Bolens Diablo Rouge and Hus Ski Discussion Forums

It's hot, it's summer and it's hard to imagine that in 4 months, we could have snow.

Who else is thinking of Hus Skis and Diablos in the dead of summer?

This was the year we were gonna restore one of of our diablos then my shoulder went out and after 2months I'm still only able to lift the weight of a magazine! So restoration this year probably won't happen:( but on the brighter side I do go out to the shop and fart around with them almost every day:) little tweaking here and their.. Another hot day is expected high in the mid 90's in central mn. I believe I heard on the news this am that this will be the 26 day in the 90's ! Stay cool and think snow! Any hotels close to diablo work shop next month?

Good Question Swenny,

I purposely scheduled the Workshop on a weekend when there was no Packer Game in town. I'm sure there are plenty of rooms available. As we get closer to the date and I know how many people might be looking for a hotel, I'll gather a few suggestions.

A note out to all - if you are thinking of coming to the Workshop, please let me know as I'm making plans. The sooner I know who all is coming, the easier that is. If you have not made up your mind yet but are thinking about coming, just let me know that too and I'll put you on the "maybe" list.

Bruce

I was actually working on some skis this evening. Not the genuine wooden ones though, I picked up a matched set of cheap plastic snowboards at a rummage sale. I got them for a dollar a piece. I'm sure the purists don't care for them, but these are for my 21st century Hus-ski with the Honda 4-stroke engine and UHMW cleats.

I like your cleats. What is the full name of the Material? How do they hold up to usage? I thought my dad told me years ago he had tried teflon cleats but was not happy with them. They do look Sharp!

The materials around today compaired to 40 years ago have improved.

Here is a link to the plastic that I bought for my cleats. It went up in price since the last time that I bought some.

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.a ... &catid=868

The answer to your question about how they hold up. On my Honda powered 444, I have a piece of 12 gauge stainless steel under the wood slides. Last winter I put 170 miles on it using a gps as an odometer. There isn't any noticable wear on the cleats yet, just some scratches.
On my 444 with the original engine, I have five years on the plastic cleats and they are worn down some and must be getting a little weak because I've noticed some of the C-channel steel cleats starting to bend. In this five years, I've used a gps to keep track of the miles three of the years. In the three years, I put on just over a 1000 miles. 232 miles the first year, 366 miles the second year and 406 miles the third year. The two years that I didn't record the miles, I didn't put on many miles, I estimate about 40 miles each of those years. When I first put this machine together, I wrapped the wood slides with 20 gauge stainless, like the early 200A's had. The stainless cracked at the front of the slides and started shaving away the plastic cleats. I removed the stainless and went with just hard maple slides for awhile. After wearing out two sets of slides, I put 12 gauge stainless under the slides on this machine.
I'm hoping to get better mileage on the plastic cleats on the Honda powered machine because I started out with the 12 gauge stainless from the time I put the machine together.
A buddy of mine also put a Honda engine in a Hus-ski. He always says "Its all about research and development".

Very interesting Thanks for the link and info. After doing some reading it looks like UHMW is great stuff!