Hi,
How to decide to have a single radius, biradius or triradius.
What can multiple radial design bring to skis ?
How to handle the radius as it is asymetrical from tip to tail as the center of the skis is not really at the middle of the length ?
Thanks a lot
Cheers
radius/biradius/triradius
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I really don't have any science to back this up. Only experience.
I used to snowboard a lot & my favorite board is from a small manufacturer (glissade) and it is a simple single radius board. I love it. I demoed a Burton which was billed as a big mountain board & should've ridden much like my Glissade but is sucked so bad I couldn't believe it. It felt like it didn't want to hold a carved turn. The tail simply didn't want to follow in the track the tip created. Every turn wanted to skid out. After some investigation I found out that burton has a complex variable radius edge geometry which I'm sure makes the board forgiving & predictible, but it didn't suit me one bit.
Now for the last few years I've been skiing most days and I found the same experience as I described above with some Rossignol RPMs. They seem to want to skid every turn. No turning radius was locked it. I suppose that this allows the claim of performance though multiple turning radus(es) but it is a compromised performance. I like a ski that locks into a medium/long radius turn like its on a rail. I can always skid a shorter radius turn when the situation dictates. My current favorite ski is salomon's Pocket Rocket '03-'04. Screaming long radius turns at any speed, width for powder & soft enough to be nimble in the tight spots.
My first garage built skis will be in the dimensions of the Pocket Rocket.
I used to snowboard a lot & my favorite board is from a small manufacturer (glissade) and it is a simple single radius board. I love it. I demoed a Burton which was billed as a big mountain board & should've ridden much like my Glissade but is sucked so bad I couldn't believe it. It felt like it didn't want to hold a carved turn. The tail simply didn't want to follow in the track the tip created. Every turn wanted to skid out. After some investigation I found out that burton has a complex variable radius edge geometry which I'm sure makes the board forgiving & predictible, but it didn't suit me one bit.
Now for the last few years I've been skiing most days and I found the same experience as I described above with some Rossignol RPMs. They seem to want to skid every turn. No turning radius was locked it. I suppose that this allows the claim of performance though multiple turning radus(es) but it is a compromised performance. I like a ski that locks into a medium/long radius turn like its on a rail. I can always skid a shorter radius turn when the situation dictates. My current favorite ski is salomon's Pocket Rocket '03-'04. Screaming long radius turns at any speed, width for powder & soft enough to be nimble in the tight spots.
My first garage built skis will be in the dimensions of the Pocket Rocket.
The PRs and the one of my other favorite snowboards (Lamar Gibson 1994) have a unique side cut quality in common. The radus contunues even after the running surface ends. So the tip & tail lift up off the snow while the ski/board is still getting wider. I couldn't tell you specificly how this make the product perform different, but I'm pretty sure I prefer it. Perhaps I will vary the running length relative to the side cut on my first few skis and see how they differ.