Info on the K2 World Piste

Hi,

I saw a local ad where someone is selling a telemark setup made of a K2 World Piste 190 cm ski (which apparently is a size from 2000-2001, they went to 188 cm the next year) with Voile CRB 3-pin bindings. The guy is asking for $100 OBO. The skis may be gone by now... He says they've been used two seasons.

The World Piste apparently was entirely redesigned for 2002-2003 and can be found new for $200 w/o bindings. Is it a much much better ski?

Is this a decent setup or me to learn tele on? I'm 5'11", 185 lbs (going down), and usually alpine ski a 188 cm G4. 190 cm may be a big long, I don't know. I tried tele once and they gave me 160 cm skis (I guess they really want you to be able to turn the first time) and were suggesting 170 cm for a real setup.

What do tele maggots think? Also, what would be the best offer price for that setup?

Thanks!
drC

For $100 go for it. Meets all the requirements of a learning setup - decent and cheap!

should be fine. a little long-ish, though, I like my tele skis 5 cm shorter than alpines.

crb is that releasable voile rig. mixed reviews on that.

3 pin cable is an okay binding I suppose. good for touring, mostly.

An old-school 190 World Piste is not too much ski.

The re-designed world piste is basically a K2 Axis XP, although perhaps without the Mod thingamajobber.

The old school world piste was softer and flimsier. At 180# you won't overpower it. You might find it kinda crappy for harder snow and heavy crud, especially compared to your G4s. Also, the Voile release system is (in my opinion) a piece of shit.

But you're just learning and the set-up is only $100. You can't go wrong.

ps - If the shop was suggesting 170cm for a "real" set-up, then by "real" they must have meant: "good enough for your first year, but once you get past intermediate level skiing you'll have to come back and buy another set-up from us."

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Will
If the shop was suggesting 170cm for a "real" set-up, then by "real" they must have meant: "good enough for your first year, but once you get past intermediate level skiing you'll have to come back and buy another set-up from us."

---

I was thinking of "real" as in living up to the sterotype of tele-skiers being slow granola eaters. I like my tele skis as long as my alpine skis. No good reason to go shorter.

Will, thanks for the answer. I'm a bit afraid of the K2 being too soft but the price looks right. Would you say $100 is fair or something lower would be better if the bindings are crap?

The 170cm was not a shop suggestion, it was the instructor who spent 30 minutes with me on the slopes (cross-training is a perk of teaching I guess). She thought shorter is better (insert jokes here).

drC

Geologist David J. Siveter of Leicester University (England) wrote in the journal Science in December that he and his team had found a fossil 425 million years old that is probably the oldest record of an unambiguously male animal. They named the half-inch-long shellfish Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which they said means "swimmer with a large penis," referring to its organ that is one-fifth of its body length. [New York Times, 12-4-03]

Thank you Buster. That's the extra bit of data I needed to make an informed decision.

drC

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Dr. Crash
Would you say $100 is fair or something lower would be better if the bindings are crap?

---

$100 is pretty damn good for a ski/binding combo. Assuming the skis are not beat to hell and you're a beginner I say grab it. They'll last you a year or three depending on your learning curve.

But if you can worm the guy down some, why not?

The bindings ain't great, but you can buy new ones after a while. If you end up liking the release plate you can just ditch the 3-pin part and replace it with a hardwire, cobra, or targa.

I don't like the Voile release system because of the constant pre-release issues I had with it. If that's a problem, you can crank 'em down tight enough so that they never release. It's not a perfect solution, but it works.

Oh yeah, and if the bindings ice up a lot get some of that "anti-ice tape". Putting down a layer of electrical tape is the cheapskate solution - this can also tighten up the dukbill's fit in the binding.

the question is do you have any beater old skis that you'd be better off spending the $100ish to buy a decent binding and throw on? When I got my G4's my G3's became expendible and therefore I put tele bindings on. I managed to score some brand new T2's and Targas for less then $300 last year about this time

I've got my 200 cm straight skis and that's about it.

drC