RobertAlexander

Don't worry too much about angles, ride what is comfortable to you. I started hardboots after only 1 year on softs, and first day rode 70/70 and have not changed a thing, it takes some time, but it sounds like you are already comfortable in getting down the hill. On the slope, find your good easy carve spots and try doing one complete carve , then another easy spot, etc, practice your strong side, then practice your weak side, after sometime, try linking a turn in a easy spot, and keep doing this, again after some time , you will start doing more carves in more places, and eventually start to link the whole trail top to bottom. Focus on getting one trail under your belt, then do another trail. It takes time, but that is the fun part. Mastering a trail, then going to the next trail, greens, then blues. That is a nice top level board, respect its power, and learn to use it carefully, you probably already have respect for the downhill edge, over the handlebars crash. So learn to Totally commit to an edge and pick the board up as high as you can, it will hold you. Do back up the hill drills, both for heal and toe side. Helmet, body armour, wrist guards. Watch your tail/don't get hit. good luck

I got this board yesterday, Coiler AM 176T 7.2 + 4, 21.5 waist , approx. 12 scr. average Am used to 17 or 18 cm waist, with 70/70 angles. Can go as low as 65/65 maybe 60/60 for a 21.5 waist. Also maybe should of put this in the All mt board thread.

3/12/2018 Steve Ash riding Mk at Loon vid https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IzPmXtEZ7KolGnrUgSKM0YI6_74niz2y/view?ts=5aa72a75

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IzPmXtEZ7KolGnrUgSKM0YI6_74niz2y/view?ts=5aa72a75 3/12/2018 Steve Ash riding Mk vid at Loon

Flatten board , slide paper. The rear should have a smaller amount of decamber as well. yes on 4 to 5cm nose , approx. what the MK has. Good write up.

1.0 side, zero base , 0.5 base touch up if needed, No Detune.

I asked for as tight a single radius as possible on a 174 with a soft front,, because that is what I like to ride. Bruce made a 11.0 for me, and for metal, it flexes more than a glass. So the metal 11 turns like a glass 10. He was correct. As for that board not selling, lets see a real good pic of the hit. Fuzzy pics scare me, Ive learned the hard way. Good pics sell the board.

Hang in there and keep riding, At the beginning of the year riding the MK, Turn myself into a Zombie, Barely able to walk from my car to the house at end of day,, and just crawl into bed to recover at 6pm., waking up the next day, and still barely able to walk, slowly get to the hill anyway, loosen up, and OK lets do this again. Repeat, repeat... Once you get in shape/conditioned, piece of cake. The first few weeks are rough. Some times ask myself, why am I doing this, but then say ok, I know why, when its time to start making carves with the MK.

try some slow speed carves, get the hang of the balance points on slow speed, then slowly increase your speeds for the carves and see what happens, imo , you may be able to see what you are doing better, both correctly and incorrectly in doing the slow speed carve first.

Have seen what you are describing on many new to hardboots but lots of years on softboots. You probably have a good toe side on hardboots because you have the years on softboots and have developed your muscle control needed for a good toeside carve. With a toeside carve , you just ride out out using your muscles and the g force is a bit less than on a good heelside, so you make it happen. Guessing that you are initiating your heelside well, but around 1/2 way thru the carve, right when the power g force kicks in , you are bailing out and going back to a butter/slide carve. Find yourself a nice open area with just the right pitch/slope, make sure no one is behind you, get going a comfortable speed, and hit a heel carve solid with the full intention of riding the carve out and go backup the hill, and then do so. Look behind you to make sure it is clear, no one there, before doing this. You need to pick the board up as high as possible, and keep it there for the entire carve, try using downward pressure on your rear boot /knee/leg, to pick the board up to 90 deg , it will hold, and ride it out, also look back up the hill as you do this. Put your outward arm on your inner/front knee, push a little if you want to. Your body will be very low to the ground as you ride it out, and your speed will decrease to zero, and you end up just lying there on the slope. Keep trying this, at different speeds. Once you get it right the first time , you will have an Ahaa moment, and the rest will be history. Once you get this heel side correctly, then try linking this heel carve with a toe carve. good luck, remember to make sure it is clear behind you.

before ice out or after mud season.....

