Old (narrow) skins on new (wider) skis

As you may have already found, skinning with skins that are too narrow
can be fairly difficult. I bought new fat powder skis, tried to use
them with my old (narrow) skins and found that skinning was
particularly hard when you are skinning up at an angle to the fall
line (rather than parallel with it). After skinning once on my new
skis with the old skins, I just went out and bought fat skins to match
my new fat sticks.

Best of luck.

(JFCBAS) wrote in message ...
After breaking my old 107-72-94 profile skis, I just bought a pair of Black
Diamond Crossbows, 115-82-105, about the same length. My old Ascension skins
pretty much match the profile, but are narrower. Instead of skin fabric out to
the inside of the metal edge, I have about 6-7 mm of ptex base exposed on each
side. It will be a few weeks before I get to try them out. Any opinions as to
whether or not the old skins will work adequately?

There's something wrong, either with your math or your description.
Your new skis are 8-10 mm wider; your skins revealed only metal edges
on your old skis. There should be 4-5 mm of p-tex exposed on your new
skis.

This should be significant only under specific circumstances; icy
traverses, steep climbs in marginal conditions. In soft snow,
climbing at moderate angles, you might never notice the difference.
OTOH, a perfectionist (or someone accustomed to skinning frozen corn
or following established, macho skin tracks) would want new skins.

I have skins cut to fit each pair of skis I own, and I buy a new set
with each ski purchase. When I moved from Piste Stinx to Miras, an
upgrade equivalent to what you're describing, I knew that sooner or
later I'd be really unhappy using my old skins. YMMV.

Hope that helps. Enjoy.

Mark


(JFCBAS) wrote in message ...
After breaking my old 107-72-94 profile skis, I just bought a pair of Black
Diamond Crossbows, 115-82-105, about the same length. My old Ascension skins
pretty much match the profile, but are narrower. Instead of skin fabric out to
the inside of the metal edge, I have about 6-7 mm of ptex base exposed on each
side. It will be a few weeks before I get to try them out. Any opinions as to
whether or not the old skins will work adequately?

(markharf) wrote in message . com...

This should be significant only under specific circumstances; icy
traverses, steep climbs in marginal conditions. In soft snow,
climbing at moderate angles, you might never notice the difference.
OTOH, a perfectionist (or someone accustomed to skinning frozen corn
or following established, macho skin tracks) would want new skins.

Agreed. Don't forget people have been going up things on straight
skins narrower than the skis for quite a while before shaped skins
were the thing: unless you're going up something pretty drastic
they'll probably be fine (I use straight 38mm as my default, you can
get up steeper things than you might think, and they even fit my track
skis!), so suck it and see before deciding on new ones.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/