TX-Pro cuff swap with Scarpa Rush

[telepariah]

I've been threatening to do this for a while. Like many tele skiers I am not entirely satisfied with the current boot offerings. I already removed the top buckle on one pair of Pros because it puts pressure on some pooled blood and nerve sensitivity in my left shin from hitting a tree three years ago. Plus, I never liked stiff forward flexing boots in the first place. So I got my hands on a pair of Scarpa Rush boots from a few years back and determined to cannibalize the cuffs and put them on my second pair of TX-Pro shells to create a (somewhat) lighter boot with greater ROM in walk mode to use for touring. That's what I am hoping Scarpa comes out with but I won't be surprised if they go lighter and stiffer than the TX-Pro, a boot that I may or may not not be able to ski in.

I had the hardest time trying to get the cuffs off of the Rushes. One of 8 screws holding the walk mechanism together came free without so much as a whimper. None of the others would budge at all and I ended up stripping the hex heads trying to move them. Then I tried to drill them out and promptly broke the drill bit that I bought expressly for that purpose. I decided to simply punch out the pin holding the lock bar on the shell thinking I might use the same lock bar on the Pros. That turned out to be a non-starter as the lock bar from the Rush severely limited backward range of motion in the boot. The first thing I did was to cut the lock bar so I could get it out of the walk mode assembly. I put the Rush cuff on the Pro shell and it didn't fit. There were two triangular flanges sticking out on the back of the Pro shell so I cut those off. Better, but still not quite where the holes needed to be. I looked at the Rush cuff and decided that it needed some surgery too. So I started shaving the very back bottom of the cuff to make the pbax thinner there. Now it fit perfectly.

So I re-assembled everything and tried it on. Feels great! Limited pressure on my nerve damaged shin. ROM is definitely better than the TX-Pro but by how much I'm not yet sure. I used an old Scarpa OEM wrap liner, which is a little lighter than the OEM tongue liner that comes with the TX-Pro. I don't have a footbed in the new boots but that will not make a huge difference. The new frankenboots come in at 1634 g in a size 27. The boot I compared with is a 28 with OEM liner and the top buckle removed. The TX-Pros are 1859 g for a weight savings of 225 g per foot.

I still have to smooth out the parts that I carved, replace the one screw, and put some footbeds in the boots.