REVIEW: DP Lotus 120

[marshalolson]

yeah dude, good on ya for sure.

rob will be calling you this AM. he is currently driving to alaska from telluride, so his phone may be in and out, but pm me if you don't hear from him today, and i'll make sure he talks to you tomorrow.

[KANUTTEN]

I thought it might be of interest; I got this e-mail from Stephan yesterday;

"Hi Bernt,

I am on the go here, so excuse the short reply, but mount the new skis at
+.75 ahead of midsole and you should be great.

We completely redesigned the Lotus 120 this year, with a different core profile,, so that's why it appears so different than last year. It skis a lot better than last year. It's actually my favorite ski in the quiver now.

Talk to you later and enjoy,

Stephan"

Favourite ski - sounds good to me . Btw; I checked the distances and there is nothing wrong with my ski; Actual ski midmark as appears on ski is about 78.2 cm from back tip of ski measured in a straight line.

0.75cm it is then.

Pretty psyched

[Yossarian]

Sounds right - go get 'er dun! Mount those puppies up and ride!

[KANUTTEN]

Done and done!

Mounted at +1 cm, due to my plan to replace my boots to one larger size (ouch my big toes are blue!!).

Skied them for the first time this weekend in Hemsedal (Norway), in close to the best conditions i've ever experienced up there. About 30-40 cm of veeeeeeeeeeery light powder, and then more snow from sat to sun made it still excellent.

Yiiiiiiiiiihaaaaaa! Just a lot of fun. Those who have been there know that there is a lot of pretty tight tree skiing there, and hence not the best places for opening up. So no high speed skiing for me. But they are still very easy to handle in lower speeds. And floatation is just second to none. So still a very happy customer.

Will be up again for 3 days this first weekend, so I'll chime in with a more full review when that is up. Maybe I will try to get my nephews down Reidar skaret one more time

[upallnight]

8" of new since the lifts closed yesterday & still nuking. mine are coming out this morning (now!!!) along with the EHPs....

[marshalolson]

stoked to hear your thoughts on the 2 skis...

[Arno]

My blem 120s came out for the first time this weekend. 2 days at La Grave. About 30cm of fresh on each day. All I can say is that these are FUN skis. They also took everything that La Grave could throw at them: deep powder, windblown hardpack, crud, tight trees, rocks, mogulled traverse and elephant snot at the bottom. We knew they would be great in powder, but there wasn't really any situation where I felt like I was missing out by being on them (my old quiver of 1 was a pair of 186 Legend Pros). I think Kanutten has it right where he says that if you have 5cms of snow to get them into, they are the ski. I just felt like they'd do what I told them to and it wouldn't take much effort.

On durability, I have to give major props for the bases and edges. I had a couple of fairly horrendous hits with rocks covered by a thin layer of snow. There are deep gouges on the bases but not to the core and the edges are intact. I was worried they would be much worse than that.

[Roo]

So where's the pics arno? I want to see action. Or scenics. But no hairy bum shots.

[ulty_guy]

So where's the pics arno? I want to see action. Or scenics. But no hairy bum shots.

Me? I just want hairy bum ;-). Yo arno, lucky git, nice to see u r gettin sum. The lps are the easiest 'big' ski I've been on, how are those 190s (I presume) comparitively in the easy to ski dept, and where do you have them mounted?

[vailcat]

had mine out today at bottomless alta. all i want to say is these are the greatest. My best day of the year. These took everything alta through at them and laughed at it. F****** RULE. I wont ride anything else or think about any other ski again in those conditions. They kill! end of story

[Arno]

Not sure this is the right place for TR style pics... but here are the skis side by side with my LPs:



I found the 120s much easier than the LPs in deep stuff and in trees. They're lighter and less stiff so you can whip them around easily. It's also incredibly easy to make adjustments through the turn

edit: ulty - I have them mounted at -2.5 on the old scale

[ulty_guy]

thanks, i'm guessing you didn't get them mounted in london w/ the brake-less p18s.

[Arno]

they had brakes when they went in for mounting...
got them done at Engelberg. i think the tech had enough after seeking out a look jig, cutting all the screws etc etc. bending the brakes was too much for him. a bit annoying but i've got some telemark leashes for the unlikely event that the skis will come off

[pechelman]

Those are 186LPs, right? They mounted on the "bump"?
Looks like those Lotus would be super quick given their less amount of edge and long shovel and large tail.

[The Reverend Floater]

I admit I skipped about 6 pages of this thread but how about a quick yes or no:

Lotus 120 or 130--good potential touring ski or not? Which one would you choose?

Grassy asses!

[pechelman]

yes
great potential

either one

i know UAN has some opinion on this already, but is waiting for a few more days on them. He's on 120\dynafits and has been amazed out how "ridiculous" the setup is in terms of weight and size.

