What is ski radius?

[_IRRELEVANT_]

I have no clue what it when manufactures list radius so educate me.

 

[elcheapo]

I think it's some measurement that describes the length it takes a ski to turn . Like the radius of a circle. And it's to give more insight on the side cut. Or something like that.

 

[eheath]

I think it's some measurement that describes the length it takes a ski to turn . Like the radius of a circle. And it's to give more insight on the side cut. Or something like that.

Nailed it, just describes the sidecut.

 

[Kevski]

In addition to the literal definition, what this means for you is that a shorter radius means the sidecut wants to turn tighter. Longer radius means bigger turns.

Short radius is good for slower speeds and more snappy turns. Most jib skis.

Longer radius is good for charging faster and straighter.

 

[SofaKingSick]

yeah so the turn radius will be stated as, for example, 20m. what that means is that if you just put the ski on edge and let it turn itself, it would take 20m of movement for that turn to complete a full circle (or a half circle, i forget)

so it's just a standardized way to measure how turny a ski's sidecut is. obviously you can cheat and slash turns but the radius measures what the sidecut itself would do for a turn. if the ski has relatively little difference between the width of the nose, midsole, and tails, it will be straight and less turny and have a higher turn radius value. if a ski has a dramatic side cut it will turn much more quickly and the radius value will be lower

both have pros and cons of course, depending on your style of skiing and your preferences

you need to ski a few different ones to find out what they're like and what you prefer, but after that it's great because it's a standardized measurement on skis. i know at least basically what a 20m radius ski feels like to turn (i know, there are other variables, shut up). i have much less of an idea what a given company's own idea of a 7, 8, 7 flex pattern will be compared to others because it's not a truly quantitative measure

let me know if any of that wasn't clear

 

[SofaKingSick]

for example, 20m. what that means is that if you just put the ski on edge and let it turn itself, it would take 20m of movement for that turn to complete a full circle (or a half circle, i forget)

wait, no it's probably the RADIUS of that full circle created by the sidecut going all the way around

 

[_IRRELEVANT_]

I think it's some measurement that describes the length it takes a ski to turn . Like the radius of a circle. And it's to give more insight on the side cut. Or something like that.

In addition to the literal definition, what this means for you is that a shorter radius means the sidecut wants to turn tighter. Longer radius means bigger turns.

Short radius is good for slower speeds and more snappy turns. Most jib skis.

Longer radius is good for charging faster and straighter.

Thanks it makes sense now

 

[animator]

I have no clue what it when manufactures list radius so educate me.

If you were to turn the ski on it’s edge and ski it in a circle. For example, the black crows nocta has a radius of 26 meter. If you turned the ski on it’s edge and skied it in a circle, the radius of that circle would be 26 meters. Generally, a longer radius makes a ski more inclined to ski fast and hard with fewer turns, and vice versa for a ski with a shorter radius.

 

[CHOCKLIT_SLOTH1]

It is the radius of the skis

 

[shin-bang]

30m turn radius or nothing

 

[SofaKingSick]

30m turn radius or nothing

my new pro model was specially designed to have the exact same turn radius as a Tomahawk cruise missile

(my landing sites usually look like a Tomahawk's as well!)

 

[a_pla5tic_bag]

my new pro model was specially designed to have the exact same turn radius as a Tomahawk cruise missile

(my landing sites usually look like a Tomahawk's as well!)

Wow that's only slightly shorter than FIS regulations for some of the events.

 

[Cyanicenine]

This video is the best I've seen for explaining sidecut radius:

=192

Yeah he's explaining for a snowboard but just pretend he's talking about skis since it all really applies the same, even the bit about why you would want shorter versus longer radius. He does another video about how much tighter the board actually turns than the listed sidecut due to the fact that when you bend the board (or skis) and load the edges it shortens up the sidecut so that his 13meter board was actually making 8.3meter turns. Pretty interesting stuff if you are a gear nerd like me, and helps to validate why I hate short sidecut skis so much. It would be really interesting to see how something like full rocker versus full camber changes the sidecut as well. Other video:

=3