waxable and waxless

What is the difference between vaxable and wasless models of ski?

"cljlk" wrote in message
m...
What is the difference between vaxable and wasless models of ski?

Vaxable are able to be vaxed, and wasless used to be. Or else it's the
other way around.

"Jim Flom" wrote in message news:yPIod.6477$y72.4888@clgrps12...
"cljlk" wrote in message
m...
What is the difference between vaxable and wasless models of ski?

Vaxable are able to be vaxed, and wasless used to be. Or else it's the
other way around.

Any feature on vaxable an non-vaxable?

(cljlk) wrote:

What is the difference between vaxable and wasless models of ski?

If you don't know the difference, definitely purchase the latter.

Once you get into the sport, eventually you will learn why the former
(usually) is preferable, and will acquire the knowledge, patience, and
skill required to wax and ski properly.

Then again, you might just buy some high end waxless racing skis and
be done with it.

--dt

"Doug Taylor" wrote in message
...
(cljlk) wrote:

What is the difference between vaxable and wasless models of ski?

If you don't know the difference, definitely purchase the latter.

Once you get into the sport, eventually you will learn why the former
(usually) is preferable, and will acquire the knowledge, patience, and
skill required to wax and ski properly.

Then again, you might just buy some high end waxless racing skis and
be done with it.

Actually thats not the end of it.

Only the grip part, the part under the foot, is non waxable, its usually a
fishscale format which glides over the snow but grips the snow
momentarily when you press the foot down to kick the other foot forward.
On waxable skis this is where we put the grip wax to achieve the same
thing.

The front section and the rear section need waxing with glide wax.
That gliding is the very essence of OUR skiing.
On your alpine skis you will still slide if the base isnt waxed, but there
you need gravity.

You may see tourers out on the trail with non waxable skis where they've
not got any glide wax on. The ski surface doesnt slide smoothly over the
snow and they end up doing a slow plodding ski walk.
Its very boring and very tiring.

cljlk wrote:
What is the difference between vaxable and wasless models of ski?
Just in case the wise answers were not enough info for you I will try an
answer to this also;
Waxless skis have bumps in the middle section of the base (under the
foot area). The purpose of these is to mechanically grab the snow when
you apply weight with that foot and allow you to kick and propel
yourself. The advantage of this over the other type is that you don't
have to mess with grip wax or ...shudder.... klister (real sticky grip
wax), and getting the right grip wax is often difficult. As the other
guys mentioned, even waxless skis need some sort of wax, but you can use
liquid or wipe on skiwax over the whole ski (including the bumps!) and
it will improve glide and prevent icing.

Wax type skis will glide better than waxless. They use two kinds of wax;
glide wax in the front and back
kick wax in the center.
The ski is springy so that the center only contacts the snow when you
put full weight on the one ski.
If you have snow that is variable (sunny forests with warm snow, then
shady with cold snow, or mostly near freezing temps, then picking the
right wax is very tough. At colder temps (below 25 F or so) the range
of waxes is larger and it seems to be easier to maintain the right wax.

Up to now I have been mostly a waxless tour kind of guy, with a few
attempts at wax type. This year I will try again and am hoping that a
new product that Start has (Start Wax Tape) will make this much easier;
it is supposed to have a very broad range of temps and last 100 or more KM.
gr

"
Up to now I have been mostly a waxless tour kind of guy, with a few
attempts at wax type. This year I will try again and am hoping that a
new product that Start has (Start Wax Tape) will make this much easier;
it is supposed to have a very broad range of temps and last 100 or more
KM.
gr


Haven't used grip tape, but if you are looking for wide range wax with good
performance, try Rex Powergrip.
Leland

cljlk wrote:
What is the difference between vaxable and wasless models of ski?

If you are talking about buying new skis in a nordic ski shop, the fit
is the most important factor in glide.

Fishscale skis grip better than grip wax at zero C and warmer. At very
cold temps, the hard snow is too hard for the Ptex fishscales and grip
wax skis work better in the cold. In the -4C to -8C range, for
recreational use, modern fishscale skis and modern gripwax skis (when
waxed correctly) work about equal.
Properly fitted to the weight of the skier, skis such as the Fischer
Superlight and the Rossignol X-Tour Ultralight come in both grip wax and
fishscale versions. These are sport touring skis.
At the department store level, most cross country skis are cheap
and have lots of grip because beginners like slow grippy skis. At the
racing level, the very fastest skis made are all grip wax.

However, the skier must know how to select and apply grip wax. Grip
waxing is like cooking from scratch, compared to heating a meal from a
can. You can buy food from a can that will taste very good. A very good
cook can make dinner that will taste better. A very bad cook will spend
the same amount of time as the good cook and make a dinner that will
taste terrible.
Every tin of grip wax works in a narrow range. Too soft a grip wax
will make the snow stick like styrofoam or even ice up in the heel area.
Too hard a grip wax (or the grip wax is worn off) and you you have skis
that only slide and will not grip (like the wheels of inline skates)

If you cross country ski less than 20 days a year, and you don't
ski a lot when it is colder than -8C, you will have a much better time
with sport touring fishscale skis on groomed trails.

If you are buying used skis in a garage sale, old cheap skis (even
if they were used "only once") are just as worthless as old cheap
computers.

Cheers,
Bruce Freeburger