Intec cable heel pain - I've found something simple that works for me

[SunSurfer]

I know there was an old thread about this topic that I posted to, but with the new forum search engine I can't seem to find it.

A number of riders posted that they had pain on the outside of their heel, just by where the Intec cable comes out of the heel unit and into the boot shell, outside the liner.

I had this problem. I developed a tender hard lump at that point. I tried blister pads and a range of other things of that type. They helped to control the pain, but it never went away.

Now the heels come in Right and Left handed versions. By apparent convention everyone mounts them with the cable on the outside of their heel.

I looked at my anatomy books and where the prominent bits of heel bone are and aren't, and wondered how inconvenient it might be if I defied convention and put my cables on the INSIDE.

I've been riding at in Aspen for 3 days as part of my SES trip, my first chance to try out this way of doing things.

I have been utterly pain free where the cable comes up on the inside. No heel pain from the cable at all.

It took a little while to get used to the cable release being there but being pain free is worth it, and today it was starting to feel normal to find the cable there.

SunSurfer

[dingbat]

I've thought about setting up two rights so the cable would be inside the leg on the front and outside the leg on the rear. You'd only have to deal with the awkward pull when taking the board off rather than every lift ride. The cable on my rear leg has never given me trouble anyway.

[lowrider]

Anything that works as long as it keeps a smile on your face and your board on the snow.

[John Gilmour]

I used to have the same issue.... In my Head Stratos boots.

I tried padding to no avail because under G's the foam would just compress...and of course the cable would not compress.... and it would smask my heel. I also ran them through the other sides ...but still got irritation.

It got so bad that I had to wait a few days before I could get back in my hard boots.

So.... I thought... what if I used a "Padding material" around the cable that would not deform much or compress?

So I took shoe goo... (one of my all time favorite products for rapid prototyping) and put a tiny dab on the side of the cable to firmly stick it to the side of the boot- and curled up a phone book (Who sues phone books anymore anyhow??Geriatrics??) to create pressure to press the cable to the side of the boot. I used starting fluid as a solvent to remove any old mold release compund from the plastic to ensure a good chemical bond and a piece of skatebord grip tape to slightly rough up the plastic for a nice physical biond.

I bent the cable out of the way of hot spots in my heel. So it did not go exactly straight up- but around hte ankle bone in my case (what works for you YMMV)

Left that over night.

Inspected it.

Now the cable was bonded to the side of the boot. It was as close to teh boot shell as possible the whole way up.

Now I used tons of shoe goo...just glopped it on top of hte cable itself.

Using a rubber glove dipped in water (so the shoe goo would not stick to the glove) I smoothed the shoe goo to either side of the cable so that the cable appears to blend into the wall of the boot- and I copied the contours of the boot.

In the end it looks like the cable was molded intot eh boot itself during manufacturing. There is not abrupt bulge of the cable..just seemingly a nice rounded inner boot cuff.

Pain gone... completely..forever.

My shells eventually ripped apart from riding (as they all do).... and it was a bitch removing the cable- but with patience and stretching the shoe goo by clamping onto the edges with needle nose pliers.. it all removed completely without damaging the cable.. took the better part of a PBS Frontline Episode to remove it all.

I posted this before.. but if it even helps one person... it was worth writing this again.

[Corey]

I have often wondered why there is even a big housing on the cable at all. It seems as though a thick brake cable housing is used. Using shifter cable housing or even just a tiny plastic sleeve would be nice. All it's doing is preventing the friction of the cable from cutting into the liner over a few thousand releases, you don't need much.

This would have to be done at the manufacturers' level though. Fin?

[lonbordin]

Since I was new to Fin Tecs I set them up regular... ouch! :(

I went searching and came across SunSurfers simple solution. Drilled two holes, remounted, BAM!

No heel pain, none, zip, nada. :D

Simple and effective. Thank you SunSurfer!

As a bonus it makes the boots easy to grab with the two cables inside!