Custom adjustable forward flex mod for Dynafit Vulcans

[swissiphic]

I've always desired ski touring boots with in field, easily and quickly adjustable forward flex. Present era touring boots that offer flex adjustment options like re/re tongues of various stiffnesses were just too fiddle fucky for my tastes. I wanted shift on the fly convenience.

After about 6 different mod attempts at solving the puzzle, version 7 seems to hold the most hope. It's not there yet, but version 8 should address the minor quibbles I have with version 7.

A quick summary of how the mechanism works: when closed, the pink buckle provides dynamic tension against the upper ski/walk mode 'ultralock' buckle. This mitigates any hint of fore/aft 'play' when boot is in ski mode. The area below the ultralock buckle ski mode locking 'knob' has been excavated. The allows for free forward movement while blocking rearward travel; this maintains rear support stiffness. With the pink buckle closed and skier flexing the boot forward, the buckle ladder levers against the blue rubber piece which squishes and allows for a more damped and progressive forward flex compared to stock ski boot performance. The buckle bail can be positioned on various buckle ladder notches, thereby affording the skier a selection of stiffness of forward flex and range of forward ankle flex/motion. Further fine tuning can be achieved by manipulating the micro adjustment of the pink buckle.

The three ski touring days I've tested the modded boots on have yielded positive results. The option of tweaking the flex to suit different snow conditions was much welcome. The last ski tour featured a thin rain melt/freeze zipper crust over deep moist mank. With boots in 'stiff' or basically locked out/stock stiffness, inadequate forward ankle flex resulted in the typical sensation of getting knocked backseat in every turn. It was difficult to stay over the tips and keep forward pressure. With the flex adjuster turned to medium soft, those issues were mitigated and easy, intuitive forward/centered pressured large radius slarves were seamlessly linked together.

The ultra soft setting will be used for those days where it dumps deep dust on a crust/supportive base and skis typically just bottom feed and bounce along the bottom with blower flying in yer face. In the softest setting, it will allow the tips of skis to more naturally plane and for skier to assume a more regular stance for mo betta feeling turns. For those snow conditions in the past, i've skied with boots in tour mode, power strap and top buckle loosened to get the desired ski tip float. Not bad but any terrain undulations throwing skier in back seat resulted in heroic recovery sessions. To have the full rear support and properly fit tensioned buckled cuffs should provide a level change for ski feelz in those conditions.

All just preliminary info and will report more as the season progresses after version 8 drops.

Ski mode



walk/tour mode with rear rom




cavity below ultralock buckle insert knob that was excavated to allow resistance free forward travel in ski mode.

[NorCalNomad]

Paste in as "Paste and Match Style" so we can actually read that white text. I'll edit this when you fix your post.


A quick summary of how the mechanism works: when closed, the pink buckle provides dynamic tension against the upper ski/walk mode 'ultralock' buckle. This mitigates any hint of fore/aft 'play' when boot is in ski mode. The area below the ultralock buckle ski mode locking 'knob' has been excavated. The allows for free forward movement while blocking rearward travel; this maintains rear support stiffness. With the pink buckle closed and skier flexing the boot forward, the buckle ladder levers against the blue rubber piece which squishes and allows for a more damped and progressive forward flex compared to stock ski boot performance. The buckle bail can be positioned on various buckle ladder notches, thereby affording the skier a selection of stiffness of forward flex and range of forward ankle flex/motion. Further fine tuning can be achieved by manipulating the micro adjustment of the pink buckle.

The three ski touring days I've tested the modded boots on have yielded positive results. The option of tweaking the flex to suit different snow conditions was much welcome. The last ski tour featured a thin rain melt/freeze zipper crust over deep moist mank. With boots in 'stiff' or basically locked out/stock stiffness, inadequate forward ankle flex resulted in the typical sensation of getting knocked backseat in every turn. It was difficult to stay over the tips and keep forward pressure. With the flex adjuster turned to medium soft, those issues were mitigated and easy, intuitive forward/centered pressured large radius slarves were seamlessly linked together.

The ultra soft setting will be used for those days where it dumps deep dust on a crust/supportive base and skis typically just bottom feed and bounce along the bottom with blower flying in yer face. In the softest setting, it will allow the tips of skis to more naturally plane and for skier to assume a more regular stance for mo betta feeling turns. For those snow conditions in the past, i've skied with boots in tour mode, power strap and top buckle loosened to get the desired ski tip float. Not bad but any terrain undulations throwing skier in back seat resulted in heroic recovery sessions. To have the full rear support and properly fit tensioned buckled cuffs should provide a level change for ski feelz in those conditions.

All just preliminary info and will report more as the season progresses after version 8 drops.

Ski mode

[swissiphic]

Yeah, NCN...it's a bit of a mess. I'll delete thread and start from scratch at some point.