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2014/15 new gear thread.


phillycore

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For anyone looking for to go to Vermont this winter, the SkiVT 3 and 5 passes went on sale this morning.  I'm in for a 5 pass.  At $41 a lift ticket it's a pretty good deal.

 

 

 

Details

This deal is good for one day of skiing or riding at 5 different Vermont resorts, for a total of FIVE days of skiing or riding. Resorts do not need to be selected at time of purchase. Ski or ride any day, midweek or weekend EXCEPT during specified holiday periods (which vary by individual resort, but generally include the week between Christmas and New Year’s, the Martin Luther King Jr. long weekend and President’s week in February). Participating Resorts: Bolton Valley, Bromley, Burke, Jay Peak, Killington, Mad River Glen, Magic Mountain, Middlebury Snow Bowl, Mount Snow, Okemo, Pico Mountain, Smugglers' Notch, Stowe, Stratton, Sugarbush, Suicide Six

 

http://skivermont.ltibooking.com/#multiday

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kool, when I think about the number of companies and skis out there, I realize how few products I've tried.  I'm definitely demoing Worth this season, and will try to hit some demo days this year and try some new stuff out. One advantage of checking out a lot of different skis is to appreciate the differences. I was paging thru the recent Ski issue (more like a Deer Valley infomercial with a few pages of gear review) and I got the impression that there's more emphasis in boot design this year. Ski design and materials seem to have kinda peaked out with every possible shape, size and combo of materials one can think up.

 

With regard to materials; saw this in a Burlington paper the other day. Local engineering student is giving this a go;

 

http://www.renounskicompany.com/skis15/

 

Be interesting to hear some beta from folks. Or not. Here is the article;

 

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/renoun-ski-co-debuts-impact-resistant-skis/Content?oid=2452739

Edited by tarponhead
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Just ordered these in the 178 size:

 

http://www.momentskis.com/products/tahoe

 

(sorry indiggio, I know they r not real bump skis)

 

Nice!  

 

Only one way to find out how they do in the bumps!

Bit the bullet today and bought myself some daily drivers.....2014. 186 Line Prophet 98's on the way.

 

Love my good ol' Prophets.

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With regard to materials; saw this in a Burlington paper the other day. Local engineering student is giving this a go;

 

http://www.renounskicompany.com/skis15/

 

Be interesting to hear some beta from folks. Or not. Here is the article;

 

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/renoun-ski-co-debuts-impact-resistant-skis/Content?oid=2452739

 

The only "new" thing he's doing is using D3o.

 

D3o is used in protection equipment, it's a non-Newtonian dilatant fluid. A snowboarder in England developed it for use in protective gear.

 

Non-Newtonian fluids are fluids those in which stress tensors do not flow from every point linearly aka they do weird shit. Newton, the dude not the cookie said this is how shit works and he was mostly right however the weird shit that breaks his rules in fluid dynamics are called non-newtonian fluids.

 

D3o is a dilatant fluid or more simply a shear thickening fluid, it's viscosity increases when shear forces are applied aka it gets harder when you hit it. Corn Starch in water is a classic example of this kind of non-newtonian, paint is a common counter example.

 

This dude is using the D30 gel in the core of the ski to provide dampening, basically as you ski faster and the shear forces on the ski rise so the gel because harder more stiff. When your getting mach looney on a groomer the small vibrations cause additional muscle use than if their were no vibrations. Bike people proved this with power meters thus if the ski is stiffer theoretically less vibrations, less muscle use better longer skiing.

 

Seems interesting but kind of gimiacky, most people getting mach looney are probably on pretty stiff skis already and stiffness and dampness don't work this way, I mean we all know stiffer things transfer more energy.

 

Dampness is vibrations and vibrations are amplitude, (magnitude of oscillation, how fast the bent ski returns to normal) frequency (number of oscillations) and decay (how fast the vibration goes away ). Decay is loss factor or how much of that energy in each oscillation is lost as heat.

 

JL clearly your off your meds what the fuck does this all mean.

