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Ski Tuning

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
After paying for 4 or 5 tunings a year I have decided to take the plunge and invest some time and money into tuning myself.

The questions I have are:

A) What file guide angel should I be going for? I will be tuning both Mine and my partners skis, both Intermediate i.e. can comfortably go down blacks but in bad conditions it can become a little messy. so should we be looking at 87,88 or 89 degree guide?

B) Do we have any gurus around who know of shops online or north west based that give good value/service for ski tuning items?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Nearly forgot skis are k2 Charger and Head Fine One.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
jons ski tuning is your friend http://www.insideoutskiing.com/info/partners.html#3


Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Mon 17-09-12 19:06; edited 1 time in total
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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?
Do it, it's not as hard as you'd be lead to believe.

A) It's up to you. I went 87*. The make of ski has no bearing on this.

B) As above; Jon is hard to beat on price and know how.
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nollafb, assuming both your skis as still in factory spec then your Heads have a 1 base angle/89 side angle & your K2's are 1 base/88 side. Don't touch the base edge angles but to save having to purchase differing side edge guides I'd set the side edge angles on both to either 88 or 87. There's plenty of info on my web link in my signature below.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I'd buy a gummy stone.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
Thanks for the info everyone! Jon your site is fantastic, I will definitely try to get over for a course at some point before winter kicks in.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Side angle doesn't really matter. I would dare to bet (and I never bet on anything I'm not 100% of winning Wink) there's noone here who would notice difference between 2 and 4 or even 5 degrees, so whatever you pick, you will do fine, just don't go lower then 3 degrees (4-6) since you will have way more work to do this way.
Base angle on the other side is completely different thing, and you can feel difference between 0.2 and 0.3 degrees. But considering you almost never need to correct base angles once you have them dialed in, and considering they are not easiest thing to dial them accurately, I would suggest you to get base angle done by someone who knows a bit more, on beginning of season, and you leave them till end of season like that, touching only side angle.
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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!
nollafb, another vote for Jon's Ski Tuning .... for the kit and tuition!! snowHead

Cheers
Kersh
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
primoz, may not be much between 2 and 4 side angle but i defo can tell a huge difference in grip between 0 or 1 and 3 which is what i tend to use on all skis, definitely agree that base angle makes a big difference in feel

Cynic, okay i will bite , why a gummy stone?
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skimottaret wrote:
Cynic, okay i will bite , why a gummy stone?


In case yer skiing gets rusty!
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
skimottaret, What difference do you feel between the various base angles ?
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
skimottaret, I have to admit I have never been skiing with skis set to 0 or 1 (side angle), so you might be right about this. But for 3-6 there's not much difference, when skiing on normal snow (talking about groomed tracks not powder of course). Even for me and I probably spent way more time (racing) on skis then most people, if not everyone here. Of course injected courses are different thing, but I don't think more then 5 or 10 of us here ski on injected courses.

briand6868, it's about when (and a bit about how) skis grabs into the snow. Even difference between 0.2 and 0.3 base angle is huge and skis with 0.2 engages much much faster and more brutal then those with 0.3 angles. Not to mention difference between 0.2 degree and 1.0 degree. So the lower angle you ski more feeling for skis you have (and need to have) otherwise things can go wrong pretty easy.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
primoz, agreed, i just mention it as a lot of rec skis come with 1 deg, I had a pair of skis "tuned" at a local dry slope and they put a 0 on the side and base and they were horrible to ski on , got em back to 1 and 3 and they were different skise
briand6868, as Pirmoz says.... I have a set of FIS SL skis at 0 base and I have been high sided a couple times as they hook up so fast, my teaching SL skis i put on .5 to be a bit more gentle but still hooky and my all rounders and GS skis are on .7

