Hello, I am hoping to learn some information on shin bang solutions from experienced fitters. I am working with a very well qualified boot fitter that is committed to taking care of me so my questions here are just for my extra education and further discussion with the fitter the next time I am in the shop. I stepped into a new pair of Fischer CURV GT 130 this year. For years I have struggled with boots too big. My foot measures over a 29 with a 100mm forefoot width but very narrow heels and ankles. I was previously in a 28.5 Hawx Ultra and I swam in that boot. This year I went to the Fischer because it was the most narrow lasted (96mm) "non-race" boot I could find. The fitter vacuum squeezed the boot as hard as possible in the rear section. The first fit in the shop felt firm and good but upon skiing them now for 10 days I am getting major bruising on my upper shin. It turns out that the tongue of the boot only contacts my shin at the upper edge of the plastic cuff and when I flex into it while skiing all the force is being directed upon a 1" section of my shin. There is no slop between my leg and the upper cuff, this is just an intense pressure point and I am not getting contact with the tongue/cuff in the lower part of my shin. It happens with both the stock strap or a Booster run under the cuff and may be worse with the Booster. I have been advised to first try an Eliminator tongue which I will try this weekend in a floating fashion before permanently installing. Is an Eliminator tongue a legitimate fitting tool or is it a band-aid for a bad fitting boot? Are there other remediations that I should discuss with the fitter. We touched upon aftermarket liners, or foam injected tongues also being a possible option to explore. Thanks in advance for any help.
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Shin Bang
- Thread starter Springer
- Start date
Do you have a proper posted footbed, not the stock insole or even a drop in ie Superfeet?
Posted means that actually put a foam heal piece onto the footbed, I have this on mine and it makes a huge difference for me. Bootfitter recommended this based on my boot fit and stance.
To eliminate shin bangs I also uses Masterfit Eliminators custom tongue inserts. $35 a pair will change your life
The footbed is not posted
Maybe, but I have never had this problem with other boots. Additionally, just for comparison purposes I put my old Hawx Ultra liners in the Fischer shells and skied them for a few hours one day with no shin pain and my shin was already bruised. Unfortunately using the Hawx liners is not a good long term option, they are pretty beat and in the Fischer boot they wrinkle in the toe creating a different problem.
More like a splint. Closed cell foam under the sock would be the band-aid.
Step 1. Get the foot neutral in the boot.
so many things that it could be
first is as phil said get the foot neutral and stable in the boot, (if that footbed is old then change it, they don't last for ever i normally would always start a new boot fit with a new footbed unless it is a really good one) it could simply be the shape of the tongue of the liner doesn't match your leg shape, an eliminator might work but if the fit of the boot is good then it will probably take up too much space, the tongue of that liner is velcro so you could try a different tongue, Atomic make 3 different thickness of tongue for their liners that they do as an aftermarket option so one of those might work, or one from another boot.... if it is the same in a selection of tongues then you could go for an injection tongue or get really funky and have a fitter either add or remove padding to make the pressure even and restitch the tongue
first is as phil said get the foot neutral and stable in the boot, (if that footbed is old then change it, they don't last for ever i normally would always start a new boot fit with a new footbed unless it is a really good one) it could simply be the shape of the tongue of the liner doesn't match your leg shape, an eliminator might work but if the fit of the boot is good then it will probably take up too much space, the tongue of that liner is velcro so you could try a different tongue, Atomic make 3 different thickness of tongue for their liners that they do as an aftermarket option so one of those might work, or one from another boot.... if it is the same in a selection of tongues then you could go for an injection tongue or get really funky and have a fitter either add or remove padding to make the pressure even and restitch the tongue
As a long time shin-bang sufferer....it took me awhile to figure out that my boot size was one size too big, AND, a zip fit liner was just a game changer in terms of taking up unnecessary space in the liner and form fitting to foot and lower leg. Wish I had realized this years ago. Yes...high quality foot beds are necessary starting point as well.
This, among all those options @cem mentions, is the solution that worked for me way back in the past when I suffered from shin bang. My lower shin, just above the ankle, could not be encircled by the shell as closely as the top of my shin. So the tongue down below was not contacting the shin as snug as the upper tongue area. So all the tongue-shin pressure was concentrated on that upper area at the top of the cuff as I skied.
Once this was adjusted so the pressure was evenly distributed the shin bang disappeared.
Eliminator, I used a good tool for health! But it’s also better to look for optimal solutions for your physiology!
Thank you for a bunch of good suggestions. Apparently that boot sometimes comes with a removable tongue liner and sometimes with it stitched in. Of course I have the one stitched in but the shop did say they could order the other one as an option that would allow trying other tongues such as maybe the Atomic. Alternatively, I was thinking that dropping in a full Atomic professional foam liner with the three tongue option might be a possibility.
Change the power strap for a Booster Strap.
The following is from their web page FAQ.
Question- Will the Booster help my shin bang?
Answer- Yes. The elastic of the Booster acts as a spring or cushion preventing the shim from banging against the front of the boot.
The following is from their web page FAQ.
Question- Will the Booster help my shin bang?
Answer- Yes. The elastic of the Booster acts as a spring or cushion preventing the shim from banging against the front of the boot.
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2015
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That's your answer right there. Cut the tongues out of the Hawx liners and put them in the Fischers. I've replaced tongues without even sewing them in. A loose tongue actually makes it easy to get a cold boot off your foot.
mm
May not be using it properly and/or with the proper technique.
When the booster strap is used properly with the proper technique, shape of the tongue doesn't matter a much. It's the spine f the boot that matters.
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- Dec 20, 2015
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No pro bootfitter here, but I had this problem ages ago with a boot. On a whim, feeling like I had little or nothing to lose, I heated the tongue gently but thoroughly with a heat gun, then buckled in at home and let everything cool down.
It worked.
That one time.
For me, anyway.
Here are the boots, just because I love showing them off!
It worked.
That one time.
For me, anyway.
Here are the boots, just because I love showing them off!
I wanted to close the loop on this. Thank you all for the suggestions. I went in earlier this week to put an eliminator tongue in my boot, I took one look at that item and knew I wouldn’t be happy at all. I put it in a flexed the boot a bunch just to be honest about it and did not like how it felt. It’s probably fine in certain situations but not for an expensive high performance boot intended to be skied hard. I took a few breaths and considered that my Hawx liners didn’t bite my shin when I tried them in the Fischer boot. It had to be that the stock Fischer liner was incompatible with my lower leg. I then did an A/B test with an intuition liner in one boot and a Zipfit in the other and ended up walking away with a new set of Zipfit Gara LV. I got them on snow today and skied for 4 hrs in heavy chopped up mank with zero shin bite. And the heal and ankle hold with the Gara was unfathomable.
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