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Hardshell Project


thager
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Stumbled on an interesting pair of cheap inline skates today at a local sporting goods store. Bought a pair of Blade Runner Fury's for $50 bucks. Not for skating but for my next hardshell project. Sturdiest pair of boots I have ever come across but with the low ankle shell. Remind me of the Fluid Motion type boots. Easy to separate boots from the blades with a screw driver and hex key. Possibly a little too well built (heavy). Now if I can just find my old HO plates. Anyone use these to make bindings before? Eric?
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@Horton My plan is a dual lock plate and a releasable cuff. Yes, it is still cold outside. I am afraid to go there!!! Balmy -4F right now. I have found the temp to be proportional to the square of the distance my dobe travels to dribble yellow ice. What's the square root of 3 feet? Ummmm, stand by. I have to go pry my pup off the fence post!!
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Just depends what sort of system you want to make.

 

FM modifies their boots quite a bit, it isn't apparent when you look at them, but most of the cuffs are shortened, the boot itself has a V in the rear, and some inner prongs that extend upwards.

 

Not sure all of what they do, but here are some pointers in the DIY boot game.

 

Pick ONE release method - stick to it. Stuff gets lost, stuff sinks. The releasable cuff is going the E-Series route, I think this is hard to execute well, atleast for the $ Jager charges.

 

The Goode plate system relies on tuning of the dual lock, you don't want to release your cuff and have the plate release and sink for instance.

 

Intuition liners are boss.

 

You can cut large amounts of most skate shells off with a bench sander - lots of "extra" meat on skates, particularly ones like those gray shells, or like FM uses which are "aggressive inline" skates. Brands are companies like USD I buy bits from Aggressive Mall.com - things like cuff bolts/nuts, brass insert nuts, buckles and such.

 

Cuffs all need tuning, but your'e thinking releasable cuffs.

 

Frankly e.lee is pretty spot on with that gatorade lid, but I am working on a Post and O-ring style.

 

I'm somewhat obsessed with the rotational failure mode - ala spiral fractures. Most systems are OTF tolerent.

 

The other thing I am investigating is a spring detent with high power magnet mode. Not far with that route yet, not enough time in my day.

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Only two of those are FM product, I'm moutning some new shells to the FM's, part of that project is shortening up the rear shell to get the toes closer to the front.

 

Ultimately I will probably buy some new FM parts for that, as I am going another route with that even mid tune up.

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@Bracemaker, I've cut those v type tabs to increase ankle mobility, cut off the toes of the shells so i can decrease the space between the boots and also cut out most of the heel of the rear boot to increase heel mobility. I also use a larger velcro strap around the liner to simulate the feel of buckling the upper cuff since i use bungy now. I think that velcro increases lateral support.
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yup sounds about right. I have not done the heel cut out. I view it like downhill boot fitting.

 

The strap you are referencing is a "powerstrap" - like the downhillers use.

 

In many ways if you aren't trying to stay on the ski, you can wittle the boots down.

 

One of my projects is to pour out some old skates that I loved the fit of in plaster and then thermoform a flexible poly-ethylene bootie, then laminate a heel cup/lower shell around that. And finally fit a new liner to it. The inner bootie of PE will come off with the inner liner and will have a smoother durable surface. The outer frame will remain on the ski like the reflex rear boots.

 

As I said, need time.

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@Thager Personally I prefer a softer boot. The hockey skate shell (like the FMs) is too stiff even for my trick ski. And I like my slalom shells a lot softer. Be viscous with the grinder. The bungee trick will feel even better on a really soft shell. Drill lots of holes and maybe that shell will feel good then.

By the way, I'm working on a new boot not derived from a skate boot. We'll see if that works.

Eric

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Good info guys! Hadn't thought of losing pieces. Probably just stay with the duel lock but we' ll see. Last years project used a softer boot. I need to try stiffer and drill/cut out some weight. Mr Erb, are you out there?
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Wow! I was afraid to ask about such things because I thought I'd be laughed out of the forum. I had no idea there was so much going on in the DIY route. So, tell me if this has been done to death before I do it. Plate system based on DH ski bindings? They're cheap and plentiful, and at first glance appear to be exactly what we need.
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@eleeski - the difference between a two or three season old shell and a new one is incredible.

I've also noted that if you dye the skate using the typical RIT boil method the shell becomes more pliable.

Grinding and drilling is huge, and if you aren't using a front horseshoe rear silvretta, ie. mounted on a plate you can drill out much more of the boot than when you are as the boot doesn't need to be loaded by the silvretta.

 

I've been very curious about some of the components from this company - http://www.powerslide.com/skates/xc-skeleton.html

http://www.powerslide.com/skates/vi-84.html

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Has anyone ever used a hockey skate with a dual lock style release? That seems like it would be pretty supportive, and you could buy a pair of boots for $100 used to $300 new for a pretty good pair. Just wonder how well they would like the water, they are always wet after a game of hockey...
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@kfennell - you don't need near that much support.

 

Ever skate with loose skates and feel the skates darting all over the place? That sucks when ice skating. Waterskiing you dont' get that feed back, and some play lets the ski do its job.

 

You want an ankle joint, and you probably will end up tuning the boot and its cuff to permit much more flexiblity than even inline skates require. Since skating doesn't require much ankle flexion range (as proved by hockey skates)

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