Skin "tuning" suggestions

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12gaugesage
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Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by 12gaugesage » Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:02 pm

Anyone ever mess around with modifying a set of easy (kicker) skins for more efficient
K&G performance?
Is shortening the best way to go? What about making them thinner? Tapering? What about a thin strip of duct tape down the middle ala twin skin style?

Just got a set of e99 easy skins, no scales, wanna try just running with skins. Hoping this combo will be a solution for covering ground efficiently in hard, icey conditions.

I already have the standard yellow mohair mix skins, but I ordered the full mohair "speed" skins, which are what I intend to mod for k&g.
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lilcliffy
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Re: Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by lilcliffy » Fri Jan 10, 2020 10:38 pm

For K&G- yes- trim the skin to your heel- BIG improvement in glide.
Narrower- yes- improved glide.


Fischer makes a pure mohair Easy-Skin?
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jyw5
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Re: Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by jyw5 » Fri Jan 10, 2020 11:03 pm

I just ordered a pair of 35mm Fischer EZ mohair skins. They should be arriving in a week or so. Hopefully get some decent kick on my S112. I plan to go with your advice and use hot polar wax on the non scaled parts of the skis. hopefully K&G with this setup in average colder (10F-25F) conditions on flatter groomed trails. No skins and hot Polar didnt work so well on groomed trail the one day I tried it ...but it was -7F that day. Didn't seem like I had kick or glide. F4 over it did nothing.

So maybe 35mm hot skin waxed mohair is the answer.



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lilcliffy
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Re: Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by lilcliffy » Fri Jan 10, 2020 11:10 pm

Are you ironing in Polar grip wax on the scales as well?

Does the S-112 have enough camber for you to get kick on hard-pack?
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Re: Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by jyw5 » Sat Jan 11, 2020 3:43 am

No. I don't wax the scales. I only iron in the polar on the smooth part. Waxing tip to tail worked wonders on my FT62. I was able to go climb 1400 ft in 1.5miles with some slipping in -9 F and make decent telemark turns in 1 ft of light powder.

On the S112, it felt sluggish in subzero temps on a newly groomed trail...probably due to the fishscales. I don't think there is enough camber. I have 169cm. Im 5'8" 145lbs. I would like to try the polar again when it warms up to 10F.

I am hoping the polar waxed smooth portion glides more, and then attaching 35mm mohair EZ skins with ironed on Colltex skin wax will provide better kick but not hinder the glide.

Any thoughts on whether this would work?

Should I try polar on the scales? (and no skins?)

It seems like the S112 can get you anywhere...very slowly. I find that I end up shuffling at a pace of 4 miles/hr on a relatively flat trail. I would like to improve this to at least 6 mph. It would make skiing a bit more fun.



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12gaugesage
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Re: Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by 12gaugesage » Sat Jan 11, 2020 11:56 am

lilcliffy wrote:
Fri Jan 10, 2020 10:38 pm
For K&G- yes- trim the skin to your heel- BIG improvement in glide.
Narrower- yes- improved glide.

Ok, start by shortening, no further forward than heel, then I'll thin them, if needed.


[quote=lilcliffy post_id=29652 time=1578713894 user_id=545
Fischer makes a pure mohair Easy-Skin?
[/quote]

And maybe I guess not "full" mohair, sorry, sometimes I get a little excited. They look orange, not yellow. I'll have to see when they come in, hope it's not the typical yellow ones.
ordered the speed skins from:
https://www.snowinn.com/ski-store/fisch ... L4QAvD_BwE

See here too, called " mohair" skin:
https://www.skatepro.com/en-us/269-31038.htm?stockcode=
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12gaugesage
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Re: Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by 12gaugesage » Wed Jan 22, 2020 7:09 pm

Skins came in today. They are indeed orange, and package is labeled easy skins "speed". Can't really tell by touch if they're any different though.
KIMG1648.JPG
KIMG1649.JPG
Started by trimming to heel, I had done this to the yellows, didn't make much of a difference though. I cut a slight taper on the rear of them as well.
KIMG1650.JPG
I also tried a little bit of duct tape on the front of them, where they come through the base, don't know if it will make any difference, but it's easy to remove if it really sucks. I just feel like they drag on the front a little so I thought I'd try.
KIMG1651.JPG
I'm going to test them out tomorrow, haven't gotten much time on these new e99s yet, hope I can figure out a way to make these an efficient skin based XCbc ski...
KIMG1624.JPG
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bgregoire
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Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by bgregoire » Wed Jan 22, 2020 9:36 pm

jyw5 wrote:I just ordered a pair of 35mm Fischer EZ mohair skins. They should be arriving in a week or so. Hopefully get some decent kick on my S112. I plan to go with your advice and use hot polar wax on the non scaled parts of the skis. hopefully K&G with this setup in average colder (10F-25F) conditions on flatter groomed trails. No skins and hot Polar didnt work so well on groomed trail the one day I tried it ...but it was -7F that day. Didn't seem like I had kick or glide. F4 over it did nothing.

So maybe 35mm hot skin waxed mohair is the answer.
IMO skins are rarely a solution to better glide. Essentially, what you are trying to do here is erase the scales! The best solution would be to plane down them scales and apply a nice grip wax, but you might not be willing to go there. Lol. Keep those nice narrow speed mohairs for a narrow ski! In other words, don’t chop em down too much to tune your 112s, you might regret it afterwards!


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lowangle al
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Re: Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by lowangle al » Thu Jan 23, 2020 7:24 am

I have been applying polar to my scales for a couple seasons without any issues.



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lilcliffy
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Re: Skin "tuning" suggestions

Post by lilcliffy » Thu Jan 23, 2020 12:40 pm

http://www.telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.p ... =60#p30026

I cannot say enough positive things about grip-waxing so-called "waxless" scaled skis- at least in my local climate, terrain and snow conditions.

I had almost given up on my Altai Kom ski- because I just could not get enough grip with the scales on cold soft snow and was constantly putting skins on to do short 150m vert laps(!). The grip-waxed Kom has been transformed- I am in love!
Cross-country AND down-hill skiing in the backcountry.
Unashamed to be a "cross-country type" and love skiing down-hill.



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