Heel lifting in Ice Flies

[Christy]

I have just got a new pair of Edea Ice Flies as my old ones are starting to break down so I want to break the new pair in before they are totally necessary. The new pair are identical to my old pair in terms of size, blade, etc. however I am having problems that I didn't have when breaking in the original pair:

- I have now tried the original Edea insoles plus 3 pairs of yellow Superfeet and no matter what I do the inside of my heel is sitting on the side of the boot and my heel lifts when I lift the skate off the ice. It's causing pain in a muscle from knee to ankle on the outside of that leg because the foot is twisted. At first I thought the lining was bunching up but have moved it around and there's no change

- on the left boot the blade is on a temporary mount, but the sole isn't flat and there's a fairly big gap between the blade and the sole. I'll try to upload a picture later but I know there have been some issues with Edea recently so wondering if anyone else has had this problem

[nicklaszlo]

The pictures would be great. 

For the first issue, I have two thoughts.  Either the blade mount is incorrect, or the boot itself is twisted.  The blade mount is easy to fix, but if the boot is defective then you need it replaced.  Do not ignore the pain.

In my experience a temporary mount should flatten the boot against the blade. 

[Christy]

Here are some pictures of the blade gap. The blade looks flat, and the sole looks uneven.

     

[Bill_S]

Curious.

I've had toe gaps when mounting PIC frames (which are dead straight from toe to heel), but slowly tightening the mounting screws over a couple of months pulled the gap at the toes into contact. Don't try tightening all at once or you will strip the threads.

However that might not help with surface ups-and-downs (undulations) like yours appears to have.

The sole looks thin. If it is sufficiently thick, a little smoothing of the mounting surface on a belt sander might help. That can be tricky, but some pro shops can do it.

With the current gaps, you're going to collect water that you can't dry with a towel and get problems that result from that.

[AgnesNitt]

Curious.

The sole looks thin.

NO KIDDING! I've had fashion shoes with stiffer soles than that. Also, the  edges of the soles don't look sealed. I've looked at Ice Flies catalog images and that appears to be how they're made.

[Bill_S]

There MUST be more than meets the eye. Perhaps more is inside the boot and hidden because of the construction.

If not, it's not thick enough for self-tapping screws to work.

I'd love to get hold of an old pair and saw them in half to see the cross section.

[Christy]

The soles are thinner than any I've seen on other skates! Edea provides special screws that have to be used to attach the blades.

[FigureSpins]

Edea "buries" some of the sole inside the leather upper, so the outer sole is very thin.  That's why they look so unusual on the ice - the upper part extends below the normal footbed.  It is still very thin, compared to other brands of boots, hence their claims of "flexibility."

Edea's doesn't use the same mounting as regular boots and blades - it's a special process/screws.  Interesting, but takes some training to learn how to use their specialty mounting jig.

http://ice.edeaskates.com/en/tech-info/blade-assembly/fitting-blades-to-edea-boots/
http://ice.edeaskates.com/en/tech-info/blade-assembly/equipment-required-for-blade-mounting/

Edea had a cross-section model on display at a Trade Show not too long ago.  Not sure if it was just that dealer or all dealers.

[Bill_S]

In looking over the mounting jig, the double-helix screws, and special installation procedure, it makes me wonder about how well the blades were mounted. This IS a special case and requires a different approach.

Christy, who mounted the blades?

[Bill_S]

One thing that I found in their instructions...

"Both drilling and fixing of the screws need to be perpendicular to the sole.
If the holes are drilled at an angle or the screws tightened at an angle the blade will not be properly mounted."

I wonder...?

[Christy]

In looking over the mounting jig, the double-helix screws, and special installation procedure, it makes me wonder about how well the blades were mounted. This IS a special case and requires a different approach.

Christy, who mounted the blades?

The same skate tech who has mounted all of my blades, including the ones on my old Ice Flies, so they are very experienced with Edea skates.

[DressmakingMomma]

I don't know about the blade mounting, but my daughter had a couple of pairs of ice flies and she is really narrow in the heal (AA). Her skate tech heated up the boot with his heat gun, had her put them on, and then squeezed and held them tightly around her heal until they cooled and that did the trick.

[Christy]

I'm thinking that the heel must be too narrow for me, which is unusual, as I don't have a very wide heel, and the heel of my current Ice Flies which are the same size is actually a bit wide,  so I'm really reluctant to get the heel widened too much. I know that Edeas are handmade but there does seem to be a lot of variation.
When I was buying them they were checked over so it's odd that the problems with the sole weren't noticed.

[Christy]

I just found information elsewhere that Edea have been having problems with skate quality and it's very likely that the heel on my skate is crooked / twisted which is in turn making my foot twist.
Looking at the blade gaps the problem does appear to be the boot sole, and not the blade. I just hope the 30 minutes I skated on them hasn't warped the blade 

[DressmakingMomma]

Even if the blade does get a bit warped, a good skate tech can square it up again. My daughter's pronation tweaked her blade a bit and our guy straightens it back out. It has only happened twice but it didn't seem to be a big deal at all. Hopefully they are willing to replace the boot without too much hassle.

[Christy]

Even if the blade does get a bit warped, a good skate tech can square it up again. My daughter's pronation tweaked her blade a bit and our guy straightens it back out. It has only happened twice but it didn't seem to be a big deal at all. Hopefully they are willing to replace the boot without too much hassle.

Thanks for the info. I'm hoping they will replace the boot too as it's currently unwearable, but my concern is that there seems to be a lot of people experiencing problems that I worry that the replacement will also have problems.