis may be faster for me?
I am guessing about 19.0-19.5
 

Andy Mink

Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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Long Term Update: First things first. I read about skis and when words like "powerful", "one purpose only", and "take your lunch money" show up in reviews I get a bit tentative. I've been skiing upper 80 to mid 90 skis all season. Am I worthy of the MTi and its 74mm waist and laser focused purpose? Will I get spit off the side of the run? Well, time to buckle the Raptors snuggly, drop the goggles, tighten the belt, and find out.

I took the MTi out on firm corduroy conditions at Mt. Rose, the conditions these skis were built for. After getting the feel of the skis, I found that they aren't necessarily hard to ski but they are NOT playful. This is serious stuff. That tail? It goes ALLLLL the way back and is flat; no cute little flip up at the back of the ski here. Pushing and sliding will make it catchy. And it's strong. Get back on it and you'll be reminded to keep your knees, butt, elbows, and eyes forward. Once that is done, let the skis run. The Infinity Move is your friend. Shorten the new inside leg, let the skis swing out around you, and feel the power build. Release it and you're into the next turn. Lather, rinse, repeat. See those tracks? They're yours and they are deep! Not once did I feel the skis try and get out from under me.

These skis are a blast as long as you keep them within their job description. They are quick edge to edge. The tail is not very friendly in bumps. At an 18.2 meter radius, longer turns are their forte. And they do turn very well. Am I worthy? Perhaps at the bottom end of worthy; I didn't get pitched off the edge. Pilots more skilled than I will be able to wring out a lot more potential from the Disruption MTi.

20210111_091353.jpg

The right tool for the job.
 

Andy Mink

Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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Long Term Update: I took these out again this morning on some (say it with me) firm groomers at Mt. Rose. There were a couple of runs where not only did I get a single chair, but I was the only one in the corral. Soooo...no one on the runs! These skis could get you into trouble with patrol. I don't usually ski fast but I know I was going faster than any other ski this year. Not by a little, but quite a bit. They get weirdly calm at speed and there was more to be had but I pulled the parachute. What next? Do it again until there got to be enough people to make me leery of the speed. I don't have enough experience on other skis in this category (go fast turn, turn hard, do it again) to make a comparison but if there are better ones I'd like to try those too! I wouldn't want these as a DD, at least in the west, but they very well could be in the quiver for days like today. And yesterday. And probably tomorrow. If you like to go fast but not use your edges, these are not the ski for you. They are technically inclined. If you are a backseat skier, they are not for you. They will beat you up. If you don't like skiing fast you'll never appreciate them. HOWEVER...if you are a more technical skier and live for fast these absolutely need a look.
 

Noodler

Sir Turn-a-lot
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Long Term Update: I took these out again this morning on some (say it with me) firm groomers at Mt. Rose. There were a couple of runs where not only did I get a single chair, but I was the only one in the corral. Soooo...no one on the runs! These skis could get you into trouble with patrol. I don't usually ski fast but I know I was going faster than any other ski this year. Not by a little, but quite a bit. They get weirdly calm at speed and there was more to be had but I pulled the parachute. What next? Do it again until there got to be enough people to make me leery of the speed. I don't have enough experience on other skis in this category (go fast turn, turn hard, do it again) to make a comparison but if there are better ones I'd like to try those too! I wouldn't want these as a DD, at least in the west, but they very well could be in the quiver for days like today. And yesterday. And probably tomorrow. If you like to go fast but not use your edges, these are not the ski for you. They are technically inclined. If you are a backseat skier, they are not for you. They will beat you up. If you don't like skiing fast you'll never appreciate them. HOWEVER...if you are a more technical skier and live for fast these absolutely need a look.

Now you know exactly why I liked this ski. ;)

After testing the new Mindbenders earlier last season and then getting on the new MTi, I realized that this isn't your daddy's K2 anymore...
 

