Virus BX & F2 Lancelot "Lancillotto" Review

[Silber]

First of all, I would like to thank Frank for all the assistance and for letting me take pictures of his boards. Then I would like to point out that conditions in Solden, where the test was made, were decent only in the very early morning. Around lunch time a ton of people were crowding the slopes and the main track was a mix of ice and accumulated ice-powder small moguls. Finally I would like to point out that I can't carve yet as low as the EC guys, thus I can't really appreciate the torsional limit of the boards, but I believe I got the egyptian style pretty much right.

And now the reviews:

Virus BX (the board with the A1 sticker on it): Great look as usual, it does differ from what I have been used to see as a BX board. This is a very alpine board (but wider the the average Virus) with a little rounded tail. I decided to try it after meeting Skywalker on saturday and hearing his enthusiastic remarks about it.

The feeling that the board transmits is very different from the other Viruses I tried in the past (slalom 160, 173, EC custom). More flex, but much less "I am on a rail" feeling. Reality is, it feels almost like my Swoard 3D. Even the weight (measured by holding it) is closer to the 3D than to the new 2D, but I suspect it was just my impression. Unfortunately I was not able to compare it to the 2D due to the irreparable damage that the test board had suffered earlier in the afternoon...

F2 Lancelot "Lancillotto" 172 (can see the swallow tail and the dragon of the bottom of the board on the right side of the picture):
Awesome! On the crappy conditions (mix of ice and accumulated ice-powder small moguls) of Solden this was the perfect choice...it is a lot of fun to ride on piste (based on the F2 eliminator) it has good torsional stifness and allows to ride very low (almost EC) with a small radius thanks to reduced speed but good flow. The nose takes it all and lets you have fun in the accumulated icypowder without any tireness on your back leg. Note that I was riding it with 49 - 43 angles on hard boots. Only problem I had was when I tried to ride it on the icy melted off piste (desperately searching for anything close to powder...) and it got stuck in the icy crust. Result: a bloody chin...

[Silber]

Frank (Chef Virus) and Francesco (Silber) at the Virus stand in Solden

[Silber]

And finally "Arabella" SW 175 M 0145 with the Virus team...

[István]

I can confirm 2 things:
- Francesco did great on the Lancelot, very nicely drawn curves, carving deep as it was possible on the blueish slope, maintaining a good speed without big slow-downs.
- He indeed had a bloody chin when he got back to our accomodation.

I was so much enjoying my board and we only had a few good runs due to the massive number of people , that I did not want to waste a minute on changing boards, therefore I did not test anything....


Cheers,

István


ps.: To compensate the above I overdid in the wine-tasting and testing...