[Arno]

Those are 186LPs, right? They mounted on the "bump"?
Looks like those Lotus would be super quick given their less amount of edge and long shovel and large tail.

yes and yes
i'm not as good at analysing what makes a ski ski nicely and some of you guys - i do know that the lotuses were super-easy and super-fun

[marshalolson]

I admit I skipped about 6 pages of this thread but how about a quick yes or no:

Lotus 120 or 130--good potential touring ski or not? Which one would you choose?

Grassy asses!

FWIW. i have both the 138 and the 120. the 138's -> 916's, 120's -> dukes (once they come out).

the 138's own soft snow, but i could not actually TOUR on them. just short jaunts with trekkers. no way to sidehill up something firm.

hope that helps...

[upallnight]

I admit I skipped about 6 pages of this thread but how about a quick yes or no:

Lotus 120 or 130--good potential touring ski or not? Which one would you choose?

Grassy asses!

yes
great potential

either one

i know UAN has some opinion on this already, but is waiting for a few more days on them. He's on 120\dynafits and has been amazed out how "ridiculous" the setup is in terms of weight and size.

i'm going to write more thoughts on this, but the short answer is that i believe 120s are a fantastic soft-snow touring ski. it is scary how light they are when mounted w/ dynafits -- lighter than some setups that are shorter and narrower!

light weight is not always a good thing, but for touring in soft snow it is solid.

i was holding off on giving more comments until i had more than 2 big pow days on them (skiing pow is easy so it doesn't do much good to report on a ski in those conditions -- it's really just saying how much fun you had), but maybe i should write a preliminary report. the 120 is, in my opinion, a quiver ski, but a good one at that.

more to come...

[KANUTTEN]

Review - continued

Another day in really good conditions at Hemsedal (I only got in one day on alpine - gf demanded two XC days).

The skis are a lot of fun. What continues to surprise me is how incredibly easy they are to ski. In very tight tree skiing they are easier to ski than Rossi XXX and K2 launcher, which are two pretty easy skis to handle in the first place. They just turn so easily it is almost silly (I have the flex 2). Also it is very easy to drive the ski in decent speed.

They also are easy to handle with smaller drops (I don't do big air )

Topsheet issue: about 2-3 cm of the topsheet on the backtip of my ski has come loose, like a loose toenail. I don't know how it happened, I don't think I did anything out of the ordinary with them. There isn't much of a problem though; I will just epoxy it back on, in much the same way you would with a toenail :-).

One question I have not been able to answer so far is how well they handle difficult conditions; mank crud and the like. Given that the skis are so light I kind of feel that they can't really work in those kinds of conditions. That is just a guess though....

So far: Great skis...

[Arno]

One question I have not been able to answer so far is how well they handle difficult conditions; mank crud and the like. Given that the skis are so light I kind of feel that they can't really work in those kinds of conditions. That is just a guess though....

I gave mine a decent work out through chopped up elephant snot at La Grave last weekend and they were pretty good. You could really just go fairly straight, knowing you could throw in a turn if something got in your way or the speed got too high

[Poacher]

Great skis absolutly effortless to turn in any soft condition almost intuitiv to your thoughts. Yet run them straight and they feel as if they almost out gun most resorts. Very manageable on groomed snow, carve tighter arcs then the dimensions would suggest probably due to the short running length. They are a blast in tight spots {trees/billygoating} and pivot/butter turns effortlessly though still retain the ability to base carve traditional SL, GS, SG, ETC, pow turns with energy and rebound if you put a little effort in, you can really work the ski tip to tail as if you were on a groomer.

Sadly on my last run of the day I hit a drop/blind take off to bombed out landing. skied out, though hyper extended and turned/flipped my menisicus since I have not had an ACL for 8 years according to the Doc. {surprise to me}

Great skis I could describe them as a hybrid of my beloved Nordica FFs and a Spatula. Though both of the others are better at there intended use then the 120s.

[KANUTTEN]

I gave mine a decent work out through chopped up elephant snot at La Grave last weekend and they were pretty good. You could really just go fairly straight, knowing you could throw in a turn if something got in your way or the speed got too high

Was that flex 2 or 3?

I have a feeling that these skis are quite a bit more flexible than the original db skis, which were cap. Given how easy these skis are to handle, it would make a lot of sense to consider a pair of flex 3 even though I normally like a bit of responsiveness in the ski. Has anyone heard of a flex comparison between these 07 skis and other "standard" skis?

[Arno]

Was that flex 2 or 3?

I have a feeling that these skis are quite a bit more flexible than the original db skis, which were cap. Given how easy these skis are to handle, it would make a lot of sense to consider a pair of flex 3 even though I normally like a bit of responsiveness in the ski. Has anyone heard of a flex comparison between these 07 skis and other "standard" skis?

The are last season's 2

They feel very manageable and easy compared with my other skis - 186 Legend Pros

edit: I think the first year's DB 3 flex barely flexed at all so they had to soften them up so that mortals could ski them

[Rontele]

any thoughts about how these will handle in corn snow? wetter mank?