Rossignol Bandit B83 (2008)

The B83 is the replacement for the B3 which I’d been riding for the last few years and the best just got better. Great allrounder, built for going off track into the trees and powder but equally at home on the moguls. Can tend to be skittish at very high speeds, but that is not what they’re for anyway. This ski is built for fun! Put ‘em on and forget you’re wearing skis. if you think about doing a turn they’ll already be on it. I just love these. 10/10

I just came back from a 10 day Utah trip with my new Rossi B 83 Bandits. I’ve skied about a week in VT (Pico Mt.) before hand to get used to them. I got the 184s, I’m 6’ 2” about 200 lbs. 49 intermediate w/ 22 years of skiing exp. I found these to be pretty good on long groomers, fast but a bit squirrelly at high speed, like a previous reviewer had mentioned. I had a terrible time controlling these in steep bumps, better floating over 10” powder.

“Put ‘em on and forget you’re wearing skis. if you think about doing a turn they’ll already be on it.”

Yeah, okay ... are you on the Rossi payroll?

The Rossi Axial2 120 bindings continued to have an unnerving reluctance to disengage when pushing down the heel release, They would not let go sometimes. I had them torque tested at a shop in Park City and was told that they were corectly set but high performance and a 2 stage release ment a harder push was needed.

The 120 bindings allowed for a quick change of settings for another skier to try them on the fly, a nice feature. My friend, who is shorter but a better skier tried them at Solitude at the end of the day.

His review was that they didn’t arc of bit into steeps as well as his shorter Vokkel’s did. Quick but felt like they were skiing out from under him. Not so great in the bunps. He said he had a better understanding about my reluctance to ski steep narrow mogals in these.

Bottom line. Okay but didn’t live up to the hype, actually. Powder, large groomers ...great…a “Great All Mountain Ski” .... well .......

Great on hard snow for long cruiser turns.  Not highly stabel at speeds but you can get “down ” on them on med to large radius turns.  Not for mid to deep powder but great in tight trees, steeps, 1-4” of powder, chunky snow.

120 axium bindings just carnt keep up with skis also on small radius turns skis dont grip. preffer the head im 78s but mi pair was a gift so carnt complain much

I live in Australia but bought my B83’s in Colorado. They were excellent in powder and I thought excellent in the bumps. Not sure why one of the reveiwers found it hard to turn in deep bumps but it sounds like you want the skis to do all work for you. That being said you do have a few more runs on the board than me being in your 40’s. I agree that they are jumpy at high speed unless you are carving at high speed and they are great. They aren’t so good on Australian snow as our conditions are quite kruddy much of the time and they struggle to punch through heavy snow.

I tried these as demo skis at Kirkwood in Jan. 2010 in 160 cm length. I’m 5’7” and intermediate-advanced. I was seeking skis that provide a good balance of varying snow conditions. I tried to go off-piste as much as possible to test ‘em.

Couldn’t test them in dry powder, but they handle crud, ice and wet snow very well. If they’re wide enough to be stable on crud, they should do reasonably well in powder.

The excel at tight, nimble turns and edging on steep runs. My ski buddy on his Bode Miller Rossignols (longer and narrower skis) had trouble getting down the steep runs which I handled quite easily.

I skied Mammoth the next day and the skis tight control made me extremely nimble through the glades - and that includes sections where a little ice had formed on the top of the snow.

BOTTOM LINE: I bought the demos! Highly recommended. Not for racing, but definitely great for tight turns and less-than-optimal conditions.

Had them in the trees and a lot of heavy crud on piste yesterday. They were great. Floated through everything. Found myself in the trees run after run. I’m normally a hard/rebound turner but once I relaxed I found this skis sweet spot. Let em Run and enjoy the ride. 184cm/220# XXXpert