skis
Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 9:17 pm
built a couple pairs of skis this week:
the leftmost pair is project pallet. the other two were recently pressed; core made of old wood i found tucked away in the rafters of my garage (lots of knots, by the way). all three pairs sport uhmw sidewalls, and they have some combination of rubber and aluminum. for example, in the most recent pair (shown on the left and below by themselves), an aluminum and rubber sandwich rides beneath the top layer of glass. the sandwich is roughly 12" in length, and positioned about 10" from the tip. just above the base material rides the VDS layer, and a few other patches of thin rubber and aluminum. in my opinion, these materials help dampen the ride, subsequently increasing edge contact because of how they effect on the mode shapes of the ski -- both modal frequency and modal damping.
these new skis have roughly 5mm of camber -- just perfect, i think. they all carry the same dimensions as the Kaweah ([125-90-110]mm), a shape that i fell in love with the first time i skied it. of the three, i think the following pair will be my favorite. i don't have a name yet, but it'll come to me. other features include edges that wrap around the tip and tail, uhmw tip/tail spacer, and green base material.
i'll take at least one pair out this coming weekend to see how they run.
the leftmost pair is project pallet. the other two were recently pressed; core made of old wood i found tucked away in the rafters of my garage (lots of knots, by the way). all three pairs sport uhmw sidewalls, and they have some combination of rubber and aluminum. for example, in the most recent pair (shown on the left and below by themselves), an aluminum and rubber sandwich rides beneath the top layer of glass. the sandwich is roughly 12" in length, and positioned about 10" from the tip. just above the base material rides the VDS layer, and a few other patches of thin rubber and aluminum. in my opinion, these materials help dampen the ride, subsequently increasing edge contact because of how they effect on the mode shapes of the ski -- both modal frequency and modal damping.
these new skis have roughly 5mm of camber -- just perfect, i think. they all carry the same dimensions as the Kaweah ([125-90-110]mm), a shape that i fell in love with the first time i skied it. of the three, i think the following pair will be my favorite. i don't have a name yet, but it'll come to me. other features include edges that wrap around the tip and tail, uhmw tip/tail spacer, and green base material.
i'll take at least one pair out this coming weekend to see how they run.
