Any info

[Gecko]

I've been looking at a few of the older Rossi boards anyone know anything about these

[Gecko]

or this one

[Boarder_Ted]

Gecko,
Both boards are from '97. The first is a Rossi Accelerator. Rossi claimed it was "for the crossover skier or alpine freerider". More user friendly than the Throttle Dualtec (which is your second board). That one was the predecessor to the Rossi Race. I have the catalogue if you want me to email you the pages of specs. Let me know.
Ted

[Gecko]

The Throttle interest me more though both are intriguing thanks

[Boarder_Ted]

Not sure which board you're looking at but the Throttle specs are as follows:

156- 132 running length, 9.5 meter sidecut radius, 190 waist, weight range- 110-170lbs

166- 142 running length, 10.5 s.r., 190 waist, weight range- 130-200lbs

171- 148 r.l., 13 meter s.r., 190 waist, weight range- 130-200 lbs

All boards had the microcell core, sintered bases, and internal kevlar. The two smaller ones had a dualtec sidewall and the 171 was sandwich with "phenolic" sidewalls

Hope this all helps.

Ted

[Gecko]

Microcell core is foam yes...damn I refuse to ride foam, the **** scares me. Thanks a bunch for the info. I was looking at the 156 as a late day board...C'est la Vie

[nils]

The first models with the foam cores.... the Race series used wood until the previous year ( they already switched to crappy monocap construction the same 1996- 97 )... funny how from a great great board ( the 93-96 models ) you can switch to something less good!! Marketing sucks big!

Nils

[Hugh]

I have two of the 96' throttle boards. Both are wood core, not foam.

Use the search function at the bottom of the page, try throttle + Hugh and it will bring up one thread from this past July.

A guy that I see often at Kirkwood only rides foam Rossi, because he likes the flex, he confirmed that mine were wood core, true for the 171cm.

---Hugh

[nils]

yes 96 are monocap/wood..
I tried the yellow race with the foam core, and also the previous white model (foam too ) i found the flex not springy enough... My friend said both boards got twisted after a season...My R159 wood core lasted at least 5 seasons before getting some twist!

N.

[mikko]

I have a rossi throttle 156 -97. It was my first real alpine/race board. It was easy to ride from the beginning. Pretty stable and predictable at slow speeds. Rode it for about 3 years as my only board. Then I thought I wanted a board that could handle more speed. Also, I noticed that the rossi had twisted.

I bought the Elan Ballistic 171 and basicly haven't touched the rossi since. The Ballistic isn't that stiff, and the rossi is like chewing gum compared to the Elan now.

What I'm saying is that I'm a fairly small guy (70kg, 175cm) and I killed that rossi in about three seasons. It was a good board for me to get really into carving, but don't expect it to last very long.

I had the 156 throttle. The 170 is probably a bit different.


--Mikko--

p.s.
Hot Blast GS 178 (03/04) arrived today. More stiffness and lenght. :D

[Boarder_Ted]

Hugh et. al.
I'm looking at the Rossi catalogue from the '95-'96 season right now and unless they changed the composition of the board after the catalogue came out, it is listed as having a microcell core. Anyone else want to throw in their two cents?
Ted

[Hugh]

I always like clarification... :cool:

I've got two 171cm Rossi boards (see attached).

I would be super surprised if they turned out to be foam boards. They are heavy in weight, vertical side walls and everyone that rides a foam Rossi says that mine are wood core.

Is there a way to be sure? I'm not cutting one open :(

[nils]

http://www.okao.com/gallery/albums/album01/rossiR159.jpg
this is my beloved R159 ( stone board now)
- it is the last rossi Race with sidewalls made of ABS
- it has the nice wood core that keeps it lively

1995-96 : That model, especially the 167 won lots of races and boardercross alike! It is still considered here as the last great rossi race board!

96-97 : Next year RACE model featured: monocap construction and wood core
(I believe it is the year featured on the pics above, but this is not the race model but the alpine model..).

97-98 : That year featured: microcell ( foam core...) and monocap

Over two year they killed the great thing and fewer people bought it !

