Metal board durability

[Lurch]

The recent thread from Alexey (OES) discussing durability of metal boards and Sean developing his ‘secret’ titanal replacement, got me wondering just how many of you BOL’ers have ever actually had a modern metal board delaminate, bend or otherwise fail with normal use? Can probably exclude race boards and rider ‘abuse’ from this question [unless you have some epic photo’s or stories to add :) ]. NOT interested in starting a brand war, just some real world info.

[Corey]

I haven't bent/broke one yet, but in talking to Sean at Donek he said it's usually a stuffed nose that bends a metal board. Bending is much more common than breaking with metal boards. 

As an aside, metal boards are usually quite a bit thinner than fiberglass/carbon boards when made for the same rider weight. 

[Ernie00]

In the quiver I have a 2008 Race carve from Coiler, I still use this board regularly and it doesn't show any signs of weaknesses. 

[ursle]

The early not hammerhead silver kesslers were problematic, the early Prior GS bent, no coiler or virus ever had problems, donek didn’t go metal until the problem was fixed, the problem was ten years ago, today, anyone can ram a cement wall at 80mph and bend a board, that’s not problematic.

[Lurch]

Corey I guess stuffing the nose enough to bend the board may well damage a fg/cf  board too, but the damage may be less evident. If you exceed the elastic limit you've probably still broken some of the fibres. How that impacts the ride I don't know. I do know they proof test skyhook fg booms with an ultrasonic gage just how many fibres are broken.

Ernir00/Ursle thanks - good info.

[michael.a]

Ive had a newish metal board that delaminated at the nose after about a month of ownershipe, quickly replaced under warranty even though it was originally a demo board. Older SG boards had a big problem with delams but I heard they also got that fixed. 

 

[slapos]

Sigi says protect the nose and you will be ok

 

I done this on my full race and never had any issue.

[Beckmann AG]

11 hours ago, ursle said:

no coiler or virus ever had problems, donek didn’t go metal until the problem was fixed,

I"ve seen a Coiler with a blown top sheet.

The early Doneks did not incorporate a layer of rubber. That must have been an issue, as I requested a build without the rubber, and Sean wouldn't do it, citing durability.

[Technick]

Bruce told me "no delam in 8 years" ...

[BlueB]

I delamed a Kessler 185 in a tumble. My Kessler 168 has a very small delam on the rounded tail, but it's from stending it up on concrete. I have the same on a Prior 173 metal top, which is otherwise holding fine. I delammed a Volant and reshaped another one from camber to rocker... My titanal OS boards are holding fine, but I believe that version had carbon in it, too. 

[Lurch]

9 hours ago, slapos said:

Sigi says protect the nose

Be much neater if SG  did that at the factory - taking a rasp to a brand new stick would not be my first choice!

[SunSurfer]

I broke a 2012 build Coiler NSR GS board I'd owned from new. Used for free carving, no nose bends,  no catastrophic crashes. The board broke at the level of the front extra inserts I had asked Bruce to place 4cm outside the normal UPM inserts for use with a custom built, extra long interaxle distance, isolation plate. The plate worked well, allowed me to carve hard in the afternoon conditions & soaked up the bumps beautifully,  but as Bruce noted when we had a post mortem discussion about the board to replace it, every extra binding insert creates a weak point in the core. 

Edited November 11, 2017 by SunSurfer
additional detail

[SEJ]

The only issue I've had was shipping damage on a metalburner I picked a few years ago. Easy enough to fix once I pounded the metal back into shape.( No easy task) I've seen a couple old Viruses get bent, but I believe they were at the end of their lifespan. Mario, on the other hand, has bent fairly new ones. But, he's a big guy and a hard charger.

[Lurch]

 

13 minutes ago, SEJ said:

they were at the end of their lifespan.

Interesting point - if we ignore wear on the base and edges, I'm guessing the core may become the limiting factor; once it starts to break down the loads on the skin increase?

[SEJ]

Yea, I would assume as the core breaks down the board becomes softer, so the metal is easier to kink.

[jacopodotti]

I think that the main problem with the metal boards is not that they break or delaminate but is that every metal has fatigue problems and sooner or later the performance of the board runs down.

The point is when this will happen?

 

[terekhov]

there's not any respectable - comparable to coilers of old, for example - durability in alu boards. if you want to "abuse" your board thru powerful driving (with occasional rock strike..) - sure you would replace them far more frequently than non-alu boards

if you want board to live loooong time (without ride deteoration), like old coilers or pogos - stay away from alu, like pogo' did back in 2000s when they turned off alu construction idea

Edited December 5, 2017 by terekhov

[Jack M]

Only my very first metal board purchased in 2006 had issues.  Every one of my metal boards since 2008 has not.  I put about 200 days on that board.  So many skis are made this way too.

 

I'd say this is a non-issue.

[Corey]

I've heard of a couple boards coming back to the Bomber tent that were mildly bent.  One manufacturer said it mostly happens to demos as people do stupid things when it's not their board - typically fiberglass boards break and metal boards bend.  Either way the board is best hung on a wall for the memories and a laugh every now and then.  

My workhorse board is a Coiler AM metal.  It's seen rocks, crashes, cased jumps, and many hours of ice since 2008 (-ish, can't remember) where it started life as a demo board.  Still rides great.