06 Armada AR5 review.

EK3

EK3

Member
Rider,6 foot & weigh 145.Been skiing park/pipe for long time.Usually make a trip to ride out West once a year also.

Anyway this is the first pair of none 1080's I have bought in a long time.Wanted to try something else so got the 180 AR5's.

Pro's: These seem to handle anything with ease.Tried rails,jumps,groomers,hardpack & crud.Have the skis mounted recommended & they make nice medium turns & hold edge easy on hardpack.On high speed groomers the ski is very stable,does not feel out of place.Very menuverable in park,switch takeoffs/landings feel stable.Did one day of rails & edges/bases look mint.On jumps if you land back seat the tails are stiff enough to save ya.

Con's: Not very durable top sheet/sidewall.This makes me nervous about none cap skis.After 3 days they are chipping to hell & have big dents that go from top sheet to sidewall.Graphics are love it or hate it.I like them except the yellow sidewall but thats what a sharpie is for.
 
i dont know what ur talking about but my 180 ar5's have one of the most durable topsheets i ever seen i have rode them super hard for 2 weeks in the park and there isnt any chips in the topsheet and the sidewall is holding up with no chips and the grafics are sick everyone who has talked to me said the grafic was sick
 
sry to sound like im ripping on u but it was good review but u were wrong on the info on the topsheet/sidewall cause me and a couple of my friends ride this years armadas and we havent had any problems at all w/ the topsheets/sidewalls chiping and we ride them hard in the park
 
No worries but I can post of few pics of the topsheet chipping if ya want.Mostly near toe piece were the other skis edge contact the ski during tricks.
 
Guess it varies with the condition and the rider and sometimes production whether a certain pair of skis topsheet peels or not... But I agree the AR5 is the most progressive and the most hottest (I know that's grammatically incorrect WHAT YOU GON' DO 'BOUT IT?) ever... And I'm getting myself a pair in about a week, should be nice.
 
AGREE, the topsheet is peeling away after half a day of skiing, sidewall already is chipped. MY salomone scream limited had a more durable topsheet sidewall after 2 years of (in park to) and ar5 havent seen a rail yet. Not even a 25+jump and or major spill
 
In all reality the top sheet doesnt matter, I could really care less about chips on my top sheets.It doesnt affect performance.
 
ugh, i rode these skies (bud has um). not very impressed. i thought they felt really heavy, and damp. there was not alot of snap in them. the ski felt super burly construction wise, and the flex seemed ok. but it just felt like there wasnt much energy in the ski. it made riding park and making turns seem kinda blah. these were 180s, and i normally ride 183 stls. i was not at all a fan of them, and i WAS gonna buy them too. ill stick with 4frnts
 
you get worried about the chips at first, everyone does. but it really does absolutly nothing to the ski. chip away, it's fine.

as for the baove post calling them damp, "not lvely" skis or whatever, yeah you are right. They feel pretty dead. I tried 1080's, tweaks, and then back to my ar5's in a day and the ar5's felt the most dead. However, it just plain works for some reason. I have no idea why, but the things have tons of pop, even though they feel kinda dead. Once you get used to ar5's, every other ski i try seems like it is going to break in a minute
 
conserning the topsheet chipping and such, i detuned my edges cuz they were so fucken sharp. this kinda saves my topsheet and walls the first two-three weeks of riding.
 
What the guys above said...

Armadas have some of the best factory tunes out there in terms of sharpness. Even the race guy at the shop I work at was impressed.
 
Okay i had the 06 176cm ski and the edge started to rip out of the tip. That was the only thing wrong with them.

Now today was my first day the 06 180cm Ar5. And wow how much better this ski was. The performance in pow, groomers ,and turning was so much better then the 176cm. I didnt take them into the park, because i was having so much fun skiing.
 
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