kabelnicke
New member
I'm looking for an all purpose type of ski and these two are on my current shortlist. If you have any suggestions or advice on this matter, please let me know.
Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!
You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!
London, eh? Have you seen this forum:kabelnicke said:Thanx Greg,
Demo is obviously the way! Tough from where I live though(London,UK)
volklyokel said:I was just in the local ski shop on Friday, faced with exactly this choice. I walked out of the shop having paid for a set of 167cm K2's (I'll pick them up this Friday). The Bandits are an awesome ski, no doubt. The B2 and the Recon are virtually neck-and-neck, in terms of what conditions and kinds of skiing they're designed for. So why did I pick the K2's?
I bought these exclusively for Utah skiing, which I do for a couple of weeks every year. These past several seasons have offered mountain conditions as varied as anything: some years have had great powder, other years gave no fresh snow at all & everything, including off piste, was hardpack or packed powder. So what I was looking for was a ski that can "do it all." I rode Volkl Vertigo G2's in 2003, and they were o.k. In 2004 & 2005 I was on P50's GS skis. 2005 was fine with those since there was no fresh stuff falling for the two weeks I was out there. But they really lacked in 2004 when the snow got deep and we had two 15"+ dumpings. I was restricted to the groomers which was a bummer, that year.
So, armed with the Fall issue of Ski Press (which has all the ski reviews), the riders who contributed to the tests gave the nod to the Recons in that they were: stable, have superior edge grip and they gave it high marks in the versatility department. Ski press reviewers, gave the B2 a review that either was the same as, or a couple of notches down, in all categories, from the review they gave the Recon. Having studied previous Ski Press reviews and demoed a few of those skis in past years, I feel pretty confident in their reviewing process.
Now, I've yet to ride the Recons, and so I won't really know until I give them the once through, especially out in Utah in March. I admit that I took a risk and bought without demoing, but I did so because the Recons are selling like hot cakes and I didn't want to be faced with the prospect of having waited too long, and not having been able to get a pair later in the season.
Background: I'm 5'-9" and weigh in around 180, but have been skiing pretty solidly for the last 5 seasons, but have been on and off skis for 30 years. My favorite Utah hills are Snowbasin, Alta/Snowbird, Brighton/Solitude & Deer Valley. I'll go down practically anything except cliffs. Here in the east I ride Volkl P50's (when I feel like going fast) and Six Stars (for fooling around). I enjoy Blue Knob and various small hills in southern PA. Its all warm-up for Utah.
Cheers - VY
salida said:After working in ski hardgood marketing this summer for a amherst, nh based ski company, I found that all those ski tests are a bunch of crap, the magazines "feature" your skis based on the advertising dollars that you spend with them... Just a heads up for people who go into shops with preconcieved notions based on magazine tests
batman said:Thanks for all the great advice!
I skied on the Rossi B2s last season while at Whistler. I found the skis easy to ride (probably because of the lenght, sidecut and softness), however, found them a bit unstable at higher speeds. I imagine that is because of the softness of them. I asked the rep and he thought I wasn't skiing on them properly. I'm a pretty aggressive skier. By looking at me, one wouldn't think that.
I'm leaning towards the K2s because they seem stiffer than the Rossi B2s, however, I've never skied on the K2s and have some worries about that.
My logic is if I get the K2s I can always work them harder to make them do what I want. However, it would be difficult to do that with the Rossi B2s because I've already surpassed their upper limit.
RossiSkier said:Last year's B2's are different from this year's. This years B2 became last years B3. Last year's B2's became this years B1, etc. Now they're all midfats and fatties. Point being is that now it's a different ski.