Loppemarkedski Challenge

Kuldegrader overnatt skapet nye forventninger .....kanskje det blir fortsatt kystnær skispor ?

Jada. Det var bare et sted hvor solen hadde spist ned til grus og det var kun spor på en side. Ellers var der en spnn yin og yang dag, is i skygge og nesten slapps der solen nådde godt.

Og skiene....de var jammen bra !

Ta deg denne utfordringen - en tur til Smestad Skoles loppemarked eller et som helst kirke sin, eller fretex og skaff deg et par "gidder ikkje smøre....bryr meg ikkje om de blir rivet i stikker" ski. Kanskje støvler og, men ellers sjekk at bindingen fra 1979 passer dine nåværende.

Hvor er utfordringen vel i å skli rundt på et par treski med billig fiskeskinn plastsåle og myk spenn ?  

Det ligger inn å få deg ut i møkka före uten at man skylder på klister og glider jobben..... Å få det mest ut av gamle ski når man må føler på nytt hvordan teknikken din teller mer en utstyret.

At myk spenn gir trå ski er ikke helt sant for vanlige skigåere. Alt er i forhold til alt annet- topp utøvere nå kan stake sin vei 7 mil og opp en helvetes bakke til slutt i Marcialonga' n. Men de er under 70 kg og trener 8 timer om dagen. "Klister ski" for amatør skirenn utøvere er blitt en must, med hardt spenn som holder klisterlomme ovenfor baken før det må godt trykkes ned. Høyde i festesonen gir best fart er mantraet.

Men det er mye å si for nokså myke ski for en vanlig mosjonist. En god klister eller vox smøring skal være tynt og tåler litt juling. Tåler egentlig hoftene og knærene dine så mye press for å få fraspark over 4, 5,6,7 mil skirenn? Ikke å tale om hundrevis mil trening i løypet av et par store sesonger. Ski som man blir mer sliten å gå på og som påføre mer slitage på ledd er ikke ne bra idee for amatører.

Lengden i smøresonen hjelpe med balansen mellom ski som gir feste og ski som glir bedre. Mykere ski skal ha en kortere festesone og man kan eksperimentere med et par lag på 'toppen av pyramiden' av mykere vox eller klister når föret er fast. En del av festesonen foran og under bindingen skal reise ovenfor bakken selv om på 'myke' ski i utforkjøring altså dette skal bety at "lommen" midt under foten glir når vekt er bært på et ski i diagonalgang.

Jeg mener at en foeholdsvis myk ski kan prestere selv om på harde, klister före dersom man vil gjerne benytte mye diagonalgang og dobbeltak-med-fraspark. Her må man finne ut hvor lang smøresonen kan være og hvilken klister funker og om man skal ha mykere klister midt under foten. Viktig er det at man får en progressive kontakt under fraspark og får føle hvor my tak man har i bakken før man gir maks krefter. Viktig også at 'retur' foten svinger lett fram på en lav vinkel og tar også en progressive påføring av vekt. Vi snakker om brødeler av sekunder her men en hardere ski gir jo bedre glid men man får et brått fraspark. Dermed må man kanskje ha lengste mulig klistersone for å gi feste når skien presses hardt og brått ned. Så tar det også noen millisekunder lengre for vekten på den nye glidende skien å gi et stabilt kontakt med bakken.

For topp utøvere kanksje blir myke ski for mye av en kompromis. Men for amatører som vil gå lengre skirenn mer enn 4 mil og i Norge det betyr alltid vesentlig stigning og varierte snøforhold, er mykere ski noe å vurdere. Særlig når före skal inkludere noe myke strekninger i høyde eller på andre side av fjellet der mest nedbør fremkommer. Med nysnø fallende eller drivende over gamle spor så blir smøringen en større utfordring enn spenn i skiene.

Nå kommer vi tilbake til gamle, smørefrie møkka ski for trening ved slutt av sesongen i slappsete og isete drita-spor. Man finner fort ut at teknikken gir veldig mye med hensyn til hvor mye krefter vi kan legge i frasparket og hvor langt fram den nye skien kan vippes før det glir. Feil fører til grovere straff og fremgang viser seg betydelig.

De bråker som faen på de isete staking strekningene og utforkjøringene. Litt bredere var disse type skiene fra 70 og 80 tallet, slikt de tåler myk underlag med bedre oppdrift enn smale trenings-racings-ski og de har en større overflatelse med mønstre på som kommer i kontakt med bakken. Så kan man også skøyte på mykere underlag som er gøy- mønstre på sålen og gamle skår i skiene hjelpe med bortføring av vannet og bryting av sug.