Same for me, the mon thru fri regulars all get to know one another as the years go by. For a few years I would get negative comments, ( reply=they groom it every night) but after some time, everyone gets along.

If the uphill person does not like the way the downhill person is riding, the uphill person has 3 choices. 1) follow behind at a safe distance 2) pass if possible in a safe manner 3) stop in a safe spot, and let the downhill person have the run, then they will have their run. realizing things get a bit tricky when it gets crowded. One way to look at this is rules of the road when driving automobiles, and how your insurance company will settle a claim. you hit some one from behind, you are 100% at fault, no matter how they were driving or weaving in front of you.

Have been using yellow sw bushing elastometer front and rear for a few seasons. Have run them in warm and cold. In the cold , say zero F, I can agree with you on a bit of loose , but not to the point of it affecting my riding at all. But usually do not ride in zero or below, and wait for at least single #'s, and then it is not a problem at all. slightly above the recommended limit for the yellows, ...? did not know there was a weight limit. I am probably over it, and am fine with yellow for front and rear, I tried the yellow front and blue rear and did not like it, kind of why bother with sw, if it does not flex, imo.

#1, good snow hard pack, and get enough days for conditioning to go top to bottom w/o stopping, then stay out a long time.

1) mid-turn (on ice) the edge loses hold and skids away from under my feet Mid turn looses edge, Once you start to load the board, Try going thru a toe side very slowly, and see what happens, then try just a bit faster, and see, keep increasing the toe side speed until you see where this is happening, could be your riding technique or set up angles. When increasing From slow speed to a higher speed, it will usually lose edge at the bottom of the carve, where the load is the greatest. 2)as a result I committed much less than on my heel side That seems to be you 3)when not on ice, the issue was practically gone Possibly an ice issue, so try to use your toe side leg muscles much more, toe side (as well as heel side) on ice is a balance of power game, and takes lots of muscle work on each turn. There is not any relaxing at any time in the turn. The funny part here is you state your heel side is fine. Again, try a slow toe side, and get the feel of it, and once you are comfortable, increase your speed a bit, and go from there.....

The MK is too much fun to have time to do a video, all I want to do is another run with it, and max out the day. There is no time for a video, if you have an MK.

The Intuition Power Wrap Plus (high volume liner) I got were new and 27.0 mondo, this is what I was describing earlier. But I luckily got a decent set of what I believe to be Intuition Power Wrap medium/standard volume , 26.5 from a lightly used set of Full Tilt ski boots, that fit perfectly. I rode these the first week plus and they seemed quite firm but had slight squish , no heel lift , all is good. The Power Wrap Plus in 27.0 also fit well, Thinking it is due to the thicker foam, were my foot is 265L ,263R. After having enough hours on the hill, decided to try the Power Wrap Plus, wow , what a difference, absolutely no kind of heel lift at all, heel and ankle are locked right in there. The thicker more rigid foam is able to transmit every movement of the foot/ankle/calf to the board in a very powerful way, and also a finer feel is perceived from what the board is doing, is felt from the foot , particularly the ankle and calf. These power wrap plus liners are just that , very powerful. I did not feel any discomfort, but they are different, in that they are firm, and they are going to take a while to get used to, mentally and physically. When you initiate a carve, they do so very quickly. The Power Wrap Plus may be too firm for , say an icy/very firm/hard snow day. The Power Wrap line can only be ordered in whole sizes, 27.0, 28.0, etc, but for some reason Full Tilt gets them in 1/2 sizes, 26.5 , 27.5, guess I got lucky at the ski swap.

MK's at Loon. While going for a tight heel turn, Loading the Mk on heel side with all your weight sitting on the rear and the MK pops itself out of seemingly one hole, for an extremely quick turn. Just need to get weight forward , once you feel the start of the board being loaded, to stay ahead of the game. It happens quickly. Plus the good snow conditions made it happen.