 

To make a ski stiff you often add metal laminates, this increases the mass and adds another loss factor. Increased mass decreases amplitude and frequency (more shit = harder to move) however making the ski stiffer decreases the amplitude but increases the frequency because stiffer materials transfer more energy. Additionally metal laminates are often aluminum (often marketed as titanial) and titanium, titanal is not titanium it's an aluminum alloy developed by Austria Metall AG. You take 6000 series aircraft aluminum and add titanium and zirconium, this makes the grains smaller and more refined which reduces Elongation at break or how much you can fuck with a material before it cracks. Both aluminum and titanium have shit loss factors.

 

What the fuck does this all mean ? Stiffer skis don't mean more damp, heavier skis certainly go ride an old pair of Chubbs, this dude isn't necessarily making a more damp ski unless the loss factor of D3o is much higher than titanium and aluminum or in English his magic fluid shit probably doesn't do what he thinks it does.

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i was gonna post this same thing, but you beat me to it

 

Do you think he could be specifically attacking the 90-120hz range ?

 

Gary Foss from Boeing and a K2 guy did a vibration study for SEM awhile back. Long study but they concluded the 90-120hz range had specific influence on a skis top speed for some reason. They also concluded torsional stiffness in the shovel is of utmost importance but this dude isn't increasing torsional stiffness above that which already exists with metal laminates. Thus I can only conclude he's 1. Full of shit 2. D3o has a greater loss factor than metals or 3. Something about D3o specifically attacks the 90-120hz range. The later would be the most interesting because you could maybe make super light super damp skis.

 

There is a company in Indiana that makes a standoff dampner used in making aircraft cabins quieter. It's a bunch of graphite sheets with standoff spacers. I can see that kind of shit working but I'm not sold on D3o.

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The only "new" thing he's doing is using D3o.

 

D3o is used in protection equipment, it's a non-Newtonian dilatant fluid. A snowboarder in England developed it for use in protective gear.

 

Non-Newtonian fluids are fluids those in which stress tensors do not flow from every point linearly aka they do weird shit. Newton, the dude not the cookie said this is how shit works and he was mostly right however the weird shit that breaks his rules in fluid dynamics are called non-newtonian fluids.

 

D3o is a dilatant fluid or more simply a shear thickening fluid, it's viscosity increases when shear forces are applied aka it gets harder when you hit it. Corn Starch in water is a classic example of this kind of non-newtonian, paint is a common counter example.

 

This dude is using the D30 gel in the core of the ski to provide dampening, basically as you ski faster and the shear forces on the ski rise so the gel because harder more stiff. When your getting mach looney on a groomer the small vibrations cause additional muscle use than if their were no vibrations. Bike people proved this with power meters thus if the ski is stiffer theoretically less vibrations, less muscle use better longer skiing.

 

Seems interesting but kind of gimiacky, most people getting mach looney are probably on pretty stiff skis already and stiffness and dampness don't work this way, I mean we all know stiffer things transfer more energy.

 

Dampness is vibrations and vibrations are amplitude, (magnitude of oscillation, how fast the bent ski returns to normal) frequency (number of oscillations) and decay (how fast the vibration goes away ). Decay is loss factor or how much of that energy in each oscillation is lost as heat.

 

JL clearly your off your meds what the fuck does this all mean.

 

To make a ski stiff you often add metal laminates, this increases the mass and adds another loss factor. Increased mass decreases amplitude and frequency (more shit = harder to move) however making the ski stiffer decreases the amplitude but increases the frequency because stiffer materials transfer more energy. Additionally metal laminates are often aluminum (often marketed as titanial) and titanium, titanal is not titanium it's an aluminum alloy developed by Austria Metall AG. You take 6000 series aircraft aluminum and add titanium and zirconium, this makes the grains smaller and more refined which reduces Elongation at break or how much you can fuck with a material before it cracks. Both aluminum and titanium have shit loss factors.

 

What the fuck does this all mean ? Stiffer skis don't mean more damp, heavier skis certainly go ride an old pair of Chubbs, this dude isn't necessarily making a more damp ski unless the loss factor of D3o is much higher than titanium and aluminum or in English his magic fluid shit probably doesn't do what he thinks it does.

Dropping science on us!

 

I can't wait to get Mach loony whether it's on 2 dull pieces of wood or non-Newtonian fluids!

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