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#1
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
I know there has been some discussion and conjecture on the newsgroup
in the past about the START Grip Tape. This past week in Sweden I had a good opportunity to give it a try and I thought I'd let you know my reaction. First of all it was the "hot product" in the Intersport and Fliesbergs ski shops in Mora. Lots of buzz about it, people crowding around the servicemen who were applying it to skis, many questions and comments. Most centered around "will it work on Sunday" Before I tell you about my experiences here is a short primer....some of this may be old for many of you. It comes in a container that looks like an oversized, enclosed Scotch tape dispenser. You need to put this on inside on a warm ski. Your kick zone need to be completely free of wax or wax remover residue. Start contends that all wax removers have some oils in them that can leave the base to "greasy" for a strong adherence...not being a chemist I can't speak to that claim. To that end they sell a wax remover, base prep liquid that is oil free. I did not buy or use that due to the difficulties in bringing any kind of solvent back on the plane. I used some Swix wax removcer that I had obtained to clean the klister off my skis after the race and then used the hair dryer in the hotel to try to evaporate any remaing solvent. The top of the container has a strip of abrasive that you use to aggresively rough up your kick zone, their instructions suggest this or 100 grit sandpaper. The recommended kick zone is considerbly shorter than normal. I went from the back of the ball of my foot forwards to about 3-4cm short of my nomal wax pocket. The next time I use it I will make it even a little shorter in the front. Holding the front of the tape on the ski with your finger you drag the dispenser down the ski (it is recessed so you use the ridges to insure a very straight application) and tilt it up and press a cutter button to snip the tape off at the back end of your zone. Using another part of the dispenser you push the tape onto the base trying to elimate any air bubbles or crimps in the application. With a single, smooth pull you remove the tape. Using some of the tape covering you then re-rub the front and back sections to "bevel" the open ends. When your done it looks like a thin layer of red klister applied perfectly smooth and straight. Put your skis out in the cold for a while and you are ready to go. Each container contains about 5 ft of tape, enough for two pairs of skis and cost 120 kroner or about $18 US. The suggested temp range on the package is from -4F to 41F, kinda covers it does'nt it. I skied for 4 days in conditions ranging from -3F to 28F. Snow was old, aggressive, heavily transformed, glazed at many times and groomed nightly. The effect was remakably consistant. Exceptional kick and decent glide...inside the hard tracks, on fresh groomed cordoroy right after the groomer had passed, in the shade, in the bright sun, in the loose granular much later in the day. All the same, great kick and decent glide. I think my glide would have been improved if I would have been a little shorter in front. I did about 115K with no degradation in kick or glide at all. START claims that you can get up to 300K on a single application....but that was a Marketing guy talking. When I removed (so I could put clothes in the bag) the tape using Swix wax remover and a klister paddle it looked like the same amount came off as went on. The ski shop guy that I talked to said it is not as effective in falling snow but then the solution is to cover the tape with a tar based hard wax...he was very insistent that it had to be a tar based wax. Could be a chemical reaction issue or that START sells tar based kick waxes, who knows? I'm think that this is about an 85% soulution. It was not as good as a perfectly waxed ski in terms of glide but the kick was perfect. Having one grip wax for all conditions presents some nice options. I can see using it for training and my instinct tells me that it would be great for man made snow as that sometimes seems very hard to get decent kick for and to keep wax on the ski. I also think it would be a great bailout position if you get to a race and the conditions are rapidly changing or are expecting a wide range of temps. I thoughtI was being cutting edge here as I bought three containers to bring back home and be the only guy on the bloc with the stuff. Greg Fangel told me last night he was in Finn Sisu in St. Paul and they just got a shipment in. So I was cutting edge for about three days, story of my life . Hope this helps. John OC |
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#2
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
Thanks for the report!
