OK, so this won’t be an earth-shaking post, but I thought that I should share what I did yesterday.
The old-timers here on will remember when BPL had a gear shop, maybe 10-15 years ago. When it shut down, they slashed the prices to get rid of their remaining inventory. My favorite items were the Thorofare shirts and the Stix trekking poles. I scored 3 of the shirts, but the only remaining Stix poles were several inches too long. But since they were so cheap, I bought a pair, thinking I could give them to a taller friend or else find a way to make them work for myself. Well, yesterday I did just that.
I didn’t come up with this idea on my own, but somebody here on BPL posted about it. Here’s what I did, step-by-step:
1)Â Boil the foam tops in a large pot to soften the adhesive. This doesn’t affect the foam grips at all.
2) Remove the grips from the pole (which slid off easily).
3) Shorten the top of the carbon fiber with a Dremel disk inch by inch until the length was perfect. Then duplicate that length for the second pole.
4) Re-glue the foam grips onto the poles, and let them cure overnight.
5) This morning I finished the job by placing black baby socks over the grips, securing the socks with a small silicone hair tie. I like to do this for my poles, to absorb sweat and preserve the integrity of the pole grips.
This worked out so well that I might even do the same thing for my original 125 Cm Stix, which are about 1″ longer than ideal. I had also bought a very long pair of Stix from a great guy here on BPL. They are the exact length needed for snowshoeing, but I am wondering if they should be used for that. The Stix could easily snap during a fall. I’ll think about maybe shortening those long Stix as well.
MYOG ‘R Us!
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