It is also important not to confuse the two alpine models made by Rossi each of this seasons... there was the R model, and the Alpine model... The later been designed for rental purpose mainly...I assume the alpine model on pics is, yes, maybe a microcell since they had to maybe test it on the less expensive model before switching the Race series to foam too...

To be continued!
N.

[willywhit]

I bought a throttle 167 in Vail at Gorsuch for like $220 and it changed my hardbooting completely. Same board as the 2nd photo.There was a pack of us , all on throttles 159, 163, 167, 173 and all Vail/ Beaver Creek locals.Like a pack of wild dogs, terrorizing beautiful Vail groomies. and Chris Karol on a Madd 159. Gecko, buy one. Great board for short money unless it's damp and limp from high miles. Who's the new guy from Portland, ME ? We should meet up at Sunday River for some midweek "all for one pass" carving. I'd like to get the red, white and blue Rossi VAS and put a kerry sticker on it.

[Bordy]

If the board has the duel tech side wall it is probably foam, although there were several "team boards" that were wood however very few found there way into public hands.

If you find a pre 96 throttle its worth the ride.

Jeff Greenwood took the world cup by storm on stock throttles in 94-95 a time when no one on the tour was riding stock any thing.

They also made a few bigger shapes that I have seen around the East Coast the wide (23.0) 173 was under Will Garrows feet until he move into the team only 185. That wide rossi riped for a thick stick and would be a great EC style ride Shannon Mellhuse railed it with a very EC style.

[Scorpio]

Nils,

I have that same board you have, the R159, although mine is my primary board. For clarification (I'm getting confused w/ some of the years and models being thrown around), is that a 1995-1996 model w/ a wood core? Is it safe to assume it has a 9.5 sidecut? I bought it used some time ago and have no stats on it.

Thanks

[Boarder_Ted]

The "New Guy" from Portland has been riding for 14 years and cruising the Bomber posts for years now. I'm just a bit more vocal than I have been in the past.

And Yes, I have the Sunday River pass. I'll be there most Sundays and whatever days I can manage to sneak out of work. : )

So those pesky Rossi boards.......I have catalogues from '96 and '97. In the '96 catalogue it clearly states (and remember, the catalogue is all I have to go by) that Rossignol uses Microcell core in ALL its board and claims they always did. I'll try to download photos of the pages but I have a Mac, am running OS X and the scanner is old and only OS 9 compatable, blah, blah, blah...I'm working on it. Give me a minute.

[willywhit]

Sorry Ted, just haven't seen ya on BOL before. You must know Weasel at SR. You're welcome to try my Throttle 167. It's still got Burton raceplates on it and 4X4 holes.Check out the sweet bag I got in the mail yesterday for the "big stix": http://www.sierratradingpost.com/xq/asp/base_no.71274/dept_id./qx/product.htm

[Kent]

Folks....

All of the boards in question above are Microcell boards. Minus, of course, the boards that Bordy mentioned...which is basically a (white top sheeted) Rossi 180.

Source: my buddy is the Rossi rep since day 1. If you break the board and find its wood, he'd like to know b/c every alpine board since the 4x4 (minus the yellow Slayer) until the "World Cup" (which had wood and microcell) was advertisted as Microcell.

K

[nils]

wrong cos i saw one broken R159 in a shop ( the red spaceship i posted above ) and all there was was wood, not foam!!

As I mentionned: Rossi used wood in the race model ( ok this is the alpine everyone talks about here ) until the monocap construction...

Nils

[Bordy]

Not getting into it.... but some times if you hold a board with a lite colored base up to a bright light source you can see the core.

May be worth a shot.

[Kent]

Originally posted by nils
wrong cos i saw one broken R159 in a shop ( the red spaceship i posted above ) and all there was was wood, not foam!!

As I mentionned: Rossi used wood in the race model ( ok this is the alpine everyone talks about here ) until the monocap construction...

Nils

Do you have a picture? As mentioned, the literature on the board will reference microcell. It certainly wouldn't surprise me given the hype at the time that Rossi listed one material and used another.

