Gecko glueless climbing skins

[sb]

Climbing skins made from geckos, why did this take so long?

[Kai]

I've been using the Geckos all this season. That said, because of the overall crappy snow and uncertain avy conditions, I only got to use them 5 or 6 times.

I have them on my DPS 112RP skis. The skins are straight cut, not wall to wall.

Overall, I like them. They seem to grip as well as most other skins I've used. Glide is decent too. They stay on the skis when they should, and are easy to take off and put on. They don't pick up pine needles and other garbage as easily as my glued skins.

I haven't used them in wet conditions, so I can't say how much water they're going to soak up in spring time glop.

[brizz]

Got a pair for gift this xmas and played with them for the last few months. Pros are they are lightish, good glide, easy storage/use in field since they don’t stick to much. Cons are tail attachment, don’t seem to stick as well when they get really wet/cold (pain on wet storm days) and probably cost. Durability issues with older vintages seems to be in the past. Interesting product but not a game changer.

[Two06]

I have just one day on mine. They work great my only complaint is the shitty tail attachment system which others have pointed out. But I think I will just mod them and replace them with BD tail clips. It's nice not to have to deal with the glue sticking to stuff, easy to peel apart, low volume, and washable!

[neck beard]

The Gecko 'glue' peels off the skin backing far too easily for my liking.

And since when does skin glue stick to everything? That is a more a reflection of how you put your skins on, and more importantly, remove them. Technique and how to handle your gear counts, try not being not a raging bull ripping skins in the wind and powder. And if you need cheat sheets, you are dong it very wrong.

I use skins everyday, and they stick to nothing except by skis.

I have about 300 days out of one current pair of BD Ascension skins. About to climb another 4000 feet on them today.

[rangerjake]

I spent 5 days touring with a pair of Geckos.

In warm conditions with higher moisture content snow they work great, as most mohair skins prefer that snow texture. The adhesive adhered without any issue. I could roll them up, wrap them around my face (beard and all), whatever. Kind of a revelation for me. I was blown away by how much I liked them. This was on a 30 deg day.

A few days later I took them on a long tour into the high alpine. It was windy, temps about 9 deg. Some windbuff pow (super dry, broken dendrites=dust like snow of very low moisture). The skins worked fine on the ascent and the first lap, but once some of that dry snow hit the adhesive the failures started. It began just around the edges of the skin on tip. Then the edges on the tail, and once that perimeter bond between skin and base was broken it didn't take long until there was complete adhesion failure. I went to do the "clean the contaminants off with ski edge" manuver, and small bits of skin started flying off everywhere!! Never happened with any BD skin (mohair mix or ascension, well, a little with the mix skin once). Bottom line, I had to boot pack my last lap and out.

Tail was unusual and something I would change. The metal of the clip is so hard and abrasive that to get a good camming snap onto the tail takes a little toll on the base material. I would replace with BD tail. Frankly, I would probably replace the tip with a BD one as well, but that is no huge deal.

Hope this helps.

[auvgeek]

Climbing skins made from geckos, why did this take so long?

Reminds me of this:

[neck beard]

I went to do the "clean the contaminants off with ski edge" manuver, and small bits of skin started flying off everywhere!!

Exactly the scenario that I have head (and also tested a bit).

[herr_stoiber]

haven't used them myself.
yet recently I talked to some guys at the end of a tour that told me that gecko skins were involved in an event that made the news here in the very east a couple of weeks ago. it was about a nightly rescue operation gone bad during the period of arctic cold & storm, involving 24 rescuers and two victims, resulting in 10 cases of serious frostbite among the rescuers (4 hospitalized). according to the people I talked to (part of the tiny local skiing community in that valley) the rescuers were equipped with gecko skins that failed to stick to their skis at the low temperatures, which was a strong contributing factor to the difficulty of the operation and frostbite (some had to take their gloves off at -25 and strongest winds to remove snow and ice and attempt reattachment).
granted at temps this low quite a few skins might have issues but I thought I'd share that the geckos were mentioned as a source of problems.

link about the rescue op (in German)
http://www.kleinezeitung.at/steierma...gerettet.story

[el hefe]

Bump, anymore feedback? Sounds like they don't like the cold

[Chainsaw_Willie]

Can't comment on the gecko skins but folks do realize that you can make a split skin simply by taking a razor blade to the center of a "normal" skin, right?

[powderphan]

These are half off on the clymb right now. Anyone else have experience with them?

[Jethro]

These are half off on the clymb right now. Anyone else have experience with them?

I have them, but did not use them much last season. I have to say I really hate the tail strap. If you get them, get them long enough to install a Black Diamond tail strap.

