Thin feet
Hello!
I am new to this forum, my name is Peter and I come from and live in Sweden. I've been skating all my life but am new to speed skating. I have the powerslide megacruise 125s and have been trying to get better and better technique. I feel it's time for some speed skates now.
My main concern is my thin feet. Not talking narrow, but the height of my toes and ball of the foot. I really have feet like a duck....
It's been a big issue when getting ski boots and I have way to much room in my megacruises to wiggle the toes. I've solved it in the megacruise by putting two pairs of inner soles underneath the liner to get less negative space and that works pretty well.
I've been looking at the powerslide Icon wind since they have really sold me on the trinity system, I want 3x125mm and a fully heat moldable boot.
Do you think it will wrap tight enough around my foot when heat molded or do I need som soles in my speed skates too?
Thanks in advanced!
Peter
Comments
I think it just misunderstanding and good commercial fully heatmoldable...
Fully heated is mostly at ankle area at toes it doesn't do much when heating.
For this problem you should looking for shoes with metal eyelets or just installing some.
So you can pull more force to have a snug fit without enlarging laces holes....
Or looking shoes with a extra velcro strap.....
From The Netherlands
Also you can't compare Imperial fit to speed boots.
I have imperial boots yes they are very loose at front, but small.
I have shoe size 39/40 have to buy Imperial size 41-42.
But after wearing in, liner fit is just too loose.
From The Netherlands
If Icon Wind has a full carbon bowl (and it isn't clear from looking at them) it is theoretically possible to squeeze the height of the support carbon fiber sides. However, this would be a non-trivial operation and likely would require a never-before-seen rig to hold everything in place as the thermoplastic cools. It is usually straightforward to add volume via heat molding. Reducing volume can be an exercise is frustration. I speak from experience squeezing the heals of three different boots. And that is a much simpler operation then what you are proposing.
Unfortunately, adding insoles isn't a great idea either. Much of the dexterity and efficiency of speed boots comes from having stiff carbon wrapped closely around your feet with little between your anatomy and the wheels. Adding insoles defeats much of this.
If you can afford it, I think your best choice is a custom boot. A custom boot can be made to fully accomodate the shape of your foot with no compromises. If you go this route, make sure your bootmaker is aware of how your feet differ from the norm. I have had to heat mold custom boots from Pinnacle and Simmons to fix inadequate clearance above my toes. I don't think they expect to see significant variation in the vertical dimension and may assume a flaw in the cast if you don't remind them.
Yeah I have Maple Mpl 1 gold boots. Front vertical space is very high. I did add more force to laces to have some snug feeling. After eyelets modification I could strap more tighten and problem fixed....
For experimental heatmolding etc I have a pair of Powerslide Triple X boots. Well I had to add a lot of heat to soften front area. Hold for a long time to cool off. Even then improvements were soo tiny.....
Looks like Icon Lte version has almost fully metal eyelets...
From The Netherlands
As a speedskater, I agree with ese002 about custom boots. I admittedly have only skated customs for over a decade, but I just can't imagine ever going back to stock boots. Insoles are also not a great idea and would only be an indication of a terrile fitting boot. I have seen a custom Trinity mount by Kaiser, but I think that was a prototype design boot for testing by a US skater. I have no idea what is available as far as customs in Europe. Sorry, I suspect I'm not helping much, but I'm just glad to see a new post and wanted to respond :)
Yup I have tried mamy stock boots, none of them are 100% satisfisies😂
From The Netherlands
Thank you all for replying!
The metal eyelets is a good thing to keep track of and I got the answer to it not being the best idea to have inner soles. Thank you.
I don't have a clue where I could get a hold of custom boots. Speed skating is not a very big sport in Sweden. I'm not even sure it is a sport in Sweden :)
On a video about heat molding they talked about wrapping a Velcro strap around your boot to get it more snugg while warm. Couldthat be an idea for me to try around the bottom part of my foot? What kind of strap is that?
Thanks again for your inputs. Right now I'm thinking I'm gonna buy a pair and try them on.
I've searching the internet for similar foot troubles but can't seem to find anybody complaining about their duck feet.
Hopefully it won't be as big of an issue in speed skates as in ski boots. But if it is I guess custom is the only way to go, right?
Thanks again!
Well you could try those prefering boots first. You will noticed speed boots are snug fit cut. If like and fit you are lucky :-)
From The Netherlands
Hi Peter,
The heat molding for stock boot works if the boot fits well to your feet. If there is too much room in the boot you would not be able to adjust the shape correctly.
Full custom boot sounds a good idea. In Europe EOSkates offer Concu custom boots, Sergio McCargo do the custom boots for Powerslide. They usually make a feet casting at large skating events such as Berlin Marathon. As far I know EOSkates do casting in their shop on appointment. You may say its expensive (1000-1800 EUR) but at the end you have the boot which fits your feet instead of trying with few pairs of stock boots.
There is one more issue I would like to bring up in this context: changing the boot from high-cuff to low-cuff may be a bit painful at the beginning as the technique of skating is a little bit different. There is no liner inside the boot as you want to transfer most of the push directly to the frame. Therefore, the racing boot is not that comfortable as the one for urban skating. This is the price you need to pay to get more speed. Oh, one more thing, if this is the first time in low-cuff boot, 125 wheels are too large.
You can see if our Skatesfun products satisfy you. Christmas is coming soon, there will be surprises if you say nothing! !