Thursday, May 17, 2012

Wax & Race Service

Stone Grinding & Waxing Services

Boulder Nordic Sport is a full-service ski shop offering premium stone grinding, ski and waxing services at our retail locations in Boulder, CO and Portland, Maine and now at events with our traveling race service shop, BNS Mobile. Top racers from across North America send their skis to us because we do the best quality work in the country. Have your skis prepared by the pros and see how much better they go!

BNS Mobile

The BNS wax crew hits the road in our new rig, BNS Mobile, pushing our goal of providing World Cup Service for Everyone at events across the country. BNS Mobile travels to races offering professional race waxing services and a mini-BNS store. It serves as a base for our testing and waxing operations and is a great resource wherever you are headed. Visit the BNS Mobile page for more information, including event schedules and the latest test results and wax recommendations.

Stone Grinding

Stone grinding flattens the ski base, removes burnt and damaged base material and provides important micro-structure. Bottom line, it makes your skis faster and easier to wax. We have advanced Tazzari stone grinding machines set up in our Boulder shop. Skis can be dropped off at our Boulder, CO or Portland, Maine stores. If you are shipping skis to us, please ship directly to our Boulder store. Click this link to see our Stone Grinding Menu and Service Schedule/Lead Time.

Hot Box Wax Treatments

Saturate your base with wax for durability and glide.

Basic Saturation $19: Basic Saturation involves applying a very soft paraffin wax to the ski and placing it in the heat box for 90-120 minutes at a temperature of about 55 degrees Celsius (131F). This ensures excellent saturation of the base. The skis will need to be hardened with colder wax for the appropriate conditions. This hardening can be done with 2-3 layers of ironed-in wax or hot box treatment.

Extreme Saturation $29 (Recommended): This is a two-step process with the first step being application of a very soft paraffin which is placed in the heat box at low temperature (50-55C) for a long time (6-12 hours). The skis are scraped and a harder paraffin wax is applied followed by the heat box at 60C for approximately one hour. This second step is still very safe for the skis, but the temperature but may hasten any inevitable movement of the base away from dead flat. We notice that some skis, especially older models, tend to get concave tips and tails after heat boxing, even after grinding. The same thing will happen over time and with ironing, but the heat box may accelerate the process.

This treatment will saturate the base and then harden it to a level where it can be race-waxed with high-temperature fluoros and cold waxes.

Race Ready $49: Extreme Saturation plus finish with the specified Swix race wax (LF, HF or HFBD). The skis are saturated, hardened and then two layers of LF/HF are applied, scraped and brushed, leaving the skis ready to race or for application of Swix Cera F pure fluoro. Cera F treatment can be added for $20.

Race Wax Services

BNS wax techs offer race waxing services out of the shop and on-site at several events each winter. We can prepare your skis for any race, just bring them in and we'll get them ready to go. $39 for High-Fluoro (LF & HF Layers) and $85 for pure fluoro (LF, HF + Pure Fluoro).

Weekly Nighthawks race special: $15 for a race prep LF wax. Drop your skis off any day by 3PM and pick them up the next day after 2.

Wax Recommendations

BNS at the Mora Vasaloppet

Categories: Shop Blog, Wax Reports | Author: Eric Pepper | Posted: 2/8/2011 | Views: 2001

Updated 2/12 2pm! Holmenkol Matrix Red Paraffin, SkiGo C22 Powder, SkiGo C22L recommend.

Last Updated 2/11 5pm.

BNS at the Mora Vasaloppet

BNS Mobile # - 303.656.3886

BNS Wax Clinic 10:15am Saturday. Vasaloppet Center

Wax Testing Results, Discussion and Recommendation added.

BNS will be in Mora, MN for the Mora Vasaloppet from February 11^th-13^th. A variety of events will be taking place including a 58km, 42km, 35km, 13km, Relay, Miniloppet, and the Friendship Tour. BNS will be hosting a wax clinic at 10:15am on Saturday at the Vasaloppet Nordic Center, covering basic and race waxing. BNS Mobile will be providing wax sales and brand-neutral race waxing service. Treat yourself to a full race wax application by our pro service team so you can relax and focus on your race.

For more information please see below.

Testing Results and Discussion:

I have posted the speed trap data sheets at the bottom of the page for those interested.

Talking to the race organizers they are expecting the snow to remain failry cold even if the air temps raises above freezing. They are tilling everything and it is bringing up a lot of cold snowpack, with sharp crystals. I rolled into Mora about noon today and took a tour of the town and delayed my wax testing a bit to try to the let snow temp catch up to the air a bit. I started conducting testing at 3:00pm. I had setup a speed trap on the race course near where it crosses Burnett Drive. Snow temp was -7C.

In the trap the paraffins killed the powders. It is our expectation that the paraffins will slow down more than the powders and as a result the a powder layer will still be desirable. I am planning to duck out of the Nordic center and head out to Burnnet Drive tomorrow sometime around 3 to conduct a quick feel test, so if you are planning to drop off your skis then maybe swing by a bit before or after. I am hoping I will only be gone an hour. I will take a look at what ran well today and see if when the temps warm up a bit the powders come into play more. The groomers came through just as I finished up my last trap run so I didn't run topcoats or structure today as the trail was very soft after being freshly tilled and no time to setup. Tomorrow I will run topcoats, structure, and also take another look at the top powders and paraffins today.

