Gotama...Tele?

[Skunkeee]

Everyone seems to have nothing bad to say about the gotama alpine or tele, but would it be a wise choice for my first tele set up?

by the way <why cant i get a Telemarktips acount???

I've been downhilling for long enough so i recently tried telemarking looking for something new and couldn't of had more fun. Rather than spending 40 bucks everytime renting i want to go ahead and get my own set up. I ski the mantra in a 177 and really like the ski, and see no problem in goin wider, but i can only speak of what i know well and thats downhill. So i need advice from the telemarkers out there, would the gotama be a ski suitable for a newer/intermediate telemarker or would the width be too much?

[single]

My friend rides the 176 goat from a couple years ago every day on tele. He loves them. He has ridden them on everything from east coast blue ice to 30" of montana blower. Nothing bad to say... except he switched to alpine a week or two ago and hasnt gotten off of his hellbents since.

[Skunkeee]

i've also talked to many people who swear by the gotama mounted tele, but they've all seemed to know what they were doin on tele's, unlike me. So my question is would it be suitable for a newer telemarker?

[mwthomsen]

Why don't you mount the Mantras up tele? My first two days on tele's were on a 177 Mantra mounted with G3's and I really enjoyed that set-up.

[Skunkeee]

i want to continue to downhill s but pick up tele as well. i had considered mounting the mantras tele and getting gotamas for my alpine set up, but then whats the point? could the gotama and the mantra really be so different, even if mounted on a tele set up?

[single]

Those skis are a lot different. If you are decent at alpine, making tele turns on the goats should be a non issue.

[SkiOrDie]

I don't Tele, but ski with a lot of folks who do. At least three of them have Goats mounted Tele. They didn't learn on them, they learned on some skinny floppy foam cored ski, but I don't have any idea why that would be a "good thing".

Just do it.

[adrenalated]

Although the Goats are a great tele ski (lots of my friends around here have them), I'm not sure they'd be great to learn on.
Do you have any old skis you're not using? If so, mount them up first to go learn.
Although as a strong alpine skier you'll pick up tele fairly quickly, there's still gonna be a period where you pretty much suck, and are skiing pretty easy terrain at lower speeds. If you go shortish on the Goats to make them easier to learn on, then you'll outski them when you get good. If you go for a more normal length, it could be too much ski at first and make it more difficult to learn. Also, keep in mind that wider skis require you to angulate more, which is tough to do when you're first learning the tele turn. So IMO, it doesn't make much sense to buy really nice skis to learn on. Spend your money on good boots instead.
If I were you, I'd go to www.telemarkski.com and pick up the Rossi Powder Bird Special Edition for $150. Then I'd mount it up, ski it for a year to learn, then sell it for $75 or so and buy Goats.

[cuseo]

My two (or three) cents for learning to tele...

Piss off your old alpine race coach... lean back, lean in, rotate your upper body and smoke lots of weed.

With a strong Alpine background, learn on the steep shit and force yourself out of the comfort zone immediately. You will fall, you will learn, you will rip.

Learn to trust the shit out of your inside/uphill edge

With Tele binders... wide skis are good because they give the toe box (or toe bail for the Bomber Bishops) some room in really angulated turns (instead of lifters). But Adrenalated is also right in that wider skis require more muscle to get and keep on edge.

The Gotamas are an awesome ski. The soft tails make them a very fun and forgiving Tele ski. The soft wood core makes them puke binding screws out sometimes, esp. when all the force is on four screws instead of eight.

The Mantras are also awesome but so totally different from the Gotamas. The hard tails will kick your ass if you're not kicking theirs.

Adrenalated is totally on point, spend the dough on some sick boots and the rest is cake. (I suggest the Scarpa T1 their liners are really nice).

IMO, I think you'd be happy learning on the Goats in a one-seventy-seven.

Word.

