Redline $875
With Xclerator 2.0 Binding – $965
Madshus has been in the tough position of rolling out a brand new construction method for all of their Norway-produced models right during a time when organizational turmoil in the company and a downturn in the market (felt by all companies) meant that resources were low, and uncertainty was high. I know everybody in the racing and development departments at Madshus have felt the stress in the last year, and without question, the new products have been subject to some teething pains. In spite of all this, the new skis have been super well received, and have produced the best results that Madshus has seen in recent years.
In particular, the Madshus skate skis have been a knock-out. The new construction has provided a higher level of both flat ski tracking and edge security than any of their recent skis, and has also been consistently among the fastest running skis that we’ve had on the snow. The consistency of the production performance has been very high – we have a lower rate of “misses” with Madshus skate skis than any other brand. We consider any negative, or even ambivalent feedback to be a “miss”. New skis should impress, and the Madshus Redline skate skis have impressed.
The F2 model, designed for higher average speeds and harder-packed conditions, remains the go-to pick for a single universal pair for most skiers. In previous constructions I have sometimes felt that the F2 positioned me too far behind the camber, and was difficult to climb on top of, resulting in the lingering tension of always feeling somewhat braced in my position. The new construction seems to have eliminated that feeling, and is much more relaxing to stand on, while still delivering the reactive camber action and immediate acceleration in response to active loading that we demand from a top-end race ski.
The F3 model has been produced with the same goal in mind that they’ve had since introducing the concept. It targets slower conditions, lower average speeds, and softer snow. But it also remains a very viable universal ski for skiers who want to feel that their stance is “in” the ski, in a balanced for-aft position. The F3 continues with the tail-only groove, which also gives it a very “free” feeling front end, and a playful character when you want to scrub it or redirect it under foot. Of course, this comes at the expense of some flat-ski directional stability, but it’s an intentional trade-off that is a priority for many top racers. It’s also worth noting that the edge security on the F3 is very hooked-up, in-line with the performance of the F2.
The surprise of the season for me has been the LTD model. This was conceived as a specialty ski for very soft/slushy conditions. While the F2 runs quite high half weight and full weight cambers, and the F3 runs moderately high half weight and full weight cambers, the LTD runs quite low to the snow, and provides considerably longer pressure zones than the two primary models. The skis that we selected and tested this year were some of the easiest to get along with that I’ve ever used. Their low speed efficiency was incredible, and their ability to maintain momentum and carry speed was unmatched. They also were incredibly hooked-up on hard icy tracks, thanks to their very long edge pressure. On the other hand, between the long edge contact and the full-length groove, the skis were not so easy to scrub or carve, and took a little more strength to snowplow than the F3.
In the past, the Madshus material set has not performed well with low camber concepts. I think the rebound rate in the material was too high. Somehow, with the new construction, the skis feel lively and active in high camber models, but sufficiently damped to perform as though they were designed for low-camber models. The LTD skis weren’t as responsive to high-impulse loading as the F2 and F3, but they were faultlessly smooth and the fastest skis I stood on all season at anything from an easy low-energy pace to a high training pace with smooth technique. I found myself choosing this model for most of my skiing, and it was the one pair of skate skis (aside from our test fleet) that I brought to Norway for recreational skiing when we went over for World Championships.
The only downside I ran into was that when the snow got “sucky”, the long pressure zones were subject to a lot of suction. We felt it in Norway on a couple of days in the mountains above Lillehammer where sections of track had quite “tight” crystal and got pretty sucky as the day warmed. I was on the LTD skis, and had faster skis than Amy’s Salomon Unis until conditions got sucky. Once the snow was fully broken and starting to churn, the performance picked back up and was excellent.
For next year it looks like they’ve modified the LTD camber a bit to provide some low-angle opening at the tips and tails, and shorten the pressure zones just a little bit. They’ve also brought the bridge back to bring the skis slightly closer to a 50/50 load distribution than this year’s more rear-biased loading. I don’t expect these changes to steal any of my enthusiasm for the skis, but they will make the skis more responsive to active loading, and less prone to sucking as moisture comes up. These might be the most versatile universal ski for non-World-Cup level skiers that Madshus has ever produced. Incidentally, Madshus has also moved this camber concept to all their step-down model skis.
The classic skis were a bit more of a challenge this year. The new material configuration is a bit stiffer than the old construction, and it turned out that the camber controls they had in place to produce consistently good skis weren’t sufficient in the new material. We worked hard to find good skis, and the feedback was excellent. We saw athletes with good and established fleets selecting the new skis by preference over the old skis because they were faster, better handling, and the kick was secure and predictable. But we saw way more bad cambers in production than should be the case. In particular, the tendency for the rear end of the pocket to sneak up under the foot made a lot of the skis very wooden feeling, and produced very high finishing hardness and skis there we difficult to kick-through. If you know somebody who has been disappointed by this year’s Madshus classic skis, then I bet I know why!
I met with some of the development and race guys in March after we left Trondheim, and they felt clear that they had a good understanding of the issue and were already working on an updated system for camber control. Between their recognition of the issue, and the actions they’ve already taken, and considering our success with the skis this year, I’m cautiously optimistic about the classic offering for next season. But I also feel that Madshus hasn’t reached the sweet-spot that Fischer enjoys, with the apparent ability to just stamp-out good classic skis with very few rejects. In short – established Madshus skiers should be confident that we can find good skis. Skiers in an open market thinking about trying a new brand should absolutely consider Madshus skate skis, but might want to give the classic program another season to prove itself.