I år har de to mest gøyale treningsturene blitt på disse teite skiene. Jeg følte avslappet. De hadde nesten alltid nok feste og var stabile og flytende i det myke strekningene. Selveste padling gikk veldig bra på moderate motbakker. Jeg hadde ikke noe angst for dårlig smørings kunnskap eller å treffe stein med mine nye skintec ski. Det plager meg veldig at disse to solrike treningsøkter - enn siste gang snøen nesten forsvunnet , enn nå i det påskesolen smelter den knall raskt- står som de minste frustrerende og mest tilfredsstillende i sensongen. Men det sier mer om både sesongen med sin mangel på fundament i skisporene, og mine egne innstillinger.

The Scoop on Skin-Skis...In built Mohair on XC , The Way Forward?

After many years wanting a pair, but never quite justifying the new price for a potentially dust gathering new fangled ski, I got hold of a bargain used pair og Atomic Skintecs. First day out and what is the scoop? Like I say, it seemed an expensive experiment for a system which gained as much critique as praise, the former playing to the sceptics and wax sponsored semi pros. So did the skis show their stregnths and weaknesses today? 

I bought a lightly used pair of Pro skintec 4000s, 208 cm,  which I presume have the advanced carbon fibre insert, more on that later, but more over it had the glued on mohair insert. This was a cheaper option launched I think in 2013 as an alternative to the very innovative and much discussed magnetic, exchangeable skin system. Now all the major producers of XC skis have come up with their own varients, with I think the expired patents going back as far as wooden ski days so no IPR to hold back copy cats. However Atomic decided to use the system on really their top training ski with the variable tension carbon camber insert. Camber (centre arc tension, spenn in Norwegian) is really the crux of the matter, but first how did it go?

The skis were obviously from our local shop who have been fitting them with quite a cheap binding in a horrible grey plastic. There is a lock lever, which I just find annoying on skis, they come open in my experience as often as sprung step ins due to icing or accidental twists. The internals are stainless steel and not ligher, stiffer alloy. Anyway that was the only real disappointment of the day. An upgrade to perhaps Atomics own binding with matching long grooved boots next year will fix it anyway.

So after getting the things onto my boots, it was out in new, wet snow with an immediate nice little hill up from the car park to test the skis, followed by our usually and quite wonderful forrest road training 7km return tour route., which often requires zero fishboning and has hills which mostly can double pole down at high speed. It is all go, a really good workout with a beaver-infested lake and natural Scots Pine and Alder hilly woodlands to make it a little more interesting.

Immediately what struck me was that the skis were really light for their imodest length, and felt immediately controllable and fast. I have never used 'straight' edged classic skis before, but I can see why very few people who use the driven tracks for training bother with side cut these days. You see many septagenarians out on sports and even racing skis with parallel edges, 40mm wide.

It would have otherwise been a difficult if not impossible day to wax for- new, wet snow on a relatively soft base, with a rising temperature and quite a few folk out in the tramlines by early afternoon. Perhaps rubbing skis would have been the pro's choice, it certainly was damned if you clister, damned if you don't as the base of the tracks got harder and wetter with the army of pensioners who seemed to appear.

First hill and as perhaps could be expected, the skis were like nailed in the kick adhesion! This is what they all talk about "Spikrefeste" with these skis. Good feste uphill often makes up pyschologically for a little less than average glide, but today it first of all seemed quite good. I was soon "up the chuff" of a light little lady who was having some slipping up the light gradietn. The narrow Atomics dug in quite a lot on the middle skating area which was really very soft, so I went over to a bit of skate padling to see how it went to get passed the dame in the lane. Suprisingly enough they were really nice to skate a little on, which is a major bonus for me because I am not a purist when it comes to either technique. In fact I would say that a good green, blue or lillac hard wax job in those -`C condtions can be judged by the ready ability to skate out the tram-lines and maintain skating on the mid lane, all eb that not as optimum as skate skis, but without catching and jittering

My old timer mate revealed to me that he actually used to compete for Minnesota State XC team, and also that he weighs in at about 59kg, which is as good as half of what I weight. He had taken off to get a head start on his clistered up sports skis. It took me about a km to reel him in.

