Please compare to this Skike video to V2 150's?

With so far no local company interested in taking money to fabricate the
rollerski's me and a friend designed, I'll be buying something stock to
train on, soon.

www.skike.at offers a 150mm wheeled rollerski with brakes on each ski, at a
fair price. Fits shoes, not boots, saving me initial costs in bindings and
boots, as shoes I have.

Please see this video and tell me whether this product seems to be
inherently different handling than the V2 150's or other 150mm wheeled
rollerski's?
http://www.skike.at/Allesneu/Videos/skike_high.WMV

Especially the slalomming on an asphalt road, I thought that was totally
impossible with rollerski's till I saw this.
I think the heels on the Skikes are fixed, making it a big no-no for many of
you. And the obviously excellent skier in the video does had the front
wheels really close above the ground, seems scary, and asking high skating
accuracy.
I have skated the www.crosskate.com I own with locked heels, and although it
worked fine, I do slightly prefer free heels now.

There's also a vague video on the website where an XC Skier has fited he
"bindings" to ski's to see how they work there. If it sortof works, it may
reduce XC ski start-up costs for newbies, again, eliminating the need for
boots and bindings.

Thanks for your thoughts, also negative ones, to put it all into
perspective.

Greeting from the Netherlands, where no the closest Jenex dealership is in
Austria as well, charging more for V2's less bindings and brakes than these
Skikes including them.

J

Jan,

I guess the only benefit I see with the "skike" is to use it on a
nonpaved surface. Other than that, it does not look like a good
simulation of the skate technique for nordic skiing...assuming that is
your ultimate goal. I don't even think they would be good for
double-poling, since they are fixed at the heel. The ski looks very
heavy, and from the video the skier is picking up his foot, and he is
clicking his heels like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz...which is poor
technique.

I also looked at your video, and the first thing I notice is your
picking the ski up, which looks to be a directly linked to the huge
rollerskis you made. You are only learning bad habits, so I would go
ahead and buy a good, relatively light weight commercial brand.
Download some video of world cup skiers with good technique and try to
emulate them...remember we are skating, not walking, so you don't want
to pick up the ski, just skate from side to side....

My 2 cents,

Jim



Jan Gerrit Klok wrote:
With so far no local company interested in taking money to fabricate the
rollerski's me and a friend designed, I'll be buying something stock to
train on, soon.

www.skike.at offers a 150mm wheeled rollerski with brakes on each ski, at a
fair price. Fits shoes, not boots, saving me initial costs in bindings and
boots, as shoes I have.

Please see this video and tell me whether this product seems to be
inherently different handling than the V2 150's or other 150mm wheeled
rollerski's?
http://www.skike.at/Allesneu/Videos/skike_high.WMV

Especially the slalomming on an asphalt road, I thought that was totally
impossible with rollerski's till I saw this.
I think the heels on the Skikes are fixed, making it a big no-no for many of
you. And the obviously excellent skier in the video does had the front
wheels really close above the ground, seems scary, and asking high skating
accuracy.
I have skated the www.crosskate.com I own with locked heels, and although it
worked fine, I do slightly prefer free heels now.

There's also a vague video on the website where an XC Skier has fited he
"bindings" to ski's to see how they work there. If it sortof works, it may
reduce XC ski start-up costs for newbies, again, eliminating the need for
boots and bindings.

Thanks for your thoughts, also negative ones, to put it all into
perspective.

Greeting from the Netherlands, where no the closest Jenex dealership is in
Austria as well, charging more for V2's less bindings and brakes than these
Skikes including them.

J

Thanks Jim,

I did not make those Crosskates myself, got them for free in a business
transaction once.
I now realize I times poling and push-off simulatiously, which is imperfect.
Also my cycling-only diet of the past decade may be a factor, and my fear of
dragging the front wheel which in the beginning happened at times, and was
no fun.
Although the Crosskates may be relatively huge, I could surely handle
bigger, the weight does not bother me. On newer better footage I seem to be
quite a bit more fluent already, no reason to think the ski's are as bulky
as they are. My eyes are untrained of course.

I'm trying to find contact info for Jenex to get my copy, but they seem to
not want to be reached any other way than by phone, a bit excentric(sp)?
Also I have no idea which boots to order from where, just that Europe is
cheaper.
Too bad Skike's have the fixed heel. The brakes seem awesome to compensate,
and I might be able to wait with buying boots and ski's till I actually hit
a ski resort somewhere in Germany or Norway/Sweden.

Happy trails,

J

What the Skike reminds me is the Jenex Aero Nordixc
http://jenex.com/rollerskis/nordix/
A few years ago I did a lot of rollerskiing with Aero Nordixc with 150mm
wheels which were the same as the other Jenex Aero 150mm pneumatic tires.

Key difference is that the Nordixc allowed the heel to be lifted off the
base -- which could make it a better simulation of the toe-push you can get
when skating with XC ski boots. The big disadvantage of having not having
the rear wheel rigidly connected to the heel is that it's one more thing to
learn to control -- especially when using a technique which brings the rear
wheel off the ground: like skating. My memory is that the Nordixc was
originally designed for Classic striding, so I had to play with the
"flex-plate" underneath my foot to make it effectively stiffer so that I
could skate with it effectively -- and I did do a fair amount of skating
with them. Pretty good considering that model wasn't designed for skating.

I once tried using a strap around the rear end of the "flex-plate" of the
Nordixc to fix my heel down -- but that felt so unnatural to me for skating
that I abandoned it quickly. Anyway Jenex is creative about new ideas to
solve customer needs, so should check if they've come up with something
better since I used it.