Better yet...check the Rossi website archive and you'll find NO mention of wood in any of the boards talked about.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.rossignolsnowboards.com

I bubbled the base of the same board and it was foam......I'll dig in my pix archives tonight and should have a pix to post.

[Hugh]

Good answers guys...

So, the Rossi's in question are wood + some microcell foam. I can buy that.

Other newer Rossi's are foam only (no wood of course)?


One last question: how is the microcell layered with the wood?

Thanks much...

[nils]

I happen to know bob, rossi's shaper since the early years!
:) I'll ask him when i get the chance to find his phone again!


Nils :)

[fishrising]

Nils, what year is that throttle you posted a pic of (R159)? I have a R173, that looks identical to yours. And I know nothing about it. It is the 1st carving deck I bought (used)...

And any idea on the specs of the boards?

[nils]

Some confusion on the name thu...
In Europe, the board was never called the throttle, but the Race alpine aka R159, R167 and R173. The lower end model was just the basic Alpine model...
I'm not sure about the throttle series... Might be post or Pre- those models no?? the previous name of the R series was the Shanon Melhuse R series....and, maybe, the throttle beeing the "lower" end model ( had a blue nose going thin to the tail with the rest beeing silver like... the Shanon has the same but the blue went to the tail in many thin points )
I'll post a pic of shanon on it when I find the time to scan it!

N.

N.

[Scorpio]

Nils,

I have the same board as you and you are correct in saying it was the Shannon Melhuse R Series. There is a factory sticker on the topsheet near the tail of my board which has that on it. Do you know the specs?

[fishrising]

My 173 has the Melhuse sticker also...

[Scorpio]

On Ebay (using the awesome "Raceboarders.com" ebay button), there are two Rossi VAS boards, one a 167cm and the other a 168cm. A few of us, including myself, are a little bit confused as to model year of our own Rossi's. My board looks like both of the ones at auction but I doubt these are the same model year. Would a manufacturer build two boards so close in length in the same year? I dig my R159 and would consider bidding on either of these (R167 or R168). Anybody know the differences?

[John Gilmour]

or this one

http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=22211

The second rossi photo in the thread

Gecko-

That board was produced by Voiron, in France.

If it is the 166cm board here are the specs.

235mm nose 19.cm waist, 235 tail . 10.5 M sidecut

stance width
15-19 inches.

Used microcell (A hard Polyurethane foam) it had dualtec cap which was a combo of a 90 degree sidewall and a cap (and a total utter failure...lol)

The base was a R9000PE

the MSRP was $464!!!!

I rode that board at a demo and felt it was slower than much of the competition that year from edge to edge and wasn't as lively as previous Rossis- though its edge hold on super packed powder was lightly better. That year it was wider than a lot of its alpine competition. The its width and stiffness made it pretty stable at speed.

Some people liked the dual tec more than the older rossi sidewalls- I didn't feel that way and felt it was a gimmick. (and in theory a dualtec edge would just reduce the effectness of cap anyhow) I prefered the damper ride of previous models- which I felt were more versatile in a wider rangle of snow conditions.

That same year there was a model called the 165cm Rossi "Accelerator" which had hte colors reversed (where ever there was red you saw dark instead and vice versa) that deck was 21cm at the waist and had 10 meter sidecut with a R6000PE base and sold for a whopping $464!!!!! It wasn't dualtec cap it was a full cap. despite its tighter sidecut- it was almost useless for SL turns and prefered GS turns. Its shorter length and stable platform coupled with its preference for easy GS turns made it a decent board to learn on.
________
LUMINA Z34 (http://www.chevy-wiki.com/wiki/Chevrolet_Lumina_Z34)

[mellowjonny]

I have had two throttles and one accelerator all with the foam core--you can see the blue foam through the top sheet now because it has desinagrated. They now ride like a sponge. The polyuerathane microcell foam like the kledgecell foam of the early 80's didn't contain the elasticity for the repeaded flex of skis and snowboards. They were certainally a fun board for the first year or two at least in my case.