Anyone trail riding with slydog command skis?

[Richard Hodgins]

I have put some time on the command skis this year and my review is mixed. On softer conditions they track decent and dart minimally. They turn well and are predictable. With lower snow conditions and very cold weather the conditions are very firm and the darting and tracking increases a fair amount. The shapers work better than the round bars for sure. They dart less which is funny because in the past I always found shapers to turn better but dart more. They turn instantly on these conditions so if a guy is not smooth with his steering inputs they will feel twitchy and jerky for sure. Shimming the skis helped a bit and to see minimal improvement in tracking/darting it required suspension adjustments that ruined the ride quality and comfort of the sled. Im gonna continue to experiment as I do like the turning confidence but not sure if itll be a good choice for full day higher mileage riding days

This is exactly my experience as well. I realized I do have shapers, but maybe too much (9inch). I will double check toe out but I think I'm already at 1/4inch

 

[fatchance]

Any more feedback on these skis?

 

[EWK]

I have them on my ‘22 with power steering and they are near perfect for me. Zero push and minimal darting even in heavy wet snow. I had to keep reducing the spring preload on the front skis until the darting was gone and at my current setup the sled handles beautifully.

I am running a shaper bar on 1 ski and regular round bar on the other.

 

[74Nitro]

What carbides are you running?
When the commands first came out I put them on my 20 but had to take them off because steering was to hard, I recently put eps on my sled and put the commands back on with 6” shaper bars, haven’t played with the suspension yet but I’m super impressed with these skis, zero push so far even on fresh snow covered trails, absolutely no darting or twitchy feeling on hard park and they hold a straight line extremely well. At high speeds I can definitely feel some resistance in the steering as the eps is speed sensitive but couldn’t be happier with these skis.

Had a customer buy a winder with these skis on it and he is complaining that it takes a lot of effort to turn. No power steering obviously. What should I put on for carbide?

 

[rev them up]

Had a customer buy a winder with these skis on it and he is complaining that it takes a lot of effort to turn. No power steering obviously. What should I put on for carbide?

I couldn't get them to work on my winder or nytro, great ski over 30mph, under that a complete bear to turn. Put tuners back on with snowtrackers.

 

[WinderFab]

Any more feedback on these skis?

If you have eps they are worth every penny.

I have them on my ‘22 with power steering and they are near perfect for me. Zero push and minimal darting even in heavy wet snow. I had to keep reducing the spring preload on the front skis until the darting was gone and at my current setup the sled handles beautifully.

I am running a shaper bar on 1 ski and regular round bar on the other.

Good to hear they are working for you. I have no preload on front shocks, about 1 1/2 - 2 turns of preload on oem center shock spring and straps at longest setting, sled stays planted through the corners with ease.

Had a customer buy a winder with these skis on it and he is complaining that it takes a lot of effort to turn. No power steering obviously. What should I put on for carbide?

I wouldn’t know as Ive only tried shapers but without eps I think your customer is out of luck with these skis.

 

[justinator]

I still have mixed feelings with them and they arent on my sled currently. I threw them on for a few days last week and spent several mornings just making adjustments and testing. In softer conditions and looser stuff they work decent. They track ok and without a doubt they turn well and will hold whatever line you choose to follow. The first thing I find odd is the transistion from where they are turning well to becoming extremely aggressive. What I mean is for a certain amount of degrees of turn in they feel very smooth and precise then all of a sudden the ski becomes very grabby and has too much bite. The steering bite isnt as linear as other skis ive tried. I have been all over the board with spring adjustments and toe out settings. The rubber dampners from slydog could use a little more thickness on the rear as they could use a little shim to them but not much because then the characteristics I dislike about them become amplified. They dont track the best on rock hard conditions but probably not worse than any other ski with single runners. Earlier in the season with rock hard conditions I actually found they tracked better with shapers than a regular round bar which was odd cause Ive always found shapers to dart worse than round bars on those conditions in the past with other skis. I also dont have a 137 so maybe they work better on that skid then a 146 but I found all of the 146’s Ive had they naturally seem to have less ski pressure then the 137’s do with equal spring preloads. I will mess with them some more but I dont use them for any weekend rides just yet. I would end up being annoyed with them for 200-250 mile rides. Theres really nothing special to the bottom of the ski that completely seperates them from the others so they kinda handle like youd suspect a deep single keel ski would act.

