The secret about VIRUS Zylon technology

 

What is Zylon™?

Zylon™ is an artificial high end composite fiber and one of the strongest - if not the strongest - artificial fibers in the world. Its performance is far beyond high-end carbon fibers.

Inspired by spider web, the strongest fiber in nature with a strength of almost 700kg per mm², scientists developed an artificial clone: the Zylon™ fiber.

Imagine you could lift a two-ton heavy car with a shoestring. That would be possible if a thin rope would be woven with Zylon™ fibers.

 

VIRUS and Zylon™

VIRUS was the first brand who recognized the potential of using this material more than ten years ago and invested a lot in permanent improvements of board design and technology.

The benefit of this technology is a product which has extreme and unmatched performance. Excellent ice grip, very high stability at high speeds, it gives the user an extremely save feeling, and absorbs muscle weakening high frequencies and vibrations on icy tracks.

The boards and skis made with that materials keep their performance easily more than 100+ days of use.

The fiber is extremely expensive and almost impossible to work with because with normal tools it is almost uncuttable. Each board ^~ 25 – 30 hours of production.

 

Proven Performance

The outstanding performance of those boards we were able to proof together with the top snowboard athlete Benjamin Karl from Austria. With 5 World Championship titles, 3 overall World Cup Champion titles and an Olympic gold, silver, and bronze medal he is the most successful alpine snowboarder ever.

With his gold medal victory at the Olympic winter games in Giant slalom on his VIRUS Zylon™ GS racing snowboard, he delivered his personal masterpiece. On a board custom build to his specifications and which he has never tried before arriving in Beijing / China he dominated the race from the first run. Fastest time on his course in the qualification, through quarter-, half- to the finals he was easily able to dominate his rivals and was able to fulfil his biggest dream since he was a kid and winning the Gold Medal at the Olympic winter games.

After the race Benjamin said, that it was not a decision by heart to change on this board. For him it was a decision by performance of the board, which gave him an advantage of 0.6 seconds in comparison to his former board and a much better and safe feeling. He noticed it was not necessary to ride on the edge to be fast, which is a huge advantage in snowboard racing.

 

 

Handmade in Germany

That is exactly what a VIRUS Zylon board makes it so unique. Ride safer, faster and more energy saving one of our boards. But it’s not only the advantage of exotic and intensively tested materials VIRUS is using. It is our passion which flows in each of our products. With more than 35 years of experience and more than 30.000 + handmade high technology skis and snowboards in Germany, we can make your dream come true.

 

Sidecut Radius Question:

A frequently asked question is which sidecut radius our boards have.

We use an elliptical multi radius on our boards, not a single one.

A single radius, for example 10 m works kind of ok when you turn in that size of radius. If you have a wide-open slope and want to do wide turns, it will never be possible to make stable wide turns because the board always tries to turn in that tighter radius. The feeling riding a board like that gives a feel to be a passenger on bord. With an elliptical multi radius you can turn into the radius you want, tight in the steep to control the speed, wide if you have an open slope, which allows big fast turns. Riding a board with a multi radius gives you the feeling of total control and you are the pilot and not the passenger anymore. Fact is, it is possible to build 10 boards with the exact same shape and radius and they all ride different. So the radius of a board says almost nothing about its characteristics.

We have invented that about more than 30 years ago and found nothing better working till now. Our boards are all constructed on physical based laws. The results are, better float in soft snow, no nose digging of the boards, faster acceleration out of turns, more edge grip and the most important a safer and more relaxed ride. All these characteristics make a board perfect. The boards are fast, stable at high speed on the edge, variable in turning.