Cynic, fair enough i was just wondering why that would be your first choice ! they do come in handy
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
primoz, skimottaret, Thanks for that, always wondered about the subtle differences when fiddling with angles. Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
skimottaret, primoz, And just to clear up the other bit what are the differences in using different side edge angles ?
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
It is mainly to do with "grip" and bite into ice and firm snow. the more the side edge angle the better the grip but past 3 degrees the edges blunt very quickly and 4 or 5 deg only really used when you are willing to sharpen after every run. Also being very techy some racers will increase / decrease side edge angle depending on steepness of slope to get the desired grip and release characteristics but we are talking FIS europa cup level athletes.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
skimottaret, I always suggest a gummy stone for use after those really good tuning ideas when they produce Canal moments, as in F.. Canal on perfect grippy piste. And for Mosha Marc, suggested use.
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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?
FWIW my 'basic kit' arrived from Jon yesterday, and I spent my Friday evening giving the skis the once over... Oh how I've missed the smell of p-tex and hot wax Very Happy

Nice kit Jon... Recommended!
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feef, Just got my shed "pimped" into my wax room - leckie connected, service bench built, vices installed and all my bits n pieces in situ, spent a couple of hours mid-week tuning and most of this morning - all I need is to move the bedroom telly to the shed - needless to say this was shot down straightaway by mrs briand who just doesn't understand Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy

skimottaret, Thanks again.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
briand6868, I'm rather fortunate that one of my ventures means that I have a 9600sq ft warehouse at my disposal where I keep my transit/camper, a few motorcycles and other bits and pieces (as well as stock and equipment for said ventures) so I've just cleared a space on one of the benches in there...

It does mean I've got a 10 minute drive tho, but I can't really complain.
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primoz, skimottaret, Gents, for dry slope racing should I be looking at changing base edge angles to experiment or just leave it alone and get on with it (Salomon 3v 165s). Will it make a massive difference if I change to .7 for dryslope, won't be on snow until late November.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I will be honest and say I have no idea. Luckily I never had chance to ski on dryslope, and I hope it will stay with this. Therefore I have not the slightest idea how skis behave on dryslope, so unfortunately there's no useful advice coming from my side about this. Sorry Smile
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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!
sorry no idea either, but there are a few dry slope racers who could advise, i havent heard of anyone who worries about angles on dry as it is all about sharpness for the brushes and potions and lotions for base speed. I avoid plastic like the plague
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skimottaret, That was what I was thinking, get them like lubricated razor blades and go for it. Unfortunately plastic is all we have this side of the pond. I'll try it out on snowprimoz, Very Happy Very Happy
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briand6868, The amount of base edge angle determines how much you have to tip a flat ski before the edge engages & this doesn't change between snow & plastic. So less base edge angle means tipping the ski less so the quicker the ski will grip & the less forgiving it will be. You can increase the base edge angle at any time but note that you cannot reduce it without first grinding the ski flat, meaning taking a 'skim' off the bases. IMO it's definately not worth the loss of material.
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briand6868, A number of dryslope racers I know deliberately leave the hanging burr on the edge after sharpening as they feel that it 'grips' the dendix better. I'd be concerned that this would give an inconsistent feel as the burr wears off. I thing GrahamN played around with this so it might be worth PM'ing him.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
spyderjon, Know a few who swear by the burr (leaving it on that is), I always take it off and have never experimented otherwise but may try something on the base edge angle on an older set of skis just to see if it does anything for me. Thanks for the advice.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
briand6868, I really don't think you will notice any great difference going to 0.7 from presumably 1.0, it wouldn't be as spyderjon, says worth doing unless you are due for a grind, it certainly wouldn't hurt then to try 0.5-0.7. Leaving the burr on by varying amounts will have a much bigger effect on plastic than changing the base angle by 0.whatever of a degree, instead of leaving the burr on that was created by an aggressive file- remove it all then try a ceramic edger to put a finer burr on, try only the centre third at first then increase the burr length to suit your skiing style.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
gatecrasher, Thanks for that, I'll try that next time. Very Happy
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
briand6868, Is the changing of the angle why your hand is in a splint this AM?? Laughing Laughing
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Fattes13, No a little experiment with razor edges and not detuning the first few inches, along with a gust of wind - not that a gust of wind would have a chance against you...... Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy By the way I'm on bibs on Sunday - your getting number 13 !!!
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