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  #1  
Old 11-28-2006, 07:34 AM
miraclegro miraclegro is offline
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Problems with Klingbeil

Has anyone ever had trouble with their Klingbeils, and gotten the problem solved? I know i have very narrow, bony feet, but i have had them tweaked about 3x, and the right one is stilll rolling in, and i have had trouble feeling i am in place where i belong on the inside, affecting my edgework. My foot feels like it is forward in the boot, although the insole, when i pull it out, seems to say not. He added one more layer to each boot insole, which helped on the left, but the right one still makes me feel i am not completely "down in" the heel. He tightened the heel, but now i feel even more forward in the boot!

It is difficult to be without the boots, and i don't know now whether to insist he re-make the right one or what. I live so far away from there, and i just got backfrom a trip where i thought they were fixed. There are no "skate masters" anywhere near here, so i am very frustrated. Please, someone tell me about their Klingbeils....

by the way, they are customs...
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Old 11-28-2006, 07:49 AM
dbny dbny is offline
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I've been having problems with mine for several years. Luckily, I live near Klingbeils, but it's still a hassle. The last time Don worked on them, I had to leave them overnight. They were perfect for a while, but then started to have the same problem again. Now I'm skating barefoot in them and it helps a lot.
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Old 11-28-2006, 11:08 AM
Debbie S Debbie S is offline
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I recently had a problem with the tongue on one of the boots rubbing my ankle raw in one spot. I called, sent the boots back with a note and pictures of the rubbed spot, and they put new tongues on both boots and sent them back the same day, so I was only without them for 3 days. Great service, although I wished they had called me like I requested in my note, b/c if they were going to replace the tongues, I was going totalk to them about getting a different lining than the lambswool I've had. I guess the next time, I will call and discuss before I send them back. But so far, the new tongues have been working out fine.

I don't exactly have a perfect fit, either. I think there is only so much a bootmaker can do, even with customs. My feet are wide at the ball and very narrow at the heel, and while the fit overall is MUCH better than any other skates I've worn, my heel still slips a bit and I feel like my foot moves forward when I skate. When I need to get new skates (which hopefully won't be for a long time), I'm going to have them redo all the measurements and molds instead of using the current one. Other than that, I've sort of accepted that there's probably no such thing as a perfect fit. I'm generally OK with the way they are now, although I've heard people talk about "pump bumps" and blisters if their foot moves in their boots, and I'm really hoping that I never develop those.

Why don't you call and ask to talk to Don and see what he thinks? Given that you've already been there and had them worked on a few times, I wouldn't just send them back w/o talking to someone first. See what they'll be able to do.
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Old 11-28-2006, 11:56 AM
dbny dbny is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Debbie S
I don't exactly have a perfect fit, either. I think there is only so much a bootmaker can do, even with customs. My feet are wide at the ball and very narrow at the heel, and while the fit overall is MUCH better than any other skates I've worn, my heel still slips a bit and I feel like my foot moves forward when I skate.
"There is only so much a bootmaker can do" is exactly what my new coach told me when I told her about the same problems you are having. She suggested I go barefoot and it really does help a lot. Have you considered it?
If you do, be sure to bring along various bandaging items like moleskin and gel pads.
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Old 11-28-2006, 03:19 PM
Casey Casey is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Debbie S
I recently had a problem with the tongue on one of the boots rubbing my ankle raw in one spot. I called, sent the boots back with a note and pictures of the rubbed spot, and they put new tongues on both boots and sent them back the same day, so I was only without them for 3 days. Great service, although I wished they had called me like I requested in my note, b/c if they were going to replace the tongues, I was going totalk to them about getting a different lining than the lambswool I've had. I guess the next time, I will call and discuss before I send them back. But so far, the new tongues have been working out fine.
Are they new? A skater brought her skates to my fitter the last time I was there with the same problem - the problem was simply that the edges of the tongue were a bit rough because of the glue that cements the rubber to the leather seeped out a tiny bit at the edge. The fitter used a Dremel or similar to sand off the excess, and they were fine then.

Also, my fitter doesn't recommend getting lambswool tongues from Klingbeil - simply because if you do, you need to send them back to get the wool replaced should you want to replace it later on once it starts to get old. What she does is gets pieces of lamswool that fit neatly in the center of the tongue, perhaps half an inch from either side, and cements it onto the rubber using some sort of glue that's similar to rubber cement but stronger. The center is where the wool padding helps the most and I really like this method. It's something that you could consider if you wanted to add wool to your tongues.

For the record, my Klingbeils fit perfect - and I can comfortably skate barefoot in them, but my feet weren't used to it and I skated for too many hours in one go, so I got some blisters on my insteps the last time and haven't gone back to it yet. I generally wear thin dress socks that are 80% wool - you don't want nylon because it's too slippery... I did have to get the outside anklebone spots punched out, but that's been it.

I researched a lot before deciding on Klingbeil, and I based my decision on the fact that of all the brands, they seem to have the lowest percentage of dissatisfied clients - some people have issues with every brand - nothing's always perfect (and Don even says that in the video on the Klingbeil site), but just comparing numbers of people happy with them versus people who weren't or went to another brand, they seemed to have the most loyal and satisfied client base. But I'm sure it's tricky business because not only are different feet shaped differently, but they can move differently as well. It's an amazing business, and I wish that I were wealthy and could start up my own skating boot-making business.

Good luck!
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  #6  
Old 11-28-2006, 09:26 PM
miraclegro miraclegro is offline
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I don't think i could stand doing barefoot,

but....i will contact them AGAIN and see what happens. Don usually is in such a hurry, though, i sometimes don't feel that he may be totally hearing me....

Thanks for the tips.....-PJ
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  #7  
Old 11-28-2006, 10:51 PM
dbny dbny is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by miraclegro
I don't think i could stand doing barefoot,
I didn't think I could either, but desperation proved me wrong. It's actually quite different from going barefoot in my regular shoes, which is really icky, IMO.
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