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Bad/horrible factory tunes

anders_nor

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Whats the deal? why does so many ski mfg's just deliver bad tunes, and Im not talking bad tunes as 1/3 vs 1/2 vs 0.5/3 etc. but variable tunes, railed, basehigh, edgehigh etc. I can do some degree understand it on lower end cheaper skis, but on the $$$$$$$$ stuff its just weird

I have 3 new skis at my local place all are $1000+ skis which needs a basegrind to be skiable on firm groomers, since they are 70/80mm range, they will of course see firm snow conditions

1 pair needed so many passes in the grinder that the operator called me, saying theeese will have a SHORT lifespan, they can now only grind them 1 or maybe 2 times and they are done for. the skis are brand new but came so railed and with the base edge so high they had do do this to reset, also pretty much 0 chance of getting a 0.5/3 on them, this was just to get a 1/2 or 1/3 but. He hinted I should talk with the store selling and manufacturer that this was unacceptable, but also said he had have little to no luck with it before.

1pair was base high all over and had baseedge 0.4 some places and up to 2+ some places, and side edges to match the weirdness, + round edges

1 pair just base high with some just pretty round edges
 

Cameron

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It's not a new thing and I believe its a by-product of speeding up production. Back in the the 90s when the Atomic Beta skis came out we many pairs that were concave. I sent several pairs back for warranty replacements including my 9.26s.
 

fatbob

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Long past thread about it - basically the industry thinks it is acceptable and there is always someone else in the chain to blame so even if customers think things should be done to a basic cub scout std they won't be and just have to suck it up.
 
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anders_nor

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I know its not new, but I feel like its become worse, I've had sevral years of the same skis, but for me its become worse and worse.

For cheaper skis I just send it in for grinding even before mounting bindings, but in my head I feel when we are talking MSRP $1600-1800 for all of theese, they would try at least.
 

cantunamunch

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Back in the the 90s when the Atomic Beta skis came out we many pairs that were concave. I sent several pairs back for warranty replacements including my 9.26s.

I was just talking about that to someone - the weird thing about the Betas was that the top cap was extremely resistant to compression under pressure, unlike everything below the sidewall fiberglass. After the pressure came off, of course everything below the cap wanted to pop back outwards, and a concave base shape gave it more expansion room.

Taking the principle further, I really think a lot of these things are caused by asymmetrical top-to-bottom layups in the sandwich, and weird temperature differentials (e.g. top to bottom) in the mould. If one zone of epoxy cures faster than another, there is a really good chance the structure has trapped internal stresses.
 
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fatbob

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^ but that's not an acceptable excuse - basically production engineering should be addressed at time of design and sign off and "risky" (non-consistently replicable) layups be rejected at that stage.
 

D. Trenker

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Which ski brands give flat base grinds and reliable edge tunes for their performance skis?
 

graham418

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The other thing is, How can a ski shop conscionably let skis out of their shop with bad tunes? Isnt that the whole reason for shopping at your local ski shop? Shouldn't they do some kind of predelivery prep for you? Otherwise , you may as well buy off the interweb
 
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anders_nor

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very uncommon to deliver anything like a tune here , even at the more specialty shops. The ones offering a tuning/setup service will send the skis to the place I send mine.


When I think about it I dont think there is more than a single shop (pure race stuff) that has the equipment to do it inhouse (intruck)
 

GB_Ski

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Ski shops around me don't offer ski prep before delivery. All charges a fee (essentially a tuning fee). I don't buy skis at my local ski shops anymore.
 

Philpug

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Number 2.
 

crgildart

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I'm a dinosaur from the days when all new skis required a pre tune before they skied correctly.. Most came base high. But, even then tuning is pretty variable depending on how it's done (Big machine , grinding router type tool, or by hand via file with guides) and who does it. What one person considers a terrible tune might be perfectly skiable to someone else. That said, legit railed, hanging burrs, base high, or majorly convex (not a tune but a ski issue) can all be a show stopper.
 

Philpug

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Ski shops around me don't offer ski prep before delivery. All charges a fee (essentially a tuning fee). I don't buy skis at my local ski shops anymore.
Sorry, I do not understand this logic.
 

crgildart

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Sorry, I do not understand this logic.

I'm with him entirely - I wouldn't buy at places that surcharge but don't perform either.
Does anybody really expect an online ski shop to do a better job of checking skis for the need of a pre tune than a brick and mortar one who has the customer right there? I'm giving a 1 in a thousand chance of online shops doing legit pre tunes on everything that goes across their bench for bindings and a zero chance for skis that just go out flat.

If you buy online you're getting them exactly as they did or maybe even a little worse, dings here and there to mount them and box them up again..
 
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anders_nor

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Number 2.
I've had quite good luck with demo skis, so good I've bought sevral pairs of demoskis, they seem to actually care about the tune then, but of course, not always the case. Also bought a lot of race skis used with luck as well.

Also found out by demoing skis that... this is not the ski Im looking for.

But can we say skis have a bad tune when bases are not straight? skis are not straight its sure way above lack of tune ;)

the bald tires and bad alignment anaolgy is darn good btw, guess the bases would be the alignment..
 

GB_Ski

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Buying at my local ski shops are like shopping online. I go to the store, pick a pair of skis off the wall and pay for them up at the register. They offer free binding mounts if I buy bindings from them. I bought skis from skiessentials/corbetts before, they offer way better customer services than my local skip shops.

For those who have amazing ski shops and bootfitters next to your house, great! I'm in NYC, I got nada (REI, Paragon and Panda Ski Shop) here. I'm willing to drive one or two hour to get my boot fitted. I'm not doing that for skis.
 

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