Times listed are time back from the winner for all except the winner.

Paraffin Test - Burnett Drive 2/11 3pm -7C

Rank	Base1	Time	% back
1	Holmenkol Matrix Blue	4.586	0.00%
2	SkiGo HF Yellow/Violet	0.023	0.50%
3	Holmenkol Black/Red	0.029	0.63%
4	SkiGo HF Violet	0.031	0.68%
5	Swix HF8	0.035	0.77%
6	Holmenkol Matrix Red	0.041	0.89%
7	SkiGo HF Orange	0.058	1.27%
8	SkiGo HF Yellow	0.060	1.31%

Powder Test - Burnett Drive 2/11 3pm -7C

Rank	Powder	Time	% back
1	Holmenkol Wet	4.659	0.00%
2	SkiGo C22	0.008	0.16%
3	Swix SuperCera	0.014	0.29%
4	SkiGo C44/7	0.028	0.60%
5	Holmenkol Mid	0.036	0.77%
6	Swix FC8x	0.043	0.92%
7	SkiGo C22-C44/7 1:1	0.05	1.07%

Wax Recommendation – Check back!

Base Layer: SkiGo LF Graphite. Scrape, brush.

Race Paraffin: Holmenkol Matrix Red. Scrape, brush. Matrix Red pulled ahead in our feel test Saturday and is now recommended.

Fluoro Powder: SkiGo C22 Powder. C22 was awesome today. Holmenkol Wet 2nd. Everything else was distant.

Topcoat: SkiGo C22 Fluid.

Structure: Finite Finish AF10

Race Service Details:

Race Service waxing can be prepaid for HERE.

Our race service includes base layer, HF paraffin, and pure fluoro powder. For classic skis, we will iron in a binder layer in the kick zone you designate, but we will not wax with the final kick wax layers. You will want to apply those race morning to achieve the best results. We will test kick waxes, provide recommendations, and sell you kick wax if you need it, but you will have to apply it yourself race morning.

NOTE: THIS IS NON-REFUNDABLE. BNS will refund if the race or BNS has to cancel for any reason, but otherwise this is non-refundable.

Race Service Drop Off and Pickup Details:

Please get your skis to BNS as early as possible in order to allow us to do base prep and deliver your skis on time and without stress. Please deliver skis to us cleaned of both glide and kick wax. It is important that you use a solvent in the kick zone and it is recommendation to use glide zone cleaner on the glide zones. Print out your receipt and bring a copy with you to drop-off. Make sure skis are labeled with name, cell phone number, and the event you are doing.

Saturday Drop Off – Please find us at the Vasaloppet Center. We will have our trailer parked there and will likely be doing waxing and clinics in the main service garage. I will be out at some point in the afternoon for about 1hr testing, probably around 3!

Ski Pickup – Depending on timing we will have two options for ski pickup. Skis can be picked up Saturday evening at the garage or Sunday morning at the race start from 8-9:30 am. We will discuss specifics when you drop them off. If special circumstances arrive or you are in need of a different arrangement please contact us and we will do our best.

Any questions you can email mobile@bouldernordic.com or call the BNS mobile number 303.656.3886. Thanks!

note: BNS imports Holmenkol and SkiGo waxes, and also sells waxes from Swix, Toko, Rode, Solda, Rex, Guru, Innovax, Magnar and others. We search for the fastest waxes for our customers and our testing is professional, objective and transparent. We make our best effort to test what we think is the best from each brand. However, given that we are testing more options from Holmenkol and SkiGo, there is a bias toward those brands. With this full disclosure, you can assess the legitimacy of our testing yourself. Visit Swix and Toko for their official recommendations. If you have any questions please contact us.

Powder

Ski ID	HK Mid	HK Wet	C22	Super Cera	FC8x	C44/7	C22-C44/7
1	4.615	4.582	4.584	4.594	4.635	4.624	4.671
2	4.710	4.670	4.689	4.679	4.705	4.635	4.663
3	4.727	4.709	4.709	4.734	4.715	4.706	4.745
4	4.726	4.674	4.683	4.682	4.751	4.781	4.756
5
Ski Average	4.695	4.659	4.666	4.672	4.702	4.687	4.709
Difference	0.036	0.000	0.008	0.014	0.043	0.028	0.050

Paraffin

Ski ID	Matrix Red	SG HF Yellow	SG HF Y/V	HF8	SG HF V	Matrix B/R	SG HF Orange	Matrix Blue
1	4.651	4.674	4.580	4.613	4.659	4.620	4.650	4.573
2	4.602	4.616	4.620	4.593	4.611	4.628	4.680	4.585
3	4.653	4.651	4.620	4.663	4.622	4.620	4.647	4.582
4	4.602	4.644	4.617	4.617	4.577	4.592	4.601	4.605

Ski Average	4.627	4.646	4.609	4.622	4.617	4.615	4.645	4.586
Difference	0.041	0.060	0.023	0.035	0.031	0.029	0.058	0.000

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