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Old August 6th 04, 12:08 PM
Zachary Caldwell
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Default Weight Loss and Classic Ski Fit

Hmm. I was going to write an incredibly informative and insightful response
to Jack's post. And then you guys showed up and took the wind out of my
sails with simple humor. Interesting how the "dumbest" jokes can be the
funniest. The beer and cookies ideas really had me rolling!

So, what to do? Press on, I suppose, at risk of appearing humorless in my
inability to add to the list of jokes...

The answer, Jack, is: it depends.

It depends largely on the relationship between the closing flex, the
finishing hardness, and the camber height of the ski. When you measure the
closing flex of a ski you measure the load required to close it to a 0.1mm
or 0.2mm (depending on your protocol) residual camber height. When I talk
about a ski that is hard at the finish, I'm talking about the load required
to "finish" the ski from that closing flex. The load required to actually
put pressure on the wax. If there are two skis that close at 58% of body
weight, but one finishes off with an additional 3kg load while the other
require 13 kg to finish, you can guess which one will be easier to ski.

I spend most of my time selecting skis looking for something with a soft
finish but a relatively high half-weight camber. In other words, a ski that
might have plenty of room for klister at half weight (maybe 1.0mm), "closes"
to 0.2mm at 55-58%, and is totally finished (pressure on the wax) at, say,
65%. The alternative is to find a ski with a really low half weight camber,
(say 0.3mm), a closing flex (to 0.2) at 53% body weight, but a finish at 80%
of body weight. Basically we're looking at, on the one hand, a spring with
light resistance but a lot of travel, while on the other hand looking at a
spring with high resistance but not much travel. Clearly, the low
resistance/high travel scenario provides an easier kicking ski that will
work through a broader range of conditions while the high resistance/low
travel scenario would look like a great powder ski if all you check if
closing flex (53%) and camber height (0.3mm), but is going to be a
frustrating ski. Kris Freeman's favorite skis have a half-weight camber
height of about 0.9 or 1.0mm. They close to 0.2mm at 57% of his body
weight - a little bit stiff by Fischer's standard recommendations, but
pretty soft in the line-up that Kris carries around. But the magic is that
they finish with an additional load of 2.5kg. They are his best skis in
every condition.

So, if you've got skis with a soft finish and a high lively camber your 10%
weight loss may not be a big deal. In fact it may broaden the range of
useful conditions for the ski. However, if you've got a ski that finishes
hard, it may be really difficult to ski now that you're lighter. You should
definitely plan to have the local shop put them on the flex board. See if
you can get some information on the change to the camber height in addition
to the pocket length. You may need to wax more layers in addition to longer.
And if they can tell you something about the hardness at closing it would be
helpful. But the ultimate test will come when you put the skis on snow.

Good luck!

Zach Caldwell
http://www.engineeredtuning.net/



"Jack Riley" wrote in message
om...
Hi everyone,

I have a good problem to have. I've lost about 20 pounds this spring
and summer (down to 180). Assuming I keep it off, is this enough
weight loss to cause a fit problem with my waxable classic skis?

I'll bring them to the shop and try them out on the flex board
this fall, but curious if a 10% weight loss will do more than
force me to extend the kick zone a bit.

Not that I'll be too upset if I have to buy a new pair of
skis in the fall :-)

Jack



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