Glide up hill was completely acceptable and I revelled in having skis which almost felt like they werent there as my trailing foot kicked back  into the air. However down hill the glide was awful. I think these types of days are the very few which suit a wider, light tour ski for me, my Fischer PowerWax 2009 model may have worked better to maintain float over the soft base. My lighter tour companion had much better glide despite the first round being on new snow and him having a lillac clister job.

Uphill first round though and I was the flying scotsman. Grip and glide relatively for the conditions and I guess compared to the Start GripTape I have planked on my blue tour planks, it was a much better day out. My last tour in hardened snow ended in swapping to skate skis,  while the damp weather tour before that had been a plod on my ancient jumble sale skis with little or no glide. For once I felt that I really could concentrate on both technique, power and speed.

On the flats and down hill however, it was a sad story. It was chronically slow, and not helped by the tracks being wide out on soft edges, with an overly generous skating lane as is the usual for our club, or perhaps the machine is at fault as the two pensioners who drive it both go classic not skate-style. I felt sucked of power and frustrated. Were the skis too soft a camber?

I did have a pair of these skis put on a tension machine to my weight approximately and they were just about ok in terms of the kick zone being held off the snow for 90% of its length. It is quite a lot shorter than the removable version, but wider I think, and maybe a rougher or longer strand Mohair. However on the steepest downhill the skis showed just a tiny little bit of the whirring noise people on web forums complain about.

Second round and the temperature had risen well above zero, and there had been maybe 10 skiers up and down the route. The tracks were firmer and quite wet, The skis became a little slippy in the kick and probably got sucked oin the flats and downhills, they went irriatingly slow.

Here we come then to the crux of the matter and I believe the lions share of the criticism of these skis from people who have bought them and not been happy. The camber is all important. Without the right amount of tension your skin will drag over the snow and lock the ski into suck at its plastic edges. Too little camber tension and you will struggle to activate the compliant carbon system, which gives up its relative stiffness to behave like a soft ski at the point when the threshold of kick downward pressure is maximum.

The other brands of 'skin-skis' will attract the same/ wrong camber, wrong ski criticism. They are all atleast 50% dearer than normal packet price, mid range skis and mostly to a better qaulity without hairy brasilian treatment. So the type of buyer is likely to be someone who knows they want an easy maintenance ski for training, but maybe just took the chart length for being right for height and not weight. Hence some bitching on the web forums from folk who should find out about camber and what weight they will support and what style of kicking and snow they will be best suited to. The big surprise to me is that the manufacturers have chosen mid to top end sports-training skis which can be used for racing in fact, as their launch area for a ski-idea which may suit a more leisure and fitness user.

Also you cant forget glide zone properties, Kizmun or wax, and the need for texturing for wetter conditions. My skis seem to have a very light ex works stone ground effect and I hadnt bothered re-gliding them, there was some white hairy sections but nothing more than a couple of centimeters so I just used the morning for work and threw them in the car at 1215.

Atomic actually have launched a Stiff version of this very ski in this winter's catalogue, which is maybe the ideal ski for me, but I am more than merely willing to percievere and won't be casting in the towel with my new fangled, furry skis.

Kizmun - Truely Waxless Skis? Glider Wax Mafia vs Science

The trail seems to go cold on the internet forums when we try to follow the mysterious case of the blade and the death of glide wax......

By the early 2000s the majority of XC ski bases were being made in the incredibly tough version of humble polyethylene *aka polythene* . Yes no fancier chemistry than one of the simplest polymers ever made by man. Shopping bags and many different bottles are made of it. It is known for being cheap, soft and easy to melt and recycle. However if you can manufacture very long polymer chains then you come up with a very different beast which is very tough and resistent to wear, while still retaining flexibility and a maleability in the final extruded, or sinter/cast product. Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene was born and finds use in many sports from yarns in paragliding and sailing, to of course ski bases under the most known brand P/Tex 2000, 4000 etc.... UHMWPE

Percieved wisdom in ski circles harks back to the earrly days of plastic based skis which used less dense PE and other plastics. These were " porous" in that the gaps between molecular fibres in the 'nanostructure' and over all micro structure. These are not like biological pores in skins nor definable porousity other membranes like PTFE (Goretex for example) . High density polyethylene is the grand mother of UHMWPE and is still used in applications such as bottles for samples of crude oil and other hydrocarbons, solvents and chemicals. Here even this older, less dense product is prized for lack of adsorption and its inert chemical nature.

