Warm Slush / Hot Pow
In hot pow (i.e., slush that you sink into up to about 4-6 inches) a forward, aggressive stance will just send you somersaulting down the mountain—especially mounted on the “Eric’s Choice” line. That line is very near center (-2 cm), so the Bacon really requires a more centered, relaxed stance when slicing through slush. I’m confident that this will carry over to cold pow, too, but if you keep that centered stance, I expect the Bacons to be very manageable in pow. (We’ll hopefully confirm soon enough. C’mon El Nino…)
Terrain Park (Swing Weight + Comparisons)
At Porters Ski area in Canterbury, I was able to lap a couple of small jumps and rails to get a sense of the Bacons’ park performance.
On rails, the skis felt very comfortable and quick for a ski with a 104mm waist. I frequently ride 179cm K2 Recoils in the park—a 90mm-wide dedicated park ski. On the other end of the spectrum, my 181cm Rossignol Sickles (110mm underfoot) are often on my feet when I make end-of-the-day park laps at Taos.
The low swing weight of the Bacon was much more comparable to the K2 Recoil than the Rossi Sickle; the Bacon can switch-up and spin into and out of rails much more quickly than the Sickle.
After one run through the jump line to get the speed right, I felt perfectly comfortable spinning the Bacons. The near-center mount gives a nice balanced feel in the air, and the stiffness of the ski allowed for stable, controlled landings in the slush. I landed a couple of 540’s leaning pretty far forward, and the support from the shovels was more than adequate. Landings on the Bacon are much more stable than on the K2 Recoil, and just shy of the stability of the Rossignol Sickles.
Buttering / Playfulness
Again, the SFB is very energetic and poppy. They are super fun to jump off anything all around the mountain, and basically every run at Craigieburn Valley had me grinning from ear to ear.
About halfway down my first run, there was a partially-buried snow fence in the direction I was heading. Shifting my weight backward and loading up the tails, it was very easy to ollie over the snow fence. The natural pop from the Bacon had me sailing, and I was instantly looking for the next thing to jump off.
Further down the run, we found this cool fifteen foot step down over a grassy patch. Popping an ollie off the top and stomping the landing was really fun. I landed a little backseat to avoid catching my tips in the slush, and the tails supported my weight very well. I easily adjusted back to a more centered stance, and I was able to quickly carve to the right to jump off the next feature. (These skis like to be turning. Credit that tight sidecut radius.)
The flex pattern of the Bacon makes it extremely fun to pop off of everything all over the mountain, but it does have tradeoffs. The SFB is surprisingly difficult to press into nose butters.
On several of my park laps at Porters, I spent some time skipping the jumps and just buttering around on the knuckles of the landings. To butter this Bacon (butter on bacon? Sounds delicious!), you really need to lean hard into the nose of the ski. Even when I flexed them out as much as I could, I still wasn’t significantly bending them, and I definitely didn’t have much control of my pop out of the butter. The exit of a nose-butter was more of a wash out instead of a controlled, explosive pop.
But don’t get me wrong, the Bacons have plenty of energy in the nose. They can nollie pretty well, and you can definitely get a lot of pop out of them if you want to pivot/nollie into a spin. However, if you’re really trying to press into them and get a good butter over a roller, their stiff flex just makes it a bit difficult.
On my playfulness scale (1 being not playful at all, and 10 being the most playful ski ever), I’d give the new Bacon an 8. If the ski was as energetic and poppy as it is and a bit more butter friendly, I would easily give it a 9, maybe even a 10.
NEXT: Comparisons, Bottom Line
Nice review. Great pictures. Looks fun. As an older skier who skies the whole mountain on the older Bacon, except not in the park and not in the air, I like the older Bacon very much.
Oh my are these a beautiful ski. Now I’m torn between pretending I can afford this model and pretending I can afford last year’s version!
Thanks for the well-written thorough review. If the new version is twitchy, mounting a little back from Eric’s Choice may help. I’ve owned the 12/13 Bacon mounted at 2cm behind Eric’s Choice and the 14/15 model mounted at Eric’s Choice. The 12/13 were incredibly stable (not twitchy or chattery at all) but I had to get over my tips to turn quickly in trees and bumps. The 14/15 feel more nimble, but at speed they are a bit twitchy with some tip vibration (but it’s more psychological than problematic). So I’m guessing that somewhere between 0.5cm and 1cm behind Eric’s Choice would provide the optimum balance between stability and nimbleness.
Hi Jason,
I currently ski the 12/13 Bacon, but i have the opportunity to buy a 12/13 Sickle in 178.
I´m 5.9 tall, weight 165lbs and consider myself an advanced skier.
I tried to get a hold on a 186 sickle for quite some time now but they are impossible to get anywhere. So i´m thinking about buying the shorter, newer model.
Do you think the Sickles in 178 would be too short for me, or are they as much fun as the 186s?
Cheers and thanks in advance
Fusch
Have you by any chance skied recent Gotamas? I’ve have some and love them (2014 model) but have recently tried some new Bacons. I loved the pop on the Lines, just wondering if it’s worth dropping a pair of skis that have only had a few weeks’ skiing, and a coupla hundred bones, just to get the Lines? Prolly only I can decide, but just throwing the question out there…..
Hi Alex,
Great review. I’m thinking of getting these skis as an all mountain touring ski for the Alps. I used to ski the Opus type powder skis of old and loved them for touring in BC so the new lighter SFB was my first thought. Your review seemed mixed but mainly positive, would you recommend them as a poppy, big drop, all mountain touring ski? Also, how did you find the tail stiffness? did it flop out on you at all?
Cheers for the review,
Mike
Curious if you guys ride different lengths of skis depending on whether they’re centered or traditionally mounted? I typically ride 184 Katanas and picked up a pair of 186 SFB’s (I wanted a very playful ski at the other end of the spectrum from the Katana), but as soon as I stepped into the bindings the 5″ shorter nose threw me off. Even though they ride as I wanted, I can’t shake the feeling I’m going to fold the noses up on a landing and cartwheel down the hill.
Good question, Stephen. Since I bet some others might be wondering the same thing, I’m going to work up a reply to post as a Topic of the Week. And just to be clear, I assume you meant the 184 SFBs — but did you get this new model or the previous edition of the SFB?
Hey Jonathan, I did mean the 184, thanks for catching that. I did get the older version, the 14-15s with the red mountain. I’ve wanted something on the playful, energetic side of the spectrum, so I grabbed the previous version—since they stiffened the newer version’s flex profile.
Got it. And your question is now living as our topic of the week. Hope it’s a little helpful.
Jonathan,
Any more comparisons to the 14/15 Bacon? Educated guesses about the new one in 190?
Comparisons to a Soul 7?
How about some comparisons to the old Bacon? What about the 190 length of the new one?
Oh wise Blister folk. I’m in need of help. I’m trying to replace my tired pair of 2014 Line Bacons with a new ski that performs the same. I’m having difficulty in trying to pick the right ski and even narrowing it down seems to be a tough venture. Anyone know of a ski that rides like the 2014 bacons and will allow me to mount at a more central stance (all mountain freestyle).
Was aiming to have the width between 105-110 so that I could treat it as a 1 ski quiver
thanks
The title reads “2018-2019” but the review seems to be 2015-2016.
That’s correct — our review was conducted on the 15/16 SFB, but the ski hasn’t been changed apart from graphics since this review was published.
Got it. Thanks Luke.