Tri One Tuning Tool

[Gary]

And where can we send our skis?

JB...the truth is in the ride....let us know how they ski!

G

[LivingProof]

JB,
Your friend Thor's comments provide an insight few of us experience. Can't imagine all the work that goes into preparing skis for US team. Skiing hardened courses has to dull edges very quickly. The issue I'm interested in is does the performance improvement transfer to regular snow conditions (read more soft).

In one sense, the Tri One is a no-brainer in that all the manhours of work saved pay for the tool in a very short period of time, then, the support staff gets downsized! Welcome to life in America with the technology revolution.

I would encourage you to perform "blind" testing, both  personally and with others and see if you notice a difference. For example, you could do one edge in the traditional manner, the other with the tool and swap skis during the day. It works best if the tester does not know which edge is prepared with the tool. I believe you are an honest broker when it comes to on-snow performance and look forward to reading the reviews.

I'm talking with Phil and SnowHot about an early Feb. visit ( window is 3rd to 12th ). Let me know any dates you may be available to link up for some turns.

[jbotti]

I am not sure that a blind test will be necessary. If the edge skis well and is sharp, then I will be thrilled. We alreday know it's sharp and completely uniform. The only real question is whether it will be grabby or hard to brush. If not, then we know we have a huge time saver and a great edge. If it is hard to brush, it will require a little more finishing work with some emery sand paper. I am pretty sure we can get a super edge that is user freindly on any type of snow. I will know in about 4 more days. We head to MT on Sunday!!

Mid week is much easier for me to slip away to Tahoe and the skiing is better, less people. I am around in early Feb so when you finalize your dates with Phil let me know and I will come up for at least a day.

[LivingProof]

John,
I copied the below from an Epic Tuning thread and it's written by Jim from Starthaus and it applies to edge setting tools such as the TriOne.

one word of caution to any of you considering these options is the danger to your health using these machines. they put off a very fine cloud of metal dust that can be breathed into your lungs. there has been a few WC techs that have experienced issues with this dust getting into their lungs. eye protection and a respirator is mandatory as well as some type of magnets on the tool or on the edge of your bench below your vice are needed to pull the dust out of the air.

My thoughts about doing a test where skis are tuned differently on each edge are the musings of the engineer mad-man that lives in my brain. He distrusts manufactures claims and likes to see independent verification. My gut is that you take such good care of your edges that it's might be difficult to tell the difference on all but the hardest snow. We'll all learn something from your report out.

[jbotti]

I bought two respirators for the Tri one. It comes with a magnet and you can see how fine the dust is. You definitely need a respirator.

I will be on snow tomorrow tetsing the edge from the Tri One. I will post a review.