Waxless skis kick zone degradation

Dumb question time. Feel free to add clever zingers, start arguments and
stray completely off course hehe.
With waxless skis, does the kick zone wear down after a time?
My wife has had a pair of Peltens for two years, and they see moderate
use in tracked ski areas only. Never rock skis to be sure. But we've
noticed her kick has seriously degenerated the last four or so times
out, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. The fishscales
appear to be totally intact, and the glide zone is fine. What would
cause this? I have a new pair of Salomen S-cuts in the quiver, 2004
models, and ski the same areas with no problems.
Ideas?

Randy Bryan wrote:
waxless skis . . . her kick has seriously
degenerated the last four or so times out

One part of the explanation might be simply that waxless skis grip good in
some snow conditions, and bad in others. On icy tracks it can be pretty
difficult to get much grip for the leg-push with waxless skis.

But usually there's multiple causes for why classic-striding skis slip back
instead of gripping -- for a list of possibilities (and what to do about
some of them) see
http://roberts-1.com/xcski/classic/faq/#stop_slipping

If she just wants to get some good exercise out in the snow, does not want
to work much on technique, and doesn't want to go fast -- the simplest
solution is just to put "kicker skins" on the bottom of the skis.

Ken

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In article ,
Randy Bryan wrote:
Dumb question time. Feel free to add clever zingers, start arguments and
stray completely off course hehe.
With waxless skis, does the kick zone wear down after a time?
My wife has had a pair of Peltens for two years, and they see moderate
use in tracked ski areas only. Never rock skis to be sure. But we've
noticed her kick has seriously degenerated the last four or so times
out, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. The fishscales
appear to be totally intact, and the glide zone is fine. What would
cause this? I have a new pair of Salomen S-cuts in the quiver, 2004
models, and ski the same areas with no problems.
Ideas?

_ This may sound counter-inituitive, but waxing and brushing can
help revive most waxless ski bases. Hot wax it with a good glide
wax and use a stiff nylon brush to dig out the wax from the
pattern. Sintered PTEX oxidizes and nowax bases need to release
snow easily to work properly.

_ If you don't want to go the hot wax route at least try
something like NotWax or other wipe on glide waxes.

_ As a last resort you can put kick wax on a waxless base,
it's a royal pain to clean off, but sometimes you do what
you gotta do to get back to the car.

_ Lastly, just to cover the obvious. Has your wife lost
weight? If so a new pair of skis might be the only solution.

_ Booker C. Bense

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Thanks to all. Yeah, the wife has lost 15 pounds over the last year or
so....and she's not real big to begin with. The other is not being
well-versed in waxless skis, I've completely ignored the obvious
cleaning and rewaxing of the kick zone....lulled into thinking it
shouldn't be touched.
I cleaned the skis at room temp with wax cleaner, brushed it well, and
applied glide wax to the kick zone with good results.
Many thanks to all of you who replied...the web site was REAL useful for
me as well and it will change MY waxing...thanks again.


Randy Bryan wrote:
Dumb question time. Feel free to add clever zingers, start arguments and
stray completely off course hehe.
With waxless skis, does the kick zone wear down after a time?
My wife has had a pair of Peltens for two years, and they see moderate
use in tracked ski areas only. Never rock skis to be sure. But we've
noticed her kick has seriously degenerated the last four or so times
out, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. The fishscales
appear to be totally intact, and the glide zone is fine. What would
cause this? I have a new pair of Salomen S-cuts in the quiver, 2004
models, and ski the same areas with no problems.
Ideas?