Universal klister .....

We got fresh snow and some blue coloured numbers so with rain forecast i dived out again for a ski tour.

Having not cleaned the clister off i had the choice of melting in some red or using more Swix Quick Klister which i am experimenting with.

This time i was prepared to throw the whole can in the bin if it was messy and wore off quickly. However the universal name is deserved and the quick does function all be it with a proviso that you let the solvent evapourate and check it has become as tacky as tubed clister at room temperature.

This time i applied very sparingly, spreading it thinly towards the centre. I let it get tacky in the warm wash room and then shooted on another layer just in the binding's length.

After this i just drove out and laid them on the snow for a few minutes.

Conditions were new snow onto a hard but melting base, air -2c. The skis cladded up really comically badly on the loose snow up the first fish bone to the tram lines. After this was scraped off though there was glide to be had. And "spiker feste" ie hob nail like adhesion with a ljittle cladding when jogging up steeper sections.

The glide got better but i found that poling was not as fast as diagonal where the snow was soft at all. However diagonal was almost too good a glide like a figure skater.

The brakes were on whenever i poled on even gentle down hills, which seemed a bit bizarre but truly the compression of one ski was giving glide where two were not melting the snow enough.

The one issue i had was that clister in the whole kick wax zone was too much and when there was loose snow then there was clumping exactly where you dont want it!

So the clister was universal as the temperature range suggests. For a tour or training skier then this is easier to use than tube with spatula although not any quicker imho due to there being maybe five minutes evapouration at minus five and then another few minutes to cool off so it doesnt rip off or march backwards from the heel.

Quick Clister then: Ideal to reapply then before a thermos break or lunch at the fjellstua. No good for new snow unless it is very corned, but tracks with newly flattended snow were great. Start by not waxing the whole kick zone hust the sole with it. Quicker and cleaner to apply than a tube and of course it will remain fluid to a much lower temperature when applying. The applicator is better for fjellskis as it is wide but care can make for accpetable non messy results.

Sticky Fingers and Skintec

Klister conditions continue....deepen in fact.

The local run was ill advised and needs both churning and light tramline driving. Ice. Klister eating steely tracks of hell according to a pensioner I met and i turned back to visit another local low level venue when it started to rain heavily.

Ditch the day.

I did however get to experiment with application of quick-klister. I think a lot of people are going to be using these sprays for training and in the pocket for longer races. They do need a little bit more time than at first may seem.

Quick and Dirty or a Good Solution ?

Swix quick klister is a pressurised clister in a spray can with foam diasappator / spreader top. It is like a fast shoe polish, although the width you spray out and spread on seems to be training ski wide, maybe by design. The base binder green clister is just a spray unfortunetly because the applicator is darn good.

What takes time in these products especially when outdoors is that the solvent used needs to evapourate. Otherwise your clister will just be abbraded off. At room temperature i waited two minutes and it was still too thin to be of use. I used my hobby crack lighter to gently blow away the solvent and got an instant good clister finish.

I have seen serious birkebeiner types at icey venues with blow torches and i guess they are using these to spread the clister.

Far better imho to spray on and get a very even layer and then heat off. The spray was as even as an iron on, and better than my painstaking oven pre heat home job sans iron.

Finally lying the ski kick zone gently on snow to let the clister set, which is a must do whatever the circumstances.

So given you are a little patient and understand what is going on, then you can get a very clean application at home or with the box warm from the car or using the crystal meth addict's  blue flame you can save the day without an iron.

There was actually enough clister on my skis from my trudge round drivheia anyway, but universal in spray seems a better way of doing things. Btw i had green v90 wax base binder with blue VR40 and the single long line of clister from the tube was 75% intact with the pocket under the sole just smoothed out. Flouronated waxes prove their worth again in wet conditions with clister hanging on better than non flour.

Forget the sticky stuff ?

Another coincidence is that i wandered into a G max to buy said quick-clister and i then of course wanted them to test the preload on the atomic skintecs they have on boot-binding-ski offer for about 400 euros. The 2000mm they had tolerate 100kg with the mohair being clear of smooth snow at least.

However it transpired that this is a variant without the change out magnetic insert system. Instead it has a glued on mohair which has no central "groove" but to my eye it looked like it was shorter. The ski is no doubt far lighter because there are no magnets and so on. I dare say it is just maching the sole which renders them ready for glue in mohair.

The skintec ski in this version then is really a high tech repeat of the mohair inserts of the late 70s i have read about. Both ski and glue technology, and magnets for the other type, have come a lon.g way since then.

So as a pair of zero skis for the amateur racer or all rounders for the time stressed parent of three then worth the bucks if you need a new pair this is a bargain with the package if the one insert works as it should.

Not that the lack of interchangeability scares me too much. The ski looked the same otherwise, and so has the same construction most likely, with the arch being symmetrical and compliant until you really kick-load it. This is going into their racing skis too.

The ski is a fairly broad training ski and i liked it; but i would want to spend about the same without boots but with the magnetic insert and two inserts to start with. I reckon a shorter kick hair glider insert and a super grip patterned combi mohair clister buster would be the type on inserts i would spend a bit on.

I have an acquaintance who happened to get old stock skintecs last year with inserts and he is almost 2m high so must have long, hard sprung ones. I must ask for a test run if my boots fit his binding type.