You mentioned "Hooky", that is what you want it to be , hooky, and learn to ride it. That is the best part of an ultra sharp board , is it grabs and initiates the turn fast and cuts instantly. I have an MK from last year and love it, do not detune it, learn to ride it. IMO the MK is the best out there, but it will work you very hard physically and mentally, but when you get in shape after all this work, it is all worth it. For fast lay ups with the MK, you do not want to be thinking is it going to hold, there is no time to think, you just have to trust that it will hold and go for it, there fore, No Detune! After a full season of only riding the MK, I never got to a point with it, to say, come on board , lets get going, it always gives more than you ask it to. But the initial training with it was def a tough 2 weeks. But any physical sport is like that. r

I never detune anything, sharp a razor every where. You will get he hang of riding like this and be better off for it. Then if you did detune, you will wish that you had not. There are snow conditions on the ice coast, at many times, you need to be as sharp as possible, tip and tail.,... well every where. And if you must detune, very gently, just a little very lightly, with a mild gummy stone. I have seen absolute nightmares of boards edges detuned by using a file, 2/3 of the steel edge was Gone! Could have used a disc grinder by the looks of it.

Blood Pressure

Spent some time in the new boots liners today, adjusted straps better. And yes, I believe these liners are going to be good for me. I do not see any reason to heat mold them, they fit fine, and actually a bit loose around the foot, not too loose, no wiggle at all, just not firm or tight in any way. So why do a heat mold? This is just for my application and foot size. The big real test will be on the hill, and already thinking, after wearing them today, that I will get used to the firmness of liner, and like it. Tell the board to go , and it will do so immediately. Especially because the board is an MK, Forgot to mention, the boots the Int liners are going in are Deeluxe 325, so it stiffened the 325 up some, but not to the point of it being a 425, imo. I will see, because I know someone with a new pair of 425, for a true comparison. I think my goal is to get a stiff boot that also has a good flex to it, a boot that will carve all snow conditions. A tough goal, but time will tell.

For AWD make sure they are all the same size, even to the point of having close to the same miles and wear on all 4. Just went thru this , especially on Subarus. On Subarus, there is a self sealed small steel silicon/air filled clutch pack on the differential, called a "viscous coupling". This device limits the amount of slip any one wheel will have and adds more power to the opposite wheel. Subaru says that they are not made to run full time, and if so, will burn out, and big Money for a replace, if you can find one. Subaru states all 4 wheels within 1/4 circumference. Much talk on the forums on saying this 1/4" spec is way too particular. So if you are buying used tires for a Subaru, make sure you get a circumference measure on all 4 tires with a cloth tape measure at the middle of the tire and deflated if on rims. If you need more info on this, google, Subaru, tire size matching, viscous coupling this link tells you what is going on in there. https://www.ericthecarguy.com/kunena/8-Service-and-Repair-Questions-Answered-Here/44127-subaru-center-differential-problems and this one , a lot of first hand knowledge with opinions, but from some pretty knowledgeable/experienced folk. https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=381351

Finally got some new Intuition Power wrap liners. I have tried top end tongued liners from good ski boots, but I have a metarsal bone that the tongue seam of the boot liner, imo, will develop a bone spurs in short time. I loved the performance of these top end liners and have in the past come close with a 90's Raichle stiff wrap liner. But now that I have the Intuition power wrap, I can see that the power wrap is much stiffer, more firm foam, and imo, probably as stiff as I want to go. The calf holds very nicely, there is not any heel lift, even though there is a little extra room in the foot area. But I need to test ride them on the hill for a proper evaluation. They are stiff and hold leg/foot solid during flex, but do not grab and hold tightly in the foot area, weird but that is what is happening on the great room rug. I got the power wrap plus , reason is , with earlier liners, I was stuffing 3 or 4 layers of cardboard pcs in the tongue , and using a small strap. No cardboard is needed any more with the pwr wrap+.