I wonder how much your 85% factor would bump up if you'd applied shorter... Well, can't really complain. I think I'll try some for my backyard action! Ah, but what about my big box of discount backyard budget wax? Based on kits people have given to me and bargains on ebay I have, well, at least a lifetime supply in many ranges. I'm thinking of my kids' futures, right? Call em an annuity. "What did he leave you? WAX?!" -- Jeff Potter **** *Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com publisher of do-it-yourself culture ... bikes, skis, boats & more! ... ... offering Vordenberg's XC ski tales in "Momentum"! ... ... "The Recumbent Bicycle": the only book about these bikes! ... ... Rudloe's "Potluck": true-life story of workingclass smuggling! ... ... with radical novels coming up via LiteraryRevolution.com! ... ... music! ... articles! ... travel forums! ... WOW! 800-763-6923 |
#3
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
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#4
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
"Greg Fangel" skrev i melding om... (John O'Connell) wrote in message . com... I know there has been some discussion and conjecture on the newsgroup in the past about the START Grip Tape. This past week in Sweden I had a good opportunity to give it a try and I thought I'd let you know my reaction. First of all it was the "hot product" in the Intersport and Fliesbergs ski shops in Mora. Lots of buzz about it, people crowding snip John was nice enough to give me a container of this Start grip tape that he obtained in Sverige for my trip to Norge. I'm leaving in a few hours. I talked to Armen at Finn Sisu ski shop in St. Paul, Minnesota and he told me that the Start grip tape appears to be the same type of product as Rex Power grip. That would be some sort of a polymer. Last weekend I finally got the chance to make Rex Powergrip work for me. I put it on VERY thin. It worked great in conditions from -1C to +2C, 2cm of new snow over hard packed snow and some ice. My wife was having a hard time with regular hard wax. So if it's like Powergrip, then the Start tape might just work well in near freezing and variable conditions. Tried the Start Tape today on wet and fine-grained snow. Used too short kick-zone so it was not successfull. Will try again tomorrow with longer kick-zone. Bad glide. These conditions sucks. 3-4 degrees C. But where have the yellow klister gone, the one normally used for wet, newfallen snow? I couldn't find it in the shop. -- Terje Henriksen Kirkenes |
#5
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
Wouldn't a well defined, highish at 50% weight camber type ski be a good
match. Maybe a klister ski, or the new Fischer classic model. It would be interesting to experiment with different skis. Maybe this will get skaters who don't like classic because of the waxing, to START classic skiing. Gary Jacobson Rosendale, NY "Terje Henriksen" wrote in message ... "Greg Fangel" skrev i melding om... (John O'Connell) wrote in message . com... I know there has been some discussion and conjecture on the newsgroup in the past about the START Grip Tape. This past week in Sweden I had a good opportunity to give it a try and I thought I'd let you know my reaction. First of all it was the "hot product" in the Intersport and Fliesbergs ski shops in Mora. Lots of buzz about it, people crowding snip John was nice enough to give me a container of this Start grip tape that he obtained in Sverige for my trip to Norge. I'm leaving in a few hours. I talked to Armen at Finn Sisu ski shop in St. Paul, Minnesota and he told me that the Start grip tape appears to be the same type of product as Rex Power grip. That would be some sort of a polymer. Last weekend I finally got the chance to make Rex Powergrip work for me. I put it on VERY thin. It worked great in conditions from -1C to +2C, 2cm of new snow over hard packed snow and some ice. My wife was having a hard time with regular hard wax. So if it's like Powergrip, then the Start tape might just work well in near freezing and variable conditions. Tried the Start Tape today on wet and fine-grained snow. Used too short kick-zone so it was not successfull. Will try again tomorrow with longer kick-zone. Bad glide. These conditions sucks. 3-4 degrees C. But where have the yellow klister gone, the one normally used for wet, newfallen snow? I couldn't find it in the shop. -- Terje Henriksen Kirkenes |
#6
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
On Thu, 11 Mar 2004, Jeff Potter wrote: Based on kits people have given to me and bargains on ebay I have, well, at least a lifetime supply in many ranges. I'm thinking of my kids' futures, right? Call em an annuity. "What did he leave you? WAX?!" Yeah. Wax for those ancient *plastic* skis. Sheesh. Who would be caught dead on those dogs now that we have [insert here whatever the hot new technology our kids will be skiing on] ? :-) -Mitch |
#7
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
"Greg Fangel" skrev i melding om... Last weekend I finally got the chance to make Rex Powergrip work for me. I put it on VERY thin. It worked great in conditions from -1C to +2C, 2cm of new snow over hard packed snow and some ice. My wife was having a hard time with regular hard wax. So if it's like Powergrip, then the Start tape might just work well in near freezing and variable conditions. It doesn't work on ice; too slippery and the "wax" is disappearing very fast and will not last 200 km. In fact, it did not last 8 km, although some still remains in the center of the ski. -- Terje Henriksen Kirkenes |
#8
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
"Terje Henriksen" wrote in message ...
It doesn't work on ice; too slippery and the "wax" is disappearing very fast and will not last 200 km. In fact, it did not last 8 km, although some still remains in the center of the ski. I don´t want to make a "you didn´t clean´and abrade well enough or press the air out properly"-argument, but I´ve had no problems with either grip or durability on dark, glassy, frozen overnight icy tracks - so could it be your "on ice" above refers to a condition I haven´t had to deal with? Anders |
#9
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
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#10
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Field Test - START Grip Tape
"Anders Lustig" skrev i melding om... "Terje Henriksen" wrote in message ... It doesn't work on ice; too slippery and the "wax" is disappearing very fast and will not last 200 km. In fact, it did not last 8 km, although some still remains in the center of the ski. I don´t want to make a "you didn´t clean´and abrade well enough or press the air out properly"-argument, I did. but I´ve had no problems with either grip or durability on dark, glassy, frozen overnight icy tracks - Maybe I have to put the tape on more than 50 cm of the ski? so could it be your "on ice" above refers to a condition I haven´t had to deal with? 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. It was conditions where you normally use green klister in the bottom, blue above and violet on top and still it is a little slippery and half of the klister is gone when you come home. BTW the track machine has not been there since last week. It could have improved the conditions since it is still a lot of snow. 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. -- Terje Henriksen Kirkenes |
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