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Ski weight discrepancies

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hi!

Say a ski is supposed to weigh 1520g in a given length, and the actual pair comes out of the wrapper at 1580 and 1480. (-3% and +4 %). These 100g can be told by hand.

Any reason for concern or even return? What are usual factory specs like?

This is a pair of Salomon MTN95s. Have had similar deviations with another pair of AT skis before.

Cheers!
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Simply tape a chocolate bar to the lighter ski - bingo same weight and you have a choccy bar for the avy dog to sniff, to decoy the grizzly about to maul you etc or morale building snack. May also work with 100g bacon or jerky.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
While it has never occurred to me to do this, I'll admit the variation is larger than I would've guessed (almost 7% between the two).

That said, no reason for concern. The weight of the snow sitting on the topskins, or not, easily exceeds this small delta and is constantly changing.

If it really concerns you, ski 'em, and then swap them right for left and ski them again. Then in the event you do notice a difference in how they ski, understand that that difference is likely to be caused by something other than the weight delta. Other variables have more effect on how they ski/feel.

A differential number of passes over the stone grinder to flatten base repairs can cause skis to weigh different from their siblings, but you said "out of the wrapper", so not this time.

Asking for bilateral symmetry may be unfair anyway; we don't deliver it ourselves. None of my lefts and rights are the same weight either!
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@danbre2022, never buy salomon
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well, a pair of fischer made dynafit beasts was off by the same margin. and, my QST 106s hold up beautifully to long seasons of abusive skiing...

so what's your particular reason to say "never buy salomon"?
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@danbre2022, personal prejudice
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mind you, I love their trail shoes
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
So do I.
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@danbre2022, it does seem a bit weird to me, I will confess
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@danbre2022, you probably won’t notice it but 100g seems quite a big discrepancy. Would be interested in what could cause that deviation - assume the wood would be the main ingredient where the weight could differ for the same size?
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I went for a year or three skiing mismatched X-Scream series skis. I bought a pair when they first came out but after a week managed to trash one on a sticking-up rock in the middle of a piste where I was practising static jump turns - completely split the ski. So I bought a new pair, then would swap the bindings over from time to time to get the max use out of the three remaining good skis.

I never noticed any difference, even when I was using two left skis (they had a directional tip, which served no purpose other than aesthetic). Fast forward a couple of years and a ski shop I took them to for a service told me at a glance that they were beyond their serviceable life, lost their spring, but also that one of them was much more trashed than the other, but even then I'd never noticed a difference depending on which ski was on which foot.

So I doubt very much that this small weight difference will ever be noticeable - much more important is the fact that skis are sorted into pairs based on their flex, so they will behave pretty much the same as each other regardless of weight.
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@BobinCH, I think the amount of glue/resin can vary quite a bit. I’m sure spyderjon will be along with a definitive view but I’d be surprised if those weights were out of tolerance
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Chaletbeauroc wrote:
much more important is the fact that skis are sorted into pairs based on their flex, so they will behave pretty much the same as each other regardless of weight.

Intrigued by this. You mean they are tested after production and paired up? Surely the flex shouldn't vary that much?
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Have a look at a Blister review for any pair of skis. They always weigh each ski and there is always a discrepancy. Is it significant? I don’t know.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
turns out I find the flex difference big enough to annoy me: skis returned. poor matching, if any!
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@Layne, I've met one of Stockli's ski testers whose job is mostly skiing on each individual race ski and allocating to WC, Euro, club and retail based on performance ...
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
now that's a job!
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
under a new name wrote:
@Layne, I've met one of Stockli's ski testers whose job is mostly skiing on each individual race ski and allocating to WC, Euro, club and retail based on performance ...


Somebody goes out on the snow with every single Stockli race ski? Seems highly improbable!
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@BobinCH, certainly the fleet destined for sponsored skiers. I saw no reason to doubt his assertion. We were at the same table for the pre-Parsenn Derby dinner.
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under a new name wrote:
@BobinCH, certainly the fleet destined for sponsored skiers. I saw no reason to doubt his assertion. We were at the same table for the pre-Parsenn Derby dinner.


That I can believe with pro race skis. Some turn out to be measurably faster I am told - think there was a blister podcast that covered the fact that some skis are wrapped up and put away for particular WC events.
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Lindsay Vonn didn't travel with 70 pairs of skis because they all performed the same way.....(though 70 always seemed asinine!)
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An article about the Stockli ski matcher.
https://www.stoeckli.ch/usen/news/portrait-thomas-haensli
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@essex, that's him (I think!). Nice find.

iirc he skis on the high end race ones, not just touch and feel.
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essex wrote:
An article about the Stockli ski matcher.
https://www.stoeckli.ch/usen/news/portrait-thomas-haensli


Fascinating. I do recall that it was when buying some Stôckli GS skis that I was first made aware that they were matched into pairs, so this confirms what I thought was the case, but I thought it was a single relatively simple machine test. I had tested a pair of Lindsay Vonn's race skis as well as the standard customer model and expressed my preference for them, so the shop tech mentioned this grading and was able to pick out the stiffest pair that he had in stock for me.

Do all/any other manufacturers do the same, though?
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Back to the oroginal topic:

I have now managed to find another pair of MTN95s at ekosport. Actually the last I could find. The ski will be replaced by teh MTN96 next season which appears to be complete redesign and featuring a differnce length split- I would fall in the gap betwee longest an second longest....

Now back to the freshly delivered skis:

They are heavier, and differ by only 50g. 1590 v 1540 or so. There is a flex difference, but much more subtle and tolerable for the money.

Camber is about half what the first pair had. (2.5 vs. 5 mm per ski)

These also have a low but rather long tail rocker (some 20cms) which I cannot rember the first pair having. It's identical within the pair so not totally by accident. For a supposedly flat tail ski this is kinda funny. More rockered than many skis I have seen that claim to have tail rocker.

My guess is that matching, if any, is done first and foremost based on camber.

Overall, I think I am happy with this pair.
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