Andy Mink
Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
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SkiTalk Tester
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I've read several posts that lament the tune out of the box on skis. I've also had the fortune to test a few dozen skis over the last two seasons and have been surprised how many demo and test skis have less than stellar edge tunes. After all, most of the people at the tests are buyers for shops. Wouldn't the company/rep want to remove one of the variables they actually have control over? This got me to pondering, what should an out of the box tune be? I mean, you're dropping hundreds and sometimes in the comma range on some of these skis.
My thoughts are a race ski, whether it be FIS or cheater/beer league, should come with a zero tune so the buyer can do what they want without having to get back to a .5 or .7 from a 1 on base. A ski made for hard conditions such as back east should be a minimum of 1/2, probably 1/3. Most other recreational skis should be 1/2.
If nothing else, the tune has to be consistent across the length of the edge. I've seen some skis come out of the box with anywhere between .5 and 2 along the length of the edge. That makes for some weird results. Should any ski be more than 1 on the base? Or more than 3 on the side?
I suppose my final question is, why are the edges out of box not perfect at whatever bevel they are set to be? Is it a matter of the ski not being completely set up after construction? Is it temp/humidity changes? Worn machines? A little bit of everything?
My thoughts are a race ski, whether it be FIS or cheater/beer league, should come with a zero tune so the buyer can do what they want without having to get back to a .5 or .7 from a 1 on base. A ski made for hard conditions such as back east should be a minimum of 1/2, probably 1/3. Most other recreational skis should be 1/2.
If nothing else, the tune has to be consistent across the length of the edge. I've seen some skis come out of the box with anywhere between .5 and 2 along the length of the edge. That makes for some weird results. Should any ski be more than 1 on the base? Or more than 3 on the side?
I suppose my final question is, why are the edges out of box not perfect at whatever bevel they are set to be? Is it a matter of the ski not being completely set up after construction? Is it temp/humidity changes? Worn machines? A little bit of everything?