I normally don’t tend to break too much ski equipment but recently though I have been going through a streak of bad luck. My faithful old pair of V-2 920’s that I got in high school finally broke in spectacular fashion. While doing striding speeds one workout I managed to rip the front wheel completely off the plastic fork mid stride. Needless to say I was taken a bit by surprise but managed to stave off a nasty crash and the shame of yard sailing in front of some kids on razor scooters and BMX bikes. I only started to get a little grumpy when I did the same thing to two other skis in the following workouts. In a temporary lapse of judgment they both ended up somewhere in the woods. Whoops! I also noticed a little later in the week (doing speeds again..) that my Marwes were getting a bit squirrely. Turn out I had also broken both of those shafts as well.
All these skis in a week??
So at this point I decided it might behoove me to get some new skis. Some replacement skate shafts and swanky new Swenors (thanks FinSiSu and Swix!) and I was back in business!
In my college days I got into a habit of getting every last mile out of my equipment. 6+ years out of my V-2s and 4+ years out of my Marwes, I certainly can’t complain about the durability of either of these skis. But there is something to be said about having new equipment. Skiers spend the majority of their training time not on their skis. Having new skis and wheels that track straight means less time thinking about not falling and more time concentrating on actually training.
I have only used the new Swenors a couple of times but have been really impressed with how the ski. With the #2 wheels speed is comparable to Pro-ski C2s and the composite shaft helps dampen road vibrations and feel about as close to a snow as roller skis are ever going to be. The skis track straight and the wheels seem to hold up well to wear. And with all the broken bits of my old skis I decided to do a little tinkering. What could mimic ski feel better than a real ski!
I am optimistically betting that I can get 10 minutes of skiing out this baby before catastrophic fork failure/wipe out… Test results to come!
