jmlarson686
New member
I lost the back half of a ski last season. Looking to get a replacement ski replace both skis. Should I stay with the stock skis or are the re any good trail skis on the market? I do mostly trail riding. Thanks in advance!
viperking
Active member
I have a pair of black simmons dual carbide skis for sale. They are great trail skis with the dual carbides. Let me know if interested
Just buy Yamaha Tuner skis. They are the best trail ski out there for the money. Simons are an ok ski but increase steering effort durring braking and low speed riding when the weight is on the front over the tuners. The carbides to the outside cause you to lift the sled with your handlebars. Their other issue is if you ride plowed icy roads, they can get a little jittery, again, caused by the wide spacing of the dual carbides.
Simons do work better over tuners in one respect, and that is floatation. Because of the curved bottom and carbides to the outside, they get up on the snow better and stay there as opposed to a ski with single carbide or dual carbide close keel. These style skis drop in and push snow to the outside, not trapping it under the ski. Simons width for width will out perform other skis off trail.
If your mostly trail riding, get tuners, or used Arrows(more expensive new)
if your riding off trail, go with Simons
This winter I will be testing simons gen 3 skis, my thoughts based on their design is they will be better on the hard trails, easier steering and float better. I think they might be my new go to ski. they narrowed up the carbide spacing and widened the ski to 8in for us guys that ride old heavy apexes.
if you do get tuners, you will want to order a new bolt for a nitro that comes stock with them as yours is too narrow.
Simons do work better over tuners in one respect, and that is floatation. Because of the curved bottom and carbides to the outside, they get up on the snow better and stay there as opposed to a ski with single carbide or dual carbide close keel. These style skis drop in and push snow to the outside, not trapping it under the ski. Simons width for width will out perform other skis off trail.
If your mostly trail riding, get tuners, or used Arrows(more expensive new)
if your riding off trail, go with Simons
This winter I will be testing simons gen 3 skis, my thoughts based on their design is they will be better on the hard trails, easier steering and float better. I think they might be my new go to ski. they narrowed up the carbide spacing and widened the ski to 8in for us guys that ride old heavy apexes.
if you do get tuners, you will want to order a new bolt for a nitro that comes stock with them as yours is too narrow.
A couple of bucks
VIP Member
I have Simons gen 1's right now. They're OK but definately not as good as my last set of skis. They were USI Triple Threat X2s. Those are fan-friggin-tastic. My son & I picked them up at a swap meet for $115. With new 6" shaper bars.
I got the Simons for the 96 XT6 because they were basically new for $150. Couldn't pass that up.
I got the Simons for the 96 XT6 because they were basically new for $150. Couldn't pass that up.
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Hmm, I am surprised a recommendation for Tunners. I have run Tunners on both the Viper and Sxr. Very disapointed. Cheap design and very poor floatation. Maybe we just did not have enough carbide but handleing was not nearly as good as the Apex ski's we are currently using with Woody's slim jim 6" carbides. The Floatation is also much better with the Apex ski's. Our riding conditions are groomed trails and ungroomed two tracks in Michigan Lower and Upper. Waste deep when we can find it. Fully studded tracks.
jmlarson686
New member
So do the Apex skis bolt right on? Maybe I'll try and keep am eye out at haydays
So, Apex skis mean a few different things. there have been two versions for sure, and a possible third I have seen, though I can not confirm someone didn't change out the skis from a lower keeled version. All I have seen are 5.25 wide, and roughly a 1in keel. Most Tuners are 6in wide with a keel height just under an inch. There are some variations of this once they became production skis, especially the versions on vipers to stay under the required width, and are narrower. I am skeptical that in a back to back test on controlled conditions, a wider ski would float less unless we are comparing concave bottoms skis to standard flats.
As for cheap design, they could be made to look better but they are cheeeeep, 250 for a new set of skis with carbides is very low.
Handling wise, they work good with 6in carbide on the inside and whatever on the out. All your turning weight is applied to the inside carbide, the other one is there to keep you from dropping into grooves and to stop darting. When I have run these or Arrow, the ski they were designed from, I just put 6in on both to decrease wear. Running a taller carbide will make it bite harder(also increases drag) in a corner. These skis, and any others with anti darting design can be loaded more on the front than other styles thus giving more bite without dart.
Keep in mind your bolting these on a sled that has alot of bump steer. Read my line up article below to find out how to help that out a bit.
As for cheap design, they could be made to look better but they are cheeeeep, 250 for a new set of skis with carbides is very low.
Handling wise, they work good with 6in carbide on the inside and whatever on the out. All your turning weight is applied to the inside carbide, the other one is there to keep you from dropping into grooves and to stop darting. When I have run these or Arrow, the ski they were designed from, I just put 6in on both to decrease wear. Running a taller carbide will make it bite harder(also increases drag) in a corner. These skis, and any others with anti darting design can be loaded more on the front than other styles thus giving more bite without dart.
Keep in mind your bolting these on a sled that has alot of bump steer. Read my line up article below to find out how to help that out a bit.
I think we still have a few pairs of the Tuner ski's around, Maybe it was the look of the ski that just did not set good with me. For the riding we do, they just were not impressive. However, I did not play around with differant carbides. These are pull off ski's from a pair of 2015 Viper XTX sleds, so what ever carbides they had as OEM is what we ran. We have had great success with the Apex ski's we run with Woodies slim Jim's. Darting is vertually non existant, floatation is great, hardpack still turns great. Al
viper tuners are narrower than the accessory catalog version. They also have a little deeper keel.
jmlarson686
New member
Picked up a pair of apex skis for $120 at hay days today. I'm petty sure they are the deep keel and have some relatively decent set of carbides.