nice to see you getting a swet up about the sordid world of sponsorship , the price of power is politics they say.but tell me , what exactly is a carbon heliocore deck? googled it and all i got was viola strings. any word on talon bindings. tarrantulas?

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Originally posted by c allen tas what exactly is a carbon heliocore deck? googled it and all i got was viola strings. any word on talon bindings. tarrantulas?

Will takes this backwards.

Terraintulas: GI's top-of-the-line wheel hubs. Aircraft grade aluminum aluminum, carbon fiber spacers between the hub halves. Stainless steel hardware. The nuts are trapped in the extrusions formed at the edge of the hub so only a single Allen wrench is needed to tighten or loosen the bolts holding the hub halves together. Construction allows you to run higher tire pressures without the hub deforming. I believe team riders have run 80-100 psi in their tires without incident. Higher tire pressures = less rolling resistance = more speed.

Talons: Constructed of synthetic leather, dual density foam and grippy layer on the side that contacts the riders shoe. Aluminum L-brackets secure them to the deck with stainless steel hardware. Ratchet bindings make it easy to adjust the tension on the bindings. I think Phree has reported rust issues with the springs, but Krytech, Flitz, Breakfree CLP, or similar should help with that.

Carbon Helicore: Reading up on deck (skateboard, mountain board, snowboard) design/construction is sometimes the only way to plow through some of the marketing verbiage. The AK uses a foam core design. Heliocore is just a trademarked name for the foam they use.

From the old GI site: "[color=DarkBlue]GI designers have developed a way to inject foam into the mold, and pre-mold the core - which means no more forcing the core into an unnatural state. This results in a board being in its natural state while at rest, creating a lively, poppy feeling for the rider.[/color]"

Over the foam core layers are carbon fiber and possibily other composites are added.

In some cases "stringers" are used. Stringers are lengths of fiberglass that run the entire length of the deck in one or more of the layers. The stringers can either have a V or I profile when looked at from one end depending on the bend/flex/"pop" characteristics that are desired.

I believe stringers run through the core. They were used in the Conflict which also had a Helicore center, but it's not specified whether they were used in the AK.

RCC or Reverse Cap Construction is the treatment/construction of the very edges of the board that is a tapered angle. The facilitates board slides while reducing the chances of snagging the edge of the board and having it delaminate.

I assume that added cost to an already expensive board or the difficulties of integrating it into an RCC edge is what prevented GI from adding a PTEX base to (as with the Edge and Patrol) decks to the AK deck.

PTex is an High-Density Polyethylene material that is very abrasion resistent. The nice thing about it is that should it get scored/gouged it can be repaired by the rider in the same way that snowboard base repairs are done. As far as I know GI is the only company that is using PTEX bases on any mountain boards.

Trampa takes a slightly different approach. They use a re-enforced glass and plastic thermo composite (NOT carbon fiber). It is worked into a thread like structure and then wovens into sheets. The sheets are layered with resin, placed into polished aluminum molds, a high-pressure vacuum removes an air in the layers and propagates the resin through the woven sheets. The moulds are then baked in an oven to set and harden the resin. The mould creates multiple decks at a time. When baking is complete, a high pressure water jet is used to seperate the individual decks and then they are finished by hand.

The amount of "pop and "flex" in a Trampa deck is controlled by the number of sheets of woven thermo composite that is used in the decS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s construction.

OK.... enough geek talk. Hope that helps a little bit.

ATB,
Sam

Talon bindings are AWESOME!! Probably some of the best bindings ever. They weigh just slightly more than Trampa Camlocks, but whatever. They look sick, are super adjustable, comfortable, and rugged. Regardless of the board I have, I'd definitely use Talons. I haven't had any rust issues, but then again I try not to get my board wet.

The GI Vegas hubs I have are crap. They are made of somewhat weak plastic (IMO), and I actually managed to internally bend some of screws around the outside of the rim which hold the spokes in place, as well as keep the two halves together. All it took was a rough landing. I'm glad they decided to move away from that design. I haven't used Tarantula hubs, and I haven't really put Crossair hubs through trials, but they should be a huge improvement from the Vegas design.

I've used vegas, crossair, and terraintula hubs and I'd have to agree the Vegas were the least reliable design. I'm currently rocking crossairs on my GI Flight Lite 100 and they are amazing. Not flashy, pretty understated, but durable as can be. My Terraintulas are amazing as well and look oh so sexy. :D I have them off my board right now because I wanted to put the Crossairs I got to the test. I'm hoping GI has stock in soon because the goal is to set up my Flight Lite 100 with my Terraintulas and get a snazzy new Edge deck to put my Crossairs on.

GI makes great gear, can't wait for them to be up and running again.

Oh, and Mr. Wolf, you sir are the king of unbiased information!

tru dat. thanks to the wolf for the low down