Philpug

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After testing the new Mindbenders earlier last season and then getting on the new MTi, I realized that this isn't your daddy's K2 anymore...
We have been saying K2 hasn't been making your daddy's or 5 day a year skier, Uncle Jeff's K2 for a number of years.
 

anders_nor

Making fresh tracks
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Hmmm theese sure do have some umph to them. had ideal conditions today on our local "black" run, not ice, but superhard compact snow and -12 to -4 aprox as sun came out, I even got to use my dark glass goggles, had them for 1-2? years without getting enough sun. Did a 2 hour stint straight up, this is the first skiiing of the year I actually felt a burn in the thighs/legs.

they rail, way better than my knee currently and I was working on more and more edge angles, and you do feel the racing part of the skis, they were not easy to release the edge, but again, not very scary. I did do some 1 ski action unintended when I was a bit sloppy, so you need to pay attention on theese, but not FIS race scary. Was not able to overski it a single time and make it fold more than I wanted, which is for my nippy 241lbs + gear today, pretty interesting, grips & stiffness is amazing. I'm on stock tune, but checked bases and it seemed better than I would have thought.

Looking forward to knowing them better, but I can see why people choose them for beer league and such. will test back to back vs my rossi LT

I will see if any of the gopro 360 vids on the cam I put on GF today is any good and post if it is.
 

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DoryBreaux

Not the Pixar Character
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I need to get on the MTi. I skied the green one at Mammoth demo last year and was left a but confused...
 

anders_nor

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Knee has improved drasticly, and I've been able to push them. Logged about 6-7 more days on them, at 3-6 hours per day on the ski. Also some latenight 20-22:00 runs and early 09:00 on weekdays with very few people out where I really could let them run free.

I'm likeing them more and more, they have that "race ski" touch and feel'ish, without beeing an actual race ski. I've taken them in more varied snow conditions. and they can be a bit catchy at times, but not trying to kill you catchy. When your tired at end of the day and try to go backseat on them, you will probably get some 1 ski action., but better than 0 ski ;)

Spent the day instructing on them a mix of 70% red and 30% black runs, when doing reds mostly on the not so steep parts, and while hard/icy with some crud, they would just grip and be happy, they ended up way more predictable than expected, you could tell where the limits were from the feedback on the ski, and if you needed to bleed some speed mid carve, you could with a firm slash.

They actually dont need a ton of speed to be quite fun. Doing some small jumps on rollers/knuckles and landings, they felt stable.

I'm sending my rossi LT's in for a prep tomorrow and will try to compare them some with fresh tunes on both.


A no speedlimit ski you can rip on even for heavier/bigger guys, thats still fun at 30mph.
 

anders_nor

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Sooo, time for wax, did it myself this time as I'm testing out the new swix non fluoro waxes, ps8, hs8 and ts8, found both some base high spots, and some lows, so they need a base grind. Always a good feeling when your plexi scrapes is a bit blackish..... , nothing major though, only a few minor spots.

Does anyone have the stock edge angles on this ski?
 

anders_nor

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Has anyone played around with base & edge angles on this thing? I'veen running 1/2 after stone grind, changed it up to 1/3, on the super hardpacked fine powderd snow and subzero degrees we had yesterday, I can't say that was the right choice, the 87 degree edge really made this thing agressive on thoose conditions, for me, too agressive, but will try it on other snow types. so you want to skid and stop? noop dont think so buddy. even after quite a few hits with a soft gummi it was just just a 100% focus ski, more so than a proper FIS GS with the same tune. I did find a small patch of ice on a certain sloped, and it felt much better, same for the skied out snow near bottom (still sub zero)

Thoughts, ski, angles, me, conditions?

