Field Test - START Grip Tape

"Terje Henriksen" wrote in message ...

I don´t want to make a "you didn´t clean´and abrade well
enough or press the air out properly"-argument,

I did.

I had no doubt you did:-)

That is the first explanation that is usually given for
such a lack of durability - and for new users with no
great familiarity or interest with waxing skis it is
probably often the right one.


Maybe I have to put the tape on more than 50 cm of the ski?

Certainly not longer than you´d put a klister on a
particular pair of skis. If you´ve had a grip in
the same conditions with the same pair of skis with
a klister, but you don´t get a grip with the tape -
well, I´m clueless, but I won´t say it isn´t so.


Course and glassy ice, and dangerous downhills where you have to plough to
come down alive. It was probably there most of the tape-wax disappeared. The
rest of the wax was sticking very hard to the skis when I was removing it.

Now I can see: as long as I stayed in the glassy, but
smooth, icy tracks, there was no particular wear - but
after a circuit (on Tue) where I had to plough to slow
or to do a plough turn, the tape wax was visibly worn
off along the outer edges.

Another hour and a half of the same in still wetter
conditions - puddles of water on top of the ice in
places - practically all of the ruby red staff is
gone leaving just a dark surface. A bit wondrously
perhaps, there was still enough grip at the end.

That makes it more than 150 km in a variety of
conditions - with 6/7ths of the tape in the box:
I cannot complain, really.


(One more note: after a big group of skaters had
worked the frozen snow on the (normally skiable)
hills over and left a layer of loose residue on
them, I could no longer diagonal all the way up,
it was like skiing on marbles.)


Now it is 3 degrees C outside and 2 cm of newfallen snow on top of the ice
and all the klister has to be removed again.

That´s the beauty of the grip tape: no more cleaning
and rewaxing to meet changing conditions! Maybe the
fact that it doesn´t really work well or wears off
in one particular (and hopefully rare) condition is
not a bad price to pay for that luxury?:-)


Anders

"Anders Lustig" skrev i melding
om...

Certainly not longer than you´d put a klister on a
particular pair of skis. If you´ve had a grip in
the same conditions with the same pair of skis with
a klister, but you don´t get a grip with the tape -
well, I´m clueless, but I won´t say it isn´t so.

The user guide says put 30 to 50 cm of the tape under the skis and I did,
but it was too short. When putting klister or wax under the ski I add
another 20 to the 50 cm, except when it's newfallen wet snow.

That´s the beauty of the grip tape: no more cleaning
and rewaxing to meet changing conditions! Maybe the
fact that it doesn´t really work well or wears off
in one particular (and hopefully rare) condition is
not a bad price to pay for that luxury?:-)

The tape has been tested by top skiers and they say it's alright for
training but not good enough for competition.

--
Terje Henriksen
Kirkenes