 

[Richard Hodgins]

I still have mixed feelings with them and they arent on my sled currently. I threw them on for a few days last week and spent several mornings just making adjustments and testing. In softer conditions and looser stuff they work decent. They track ok and without a doubt they turn well and will hold whatever line you choose to follow. The first thing I find odd is the transistion from where they are turning well to becoming extremely aggressive. What I mean is for a certain amount of degrees of turn in they feel very smooth and precise then all of a sudden the ski becomes very grabby and has too much bite. The steering bite isnt as linear as other skis ive tried. I have been all over the board with spring adjustments and toe out settings. The rubber dampners from slydog could use a little more thickness on the rear as they could use a little shim to them but not much because then the characteristics I dislike about them become amplified. They dont track the best on rock hard conditions but probably not worse than any other ski with single runners. Earlier in the season with rock hard conditions I actually found they tracked better with shapers than a regular round bar which was odd cause Ive always found shapers to dart worse than round bars on those conditions in the past with other skis. I also dont have a 137 so maybe they work better on that skid then a 146 but I found all of the 146’s Ive had they naturally seem to have less ski pressure then the 137’s do with equal spring preloads. I will mess with them some more but I dont use them for any weekend rides just yet. I would end up being annoyed with them for 200-250 mile rides. Theres really nothing special to the bottom of the ski that completely seperates them from the others so they kinda handle like youd suspect a deep single keel ski would act.

This has been the best description I have seen yet for them, I have the exact same issues with my command skis (grabby on hard pack). I did try and shim them a bit more which has helped, but its not perfect and sometimes they are still un predictable at times. I'm on a 137 with EPS, running shapers on my commands.
What other ski are you running that is better ?

 

[justinator]

This has been the best description I have seen yet for them, I have the exact same issues with my command skis (grabby on hard pack). I did try and shim them a bit more which has helped, but its not perfect and sometimes they are still un predictable at times. I'm on a 137 with EPS, running shapers on my commands.
What other ski are you running that is better ?

Right now I just return to the factory proclimb 7g2 ski that came on the riot. They work ok at best for cornering grip but they track well and are predictable atleast. They work decent on hardpack and decent in fresh snow with minimal tracks or snow with lots of traffic through it as long as its not sugary and more of a “wet” snow. They absolutely suck when its sugary snow. But they dont really annoy me so I choose them when im out riding with the wife and were gonna do some miles. When I have some free time to experiment I slap the commands back on.

 

[fatchance]

Justin, have you run the Pilot 6.9's with Shapers or Woody's Magnums with EPS? If so what was your experience compared to the Sly Dog commands? I found with the Pilots i could get decent response in lose light snow with minimal steering input and it was just awful if you oversteered at all. It would instantly push the ski into a slide which was hard to overcome. Other than that i felt they had very good response and only darted on very firm conditions with deep tracks on the trail. I'm sure i could have adjusted for this condition, but i couldn't be bothered because if you went through sunny areas, waited for traffic or went back out after a lunch stop it would improve greatly

 

[justinator]

Justin, have you run the Pilot 6.9's with Shapers or Woody's Magnums with EPS? If so what was your experience compared to the Sly Dog commands? I found with the Pilots i could get decent response in lose light snow with minimal steering input and it was just awful if you oversteered at all. It would instantly push the ski into a slide which was hard to overcome. Other than that i felt they had very good response and only darted on very firm conditions with deep tracks on the trail. I'm sure i could have adjusted for this condition, but i couldn't be bothered because if you went through sunny areas, waited for traffic or went back out after a lunch stop it would improve greatly

I have not tried the 6.9’s on this sled or any of the past winders. Was considering trying them for next season though as I used to really like the handling characteristics of those skis back when I had a renegade. They were predictable and I dont remember much darting except a little near the very beginning of season and towards the end when its a bit crusty for a few hrs in the morning till the sun softened everything up.

 

[Richard Hodgins]

Justin, have you run the Pilot 6.9's with Shapers or Woody's Magnums with EPS? If so what was your experience compared to the Sly Dog commands? I found with the Pilots i could get decent response in lose light snow with minimal steering input and it was just awful if you oversteered at all. It would instantly push the ski into a slide which was hard to overcome. Other than that i felt they had very good response and only darted on very firm conditions with deep tracks on the trail. I'm sure i could have adjusted for this condition, but i couldn't be bothered because if you went through sunny areas, waited for traffic or went back out after a lunch stop it would improve greatly

I have the 6.9s and originally liked them. After running the Commands and I thought I would try the 6.9s again. They PUSHED like crazy with no other other suspension adjustments! I could have adjusted the suspension to compensate, but was really surprised just doing this direct swap. The 6.9s were also heavily shimmed too. So the commands went back on the next ride....

 

[KnappAttack]

I was also going to say they 6.9's are nothing to right home about. I'll use them for low snow conditions with a Slim Jim or Duece bar, typical dual keel skis I don't care much for them in loose snow conditions and the push twin keels are known for.

 

[fatchance]

Honestly the initial reason i went to the 6.9's with the Winder was the ease of turning without EPS. I stuck with it on the new sled with EPS because I felt like it was more predictable than any ski i have tried in the past. Now the skis probly have the most aggressive carbide in the Maverick 8" center and 4" outside carbide. It was laser sharp steering in most conditions , but darted with allot of ski pressure in super hard pack icy trails and with the same pressure would push on loose fresh powder with any oversteering at all.
I'm just looking for a really aggressive ski at this point with power steering much like i had with my Simmons. I know they were not great in fresh powder but the worked really good on most other situations.

 

[STAIN]

I have a set of Simmons I would part with