Cuff, Heel, problems

[XDvandalDJ]

So lately I've encountered a strange problem. Way back when I demoed a pair of powerstrider olympic jumping stilts for a blog. They were fine, I got great height from them and loved their design. Despite two problems that I encountered that I never did on poweriser advanced.

Firstly my heel slide from side to side.


Secondly the cuff on my left leg never stayed in place. The inner bar would pivot outwards.

It was frustrating. The issue never really happened when walking. But once I got to jumping, I'd end up landing feeling off center, or my leg would be c*ckeyed.


So after my review time was over. I sent the pair back. I went back to using my poweriser advanced with no cuff issues, or any other problems. Now fast forward several more months and my poweriser advanced were showing age. The frames were about a year and a half old, and I had gone through springs pretty quickly. I'm consider myself a frequent user. When the seasons right I'll be out there 3-5 times a week with my sessions being 2-3 hours. So my lower joints were shot, all my bolts needed replaced. Rather then keep limping the stilts along I bought a new pair of poweriser advanced.

After a couple weeks on these. I ran into that weird left calf cuff problem. Where the inner bar pivoted. A few emails back and forth from poweriser and I got a new set of clamps. But this never solved the problem.

Then I bent the outer bar on my left stilt. It happened in a heavy jump. I came down, and the inner bar pivoted outwards quickly. My leg twisted and the outer bar wouldn't move in the clamp. It just bent instead.

So poweriser sent me a new bar to replace that one.


Getting fed up with that problem. I found a pair of olympics for a bargain and decided to try my luck on those. I got them with knee bars. So I put my poweriser cuffs on them.

I ended up hitting those two old problems. In the heel, and in the ever frustrating left stilts inner bar pivoting. So I swapped my poweriser bindings on the olympics. Problem kinda solved. I can ratchet my foot down tight enough to prevent slipping. But my feet go numb to quick. I'm debating on some new shoes. But I wear us 16s and those sizes aren't cheap.


For the cuff problem. It wasn't as severe as before but it was for sure sliding outwards. It'd fix the stilts before going out. I'd strap them on and bock from my apartment to the park which is about 6 blocks. Usually when I got there, I could feel that it was moving slowly, and by the time my friends meet up with me to jump around. I'd end up sitting down to fix it.

Finally I put one layer of tape on the bar to hope it'd stop it all together. It did, the bar never pivoted again. I even marked the tape with a pen, to a spot on the frame so I could be sure it never moved. Just tonight I bocked back out to the park, and got stopped by a family with their kids. They wanted to see me demo the stilts. So I did 3 big jumps, a split kick, and a tuck for them. My heels slid out of place so I had to stop.

It felt like my stilts were out of wack again. But I could look down and see the mark was perfectly lined up. So I sat down and realized I bent the outer bar out of place this time. At this point my friends showed up on their stilts ready for the meet. So I'm back to the dreaded knee bars.



Is it possible I some how developed a problem in my left leg? I mean I never noticed an issue for nearly 2 years using two previous stilts before. I'm almost on my 3rd year of powerbocking.

Or is it possible the issue with my last cuffs was in the inner bar all along that was never replaced? I dunno, it never looked out of alignment before I bent it tonight.

[Spud]

Sounds like a problem with your technique or leg but it's hard to tell. As for the heel slipping you can knock the sides of the heel part of the footplate in which may help. Jason did the mod and I think it helped him!

[XDvandalDJ]

It's hard to tell because the issue isn't there with the older stilts. I still have those, they've just been fixed and given to friends. When I get on them it doesn't happen.


For the heel problem. I've added RV grip tape to the footplate so far. It still moves. So I'm either going to go through the process of bending that piece or make some padding to keep my foot in place.


I guess all these little problems are payback for those years I didn't have issues other then going through springs to fast.

[webmaster]

Hope this helps - Thanks to Jason, Spud and Nero for images

During our tests we found there to be 2 problems with the heel section:
1. The sideways movement
2. It was causing discomfort

These heel issues only effected some users so we put it down to an external factor rather than the stilts themselves

1. The movement: If you look at the top image, the way to stop the sideways movement is to knock the sides in, this is something that is done at the manufactures for Pro-Jump but you can do it yourself - This can also be sorted out with some types of trainers

2. The discomfort:
The middle image shows Spuds footwear and a comparison with the old footplate and the new, Spud found the heel uncomfy as you can see the metal heel section hits her heel directly at the point of the material on her trainers rather than the sole or reinforced section. The bottom image shows Nero's footwear as you can see on both the footwear the trainers meets the metal heel section on the reinforced section of his trainers so he doesn't have direct contact on the thinner material.

With the cuff issue I'm not sure what the problem could be apart from an alignment issue tbh 

[xoxos]

on my u.s. powerstriders (i don't fancy bending anythnig with the tools i've got atm) i've resigned myself to strapping my heel on the inside corner.

yesterday, after tightening the cuffs i took long shoelaces that went over my foot twice, tieing them over over the whole mess and going through the footplate. my shoes are old and thin so there was still ~1/2" movement, the laces did keep my heels from slipping out, which they would do otherwise.

(as noted, before i was wedging something on the outside of my shoe, but the buckle tended to hit this and come loose)

[Jason]

Ok just a first thought on this

If your foot is moving from side to side it will alter the ballance and put more pressure on one side of the cuff
So if you tend to push your heel to one side to cure the movement when you shift over it will put lots of strain on one side of the cuffs

Bending the sides of the heel plate in is an effective way of stopping your foot moving
I did it with only a hammer and a bit of wood (the wood was to stop the hammer marking the ally)
The most important thing is to bend it a little bit and them check as you don't want to be trying to bend it out again as this could weaken it

I used to use the plastic clamps on all my cuffs and if I cranked them down really tight they never moved (except during a big fall)

So I would try fixing the heel problem and you might find the calf problem goes too

Jason 

[XDvandalDJ]

I do actually get pain in the back of my heel from the plate digging into my shoe, and the straps when tight enough buckle my shoe over. I'll just have to buy new shoes.

I'll buy new shoes and try bending the heel plate in.


When I get that sorted. I'll see about getting a replacement bar for that cuff.