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I rode my new RCs for the first time on Saturday up at Whitegrass touring center in Canaan Valley, WV. Whitegrass is an xc place, but they welcome telemarkers and anyone who wants to go up on their own power to ski the glades down.
The snow was not amazing, but it was definitely still lake effect powder, and despite some recent warmer weather, was plenty deep.
I brought snowshoes and used them to get up, with my board on my pack. That experience prompted me to order skins and telemark cables, which jjue has told me is by far the best option. I was being cheap and holding out out buying them, but after watching the XC skiers effortlessly glide up, and having my little 25 inch snowshoes clog with ice and snow and turn into pothole digging, zero traction foot weights, I coughed up the cash. (a little fact I've come to realize: don't doubt jjue. He really has things figured out! So unlike many other internet forums where people spew opinions, posts on sbol by jjue are as good as law!) I'll be taking my new set up to Vermont for spring break with an AT skier and a snowboarder, and I know for a fact that I won't be the weak link on the ups or the downs.
From the instant I locked in, even just standing still, I could tell these boards were something different. As I pointed them donwhill, I was amazed at how I just floated through the light top powder, and how my tails were just as high out of the snow as the tips! Turning, although not as quick and "on rails" in the hard pack like my cambered and shorter KTPs, was still 100% skiboard. I could effortlessly weave through the trees, picking the smoothest lines. Another little bonus is the the rockered tips make hopping over logs and sticks a breeze. The symmetrical design makes riding switch completely possible in the powder, just like riding forwards.
I had two issues with the boards - first of, I had the bindings center mounted and the boot adjustment slid smack in the middle. However, I realized that my tails were floating really high, and I was riding the tips (although they were still floating!). I think this was because your weight is centered just behind the balls of your feet. To compensate for this, I slid the boot adjustment back, but left the bindings center mounted.
I was unable to try this on the snow, due to the second (and more concerning problem) - My bindings came lose. I pulled out my multi tool, and tried to crank them down. Still lose. The screws were bottoming out without compressing the riser pad. I thought about getting shorter bolts, but I started with adding some adhesive foam in between the riser and the binding plate, which is keeping them snug. I haven't ridden them like this yet, and I may just go find some grade 8 bolts at lowes later to replace the stock Zero bolts. This isn't a problem with the RCs as far as I am concerned, but more so with the bolt length that the Zeros are speced with (come on, phillips heads on high-torque mounting bolts?? and standard english sizes? I had to go buy a new set of allen keys, since the gazillion multitools and L-wrenches that I have are all metric.... like the rest of the world)
All in all I love these boards. They are fantastic. I was much faster than my friend on his snowboard, and could pick any line I wanted. In my ten years of mountain biking and racing, it took me almost all of them to find a bike geometry that was maneuverable and stable at the same time; something that I could hop and cut on, while screaming down steep rocky hills. In my few months of snowsports, I think I've already found something that does it all in the backcountry.
As I said, these are coming to Vermont and NH with me. I plan to really put them through everything I can throw at them (so probably lots of attempted tricks and lots falls, lol); cliff drops, switch landings, some jibbing and kickers in the glades, Tuckerman's Ravine, Bolton backcountry, etc. We are going to try to film our adventure, so hopefully I can post some footage of me using them.
The snow was not amazing, but it was definitely still lake effect powder, and despite some recent warmer weather, was plenty deep.
I brought snowshoes and used them to get up, with my board on my pack. That experience prompted me to order skins and telemark cables, which jjue has told me is by far the best option. I was being cheap and holding out out buying them, but after watching the XC skiers effortlessly glide up, and having my little 25 inch snowshoes clog with ice and snow and turn into pothole digging, zero traction foot weights, I coughed up the cash. (a little fact I've come to realize: don't doubt jjue. He really has things figured out! So unlike many other internet forums where people spew opinions, posts on sbol by jjue are as good as law!) I'll be taking my new set up to Vermont for spring break with an AT skier and a snowboarder, and I know for a fact that I won't be the weak link on the ups or the downs.
From the instant I locked in, even just standing still, I could tell these boards were something different. As I pointed them donwhill, I was amazed at how I just floated through the light top powder, and how my tails were just as high out of the snow as the tips! Turning, although not as quick and "on rails" in the hard pack like my cambered and shorter KTPs, was still 100% skiboard. I could effortlessly weave through the trees, picking the smoothest lines. Another little bonus is the the rockered tips make hopping over logs and sticks a breeze. The symmetrical design makes riding switch completely possible in the powder, just like riding forwards.
I had two issues with the boards - first of, I had the bindings center mounted and the boot adjustment slid smack in the middle. However, I realized that my tails were floating really high, and I was riding the tips (although they were still floating!). I think this was because your weight is centered just behind the balls of your feet. To compensate for this, I slid the boot adjustment back, but left the bindings center mounted.
I was unable to try this on the snow, due to the second (and more concerning problem) - My bindings came lose. I pulled out my multi tool, and tried to crank them down. Still lose. The screws were bottoming out without compressing the riser pad. I thought about getting shorter bolts, but I started with adding some adhesive foam in between the riser and the binding plate, which is keeping them snug. I haven't ridden them like this yet, and I may just go find some grade 8 bolts at lowes later to replace the stock Zero bolts. This isn't a problem with the RCs as far as I am concerned, but more so with the bolt length that the Zeros are speced with (come on, phillips heads on high-torque mounting bolts?? and standard english sizes? I had to go buy a new set of allen keys, since the gazillion multitools and L-wrenches that I have are all metric.... like the rest of the world)
All in all I love these boards. They are fantastic. I was much faster than my friend on his snowboard, and could pick any line I wanted. In my ten years of mountain biking and racing, it took me almost all of them to find a bike geometry that was maneuverable and stable at the same time; something that I could hop and cut on, while screaming down steep rocky hills. In my few months of snowsports, I think I've already found something that does it all in the backcountry.
As I said, these are coming to Vermont and NH with me. I plan to really put them through everything I can throw at them (so probably lots of attempted tricks and lots falls, lol); cliff drops, switch landings, some jibbing and kickers in the glades, Tuckerman's Ravine, Bolton backcountry, etc. We are going to try to film our adventure, so hopefully I can post some footage of me using them.
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