Out of perverse curiosity, a bit ago I had acquired two pairs of new 2021 188 cm 65mm wide Nordica GS skis w/identical Marker Piston Plates, both tuned 0.5/3. These have just been sitting in the garage waiting for me to get to them. Since Solden was cancelled, I was bored and needed something ski related to do, so I decided to finally mount up the skis and get them ready for race testing as soon as the snow falls at Palisades. I rummaged around and found a couple of pairs of Marker Race/Comp 20 bindings to throw on the skis.
What was interesting, is that while both are 188cm in length, one pair is a Junior ski offering a 25m radius, while the other is a 30m women’s FIS ski. I figured this will make an interesting comparison. Below is how they are listed in the 2021 Nordica Race Catalogue:
Curiously, while the 30m FIS ski is labeled “stiff”, when hand flexing they are actually a bit softer compared to the Junior 25m ski.
Even stranger, although both skis are from the same vendor, same year, same 188cm length, same plates, differing only in the turn radius, the Piston plates on the Junior ski (on L) came from the factory mounted 1.2 centimeters behind the ones on the FIS ski (on R):
Now I am itching in anticipation to get on snow and be able to do some back to back subjective testing to resolve this conundrum!
What was interesting, is that while both are 188cm in length, one pair is a Junior ski offering a 25m radius, while the other is a 30m women’s FIS ski. I figured this will make an interesting comparison. Below is how they are listed in the 2021 Nordica Race Catalogue:
Curiously, while the 30m FIS ski is labeled “stiff”, when hand flexing they are actually a bit softer compared to the Junior 25m ski.
Even stranger, although both skis are from the same vendor, same year, same 188cm length, same plates, differing only in the turn radius, the Piston plates on the Junior ski (on L) came from the factory mounted 1.2 centimeters behind the ones on the FIS ski (on R):
Now I am itching in anticipation to get on snow and be able to do some back to back subjective testing to resolve this conundrum!
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