BTS with Red Springs

[Silver Bullet]

Any riders out there riding BTS with red springs. If so, how much do you weigh? Are you pre-loading any?

I rode the blues with quite a bit of preload and am trying to figure out if I should spring for reds?

[chewy]

am on full blues now

started with the reds but at 225 pounds at the time even with no preload they felt like locked in boots with the standard ride/walk in ride mode

then went to red heels and blue toes but the heel felt dead

so here i am with blues.....yellows soon??? not sure i want that much easy play...we shall see

[dredman]

I started out on blues, they felt pretty soft so I switched to reds. I am 175lbs. Below is a picture of how I have them set up. They seem to be working well. The left boot is my front foot. I prefer more forward lean in my back boot. I will soon be adding more preload to stiffen up and limit forward flex on my front boot. Just to see how it works for me. For less aggressive carving/powder I do like the blue's.

A picture is worth a 1000 words.

[martyagt4]

Wow, now that's some preload. Looks like most of the flex would be from the boot itself.

[queequeg]

I use reds on the bottom and blues on top. I crank down the blues a bit, and preload with the reds. This works really well for me - the first few degrees of travel forward are fairly loose (thanks to the reds pressing against the blues). but once the reds are completely extended the stiffness of the (now somewhat compressed) blues kicks in. This way, I get a boot that is more supportive when I am driving harder, but looser for little low-speed twitchy movements.

[Mike T]

I've thought about trying red on top to go with the blue on the bottom. I *really* like the backward movement but find that attempting to preload them tightens up the backward movement more than forward movement, which is the opposite of what I want.

[Jack M]

I've thought about trying red on top to go with the blue on the bottom. I *really* like the backward movement but find that attempting to preload them tightens up the backward movement more than forward movement, which is the opposite of what I want.

How is that possible? The upper block is stationary, so preloading the top spring does not preload the bottom spring. And the top spring doesn't resist backwards motion.

[dingbat]

How is that possible? The upper block is stationary, so preloading the top spring does not preload the bottom spring. And the top spring doesn't resist backwards motion.

Stationary only in relation to the boot cuff, not the shaft that moves through it. Whether you pre-load from the top or bottom, it will pre-load both springs. The more pre-load you have, the less travel there is before the spring being compressed bottoms out or reaches resistance equal to the hit it's taking.

[Mike T]

Stationary only in relation to the boot cuff, not the shaft that moves through it. Whether you pre-load from the top or bottom, it will pre-load both springs. The more pre-load you have, the less travel there is before the spring being compressed bottoms out or reaches resistance equal to the hit it's taking.

Yep.

Also note the choice of which nut you tighten to preload, is still important as it changes the amount of forward lean you have at rest.

[Jack M]

Stationary only in relation to the boot cuff, not the shaft that moves through it. Whether you pre-load from the top or bottom, it will pre-load both springs. The more pre-load you have, the less travel there is before the spring being compressed bottoms out or reaches resistance equal to the hit it's taking.

Oh I see. So turning the top nut preloads the top spring, but also pulls the shaft up thereby reducing forward lean and compressing the bottom spring. Hmm. I would think that since the bottom spring is so much stiffer than the top spring anyway the top spring would preload more.

[Mike T]

Oh I see. So turning the top nut preloads the top spring, but also pulls the shaft up thereby reducing forward lean and compressing the bottom spring. Hmm. I would think that since the bottom spring is so much stiffer than the top spring anyway the top spring would preload more.

If you get out the ruler, the top spring does preload more. But a little big goes a loooooong way on that bottom spring. I played around with combinations of blue and yellow when I first got the BTS, and found that mixing springs has a more profound effect on the balance than preloading.

Anyway I am waiting to see if I get a gift certificate to BOL in my stocking before I order some goodies... so if you have red long springs you want to part with, PM me before 12/26 and I will probably buy them from you.

[pokkis]

Here is pic of my spring setup, specially designated for flegmatic-carving

Boot as high as posible, lower spring shorteter than original, upper lenger tahn original :rolleyes:

[Silver Bullet]

This has been a most interesting conversation. There are so many possibilities and I don't want to waste a lot of time exploring. I do think that I will give the Reds a try. I took a few shots to the ankles last seaon due to the softness of the blues.

[Silver Bullet]

By the way, what is flegmatic carving?

[Fastskiguy]

I got a set of blues and yellows but the blues feel totally plush, didn't even try the yellows...I'd like to swap my yellows for some reds. Brand new, never used, and I don't mind some scuffed up reds. I say....try'em all.

[Steve Prokopiw]

I recently bought a used set here and began experimenting right away.So far I like what I'm feeling with a blue lower and red upper in front to facilitate easier extension of the front ankle as well as more resistance of flexion(higher level of edge pressure) toward the toeside;the opposite for the rear with a red lower and blue upper to facilitate easier ankle flexion and more resistance to ankle extension(higher level of heelside pressure).I have also tried the two different tongues(red and yellow) and like the feel of the soft yellow tongues with the spring combos just mentioned.