186cm ON3P Billy Goat Review

[BigLineSeeker]

Ski: 186cm ON3P Billy Goats, mounted with Dukes at -8cm (-1 from recommended).

Skier: 5'11", 160lb, former racer who skis on edge 90% of the time.

Boots = 326mm Lange WC120 w/ Booster Strap

Other skis I like: 185 Nordica Blower, 186 Line Prophet 100, 185 Dynastar Huge Trouble (although tails are a little soft), 189 Obsethed (too soft thought), 180 Blizzard Atlas

Locations/Conditions: Groomers, dense pow, crud from dense pow, day old hard crud, bit of blower pow.

Summary: Excellent pow ski, good crud ski, decent groomer ski unless you try to lay down full-turn carves.

I have 10 days on these skis now (crappy snow year) and am very impressed. There was lots of snow in December then not much since then (skis arrived early Jan) so I have not seen anything more than 12" on the BGs.

Pow: These are exactly what I was looking for. Before the Billy Goats the best pow skis I have had were the 189 Obsethed. The K2s were great in the soft stuff thanks to the soft rockered tip, rearward mount (-10 is where I had them) and length. The BGs kill the K2s in the soft stuff. I love that I can drive the tips and not worry for a second about burying them. The wide tip and significant taper make is easy to stay forward on these tings no matter the snow desity. I found the tips to be a little hooky in the sun-effected untracked, but that has more to do with the snow than anything else. The BGs can make large turns, but they are much happier in the mid to small turn shape in soft snow. That said, if I sit more centered on the ski they are more than happy to track straighter thanks to the pintail.

Chopped up crud: These skis are a lot more fun in the crud than I was expecting. They are not a carve and blast through crud ski, they prefer to roll over the chop or slarve around in it. I prefer my Huge Troubles for maching through the junk, but the BGs are a lot more fun when I want to play around in it.

Trees: I have never skied a better ski in the trees. The rocker and 117cm running length allows these things to turn on a dime when you want them to.

Groomed: The performance on groomers is different from what I expected. They actually ski really well on the groomers if I pressure the tips and slide the tails. Edge hold is excellent in these types of turns and I am confident riding any terrain. However, these are not the best carving skis. Two-footed carves are a struggle with the big taper and short running length. As others have noted the uphill ski has a tendancy to split off from the downhill one when trying to lay down race-type carves. If pressure is kept off of the uphill ski carving is definitely doable, but not a ton of fun. I did not buy these to be carving skis and they are more than workable for getting back to the lift.

Flex: The flex on these things is perfect. The tips are stiff enough that they do not flop all over the place but soft enought that the float is excellent. The mid section of the ski nice and solid to ensure excellent edge hold and the tails are soft enough to allow a nice release from turns without losing any stability.

Overall I love these skis. They will be my go-to ski for anything looking like powder. The BGs ski differently than anything else I have owned and are a blast. I have taken a few 20 footers and the tails are stiff enough to make the landings a breeze.

I will post up some pics later today.

[CaliBrit]

Sounds like the -1 mount is the optimal for all mountain performance

[IJ]

was it your Billy Goats sitting next to mine at the base of Fernie last week?

[IJ]

...... actually maybe not, I think the ones I saw were mounted with Rossi Axials

[BigLineSeeker]

Here are a few shots from cat skiing at Fernie Wilderness Adventures last weekend. Conditions were ~10cm of fresh snow with ~30cm within the last few days. There were a few sun affected areas and the Billy Goats handled everything with ease.

[dingjong]

Your pretty skier! Nice pics -)

[BigLineSeeker]

Sounds like the -1 mount is the optimal for all mountain performance

Hard to say since I have not skied them farther forward, but I like the mount point.

was it your Billy Goats sitting next to mine at the base of Fernie last week?

Nope, Dukes on mine (heavy for touring, but wicked fun on the way down.

Your pretty skier! Nice pics -)

Thanks man, I do what I can, the skis make it easy

[moose pit]

your photographer is solid.

Nice pics.

[critical-motion]

Hard to say since I have not skied them farther forward, but I like the mount point.

I skied a couple days on some 186cm BGs with demo bindings and tried the entire range of mounting positions available. I first tried them at +2, then +1, and they were very squirrely and hooky in the tips. Mounting them forwards does not work at all with the sidecut. At 0cm, they were much better behaved and at -1cm they seemed to do better at high speed charging and I could lay down some fairly nice GS turns. -2cm and up to about -3cm skied fine, but the tails became very short. If I had a set, I'd mount em at -1.

Funny thing is that I'm 5'9" and usually do not enjoy skis over 183cm, but the 186cm BGs were stupid easy to turn and did not feel all that long or heavy. Flex felt spot-on and was well matched to the turny character of the skis. They are stiff enough to handle choppy snow but soft enough to float in powder and allow maneuverability in moguls.

Two-footed carves are a struggle with the big taper and short running length. As others have noted the uphill ski has a tendancy to split off from the downhill one when trying to lay down race-type carves. If pressure is kept off of the uphill ski carving is definitely doable, but not a ton of fun.

Interesting, the downhill ski was misbehaving for me. The skis carved short to medium turns just fine, but the skis diverged during longer radius turns on firm snow at high speed. At high speed, I just pointed em or made smaller radius turns that didn't allow the downhill ski to be dragged away. I think Scott is going to reduce the tip taper and/or move the sidecut forwards a bit next year to address the issue. Funny thing is that my wife has no trouble laying down GS turns on her 176cm BGs. It could be that the shorter BGs shorter, less hooky tips, although the wife is a former racer and knows how to get any ski on edge.