Salomon Rocker swallow tail Removed??

[thecriscokid]

I Have been searching around and haven't found anything about the plastic tail piece of the Salomon Rockers being removed. Has anyone had success?
I would think that they would be fun. It seems like you may want to mount them a good bit farther forward if the tail portion is taken out.
The 192 that they come in is a bit more length than I desire coming from the EP Pro and I have had thoughts of the rockers as a cool/Kook b.c. tool.
I was even thinking that a skin setup with dual (very narrow XC) loops over the swallows would be bomber...
Anyone tried such ?

[bossass]

You're crazy man, crazy.

Seriously, the plastic insert is not meant to come out. Well, it's meant to come out, but not meant to stay out while skiing. Follow? I think Salomon built it in with the intention of making more/different type of inserts available to customize it a bit. But with no insert the ski will be subject to easy damage and delamination. That's my guess anyway. And that swallow is really deep. You'd have to mount waaay forward, which will fuck up a whole bunch of stuff performance wise. I'd guess anyway. But if you wanna drop $500 to experiment, by all means.

BTW, I thought when I first saw the Rocker it would own me. I thought about just getting rid of them before I even tried them. But they are stupid easy to ski in deep snow. I could ditch speed and manuever as well in steep pillowed trees as I could on 179 Hellbents. Don't be afraid.

[thecriscokid]

Yeah, Maybe a bit crazy.
From looking at that tail section, it looks like it is finished. Meaning, how would that added, bolted, maybe glued piece of plastic in there prevent delaming?
I guess I'm not too against a longer rockered ski. That gradual tip rocker looks real nice, and I'm all about rocker. It's all about the smooth gradual rise for me. I only have rockered skis now. Ep's, Seth's, just dumped my hellbents.
The swallow tail just intrigues me.
All these rockered skis have gotten me away from my snowboards and I'm loving it.
I definitely get many people scratching there heads.
If I can find some used beat up Rockers I think I'd give it a go. I hear what you are saying about interchanging that tail piece. Maybe I'd start with trimming that plastic before removing it?

[MTslackcountry]

Heaviest skis ever!

[bossass]

Amen to that!

That's another downside of touring with this ski. Even blank the thing is stupid heavy. I had 916s on them and holy shit. Pulled them off and might remount with Jesters.

[MTslackcountry]

Amen to that!

That's another downside of touring with this ski. Even blank the thing is stupid heavy. I had 916s on them and holy shit. Pulled them off and might remount with Jesters.

Touring With 916's and trekkers? Anyone that is touring with these skis or plans to is nuts. Carrying them on your shoulder for 10 minutes gets old, hell when I skied them I wanted the to put the bar down every lift ride just so they wouldnt pull me off the chair, These make 215 DH boards with derby flex and 920's seem lite.

[azzure]

Got some at a great deal just the other day.

Have dukes laying around for them but now I'm thinking I may get something lighter like jesters.

I see people are mounting dukes to BH Shoots these days but those are also 12lb skis.

So dukes for short treks on these is a dumb idea huh? Could always hold on to the dukes for the longer s7's next year.

[MTslackcountry]

Got some at a great deal just the other day.

Have dukes laying around for them but now I'm thinking I may get something lighter like jesters.

I see people are mounting dukes to BH Shoots these days but those are also 12lb skis.

So dukes for short treks on these is a dumb idea huh? Could always hold on to the dukes for the longer s7's next year.

Have you held a pair yet? If not you will see the weight I talk about. Maybe I am just a puss but the palces that I tour with gotamas and dynafits I can ussally get quite a bit of vert in a day. On those skis with dukes that vert would be cut in half at least.

[thecriscokid]

I've held them. I guess weight is not the first thing that I think about, Float is.
My skinning would be more sled to spot, skin line, repeat type of thing. Most of the guys I ride with are on pretty heavy stuff too.
I am surprised to see that anyone hasn't chimed in that has butchered a pair??

[Bandit Man]

Right on, Azzure!

On the topic of removing the Sallie butt plug (aka plastic tail insert), I'm not sure what it would achieve. Would this be to help them float better in deep pow or ??? I have limited time at the end of the season on mine and have found two things (1) they are the heaviest skis EVER and (2) all they need is some speed to float. Since one skis these in a forward, more aggressive stance there is no need to help the tails sink since the rockered tip takes care of that.

[mntlion]

Didn't the proto types have that butt plug removeable? I remember something from a rep or cody about that?

[Alkasquawlik]

Didn't the proto types have that butt plug removeable? I remember something from a rep or cody about that?

It is removable still yet even after extensive testing (by myself I might add) the additional tail inserts weren't really adding much more versatility to the ski. The problem was the Crist brothers helped design the original Rocker and wanted that little swallow-tail on the insert for some stupid reason. From there the molds wouldn't allow for us to make twin tips, flat tails or any other of the tails that would truly change the performance of the ski. So we were stuck testing concave and convex and finned inserts, all of which either had a negative impact or no impact whatsoever. By that point they couldn't justify the costs of making a whole new tail system so we scrapped the plans entirely. I do have to say though that the plastic tail piece makes the ski a bit lighter and the tail has less torsional rigidity making those slashes and groomers much easier.

Oh and there is more to look forward to in the future for the Rocker. Testing has begun.

[mntlion]

tail on. tail off
camber on. camber off

lego skis...

[bossass]

Touring With 916's and trekkers? Anyone that is touring with these skis or plans to is nuts. Carrying them on your shoulder for 10 minutes gets old, hell when I skied them I wanted the to put the bar down every lift ride just so they wouldnt pull me off the chair, These make 215 DH boards with derby flex and 920's seem lite.

I didn't tour on them. I'm not that dumb. I believe Phill, however, put dukes on them and toured. He didn't seem to mind, but word is he's some sort of man-wookie.

FWIW, the new Atomic Big Daddy has nearly the same shape. Is rocker in the tip and flat in the tail, and weighs next to nothing with Jesters on them. If I wanted a huge ski to tour on, and didn't want to front for a pair of DPS, i'd go with these. I might get them anyway as my travel slayer. After dragging those rockers up to AK I've learned my lesson about heavy as shit skis.

[skiing-in-jackson]

Our rep advised against it. We almost did it one day while the shop was slow, but eventually chickened out. Non of us wanted to buy the ski, when it was already mounted for demo & all...

Oh yeah...I had one of the daze of my life on that ski.