Asnes Rabb 68 Ski Review

[fisheater]

I was also thinking that 8mm is not that much, so anywhere inside the Oneness zone should be alright.
But what was the recommendation for the Tindan, and why are you not happy with that?

Asnes recommendation was if Telemark mounting, to mount NTN rather than 75 mm. They recommended to place NTN boot center 1.5 cm forward of BAP (best alpine position) center mark on ski.

[Verskis]

I was also thinking that 8mm is not that much, so anywhere inside the Oneness zone should be alright.
But what was the recommendation for the Tindan, and why are you not happy with that?

Asnes recommendation was if Telemark mounting, to mount NTN rather than 75 mm. They recommended to place NTN boot center 1.5 cm forward of BAP (best alpine position) center mark on ski.

NTN boot center forward of alpine boot center? Isn't the recommendation normally the other way around? What was their reasoning for that?
And why would they recommend NTN rather than 75mm, is there more screws in the NTN mounting (therefore better load distribution?)?

[Verskis]

In other news, I had the first outing with the Rabbs yesterday.
The weather was about -1C and it was going to be warming near 0C, and I was eager to test the 58mm mohair X-skins as well, so I skipped the purple wax and just installed the skins. For the boots I chose my Scott Excursions, as I wanted to test the skis' downhill prowess.
Some things I learned yesterday:
-The grip of the 58mm mohair X-skin (stock length) is great in warm(ish) snow, I could climb steeper than I really wanted to
-The glide of said skins was not that good. Much much worse than kick wax, noticeably worse than 38mm wide Madshus Intelligrip skins, and about comparable to the integral skin on OAC Kar147. I could ski down steeper slopes with the skins on, but it was not that nice
-When I removed the skins for some downhills, the skis were almost scary fast!
-The skis turn quite nice and tight on all the surfaces I encountered yesterday: smooth hardpack, tracked and rutted snow, lighter powder (but only about 15cm deep), and heavier untracked snow. I struggled a bit on the heavier snow, but still it was much much easier than on my Madshus Eons on the same conditions, so I wouldn't blame the skis, rather than the skier
- The Rabbs track worse than the Eons, but better than the Kar147s on hardpack. I would say it's tolerable, but someone who is really sensitive might say otherwise
- I can't comment too much about the XC efficiency yet, because yesterday it was a bit of a slog because of the skins and the boots
- I hate removing and reinstalling the skins, too high tinkering to skiing ratio on our hills
- I hate climbing with the heel riser (at least the Rottefella Chili riser is too high, maybe lower riser would be nicer).
- Plastic boots are not that nice for XC skiing

Next time I'm probably going to use grip wax and leather boots, already looking forward to that!

[bgregoire]

Next time I'm probably going to use grip wax and leather boots, already looking forward to that!

Nice!

[fisheater]

But some things I noticed while handling the skis:
-They have a very low camber, much lower than both my Atomic Beta TM24 or Madshus Eon. However, the camber is very progressive, so that it is about as soft as the Atomic and Madshus at the beginning, but in the end it is harder to push the bases together than both of the other skis. Almost a bit like very low double camber. Or maybe Johnny's "single camber with guts" is the perfect way to put it!

Verskis,
Reading your comment that you have difficulty pushing the bases of the Rabb skis together leaves me with two thoughts. The first thought being the new Rabb must be similar to the Storetind as your description seems close to what Gareth describes. The other thought is that the flex of the Rabb would be quite different than either the FT 62 or the Tindan 86. Both of those skis compress base to base quite easily. Both of those skis also have a soft snow wax pocket. I have finally come to some conclusions as to how that single camber wax pocket works. I posted that here:

https://www.telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2277

[Verskis]

Verskis,
Reading your comment that you have difficulty pushing the bases of the Rabb skis together leaves me with two thoughts. The first thought being the new Rabb must be similar to the Storetind as your description seems close to what Gareth describes. The other thought is that the flex of the Rabb would be quite different than either the FT 62 or the Tindan 86. Both of those skis compress base to base quite easily. Both of those skis also have a soft snow wax pocket. I have finally come to some conclusions as to how that single camber wax pocket works. I posted that here:

https://www.telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2277

It's not that I have real difficulty pushing the bases together, I can do that, so the Rabb does not have super stiff double camber. But, it feels different than the Eon, or my Atomic Betas. Both the Eon and Beta have pretty linear feeling cambers, where the resistance feels about the same all the way until the bases touch each other. Whereas with the Rabb, the camber feels equally soft (as Eon and Beta) at the beginning, but the resistance increases noticeably at the end, especially in the last 2 to 1 millimeters.

