Well, tongue broke on the skorps. LS has the Solar/Skorp replacement tongue assmeblies. Anyone have any experience if the replacement ones (whether purchased or warranty replacement) actually last longer than the ones that are originally installed?
Well, tongue broke on the skorps. LS has the Solar/Skorp replacement tongue assmeblies. Anyone have any experience if the replacement ones (whether purchased or warranty replacement) actually last longer than the ones that are originally installed?
What year were your boots made? My understanding is the last year or two of production for the first gen skorpius they beefed up the tongues. I have over a million vertical feet in first gen Skorpius boots across 3 pairs, and I have never had any issues with the tongues. I have had failures in other areas but only after a lot of use.
From the stamp on the cuff, looks like maybe '18 or '19. I've got a query in to LS to ask about the beefiness of the replacement tongues, but I imagine they're of a later mfg date and pretty solid. Thanks for the reply!
Response from LS regarding durability of replacement tongues: "The Solar Tongue is constructed from the same material as the original Skorpius tongue; however, we've noticed the "Graphite/Jasmine Green" colorway seems to be holding up a little better since they are a newer production batch."
I've gotten a broken pair myself. Anyone have experience swapping the tongues themselves?
Curious if there’s any relationship between tongue failures and boot entering technique. After hearing about (and observing the obvious) weak point on this tongue, Ive been very mindful of how I step into the shell with my liner on, being sure to avoid wrenching on the thin part of the tongue in any lateral/twisting manner. I instead grab under that weak point, which is actually quite awkward and takes a little more patience. To those who’ve broken these tongues — is this possibly part of the problem?
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I've broken the version one tongues twice. The first time I blame on skiing in the cold, the second time was totally related to inattention and carelessness getting in and out of the boots.
I caved and bought version 2s locally paying full price plus sales tax.the la Sportiva importer here will fix the version 1s, so once I get these punched and the V1s fixed, all will once again be well with the world.
What comparable boot exists to the skorps by the way? The shop had me a try a zero g peak which felt lighter but also not really in the same class? The new Dynafit ridge boot maybe?
I'd say those two are the most similar, Maybe the F1 GT/XT as well. I would say all of the comparable boots are annoyingly shorter in length in equivalent sizes to the Skorp. The Zero G Peak is lighter, but has an amazingly supportive and progressive flex. The issue is that it actually walks noticeably worse than the Skorp and its too short in the toebox.
Yeah the 27 in the peak was too short and the 28 had wayyy to much space even in the shop. Maybe I could have gotten it to work with a thick liner and some bontex but not going to go that route when the skorpius fits well.
I find it extremely annoying that brands continue to make light boots shorter than their freeride touring boots. The case of peak carbon was especially stupid imo, I think we would have sold a bunch of those if they'd fit like the zero g. The lack of rearward motion in the peak doesn't bother some folks I guess, but it would be a deal breaker for me in that class of boot.
I only carpet flexed a ridge boot, but it felt significantly more supportive than my Gen 1 skorps. Doesn't have the nice high cuff of the skorp though
I haven’t found a boot directly comparable to my Skorp IIs. I’m not sure why mfgers hadn’t taken the basic recipe of the F1 years ago and made it stiffer—in nearly all respects my skorpius is simply a stiffer version of the F1.
However I have noticed when switching between various boots that the fwd lean of the skorpius II needs to be increased a bit. Since my side hobby is designing gear mods, I’m currently looking into making a longer aluminum swingarm to accomplish this without compromising rearward travel like a spoiler does. I assume some of you would be interested in this simple modification?
How much stiffer are Skorp2s than Skorp1s? Is the fit really that different?
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Would be sweet. Could imagine having multiple notches on a single swingarm. You’d need to be slightly more mindful in transition, but seems easy enough
Edit: actually, probably a few different ways to achieve multiple lean angles on the same single swingarm. Some tradeoffs in design choice that’d create either more fiddling on the bench (swapping or adjusting the arm) vs fiddling in transition (finding the right slot..).
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Are folks putting liners into shell, then foot into liner - or liner on foot, then foot into shell? Strangely difficult getting into these boots lately, not sure why.
I'm finding pretty good durability after 1 season; the boa on one side is starting to fray (anyone seeing this too? Unsure if it will continue and eventually totally fail, or just remain frayed but functional?) and one liner pull on the back (calf) came off when pulling (too hard i guess?) getting into the boot.
I think this has been asked before, but I'd like to poll the group again - anyone had issues with and/or solved tongue/yellow wing interference issues?
I just took my Skorpiuses out for the first tour and unless I crank down the upper buckle (killing the ROM) the different plastic pieces start eating each other. Pic included for context. This might be a volume issue as I can't close the spider buckle while touring, but I thought I'd check before ditching the boots.
Alternatively, if I can't solve this... There will be a pair of 27.5s with stock and ProTour liners on the market.
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Are you able to get the spider buckle half closed while touring at least?
I had this problem also when touring with it open. After putting some lower profile footbeds in I can do the first flip on the buckle now and that seems to have fixed it.
I think once the plastic gets a little munched up it's more likely to happen though
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Might be a warranty issue? I tour in mine with the spider buckle completely undone, and the upper strap completely unhooked. I occasionally have to rearrange the plastic flaps, but it only happens once every few tours
@TheArbez, this occasionally happens to me but not very often. For me, the yellow flap, which is supposed to go underneath the upper black cuff, gets out from under the upper cuff and the upper cuff edge starts digging into the yellow. I fell this is a classic case of Sportiva trying to maximize ROM/minimize weight and cutting the tolerances too close. Another couple mm of height on the yellow wing and I bet it would stay where it's supposed to be. This usually happens on longer tours in the spring so I don't know if temp has any factor or not.
I also wonder if calf size has anything to do with it. I have chicken legs so my calf doesn't really "open" the shell that much. My completely untested theory is that larger calves will open the shell more and allow the overlapping plastics plastic to not overlap more often (which causes this problem, I think). How big are your calves? Another way this could happen would be if you're pushing the rearward ROM which also opens up the shell - also an untested theory.
If you can't make it work for you (and the yellow is not completely destroyed), shoot me a PM. I'm looking for a backup pair of 27 shells in case my tongues break again.
I can confirm a few things here- larger calves or thicker liners make this worse. Also, it happens at maximum forward flex when walking, not rearward flex, oddly. A bit more yellow plastic would solve it completely for sure. I have debated trying to fuse something on there as i use Intuitions and have big calves, but haven’t toyed with it yet.
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Gravity always wins...
Phatty and Riff, I very much agree with your observations. If the yellow plastic was just slightly higher, it would be much more accommodating of larger legs/calves. I find this to be pretty surprising, as I would describe my feet/legs as pretty low volume (Riff I have no idea how you run those ProTours in these boots).
I also found that if the spider buckle isn't at all buckled the shell is spread too wide and the upper cuff can slip in between other flaps quite easily. Definitely a major oversight on LaSpo's part.
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As alluded to earlier, I will be selling my Skorpiuses. They're in pretty sweet condition, and I wish I could make them work for me - unfortunately I think the navicular/instep volume just isn't quite there for my foot.
I've got ProTours or brand new stock liners for the boot (or you can have both). Thinking $275 with ProTours and $300 with the stock liners.
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