According to Lou at Wildsnow, they do not hold up. They are having glue issues. When I get new skins, they will not be Geckos unless they fix the glue (let others test that out) and get a BD/G3 type tail strap se this review and check out the last comments http://www.wildsnow.com/6281/gecko-skins-review/

[tDot13]

I've been happy with mine. 20+ days on them last season. I only had them out in West Coast winter conditions (ie. nothing below -15 Celcius) and warm Spring conditions; they worked great in all those conditions.

Tail strap sucks!!! I heard one of the guys at Escape Route say something about a new tail strap for this season, but I didn't hear any specifics. I accidentally tore my tail strap off and it's to be warrantied soon, even without a tail strap I put on 10 days without a problem with the skin ever coming off.

I can usually have my skins on and start my climb before alot of people even have their skins separated from each other.

My next set of skins will likely be Gecko's as I'm happier with them then any of the (older) G3's I've tried.

[tDot13]

Update - I just picked up my replacemend Gecko's.

Good news - the Gecko 'glue' is definitely stickier at room temp. and the tail straps now have some stretch to them, as opposed to the older rigid tail straps.

Bad news - the new tip and tail connectors. They are similar in idea to G3's connectors, however they are molded from stiff plastic and they are in the shape of Gecko hands... I dont know if they designers kids had some say in this decision but at first I laughed, now I just think they are stupid. Whenever I put my skins on, I have two little red gecko hands at the tip and the tail of my skis. Not only do they look stupid, but they dont seem to hold onto the ski very well; and that's just in my living room.

Overall, I'm still a big fan of the Gecko skins, but whoever designed their tip and tail connectors (now two years running) needs to be shot. I'm heading towards Nelson and Revy for a couple of weeks over xmas, hopefully these dont let me down.

[powdair]

Took this year's splitboard geckos out for the first time today in temps from ~10-20 F. Had no issues with the "glue" coming off and sticking to the base of the board. They weren't the best on steeper slopes, but I wouldn't say they performed any worse than my previous Voile Tractor skins. Will continue to post updates as I log more days w/ them, but so far so good.

[Lindahl]

Been using mine for 4 weeks now. For any reasonable skin track no slippage. Great glide on the flats, can really get a good kicknglide going. Had them out last weekend in -15 to -25 F temps (fucking cold!!!) and no glue problem at all, storing them in the pack. Worked just like they did yesterday at 27 F. I'm not using tail clips so the tails have been dragging in the snow. No issues at all with them peeling off due to incrasing snow contamination. No problems with the glue coming off (rare issue that can be warrantied from what I've heard). Really really happy with these.

[brizz]

2nd year on mine now. pretty happy in general, same complaints as above. ALWAYS seem to get snow between skin and ski at the tip. had a few small spots of silicone come off but doesn't really effect sticking to ski. was nice to wash dirt and pine needles off when i turtled over when taking skins off without taking ski off. geckos usually come out with me but have brought old skins as backup on storm skiing days which is kinda weak

[frorider]

Any ideas on rejuvenating a pair of gecko skins? GF has a pair that have worked well for a decade but lately any vaguely damp conditions cause a failure.

The mohair is in good shape. I’m half tempted to put some pomoca glue on a small section to see if it even adheres.

I don’t think there’s a US distributor any more right?

[XXX-er]

I tried hot-gluing a glueless skin ( not sure which brand ) and every bit of glue came off until I had a big 20$ ball of glue so it didnt work for me and personaly I wouldn't fuck with it again



I think sgt dreyfus who posts here does skin-reglues for people and sez he can do glueless skins so you might ask him how, or get him to do it ??

[frorider]

Good idea thx

[Cocximus]

Citrus degreaser then handwashing with dawn makes them work pretty well.

[Cocximus]

I found a new fix that seems to work well. I toss them in the washing machine with detergent and oxy after a few tours.

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro using Tapatalk

[Sargentdrufus]

You can try washing Gecko skins with a mild detergent and sponge (dawn is usually best) but you get diminishing returns over time.

Contour hybrid glue is similar but can be removed and replaced with regular glue.

Gecko Clueless skins I hadn't dealt with those until the end of summer, and my assumption they were similar to contour's version was wrong as I ended up with the same results as XXX-er. That was a first for me in over hundreds of reglued skins.

Gecko must apply some sort of treatment to the backing that doesn't work well with regular glue.

But contour hybrid and volkl vacuum skins can both have the weird shit taken off and regular glue applied no problem. Gecko are the only skin I say belong in the trash

[Cocximus]

I have volkl. Good to know they can be reglued. I figure the washing machine is easy enough to do every couple of tours.