Any Beta on the Armada Locator 112

[Dirty]

Looks like it checks all the boxes, but has anyone tried this ski?

[singlesline]

Ditto on the 104. I've held them both in the shop and I'm tempted...but it is hard to drop full price on a ski that it seems like nobody has actually skied.

[kid-kapow]

The people that I have talked to who has been on them - all widths - seem to all get along with them very well. Light, floats really well and damp for their weight seem to be the consensus. They liked them enough that they stock the entire range.

The main ski mag over here in Norway supposedly did not rate them that highly - I have no idea why, I have not read their take yet.


I have not hand flexed them so can't verify FriFlyt's findings, but the soft flexing shovels of the 104s would be an instant deal breaker for me. Sure they float great, but shovels that are super soft fold if driven hard - especially in denser snow - which can cause too abrupt turns (no bueno imho, I am an idiot so always forget to / do not want to adjust my skiing style between skis).

[alude]

Hum... I usually trust FriFlyt results, but this is a bit against what we measured.

The locator are some of the skis that really stood out when we measured them 2 weeks ago. They are so light! They are also quite stiff in bending, about as stiff as you can get for that surface-to-weight ratio. They are not a 2-4 out of 10, more like a 7-8 (but note that we could have measured a bit more of the tip of the 112 in 186... so maybe we missed the softest part). We have the 88, 96, 104 and 112 in the database in most lengths.


Full link here

Careful also how the 96 is stiff in torsion, the 104 is extremely soft and the 112 is the stiffest!

[kid-kapow]

Hum... I usually trust FriFlyt results, but this is a bit against what we measured.

yeah, I dunno - the measured pair of 104 might be duds, I have no idea what happened with the 104s.

As far as I can understand it, torsional compliance might be a good thing for variable snow in a 10x length, but seemingly not it the ski also is a noodle length wise too - that just sounds like a deflection fest in the making.

The data on the 112 makes them even more interesting - so thanks for sharing Alude!

[alude]

Well, turns out that we had a mechanical issue during our torsional stiffness measurements that propagated further than we thought. We re-measured about 60 skis and I pulled out all measurement from that machine & measurement session (about 2 days) from the database until we can figure out how far it propagated and/or re-measure. We will do that this week.

The Locator 104 was re-measured and the measurement are updated. The full Locator line is now pretty consistant in flex and torsional stiffnesses. Sorry about this...

[Jtlange]

Anybody been on the 104? It has a really great shape, looking for something to replace my backland 107s

[tomh79]

same here - looking for a Helio 105 replacement...

[Eluder]

I skinned one lap on a pair of 112s the local shop has mounted with Shifts. Because of the mount, I used my Cochise instead of my touring boots, so maybe not how most would use these skis. For sure different from how I would set them up.

The conditions were less than stellar, but they managed sketchy track pack and squiggled tight softish turns well. The width helped ski the 3 inches of good snow on the hard layer below. Not the best test, but they feel on the traditional side of things for Armada. The tip taper is noticeable, allows for drifting, and seems to work in the ski's favor. They didn't have that feeling you can get from light skis getting pulled uphill quickly, that can make them feel squirrely and pingy. I certainly have skied skis in this weight class that ski way worse. There were no red flags, but I still need more than one run (duh) to make an actual call.

[Backward_Banana]

same here - looking for a Helio 105 replacement...

IMO - a 2x4 would be a worthy Helio 105 replacement, lol. I could not understand that ski.

Just here to say that the Tracer 108 is a pretty good ski, which was the previous gen of this line. If I were a betting man I'd guess these are solid, unoffensive skis.

[jacob_dbu]

What's the mount point on these?

[tomh79]

IMO - a 2x4 would be a worthy Helio 105 replacement, lol. I could not understand that ski.

Just here to say that the Tracer 108 is a pretty good ski, which was the previous gen of this line. If I were a betting man I'd guess these are solid, unoffensive skis.

Haha...I kind of liked them?!?! Since I had to get rid of them (too much abuse), I only own one ski (Salomon MTN Explore 95) - which I don't like too much. Helio 105 was much better. So I was thinking of selling the Salomon and buy the new Helio. But then I saw the Armada with almost exact same specs (104, 23 radius etc.) - exept the Armada should be about 100g lighter per ski...