[Verskis]

Now I have a couple of trips with waxed bases and leather boots. The waxing has not been real success so far, probably because I tried to "cheat" and did not use grip wax for the whole base, I used glide wax for the tip and tail. I haven't been able to get a rock solid grip for climbing (or even powerful kick and glide) so far.
I need to strip the glide wax off and use grip wax for the whole base.
So far I have noticed that the Rabb does not track well on hardpack trails, but this should not come as a surprise considering the amount of nordic rocker the ski has. Eon is a much better hardpack XC ski than the Rabb.
On soft snow the tracking is still not superb, but it doesn't bother me. I can also live with it on the hardpack, but it is a bit fatiguing when you have to steer it all the time. On twisty hardpack singletrack the turniness is actually quite nice, but on straight trails it is not.
On downhill the ski really shines, it is quite easy to make more carved turns, but also to break free and skid or pivot. I am able to ski it pretty well with a sturdy leather boot (Alico Ski March) when the hill is not too steep (I am not very good at skiing steeps with any equipment, so you can probably blame the Indian, not the arrow).
We don't have that much snow at the moment, so I cannot comment on the deep snow performance yet.

My impressions so far is that it is a very good downhill ski and an acceptable XC ski.

[fisheater]

Verski,
Lower camber and sidecut aren't ever going to be great on hardpack, as you are experiencing. It's good that your Eon fills this void. I use my USGI Combat ski for hardpack and not completely filled in trails.
The thing about glide wax, is that grip wax does not adhere to it well. My great snow days are numbered, so much so that I greatly appreciate my hardpack trail days. I have many days I wax the pocket with blue, which should be in temperature. Many of these days I slip so badly, I go straight to red from the heel to the ski tip. If I am fortunate enough for red to work, I am happy. However on hardpack I find that I need to go to red/silver. Red/silver is a bit gooey, but many times it gives good grip and glide. It isn't really different to scrap off that goo when it is no longer needed. However red/silver can be a bit much for the scraper, I often just use one ski to clean the other. I use the scraper to clean the edge of the scraping ski.
If you have not tried Polar White for a base wax/glide wax you will be pleasantly surprised. Even at green wax temperatures Polar White has great glide. Give it a try, you will not be disappointed. Grip wax sticks to it well, it may even extend the temperature range of grip wax, and it glides well. I strongly recommend giving it a try. By the way, I just cork my Polar White in. I guess I'm too cheap to use the iron on expensive wax.
Cheers

[Verskis]

Thanks for the tips Fisheater!

Now I have stripped the glide wax off and ironed in 2 layers of Start Nordic wax (similar as Swix Polar) tip to tail, and corked in a couple of layers of Rex Blue almost from tip to tail, let's see how that works. On my Eons it works fine, so should be working on the Rabbs as well, unless the rocker thing greatly changes the gripping behavior.
By the way, my Eons have a little bit of nordic rocker on the tip as well (even though it is not advertised at all by Madshus), but it is really minimal compared to the Rabb.

[Verskis]

Now I have nailed the grip waxing on the Rabbs and skied it more, mainly with leather boots. I can confirm that it is an excellent downhill ski on soft but not too deep snow. It turns very well, I have been able to ski down quite steep hills on my leathers.
Skiing downhill on deeper soft snow the tips rise to the top very well, but the narrowish dimensions mean the rest of the ski swim pretty deep and it gets bogged down quite a lot.
I have not had them on resort snow yet, but on hardpacked natural snow they are a little squirrelly, unless really tilted on their edges. Not too bad, but you definitely can tell it has less effective edge than non-rockered skis.
This squirrellyness (is that a real word?) makes them also not that nice as an XC ski, like I have already said. This is definitely "touring for turns" kind of ski. I can ski the distance with this ski if there are some turns to be had, but as a pure XC ski the Madshus Eon is a lot nicer.
This may not be the "holy grail" ski I was hoping for, but as a downhill ski I am very pleased!