Pro ski prep' teams understand that structure in the ski, that is visible patterning by stone grinding and rilling traditionally, is vital to good glide in both XC and Down Hill skis. Note stone grinding! This is a standard ex works delivered ski for what ever purpose, is that it has an abrasive, random structuring often followed by a medium all purpose Vee shaped rilling.  The virgin ski out of the mould is rather nice and shiny when made of UHMWPE and lacks any visible microstructure.

Already the traditional waxers discovered that part of their percieved wisdom from the older 'porous' days, was that saturation with a soft warm weather underwax became useless. Now we can come to a bit of scientific nuance or tautology to some. Wax on UHMWPE is not ABsorbed it is ADsorbed. The subtle difference is that rather than being sucked into the deeper structure of the matieral like a sponge *absorption* wax now largely coating the surface micro and nano structures. Scraping and brushing is really quite aggressive in glide waxing and removes a huge percentage of the wax from the micro surfaces, and because wax is scraped hard it also drags out a lot of the nano adsorbed wax too.

Well waxed cold skis in particular have miminal amounts of wax again. Mild weather waxes applied at a more proffessional level,  are found in a greater qauntity on the ski after prep is finished, this being a function of the coarser, water guiding structure and hence large surface area and more complex I would say that the wax is actually helping compensate for a rough microstructure which otherwise holds water.

Enter the cheeky swede, Kuzmin. He realised while working with un-ground skis made in the new P-texes UHMWPE, that the surface is unbeliebly smooth and that stone grinding in particular introduces a random, overtly rough micro structure which replaces the older 'porous' wax adsorption. Also he used a bit of common scientific sense. He took sharp edge blade tools and scraped off the stone ground mess and then introduced variable cutting edges to introduce a directional microstructure. He also produces a cold or hot rilling tool to introduce rilling pattern, but all this is glider wax.

Here are the myths of glider ski wax enthusiasts

1) Ski bases are porous

2) Stone Grinding is essential for a good start point

3) Ski bases oxidise with use

4) Unwaxed skis  absorb dirt, water, hydrocarbons over time

5) Skis need wax to either break hard crystals in cold / abrasive or exclude water in milder and wet conditions

We have looked at one and two. Three is a nonsense. The whitening of ski bases with use is due to small hairs - it looks white and some pseudo scientist called this oxidation. Under even a magnifying glass you can see the white areas are hairs and excess wax. The self same 'expert preppers' are then introducing the same principle to Zero ski and texture only kick zone where they roughen it up to produce hairs which act as a wax free zone for adhesion.

Moving on, well yes a stone ground ski base is a random uneven surface with no initial direction to the roughness. At a small level, espeically with remnants of old, softer wax, the stone grrinding with or without rilling will hold some crap ADsorbed into the valleys and pot holes introduced by the excessive texturing.

Finally the biggee- that wax does a job which the UHMWPE cannot do. This is just not true, UHMWPE is highly hydrophobic and without stone grinding it is so smooth as not to absorb anything in particular. It is harder than any wax used for cold weather. It has a lower coefficient of friction against hard snow than any waxing when not stone ground and hard rilled. It may however in milder weather, in a flat untreated form, created more suction than a rilled and waxed ski.

There are some circumstances when I would dare say that a flourinated wax prepp on a traditionally texture ski will have a better water dissipating effect and lower coefficient of friction than a Kuzmin prepped waxless ski. However n that uniquely Scottish way, the jury would have to deliver a 'not proven' verdict for either a prosecution against the waxers or the new fangled scrapers. Indeed would any judge let it come to court based on the current evidence?

Kuzmin and some others have percievered in the commercial world now far more than the academic research world, and indeed a German company  (https://melt-ski.com/nivylen) is offering a waxless down hill base system which uses a copolymer = the plastic equivalent of a metal alloy, with enhanced coefficient of friction throughout conditions and a high resistence to wear and its associated "whitening"

However lets get back to basics here and some home truths. In the longer XC ski competiions of 30 and 50 km classic, the skiers get to change skis during the race and this relates to both kick and glide waxing simplky wearing off in what is otherwise a pretty puny distance for the keen weekend ski tourist going cabin to cabin. In the same way that the 'furry' insert of Atomic took its time to gain traction and it took a larger voice from other manufacturers to make it a market sector from a crank niche, the same may be true for 'sharp scraping' and having skis delivered without any grinding. Now our local shop has about a third of their XC classic stock Skintec in two or three guises, and they command about 50% higher price than the usual skis they sell. The skis are most often in fact to be seen on pensioners feet!  Despite being quite sporty, a training or distance race ski, the group who just dont care about the wax shed are buying in their droves to get out and ski.

