Splitboard.com Forums

had a couple thoughts about getting better performance out of skins



For the first image, I was thinking about cutting some old skins into 4 sections and then stitching them together to achieve a overlapping scale effect, the thought is to get better grip on the climbs and on boiler plate skin tracks allowing you to climb faster while not sacrificing any glide

The second thought was to create a small section of higher/firmer loft under foot allowing you to have a better grip climbing, again this section would be scaled to not sacrifice any glide

This reminds me of the thread where the guy wanted to machine "skins" into his board.

This concept isn't new. Check out the Waxless/skinless Voile vector skis, as well as some Rossingnol, and others.

Hey Snurfer are you talking about mine?

fitit ...this concept has nothing to do with machined skins or clip on skins

I think he's talking about the fish scales seen on kick zone of waxless classic nordic skis that's been making advances into ultra light backcountry nordic/tele setups.

One thought in regards to your scaled skin idea, maybe go with chevrons over straight cuts to increase the surface area 'biting' into the snow. Problem though, becomes getting them to site flat to the base of the ski and preventing snow from working in between the skin and the base. I do like the idea of the high loft zone under foot, though given the quite varied combination of camber and rocker in modern board designs, getting the high loft zone in an area of the ski to be most effective could be a challenge. Or I could just be talking out my ass.

I'm aware of fish scales on xc skis and that whole deal, Im not claiming to invent the fish scale idea but to apply that to a skin would be something new....skins haven't changed much over the years and for the most part they work just fine, but there's always room to improve on something...Ive never seen skins with areas of higher loft or scales

thanks for the suggestions, I like the chevron cut idea but id imagine they will be harder to stitch?

another thought of skins with little teeth

A chevron pattern would be only minimally harder to stitch.



I do think that the issue being hard to overcome here will be getting the skins to stick to the board at the point where the seams are. You'll have snow getting in under there pulling the skin off unless you find a way to shim something into that space.

reminds me of a pair of air walks I used to have!

nice!

I was thinking WWWW but that would be easier to have one /\

About the seams/stepped gaps against the base of the board, I was thinking of applying a bead of BD Gold Label glue to fill them in could work??

If they are overlapping that means some parts are higher than others= you are getting less surface area grip. doesn't that defeat the purpose? Maybe i'm not visualizing it right.

snakeskins and all other plastic-ish clip skins were built with overlapping scales(sections). they didn't really work for shit. it would be interesting to see how it would work with the current skin material.

Build some up Mar!

Na brother, the other dude. Seemed like he was calling out somebody as a whack job for posting about an established technology. Your idea seems worth further investigation.

No, my comment was not intended to be condescending. Having a middle section that allows extra traction was analogous to the idea with the machined in traction that was discussed previously http://www.splitboard.com/talk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=10758&hilit=CNC+base. My point was that if you could add extra traction by simply clipping on some small section of raised, chevron style, skins that would be pretty cool! This would be much lighter than crampons. Hopefully that make sense. http://www.clipskins.com/

Humble apology fitit sorry I misinterpreted your post.