Problem with mount
Hi! I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. I purchased a pair of Jackson Viper boots with a Falcon plate. It was supposed to be a skate build with everything but the wheels. I have a bunch of wheel sets, so it seemed like a good deal. I got the skates, tossed on some wheels and took them out for a test drive. They pull in at the toes terribly. It's absolutely impossible to skate with them.
I've skated with several different types of skates recently and never had a problem anything like this. Most recently, I've been skating on Quadstars and Golden Hours (which is just a yellow version of the Sure-Grip Fame - so it has a dance mount) with no problems, so there should have been no problem with a traditional high boot with the Falcon plates. The only thing I can think is the problem is the way in which they were mounted at the shop I mail ordered from.
I took a bunch of pictures and was careful about the shot perspective so you can hopefully see how they are mounted. The markings on the bottom of the boots are from the shop. I should have noted in one picture where the line is between my second and third toes, but it isn't anywhere near what they have marked as the center. I really love the fit on the Viper boot, so I'm super bummed I can't skate on them. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.
Comments
Skates not mounted by someone who knows what they are doing tend to have some issues, but how hard are your cushions? Did you adjust the action at all? And does the boot have a large difference in stiffness or different arch/heel size?
They are a well-known online retailer, so I expected they would know what they are doing. I have not adjusted the cushions, they are Bionic red/medium cushions. The boot isn't profoundly different than any other boot I've worn over the years. The kingpin angle is 16 degrees, but I've had no problem skating on the Bont Quadstars (low profile boot) which have a 20 degree angle.
I am open to the idea that perhaps it's a combination of the 16 degree plate and heeled boot because while I'm skating with heeled boots with 10 degree kingpins (for years) and a low profile boot and 20 degree king pins, I've never had a combination of a heeled boot and a more angled king pin. It's just incredibly weird to me because it's not like I feel like I'm just not strong enough to correct the angle, it feels like the skate is being controlled by an external force that I can't overcome.
I'll also mention that just to satisfy my own curiosity, I tried them with a few wheel/bearing combinations and it's the same result with each. I'll also mention here that these were sold as and being used as outdoor skates.
On a side note, I've really enjoyed learning a lot in the last few months about different types of quads while trying to find the perfect skate. I spent five hours measuring the plates and boots for my skates the other day and actually enjoyed reading about types of mounts/best practices.
Glad you are having fun. One of the things that would be helpful is similar pix of your other sk8s. Often a new mount may be different than your old one and that can throw you for a loop. Another thing to consider is that most on line retailers do not assemble sk8s. They have the distributor or the manufacturer do it. Since the viper and Falcon are both Atom products, I would suspect that the retailer did not assemble them. Drop me an email. My address is on the page when you click my user ID.