When I took the old blades out, there were soft gel strips glued onto the blades, that fell off. I'm not sure where to put them on the new blade. Maybe they go under the toe pick, to absorb shock. Anyone know what to do with them?

Also, it took a fair amount of pressure (20 lbs? don't know exactly) to get the new blades in at both ends. Does that seem right?

(BTW, the blades came with the wrong hex size key -- someone who had had the same problem kindly showed me the right size 3 mm.)

Were the gel strips the length of the blade? I have seen blades come with those one, they were only for protection during shipping, and to be discarded before skating in them.

I'm expecting my own matrix system in a few weeks, so will be interested in other's answers.

__________________
Karen

I skate - therefore I am

I have those - I couldn't get the runners back on with them as is - I used scissors and took a "nibble" out of each one right at the spots where the screw shafts are - it made it a little thinner so I could actually seat the blades and get the holes aligned.

another tip - I use lock tight, but a formulation that is made to allow unscrewing later. The most common loctite it too good at its job - folks can't unscrew the screws. Mine is called "threadlocker blue removable" and it's light blue (not the tube, the contents) like the sample that came with the blades.

Oops - ignore this post.

I finally did the obvious – asked the shopkeeper who me the Matrix frames and blades, who has sold and installed a lot of them. He says Jackson has just started including the strips, so they aren’t in the instructions yet. They are soft rubber, not gel. They go under the heel (between the blade and where it sits in the frame), so you won’t hear clicks as the blade shifts back and forth. He says if they are lost, one could use a rubber band.

And no, nothing is wrong that it took pressure to fit the blade in – it often does. He often sticks a pin in at one end while he puts in the other.

Both makes sense. The original design did not contain an expansion joint for size variation with temperature. So of course the fit is tight when warm, and of course there is room to rock when cold.

There are other improvements possible.

A general contractor at the hardware store told me a teflon fitting would do a better job than Threadlocker (yes, Saras, you are right - use the removable forumula), in terms of keeping the water out, and they are commonly used by plumbers. But the store didn't stock that, so I used Threadlocker. Besides, you would need a fitting designed for the specific thread size. The contractor said teflon tape, also widely used in plumbing, wouldn't work very well.

Another improvement, suggested by an electrician, would be to use a conductive grease, like Ilsco Deox, between them. This would prevent the electrolysis that otherwise occurs between two disimilar metals (steel runner, aluminum frame), which tends to eventually leave a corroded, stuck-together mess. (Ideal Antioxidant is more widely sold, and would work, but is a light conductive oil, so it is easy to make a mess of things, and besides, it has a chemistry that only works well on aluminum/copper connections, where as Deox works on many metals.) But this would be very bad if the grease got between the thread and screw, since that would eliminate the threadlocking effect, and stuff would fall apart. Or use a sacrificial anode

I have sent these suggestions to Jackson.