Changing roller ski farrules and snow tips/baskets?

xcskiforum 10K Joined: 17 Nov 2008 Posts: 4

Can anyone comment on how difficult this is? I feel like I have read from a number of sources that one can generally heat the tip with a hair dryer and then slide the tip right off. Is that it? Would that make going back and forth between roller ski tips and snow tips easy?

I know some people have a set of poles for snow (or multiple sets) and another, perhaps older, set for roller skiing. I am in desperate need of new poles, and I'm not in a position to get two new sets.

Any thoughts would be great, thanks.

Brian

I use a pot of boiling water....but yeah...that's pretty much it. Don't know if a hair dryer will get things hot enough, and a heat gun can be hard on the carbon/finish on the pole if not done correctly.

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:57 am Post subject :

I have a set for roller skiing and a set for winter skiing. If I have problems with my poles I go to my trusted dealer and he will fix it.

xcskiforum 10K Joined: 17 Nov 2008 Posts: 4

Ah yes, the boiling water. I've heard of that one, too, Enevala. How long do you leave the tip in the water? Probably not too long, as you don't want to reshape the basket or anything like that.

And you are right about going to a knowledgeable dealer, Phil. Unfortunately, I think I'm the only person in my city roller skiing, and we have a few stores that sell ski stuff, but it is kind of an after thought for them.

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:55 am Post subject :

The baskets are surprisingly resistant to warpage in hot water. That being said, 15 seconds (or so) of immersion should be fine. All the hardware on the pole is held in place w. a low temp hotmelt glue, so it's pretty easy to work with.

Eric

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:44 pm Post subject :

OMG where do you live?

xcskiforum 10K Joined: 17 Nov 2008 Posts: 4

I'm in Iowa City. We have quite a few people who ski in the winter, but I have never seen, or heard of, anyone roller skiing.

A few of my training friends have had pretty good Birkies the last two years, and I have been kicking myself for not going. So this year I signed up in June. Then I found a pair of roller skis on ebay to ensure that I could train through any meltdowns we might experience in December, January, and February.

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:15 am Post subject :

OMG where do you live?

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:49 am Post subject :

I like Iowa City. I spent about a total of six weeks there in '03-'04. It was nice back then and they were still building the library. I went back in 2007 and it seemed like the whole city had changed! They really did a nice job I must say.

xcskiforum 10K Joined: 17 Nov 2008 Posts: 4

I just thought I would report back and say the ferrule changing worked great. My new poles came, and after about 15 or 20 seconds of placing the baskets in boiling water I was able to yank them off.

When I put the new V2 ferrules on I just used the residual glue from the baskets. Since there is nothing to pull on the roller ski tips I figure it should be fine.

And I can also say the new, stiffer poles, with the actual roller ski tips are amazing. Far superior than the old, crappy poles I used for my first few roller skis.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. And happy roller skiing.