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2011 Charlie Slasher vs Abacus ride review

2K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  linvillegorge 
#1 · (Edited)
I've been trolling the forum as a guest for a while. Did lots of searching for info on another pow board. I think it would be great if we created a sticky- spreadsheet with different boards down the horizontal and vertical axis, and where they lined up across the grid we could link to another sheet where we could read different riders comparisons of how each of the 2 boards rode.

Anyway, I consider myself still green and this is no expert review. I'm not all that bad, I can bomb black diamonds and play through the trees. The time I was around double blacks, it was icy and I didn't want to risk bustin' my @$$. I already have a bunch of metal in my back from a motorcycle wreck.

I'm 5' 11", full gear about 200 lbs, size 11 street shoes. Stance width is about 22".

Both boards are 164. Bindings are Flow NXT-FSE. One board on top of another, the shapes are darn near the same, except the Abacus is a tad wider in the tail. Abacus is camber while the Charlie(CS) is reverse camber up front and a flat base from the front bindings through the tail. Both feel about the same stiffness.

Mid-season I picked up the CS. Stability, speed, handling on grooms, chop, crud, trees, and ice; the first run on it for me it already performed better than the Flow Merc I had.

Yesterday I picked up an Abacus. I only spent about an hour on it during the swap back and forth comparison.

I rode on a hill near work, with my buddy giving me rides back up on his snowmobile. There was about 2 feet of base left, with 8" to a foot of fresh powder and still snowing as I rode. The run was only a couple hundred yards long, with the steepness of what I'd consider a blue run. I also took some runs through the trees.

This is an initial impression and can easily change the next time I go out and ride both boards again.

The Abacus feels like a more aggressive board compared to the CS. I say this because when putting weight up front and initiating a turn it is very responsive and quick -more so than the CS. The nose floats very well. I had no problems slashing through the trees. The board felt good getting up to decent speed and didn't make me nervous. Riding in a wide packed track almost like a groomed run, it wasn't bad at all but I would need more time to get a better feel of it -due to its quick responsiveness. It also seemed to dig down deeper when banking to burn off speed.

The CS is not as aggressive on turns and more forgiving in general. I could weight more on the front in a turn without the board wanting to turn more aggressively. At higher speed the nose had more lift than the Abacus. This helped in the surfey performance carving in the powder. It also helped to ride with more weight up front.

This may be because I am used to the CS and not the Abacus. I could slash through the trees better on the CS. But the feeling of slashability on the CS seemed related to its charactaristic of being more surfey.

CS only- On black groomers, for me I found it took a little effort to turn quickly in a bind. I had to weight extra heavy up front and throw the rear more. Racing down the grooms I had better speed and straight dirction if I weighted heavy on the rear.

For what I did, I think both boards are winners. They just have different temperments and one should choose based on which temperment they prefer.
 
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#2 ·
The CS is flat cambered from the front binding back. From the front binding forward, it kicks up to float the nose. That kick up is probably why you felt that it wasn't as aggressive when weighting the front. I have the 164 myself. It's a beast in powder and can handle groomers fine, but if it's not a deep powder day, grab a different board.
 
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