Review: 186 Praxis Skinny GPO

[Nevada29er]

Paging Neck Beard, post up a skinny Rx review!

[galibier_numero_un]

Paging Neck Beard, post up a skinny Rx review!

To my recollection, he specified his skinny Rx's much shorter than his normal skis and because of this, he didn't feel comfortable in generalizing about the width change.

... Thom

[Nevada29er]

Interesting, according to Flowing Alpy, the MVP is like a skinny Rx. Might be worth a look.

I wish Praxis had a demo fleet like Moment. I only live about a half hour from their shop.

[sf]

Quick update.

Made some 4mm shims and put them under the toes.
Took the skis out for a quick tour today and they felt better. Might be placebo, but it felt better even when skinning.

The snow was very variable; semi-breakable windcrust on top, heavy pow in the middle and sticky slushy pow on a unconsolidated base in the trees.
All in all they skied pretty well. Not perfect, but far better than I feared. I think mounting the bindings a centimeter further back might be it.

Still a bit sceptical, but it looks like I'll end up skiing a lot of funky snow this easter, so I guess I'll find out.

Ended up skiing them for 4 days during easter. Pretty decent conditions, lots of low angle due to avy danger. In pow, especially pow supported by heavier snow they still are great. In crusts I still can feel the tip taper causing the tips to sort of bend up, almost like they are to soft compared to the rest of the ski. Far better after I installed the shims, but still less than confidence inspiring.

As it stand they are ok skis, but overall I know there are better skis out there for the same purpose. The design might be better served by a stiffer flex relative to skier weight, I don't know.
Heavily tapered skis are probably not my cup of tea.

Skied my BMT94s for the rest of the easter, and I feel that they are simply better skis, even in pow. And even mounted with Ions / more ramp.
Will try to find a pair of used 109s for winter touring, and buy some wren108s/CAST for inbounds/sidecountry/travel etc.

[grinch]

Just curious why you’d buy a skinny gpo as a touring ski after not liking the standard gpo float? I thought a skinny gpo would be a good lower tide rip around the hill and some side country laps, maybe with a shift. For me the standard gpo edges a turn like a race fatter race ski and floaty/ pivoty seems to work for me. Wish yours were the next length down, id probably scoop them from you. I like the build you put together(enduro veneer 3+)

[sf]

Just curious why you’d buy a skinny gpo as a touring ski after not liking the standard gpo float? I thought a skinny gpo would be a good lower tide rip around the hill and some side country laps, maybe with a shift. For me the standard gpo edges a turn like a race fatter race ski and floaty/ pivoty seems to work for me. Wish yours were the next length down, id probably scoop them from you. I like the build you put together(enduro veneer 3+)

Reasoned that the shape would work better for an allround ski than a pow ski. In addition I had the GPO mounted with Dukes, and I've never loved a pair mounted with frame bindings.
As mentioned above, the ski might work out very well for some, but for me and my way of skiing it's not working very well. The build is nice, but for some reason the tip feels a bit to soft compared to the rest of the ski

[plugboots]

I quickly looked at the dims on the GPO, and wanted 106 underfoot, (skinny GPO), and bought the BC. I figured Keith knew what he was doing.

[grinch]

Reasoned that the shape would work better for an allround ski than a pow ski. In addition I had the GPO mounted with Dukes, and I've never loved a pair mounted with frame bindings.
As mentioned above, the ski might work out very well for some, but for me and my way of skiing it's not working very well. The build is nice, but for some reason the tip feels a bit to soft compared to the rest of the ski

The tails on the reg gpo do have a little extra ummph. I’m still undecided on a 10? ski