Race Tune
Sorry. There is an internet based company that's 20 miles from my shop that only sells racing skis. Every brand I've ever heard of. They've been in business since 1988 and built their own building two years ago. Artechski.com Last year, I stopped to talk to the guy that tunes all of their new skis after sales and also a few walk-ins like me. After talking with him, I thought I'd try having a pair of pretty ordinary short skis tuned up by him. I don't know how much time he spent on them, but I couldn't believe how good they were on snow. Tons of glide and edges that just wouldn't quit. Very different from the average shop tune. I asked this guy how long he spends on expensive race skis right out of the box. He said 3 hours average, a lot of which is cutting down the sidewall shoulder to a low height and putting a custom structure pattern on the base that the customer can request. This guy is a club ski racer himself , so I asked him where he would take his own skis for tuning if he couldn't do it himself. He knew of one other shop in New England that's 120 miles away that has a "pretty good" reputation with racers. Because I'm almost always on cold dry snow and ice, I had him do the 104 bases with essentially no structure to get optimal speed for that snow. The edges are tuned 1 degree base 2 degree side, which is the most common rec. edge these days. Ground first and then polished in sequence with three increasingly fine diamond stones. I think the key to his work is that he looks at every ski first and cooks up a strategy for tuning it that depends on exactly what he finds with that one ski. When I picked up my 104s, I asked him what he thought when he first looked at them and he said "pretty good" which I take to be a high complement. I now have 5 pair of my own boards tuned by him and I can't imagine going without it on any new boards that I start riding. So, after years of thinking that fancy tuning was a waste of money, I'm a believer. Cost? Usually $65 for as long as it takes to get he boards right. I do a little better with brand new boards that don't need damage repair.
Sorry. There is an internet based company that's 20 miles from my shop that only sells racing skis. Every brand I've ever heard of. They've been in business since 1988 and built their own building two years ago. Artechski.com Last year, I stopped to talk to the guy that tunes all of their new skis after sales and also a few walk-ins like me. After talking with him, I thought I'd try having a pair of pretty ordinary short skis tuned up by him. I don't know how much time he spent on them, but I couldn't believe how good they were on snow. Tons of glide and edges that just wouldn't quit. Very different from the average shop tune. I asked this guy how long he spends on expensive race skis right out of the box. He said 3 hours average, a lot of which is cutting down the sidewall shoulder to a low height and putting a custom structure pattern on the base that the customer can request. This guy is a club ski racer himself , so I asked him where he would take his own skis for tuning if he couldn't do it himself. He knew of one other shop in New England that's 120 miles away that has a "pretty good" reputation with racers. Because I'm almost always on cold dry snow and ice, I had him do the 104 bases with essentially no structure to get optimal speed for that snow. The edges are tuned 1 degree base 2 degree side, which is the most common rec. edge these days. Ground first and then polished in sequence with three increasingly fine diamond stones. I think the key to his work is that he looks at every ski first and cooks up a strategy for tuning it that depends on exactly what he finds with that one ski. When I picked up my 104s, I asked him what he thought when he first looked at them and he said "pretty good" which I take to be a high complement. I now have 5 pair of my own boards tuned by him and I can't imagine going without it on any new boards that I start riding. So, after years of thinking that fancy tuning was a waste of money, I'm a believer. Cost? Usually $65 for as long as it takes to get he boards right. I do a little better with brand new boards that don't need damage repair.
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