I look forward to getting a pair of skin based skis and running them Kizmun as true waxless !!! 

Weird White Stuff: Drivheia Tour, UHU and Hobby Blow Torch

I decided to use the promise of a whole day's weather-break to drive a while to get to the mini mountain, Drivheia in Aust Agder.

What do UHU, snow and mini hobby blow torches have in common? All are substances of abuse or accessories to the crime today.  More on that later.....

The conditions were frankly a bit weird: easter wet snow but on no base, just a meter or so of slush puppy. There had been unfortunetly new snow in the tracks ,or kind of lying sleet as it felt making it all very heavy and vague.

Me, discouraged? No! I followed a bit of classic track which dissolved into skating apparently if the skier hadnt just turned round after 2km and put his skating pack on.

So the all important waxing then? I havent any of the VR62 to  75 , they are very expensive. I had universal klister with me but hoped for the plus one or two degrees cee to rub on some v red.  I do have the VR blue 40 which prove a good base for the inevitable,  with a high column of "mild" low pressure air: klister time.

So here are my klister tips for that sudden sinking feeling that you will not survive on red wax.

1) take a mini hobby blow torch the type that runs on lighter fuel, or actually enacses a lighter and produces a spiked, precise wee blue flame. The weapon of preference for crack addicts btw.

2) wrap the lower half of the klister tube several times round in toilet or kitchen paper

3) take the cap off and heat the shoulders of the tube and the neck by wafting the blue flame quickly around for about 15 secs. Do not allow the flame to burn the label plastic or the clister itself.

4) move the paper over the heated area and then apply the clister to the ski about 5cm inward of the usual kicking wax, and do just 10cm at a time, spreading with the tool on the ski. Reheat between each 10cm.

All this will keep the clister mobile to allow for thin layers. It will go on blue but not softer. Base binder clister spray is to recommend on bare skis if you have hedged your bets completely.

Alternatively: You can put the tube on the engine rocker cover or top of the car radiator if they are still warm. Then the whole contents gets warm and you risk getting a clot in the neck and a sudden tidal wave of uhu glue will cover your skis, you and anyone near you with as much displeasure as a skunk attack or tramping in dog shit.

In the conditions today i knew it would be slow and draggy with any kick adhesive, so i chose to reduce the kick zone coverage with the clister to 5cm less on the tip end and 3cm from the heel of the boot.

I did just one layer on this legnth as i was expecting soft and did not remember how long it was back round the mountain (a hill actually) from the downhill. For harder conditiond i would have had two, thin long layers fo

I did let the single layer cool on the snow: always let your clister cool to snow temp before kicking off as you can either rub it off in clumps on ice or pick up crystals immediately.

In the "pocket" under the sole then i added a second thicker layer in the same process. About 18-20cm maybe , spread from fish bone pattern.

The kick adhesion was "nailed" with this up hill in tram lines which needed a native american scout to follow. Filled with 3cm wet snow.

I felt pretty darn good getting to the final hill top turn with the downhill infront of me and light rain pitting on my east european look jogging jacket i swear by for skiing.

The downhill is usually an exciting set of roller coaster sections, traversing hillside tests of skill and various turns up to about 150 degrees or more even. However even the guy in front of me on glider only skating skis had done a lot of work to get down and the speed was pathetic.

I did though get to practice step turning but as the snow got deep around the first hair pin i had to drop into alpine with slide steering ski tails.

I have been coughing for five weeks and managed only six hours training since the snow came, late as it was. So when i got through to the last turn where the "guest book" box is in an hour , i was pleased. However the slow downhill and damp air started to drain my reduced energies and the way back round the west of the hill with even softer conditions sapped me more than the wet sapped the clister away from the skis.

The last 1.5km i drove on the british side of the road in my own tracks now also worn in with after comers. And there it was, pretty good grip and at the car, sticky skis. They could have done about half yje distance again i reckon.

Last tip: take some fibre cleaner cloth in the car and plastjic bags and place them in than order over the mucky stuff. You can then either reapply a new layer of clister next time, or take the skis out and spray on cleaner and strip off the clister first with the fibre cloth. I usually spray, coat with a good coupäe of layers of kitchen paper and then use a hot iron working quikly up and down and then peeling off the covering with a litte heat on the lifting edge as you go.