I also noticed lots of shops have great deals on theese now, one guy told me they pretty much sold 0 of them all seasion, nobody seems to know about then :eek:
 

Andy Mink

Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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Has anyone played around with base & edge angles on this thing? I'veen running 1/2 after stone grind, changed it up to 1/3, on the super hardpacked fine powderd snow and subzero degrees we had yesterday, I can't say that was the right choice, the 87 degree edge really made this thing agressive on thoose conditions, for me, too agressive, but will try it on other snow types. so you want to skid and stop? noop dont think so buddy. even after quite a few hits with a soft gummi it was just just a 100% focus ski, more so than a proper FIS GS with the same tune. I did find a small patch of ice on a certain sloped, and it felt much better, same for the skied out snow near bottom (still sub zero)

Thoughts, ski, angles, me, conditions?

I also noticed lots of shops have great deals on theese now, one guy told me they pretty much sold 0 of them all seasion, nobody seems to know about then :eek:
How aggressive is your base structure? I was on one ski earlier this year where the structure was pretty course and not consistent. You could see deep and shallow spots. It was a spooky ride. The MTi I was on had a 1/3 but wasn't like what you described.
 

anders_nor

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How aggressive is your base structure? I was on one ski earlier this year where the structure was pretty course and not consistent. You could see deep and shallow spots. It was a spooky ride. The MTi I was on had a 1/3 but wasn't like what you described.


I had my raceshop do a regrind of base, its setup the way I have my other skis (or it should be). I can grab some pics of base, but base looks rather nice.

I also stopped by another raceshop between day 1 & 2 to check the base bevel/edges to make sure they were ok.

Me sucking could be a huge factor, but it was like a bad setup race ski with hanging edges out on a grabby groomer before tops get hit. I had to bring my A game 100% of the time, 0 relaxing. I threw it in the car immediatly on saturday as I had no gummis in my pocket, on sunday I did 5 laps before just changeing it out.

I'm thinking the snow conditionds played quite a big factor here, but I was surprised at how locked it felt underfoot, even after quite a few swipes with the soft gumi, when you tipped it over it was just like "hey ok lets go" and only way you could do something was shift it over to another edge lock carve, it just didnt want to do say a stivot, or kick the tail out for a speed check, it was locked in underfoot. At the same time it was like it was trying to make a shorter turn radius, than what it was made for when on edge.
 

Noodler

Sir Turn-a-lot
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I had my raceshop do a regrind of base, its setup the way I have my other skis (or it should be). I can grab some pics of base, but base looks rather nice.

I also stopped by another raceshop between day 1 & 2 to check the base bevel/edges to make sure they were ok.

Me sucking could be a huge factor, but it was like a bad setup race ski with hanging edges out on a grabby groomer before tops get hit. I had to bring my A game 100% of the time, 0 relaxing. I threw it in the car immediatly on saturday as I had no gummis in my pocket, on sunday I did 5 laps before just changeing it out.

I'm thinking the snow conditionds played quite a big factor here, but I was surprised at how locked it felt underfoot, even after quite a few swipes with the soft gumi, when you tipped it over it was just like "hey ok lets go" and only way you could do something was shift it over to another edge lock carve, it just didnt want to do say a stivot, or kick the tail out for a speed check, it was locked in underfoot. At the same time it was like it was trying to make a shorter turn radius, than what it was made for when on edge.

I've posted elsewhere, that unless the edge bevels were set by hand using guides+files, the tip and tail sections will be under-beveled. When this happens, the very tip and tail areas will feel quite aggressive and hard to manage smoothly through turn transitions.

So how did your shop get the job done? If it was by machine only, then you know where the problem lies.
 

anders_nor

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I've posted elsewhere, that unless the edge bevels were set by hand using guides+files, the tip and tail sections will be under-beveled. When this happens, the very tip and tail areas will feel quite aggressive and hard to manage smoothly through turn transitions.

So how did your shop get the job done? If it was by machine only, then you know where the problem lies.

both were machine or machine tools. they were under beveld after machinework like you said in tips & tails, I did corrected it by hand when setting from 88 to 87, but I rechecked it and observed I might not have done a good enough job. I'll hit the basement and look over everything again, has to be something I did wrong.

Whats the name of phils cool measurment tool again?
 

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