Megaride/Flexon tongue mod question

**oftpiste** · 02-14-2007, 01:40 PM

Searched and didn't find exactly what I needed to know, so here goes.

I picked up a pair of Flexon 9.1's at Goodwill for $5. These are black with pink buckles and trim. On the back of the toungue reads, "L 7-8 1/2, Flexon-Pro". The outside of the tongue reads, "Powerflex".
The tongues feel noticably stiffer than the stock Megaride tongue under hand flexing. The Flexon tongue has the metal bail attatching it to the boot which makes it appear to be an easy swap according to http://tetongravity.com/forums/showt...aride+dalbello.

My megarides are 27.5's and the two different tongues appear to be about the same size. I had a bootfitter install a nordica drive plate on inside of the Megaride's buckle cuff, but this didn't stiffen things up enough for me. I figured I'd leave this on.

Can any of you bootfitters or flexon-heads give me some feedback on whether this particular tongue will give me enough additional stiffness to start dismantling things? I'd really like them to ski pretty stiff but still be able to walk and climb (figured I can always loosen the buckles for this purpose).

Also, any obvious incongruities in my plan to swap? Size problems? Other things to look out for?

Thanks in advance.

**LeeLau** · 02-14-2007, 01:48 PM

are they one piece of plastic or two coloured plastic?

What's the colour of the tongues?

If they are two toned plastic then be aware that the plastic can separate and the tongue fall apart. I remedied that by pre-emptively duct-taping around the plastic of the Flexon tongue. My theory is that the garmont buckles exert enough force to separate the plastic. The duct-tape distributes the load. The boots look a bit ghetto but I don't really care.

I have medium (solid black colour) and stiff (black and orange) flexon tongues and both can tour just fine.

I've also tried the Scarpa Tornado tongue and they're also stiff and the boot tours just fine.

My wife uses soft (solid yellow) and medium (black and purple) tongues and also tours fine

**oftpiste** · 02-14-2007, 02:08 PM

They appear to be one solid piece of plastic. Solid black in color with little silver-dotted-shading-thingy-decorations.

**LeeLau** · 02-14-2007, 02:34 PM

Then they're likely medium flex and you don't have to duct-tape. Enjoy!

**charlesj** · 02-14-2007, 03:43 PM

I did the swap with stiff one-piece (equipe?) flexon tongues on lasers. They ski great, as well as alpine boots (yes, really). Have not tried touring/hiking with them yet but they will no doubt require loosening of buckles. Note that on Lou Dawson's Wild Snow write up he had to move buckles due to the bumps on the Flexon tongue (mine did not require that). Happy skiing/happy touring.

**oftpiste** · 02-14-2007, 03:50 PM

Just now attacehed them with the bail. There's a sizeable gap under the front of the tongue which is probably why many people Dremel out a hole so they attach more like the stock tongues.

Anyone have probems with this mounting method in terms of snow/water penetration? Preferable to use the Dremel method instead of the wire bail?

Buckles definitely required loosening.

**manderson** · 02-14-2007, 03:59 PM

I think wet feet would be the least of your problems. I had to Dremel mine to get the boot to fit right. I could barely get them buckled before I took a Dremel too them.

**LeeLau** · 02-14-2007, 04:04 PM

you didnt search hard enough. There's lots of pictures posted

**manderson** · 02-14-2007, 04:09 PM

LeeLau, did you ever successfully fix any of your cracked Flexon tongues?

**oftpiste** · 02-14-2007, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by manderson

I think wet feet would be the least of your problems. I had to Dremel mine to get the boot to fit right. I could barely get them buckled before I took a Dremel too them.

I can get them on and buckled fine, and in the living room they seem comfortable enough, but the gap is pretty big. Of course, I have chicken legs.

Lealau, I saw some pics of the Dremelled mod. Are there pics of the ones attached by the bail?
I'll try to do better next time....

**manderson** · 02-14-2007, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by oftpiste

Are there pics of the ones attached by the bail?
I'll try to do better next time....

Here you go.

**oftpiste** · 02-14-2007, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by manderson

I think wet feet would be the least of your problems. I had to Dremel mine to get the boot to fit right. I could barely get them buckled before I took a Dremel too them.

BTW, did you remove the bail or just Dremel up to the bail rivet?

**Conundrum** · 02-14-2007, 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by oftpiste

Just now attacehed them with the bail. There's a sizeable gap under the front of the tongue which is probably why many people Dremel out a hole so they attach more like the stock tongues.

Anyone have probems with this mounting method in terms of snow/water penetration? Preferable to use the Dremel method instead of the wire bail?

Buckles definitely required loosening.

BOOOOOO, BOOOOOO this attachment system. Dremel it out. You'll be happy that you did. Also, check out this thread:

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=66887

Do a search on the burliet dynafit setup for good info and another guy has a good thread on using the Delbello tongues so look for that.

**manderson** · 02-14-2007, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by oftpiste

BTW, did you remove the bail or just Dremel up to the bail rivet?

Removed it. I don't think there would be room to keep it and still have a large enough hole to attach the tongue.

**LeeLau** · 02-14-2007, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by manderson

LeeLau, did you ever successfully fix any of your cracked Flexon tongues?

Never- fiberglass wasn't strong enough and epoxy cracked pretty quickly. Best fix was to duct-tape in advance. no big deal as they only cost me $ 5 per tongue and i ended up using the solid coloured tongues

**oftpiste** · 02-15-2007, 08:29 PM

While I kinda wanted to say I did it myself, it didn't turn out that way. When I went to see Seattle's best bootfitter to see about farming some spoilers, he said - though he was very busy as usual - "it'll be a lot easier for me to just put it all together for you. Come back in a couple of hours" and quoted me a very reasonable price. This was too good an offer to pass up.

He Dremeled out a slot on my Flexon tongues (removing the bail and rivet), farmed and installed some Nordica spoilers (giving me some nice extra forward lean and slightly reducing volume up high) and the same boots the spoilers came from happened to have 2 ply Boosters on them which we moved over to my boots. He had previously installed the drive plate riveted to the upper buckle cuff the top of which can be seen exposed just above the Booster. The buckles all close without running into the tongue.

These now flex and hold snug to my chicken legs, at least in the house, a lot more like my old, trusty Lange racers. Way mo bettah. Hill testing will come this weekend.

BIG THANKS to mntlion for his email advice and to all who chimed in or posted previously on how to do these modifications. This board is a pretty cool place.