Looking too get my first pair, to use this season in the alps.
Have seen the 'geko' ones which look great - don't use the glue to adhere to the skis, but use some sort of silicon covering which apparently works really well, and are super easy to care for, Especially as they don't use glue. They're a bit pricey though (although there are traditional ones which are more pricey too...)
But are cheaper normal ones just as good to use? Guess I'm rather taken with the lack of glue, but is it a faff? If so, any recommendations? Anything I should look out for? Any good shops from which to buy them?
[url= http://www.wildsnow.com/ ]Wildsnow[/url] is your friend.
Geko are just out of the bleeding edge phase - might be worth waiting another season to see how the new version works out.
Mohair or nylon is the big choice. Mohair glide better, nylon wears better. Most of my friends have G3 which has an excellent attachment system. I've got Montana - seems to work fine.
Make sure one in the party carries a bar of wax in case things get warm and wet!
You'll get very good advice from this shop: http://www.mountainfeet.co.uk/touring_courses.htm
Thanks. So the faff looking after glue urfaces isn't too bad? I'm pretty crap at bothering to maintain my bike!
If you get glued skins, get some "cheat-sheets" to put between them when you pack them away. These are strips of plastic mesh (like you get to put around bottles in airport duty-free!). They weigh next to nothing and make it dead easy to separate your skins.
I haven't had to re-glue the skins on my split-board yet and they're 5 years old. You can get simple spray-on glues as a quick-fix, manky-sticky stuff as a more permanent re-glue or I'm told that ironing them with some grease-proof paper on top works really well to re-fresh the glue.
Whichever skins you get, I'd advise going to a good shop to get them fitted. It's not that hard to cut them to shape yourself, but a good shop can advise on the best mounting system to use - e.g. my skis are close to being a proper twin-tip, so the tail is raised and rounded. A traditional tail clip therefore wouldn't work very well. My local shop fitted a second front clip instead, works really well. That said, my splitboard skins have no tail clip at all and I haven't had any problems with them.
You're in Bourg, right? ZigZags in Sainte Foy fitted mine and did a really good job (gave me a cracking price too! 😉 ). Highly recommended if you can't find anyone good further down the valley. The ski shops in Bourg are all a bit Halfords, don't know what they're like for this kind of stuff.
Cheers Steve - bit more encouraging! Those cheat sheets sound like a plan... I've I heard the gekos need tail clips, I've got a set of rossignol b2's so not twin tips.
Have relocated back to morzine now, and have a reasonable relationship with a shop here (bought boots, skis etc there last year and he recognised me this year and gave me a deal on transceiver/shovel/probe) so I'll head back there to get them quite possibly. He was quite taken with the gekos though...
Do need to think about mohair or nylon.
Last time I spoke to a shop about the gekko skins was in St anton a couple of years ago and at that time they were still considered something of an unkown quantity and they said the earlier ones had not worked well in certain conditions. Since then I've never seen anyone actually using them so I'd guess the jury is still out. They seem like a good idea but if your skin fails catastrophically and you're in the middle of nowhere you can very quickly get into trouble so I won't be trying them yet.
[url= http://www.sport-conrad.com/ ]Sport Conrad[/url] is good for skins, and indeed any other touring equipment; I use their generic Khola mohair/synthetic ones and they perform well - no problem with the glue or the fixings and like most skins they come with the cheat-sheets and a trimming knife. It's very easy to cut them to size yourself, you don't need to be too accurate. Black Diamond have some good videos about it on Youtube.
As far as looking after them goes, just make sure you dry them out after a day's touring (take them out and hang them up somewhere - don't really even need to separate them).
You can get mohair/nylon mix skins - best of both worlds, probably!
Cool beans, mebbe I'll just save some money getting traditional ones then, although I've read some good reviews of recent gekos. Mix sounds good!
Having seen someone spend a good slice of a bad weather day picking hundreds of fragments of cheat sheet off his skins with a pair of tweezers, I'd be tempted to give them a miss. Some people don't have issues, but I've heard a few stories of them disintegrating after a while.
There's a company in Germany making nylon bags. I'm sure you could make your own. They're 1/3 the length of the skin. You put you arm inside and grab the tail of the skin from inside the bag, pull the skin 1/3 off the ski, pull the bag over the skin, so your hand's now outside, then pull the skin 2/3 off the ski, and wrap the second third round one side of the outside of the bag, and the last round the other half. The fold/roll the lot as you like.
Keeps snow off the skins, easier to handle in high winds and flying snow than trying to fold the whole thing neatly skin to skin!
Stevo, sorry about not getting back to you on the sparks, I've been trying to work out whether I should hang onto them for my gf, or as a spare set for whoever might want them. I think I probably will, sorry.
Might still be in touch about coming to St Foy, though!
nedrapier - no worries, I was in Chamonix getting some new boots fitted and stuck my head into ZeroG to have a look at the Spark stuff. Ended up coming away with a set of bindings! (Got a discount on last year's model).
Ace. They're a lot lighter than the Ignitions! Get some spare straps, specially the pointlessly laddered toestrap adjusters - they break too easily. Best off replacing them straight off, tbh.
Go for a mohair/synthetic blend, best of both worlds.
Eeh, lots of research still to do I think!
Coltex mohair. Narrow, straight and waxed for glide. I cut them short to further improve glide. Shave the last cm so the rear doesn't peel.
No probs here with BD Ascencion skins using their cheat sheets. Probably only skin a couple of times a year though.
Ace. They're a lot lighter than the Ignitions! Get some spare straps, specially the pointlessly laddered toestrap adjusters - they break too easily. Best off replacing them straight off, tbh.Aye, I was thinking the straps were a bit naff. I've got some spares lying around, I might try to put a "best of" together. Was sure I had 2 brand-new ankle straps from some Burton P1's that would have been perfect, but can only find one at the moment! 👿
Doing a pre-season clear-out and organisation at the moment, just got all my boards & bindings set-up for the season.
Aye, I was thinking the straps were a bit naff. I've got some spares lying around, I might try to put a "best of" together
I did this last year with my Spark Blaze bindings. I used the highbacks from a pair of Salomon Codes (perfect fit!) and a mixture of Salomon & Burton straps to create a 'Franken-binding'. worked really well (with some judicious use of threadlock!)