[adrenalated]

Originally Posted by cuseo

Adrenalated is totally on point, spend the dough on some sick boots and the rest is cake. (I suggest the Scarpa T1 their liners are really nice).

I love my T1s. I want to make sexxxxxy time to them. The new ones come with Intuitions. But it really depends on what fits. Although thermo liners help boots fit a variety of feet, in general, Scarpa = narrow to medium width/volume, Garmont = wide, high volume, Crispi = wide, flat feet.

[Skunkeee]

what is the difference in liners between the regular TI and the intuition liner?

[skibumnh]

Originally Posted by Skunkeee

Everyone seems to have nothing bad to say about the gotama alpine or tele, but would it be a wise choice for my first tele set up?

by the way <why cant i get a Telemarktips acount???

I've been downhilling for long enough so i recently tried telemarking looking for something new and couldn't of had more fun. Rather than spending 40 bucks everytime renting i want to go ahead and get my own set up. I ski the mantra in a 177 and really like the ski, and see no problem in goin wider, but i can only speak of what i know well and thats downhill. So i need advice from the telemarkers out there, would the gotama be a ski suitable for a newer/intermediate telemarker or would the width be too much?

I can't speak for the Gots, but its my first season on tele and after 10 days on public enemy's w/hh's I pulled the alpine bindings off my 177 mantras and put the hh's on them. The mantras absolutely slay mounted tele - destroy everything. So from what I have heard the gots are softer than the mantra, and thus should be easier to turn especially beginning.

I have to agree with the other posters though - Its the indian not the arrow. Put yourself in an uncomfortable position, find steep icy terrain and get used to it. After 10 days on windblown and boilerplate at Cannon im comfortable on my tele setup almost anywhere except super tight trees and frozen bumps.

[Hugh Conway]

Originally Posted by Skunkeee

by the way <why cant i get a Telemarktips acount???

consider it a compliment

[Thebaldskiman]

Originally Posted by Skunkeee

what is the difference in liners between the regular TI and the intuition liner?

Shitloads.
Standard liners are just that. Take a few days to break in, normal tongue.
Intuitions, are made by Intuition. Do a search on here and you'll find a million threads about them, but the greatest hits are: Wrap-around thermo mouldable closed cell eva foam made by a company in NZ. A far superior foam than what is used in the plus-fit liners (what came in the scarpas last year).
You can probably shift down a shell size using thermos too. Warmer, lighter, more precise fit, longer lasting..............Better. They work.

[mtsprings]

I agree with Adrenalted.

Spend money on the best boots you can, get a good active binding (I love Hammerheads) and start with a used or inexpensive alpine ski. You will trash the tops while learning and then next year invest in a better ski. I don't think you could go wrong with the goat or mantra.

Here is a good thread to read.

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ght=tele+setup

I think that ptex1 still has a pair or two of hammerheads.

[skibumnh]

I did exactly that, wait until march/april for some insane closeouts....


06/07 Garmont Ener-G's from Westhillshop.com - $350
06/07 HammerHeads from Bentgate.com - $140
06/07 176 Public Enemy's on SAC - $150

Total Cost: $640 for a ripping brand new tele setup. I have since destroyed the top sheets on my PE's but they still work and I dont feel bad. HH's set to 4 are the shit.

[Skunkeee]

and now the question of length. Will the 183's be too much ski while im trying to get the tele turn down pat? i should also add my times riding tele i was on shorter skis probably in the early 170's. But my consern with the 176 is i'll out ski it pretty quickly in turn defeating the purpose of buying a nice set up.

[Danno]

I only tele, used to own a 177 Mantra and own a 183 Got (sold the Mantra because I stopped skiing it, always want to be on the Gots). Get the 183, I found them fairly similar in length to the 177 Mantra, they ski short.

Also, aks yourself if you'd rather get a ski that's easier to begin with, but will show its limitations later, versus a ski that may be a little tough now, but you will be satisfied with for a long time.

