Hey Ski Otter--I don't mean to make too much of a point about this--but your POV lacks elaboration. Unless you're looking for differences without distinction-I am pretty sure the target skier for the SR95 and Bones is very similar; Very Loosely put: high-end all mountain skiers.. who value high speed stability and possess ability to work their skis confidently in a variety of conditions.. If you think the manufacturers see it differently--I'd be curious to hear your insight into how their target profiles differ?
Sorry, but you asked for it!!
The SR95 is designed to reward the carve in almost all terrain, and specifically, with the drive-the-tips style of an ex-racer type skier (whether they raced or not). Just going by the most recent version (20/21), that ski will flex carve through anything, old snow or new - but as the snow gets deeper, its slight "float" has it getting heavier, carving near the bottom more and more. The ski is almost perfect in what it does. (And P.S, I generally ski FIS GS skis as my "old snow" daily drivers.)
By contrast, the initial Bone, to me, was designed as a freerider ski, to have a number of balance or "freedom of choice" points: between easy carve (at will, if you have enough weight) or slarve (at will, if ... weight); between forward driving the tips and more upright skiing; between fast or slow (again, if ... weight), between some float and a deeper carve;
between riding the rails on edge and flexing the ski more. And it may have a similar balance/versatility between finesse styles and power styles also. In short, it was designed for free-riding for good skiers: including, you know, those young guys (some of them pros) hunched over a bit,
leaning into it, riding that edge with only a bit of flexing, turning by "tumbling" some down the fall line/leaning with forward fall to it.
Additionally, to me, the Bonafide is somewhat more a soft snow ski: it stutters a bit on old snow groomers and such, but not so with even a dusting of fresh.
But that first Bone (maybe pre-17/18) was somewhat dependent on the skier's weight: below maybe 160 lbs or so, and the ski wouldn't so easily flex enough to carve by driving the tips, and would tend to slarve its turns too much; almost an intermediate ski for some, the opposite of what was intended, I gather.
At 150 lbs/5'10", it was that way for me, in the bumps especially.
So the recent history of changes for the Bonafide, to me, were about making it more accessible to more (and lighter weight) skiers, maybe at the expense of heavier skiers and bigger chargers. (As a lighter skier, I could charge it/carve it just fine, better than the earlier versions; heavier, stronger skiers usually feel the opposite, seems like.) The 17/18-19/20 versions got perfect for lighter weight skiers like myself, and I got a pair of 19/20s, just under the wire, since however great it may be, the 20/21 version does not seem designed with the same "ride the edges" quality for mid-weight and lighter skiers, near as I can tell, but something different. I'm told it's now a return to being more precise and stable at greater speeds, maybe, for a bit heavier skiers again, dunno.
. But it's good! There is a ski for everyone. I had the OG Bones in a 173, and I loved them until I got into bumps, and then it was just blech.