I think the heels on the Skikes are fixed, making it
a big no-no for many of you.

Yes it looks to me like the Skike heel is fixed. That's not just a matter of
"no-no" feeling on this newsgroup. The toe-push is an important source of
propulsive power for serious racers in every kind of skating: ski, ice, and
inline on pavement. Inline skates have a fixed heel, but you still get the
toe-push by extending the push with only the front toe-wheel rolling on the
pavement. (That trick doesn't work with the front tip of an ice blade, which
is why ice speedskaters need a klap-frame.) The inline toe-push trick can
work a little with the fixed-heel Skike, and I think I see the demonstrator
in that video doing it. But it looks like much less than on inline skates. I
think that's because the longer wheel-base of the Skike does not allow as
much leverage to get as much range-of-motion in the toe-push as I can get
with the shorter wheel-base of a 4x100mm inline skate. Or maybe it's because
the rotational moment of inertia about the axis of the ankle joint for the
Skike is greater because the mass of the wheels is concentrated at the two
ends, and that makes recovery from a bigger toe-push move too slow.

slalomming on an asphalt road, I thought that was totally
impossible with rollerski's till I saw this.

For that the fixed heel can't hurt, especially if you need to make a
recovery move after losing balance at speed. Another important factor is the
skill and testosterone level of the rollerskier. For myself, I'll do my
slaloming and tricks on inline skates.

Ken

Excellent post as always Ken, thanks.

Are those Nordixc's discontinued or what? In any case, it's got the
Rollerski Thumbnail, stuck in the mid 90's when it comes to web pictures.

Could the toe flexure of the Nordixc be complemented with an elastic band of
sorts at the heel? I still run my rosskates with elastic bands, because the
toe coil spring lacks strength to prevent the rear wheel lagging as I pick
up my feet (I may be doing that too hastedly, but anyway...)

Not designed for skating huh, I think I'll better stay clear.

Promo video's like the Skike that always get to me. That brake
action...makes me want to buy them!

"Ken Roberts" schreef in bericht
...
What the Skike reminds me is the Jenex Aero Nordixc
http://jenex.com/rollerskis/nordix/
A few years ago I did a lot of rollerskiing with Aero Nordixc with 150mm
wheels which were the same as the other Jenex Aero 150mm pneumatic tires.

Key difference is that the Nordixc allowed the heel to be lifted off the
base -- which could make it a better simulation of the toe-push you can
get
when skating with XC ski boots. The big disadvantage of having not having
the rear wheel rigidly connected to the heel is that it's one more thing
to
learn to control -- especially when using a technique which brings the
rear
wheel off the ground: like skating. My memory is that the Nordixc was
originally designed for Classic striding, so I had to play with the
"flex-plate" underneath my foot to make it effectively stiffer so that I
could skate with it effectively -- and I did do a fair amount of skating
with them. Pretty good considering that model wasn't designed for skating.

I once tried using a strap around the rear end of the "flex-plate" of the
Nordixc to fix my heel down -- but that felt so unnatural to me for
skating
that I abandoned it quickly. Anyway Jenex is creative about new ideas to
solve customer needs, so should check if they've come up with something
better since I used it.

I think the heels on the Skikes are fixed, making it
a big no-no for many of you.

Yes it looks to me like the Skike heel is fixed. That's not just a matter
of
"no-no" feeling on this newsgroup. The toe-push is an important source of
propulsive power for serious racers in every kind of skating: ski, ice,
and
inline on pavement. Inline skates have a fixed heel, but you still get the
toe-push by extending the push with only the front toe-wheel rolling on
the
pavement. (That trick doesn't work with the front tip of an ice blade,
which
is why ice speedskaters need a klap-frame.) The inline toe-push trick can
work a little with the fixed-heel Skike, and I think I see the
demonstrator
in that video doing it. But it looks like much less than on inline skates.
I
think that's because the longer wheel-base of the Skike does not allow as
much leverage to get as much range-of-motion in the toe-push as I can get
with the shorter wheel-base of a 4x100mm inline skate. Or maybe it's
because
the rotational moment of inertia about the axis of the ankle joint for the
Skike is greater because the mass of the wheels is concentrated at the two
ends, and that makes recovery from a bigger toe-push move too slow.

slalomming on an asphalt road, I thought that was totally
impossible with rollerski's till I saw this.

For that the fixed heel can't hurt, especially if you need to make a
recovery move after losing balance at speed. Another important factor is
the
skill and testosterone level of the rollerskier. For myself, I'll do my
slaloming and tricks on inline skates.

Ken

Jan Gerrit Klok wrote
That brake action...makes me want to buy them [Skikes]

It was the rather similar brake action that made me decide to buy the Jenex
Nordixc -- and I actually used the brake to make quick stops when cars
turned in front of me when I was out touring on the city streets.

After a couple of years or so, I decided to switch to a more conventional
Jenex rollerski, with speed-reducers. I found I came to rely more on the
speed-reducers than the hand-brake (which then had a very different design
from the Nordixc brake).

Since then I think maybe Jenex has made a similar brake design available for
some other models of their rollerskis, but I've never tried it.

Not designed for skating huh, I think I'll better stay clear.

That was the model back like six years ago -- capabilities likely are
different now.

Ken

Jim wrote
he is clicking his heels like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz...
which is poor technique.

I was taught to practice tapping my ski against the back of the other boot
in an on-snow lesson I took from a top instructor at one of the most famous
cross-country ski centers in the USA. So I practiced it lots . . . but now I
find out . . . "poor technique"?

I guess that's what I get for trying to take a lesson.

But why is it bad to bring my ski over in close to the other foot before I
set it down?

Ken