[SydVicious]

Originally Posted by Danno

I only tele, used to own a 177 Mantra and own a 183 Got (sold the Mantra because I stopped skiing it, always want to be on the Gots). Get the 183, I found them fairly similar in length to the 177 Mantra, they ski short.

Also, aks yourself if you'd rather get a ski that's easier to begin with, but will show its limitations later, versus a ski that may be a little tough now, but you will be satisfied with for a long time.

Yup same here. Owned mantras and Gots, but never used the mantra. If you are learning right now with pow and crud then get the Got. It will be hard at first but will toally take care of you. Plus you can go faster

T1s rock with the intuition liners.

[Skunkeee]

alright so i picked a 176, not the ideal length but i'll manage. Having no experience mounting tele so im going to need advice. the gerenal consensus i;ve been getting is to measure the running length then mount the ball of the foot at chord center? sound right? any other suggestions?

[rabbit]

I mounted linkens (still the best imo) bsl mid to line according to this info from another thread here on tgr discussing gotama mounting and it was just perfect:
03-04 bootcenter marks from tail
176-74.5 cm
183-77.8 cm
190-80.8 cm


here's some more info I saved that could probably be found in its original form on this forum by using the search function.
"Originally Posted by squaretail
1) Going forward from here, all Völkl twins (Gotama included) will have a topsheet mark at "True Center" as well as "Boot Center." The True Center Mark represents the mid point of the running surface, NOT the total length of the ski.

2) Mountain Junkie pulled up my points from this discussion on the 0607 white Gotama. It is true that there are no sidewall marks on the 0708 Gold Gotamas, and we have worked hard to make the topsheet marks consistently accurate. Having said that, you wouldn't be wasting your time to compare the Boot Center marks on your Gold Gotamas to these specs, measured in a straight line from the tail to the topsheet:

168cm = 70.7 cm Boot center
176cm = 73.5 cm Boot center
183cm = 76.8 cm Boot center
190cm = 79.8 cm Boot center"

[Skunkeee]

what are the pros and cons of active bindings compared to non active? Everyone keeps telling me to get the hammerheads, but i dont see whats so special about them. Without much thought i had just figured i would get a simple g3 binding. thoughts?

[skibumnh]

Originally Posted by Skunkeee

what are the pros and cons of active bindings compared to non active? Everyone keeps telling me to get the hammerheads, but i dont see whats so special about them. Without much thought i had just figured i would get a simple g3 binding. thoughts?

People say hammerhead so you can decide for yourself what the pros and cons are of active/nonactive bindings. I decided quickly that I like an active binding and ski mine on 4 for powerful turns. Made for an easy transition coming from alpine. Spend the extra few bucks and get the HH's, they are bomber.

[tigerstripe40]

Originally Posted by Skunkeee

what are the pros and cons of active bindings compared to non active? Everyone keeps telling me to get the hammerheads, but i dont see whats so special about them. Without much thought i had just figured i would get a simple g3 binding. thoughts?

Active bindings provide more resistance. This is nice for wider ski's, and for going faster on groomed runs.

The hammerhead binding has (re)moveable cable guides. So you can choose either super neutral (position 1 or guides removed) for skinning or super active (position 5)for high speed downhill runs.

Hammerheads are GREAT because they are very versatile. Personally, I like a more neutral binding in Powder, and a more active binding in most other positions. You can do that with 1 binding.

G3 bindings are pretty good bindings. Less money than Hammerheads for sure, however, there is no adjustment availabe aside from the spring cartridges.

I have some Soft Bro 179's mounted up with Hammerheads and LOVE that setup. Its quite literally a 1 ski tele quiver.

[teleposeur]

Gotama was my first ski/tele ski too, I've come to prefer something more
95ish for daily, but they where my only ticket for 2 seasons, and I loved them. Mounted with hammerheads... Make sure you mount back of the alpine mark by a bit or you'll end up with more tail than you want in steep skiing.