Playing Around on old 215 cm Rossignols

[Erik H]

Those are great photos! That's one heck of a loooong ski.
It's good for technique to practice on those suckers.
Rossi Randonees were state of the art about 1984 or 5, alongside Rossi TRS tele skis.
Purgatory is getting the snows this season! Wish I could find the time to get down there.

yeah, I think practicing on these has helped me quite a lot. Purgatory has had sooo much snow this season it's insane

[Erik H]

very cool. my very first Tele setup was a pair of 215 Karhu's. they were also brown with gold letters, don't remember the model. and the boots that came with the skis were Asolo extremes. I quickly sold the skis and bought shorter ones. I also hacksawed the cuffs off some old Nordicas to turn the Asolos into a DIY Merrill Supercomp...worked great.

did you ever get those 215s to work in moguls or is that better left to a shorter ski?

[bauerb]

it was a very long time ago, but I believe I only wanted the boots, but the gear was sold as a package. I think I paid $100. I quickly sold the skis, possibly never using them....even back in the 80's I knew I didn't want 215cm tele skis. lol

[fgd135]

Do they have an alpine camber? I hope so.

They are single cambered but it is quite a bit more than an alpine ski

IIRC, Rossi sold those with a promise of a "camber and a half" to accomodate both on the hill and backcountry skiing techniques. I imagine after 40 years the camber has softened into more of an alpine flex over all.

[Manney]

Doesn’t look like a camber and a half any more. One of the links says foam core. Probably lost some camber over the years.

[lowangle al]

I'm not sure you can tell by looking. I just got some Madshus 68s and the camber is low, like alpine, but noticeably stiffer. I could feel it with my hands and also when skiing.

Keep those skis carving and they' should be very stable. If they're not on their edges you could end up in the hedges.

I see you are already wearing a helmet, good move.

[Manney]

80s, 90s foam core skis? Look well used. How much camber stiffness would you expect them to retain?

[lowangle al]

Compared to my skis from that era they don't look bad at all.

I don't know much about foam core skis specifically, but all of my old skis may have gotten softer, but still have camber. I've never seen a ski go flat.

[Manney]

Foam at the low end. New = softer, lots of chatter. Old = lose their spring completely. Not sure if anyone makes foam cores now. Maybe kids skis.

[fgd135]

Foam at the low end. New = softer, lots of chatter. Old = lose their spring completely. Not sure if anyone makes foam cores now. Maybe kids skis.

I sold lots of tele skis in the 1980s and 90s; many of those foam core tele and nordic skis lost their camber fairly quickly, the alpine cambered skis going flat, and the nordic skis losing most of their wax pockets. Worst nordic skis were some of the Rossi and Karhu low and mid price range touring ski models. By far the worst of the tele skis for losing camber were Karhus, Swallow, some of the Rossignol models, and just about every single pair of Truckers ever made. Experienced this myself a few times. Those companies, Karhu esp., replaced lots of skis under warranty. Trucker didn't have a warranty to speak of, basically closing down for good in the early stages of the resurgence of telemark skiing. Resurrected a few years later as Phoenix, but with the same dynamics.
Alpine skis of that era made with foam cores (like RD's) experienced similar problems. I just don't think the technology of foam core construction at that time was developed well enough to handle the demands of skiing. The glass laid-up foam cores seemed to do better than the injected foam cores, ime.
Otoh, surviving Fischers, Kazamas, and other wood laminate and torsion box skis (i.e. Epoke touring skis) of that era probably still retain most of their flex and camber 40 years later, along with apparently some of the foam cores that didn't break down (or break in half) like that pair of Randonees. Six dollars! A bargain at twice the price!