Another Easyboot Glue-On Cuff update.
I did the second day of the Old Pueblo Pioneer event on GE Cyclone and finished 6th. He still has the "Cuffs" on his front feet. These are the same cuffs I applied to Cyclone on February 15th.
The bond between the cuff and the hoof wall is holding up very well. There is no sign that any portion of the cuff is ready to come loose. The holes in the shell are still lining up well but I can see the hoof has worn roughly 2-3mm.
At around mile 20 of the 50 mile event I noticed one of the screws at the side of the shell was missing. It suddenly dawned on me that I forgot to put Equi-Pak on the screws to act like Loctite. I haven't had a chance to pick up the removable Loctite so I've been using Equi-Pak on the screws. With all the excitement before the event I forgot to take care of my own boots. After loosing the first screw I stopped at one of the water tanks and tightened all the screws. They were all loose.
Another mile or two down the trail and I could see another was backing out on the same boot. Rather than keep repeating the process I removed the shell and put on an Easyboot Glove. The Glove fit well over the cuff. Because I only had one Glove I tightened the other screws down tight and continued on. The screws on the second boot stayed well but I still had to tighten them several times. As they say in Hawaii "another lesson learned".
Other than the "Loctite" lesson the Cuffs are performing better than I expected. Here are some photos taken on 3/9/09 after removing the boots.
Shell on the hoof. Notice where the front washer is now and where it was. This is the how much the hoof has worn and how much I had to elongate the hole in the shell.
The Cuff before cleaning. A bit of sand came in the front.
The Cuffs after cleaning with a wire brush. The bond between cuff and hoof is still super solid. No signs of them coming loose.
Hi Garrett, I had been wondering what was happening to the position of the boot holes and the cuff as the hoof wall grew - 3 weeks is potentially a lot of growth! It's an easier fix then I could have imagined :) Susan
Posted by: Susan Gill | March 12, 2009 at 01:47 PM
Susan- The change is actually due to hoof wear (at the bottom) rather than hoof growth (from the top). The change has been very minor and I've adjusted for it by making elongated holes in the shell. The "Cuff" is the real deal. I'm really proud of this design and believe it gonna be big!
Garrett
Posted by: Garrett Ford | March 12, 2009 at 03:54 PM
I'm sorry if you already answered this... when will the Cuff be released?? This seems like the perfect answer for my situation!
Posted by: Sharon | March 13, 2009 at 08:11 AM