I am inquiring to anyone with information on Heieling fx87 boots. I obtained the boots free of charge, and I plan to use them with Nordica Next 9.0 skis with Salomon Spheric 850 bindings. I'm male, around 150 lbs, 5'6"-5'7" ? and if it matters the skis are 160's. I have ski'd blacks and double blacks at resorts such as Squaw valley, Holiday valley, etc. Will these boots be too flimsy for the performance of the ski's? Or for that matter, my weight? Just wondering because I have not found any information on these boots and like I said they are free, and as a soon to be college student I can actually afford that. Thanks for the help!

Bit of a tangent, but Tom's post brings back a bad memory; having a boot self-destruct on the slopes actually happened to me @ Whitetail. The mid-90's Technica boots had problems with UV exposure causing the boots to become brittle. During an easy run, I separated nearly the entire bottom sole of the boot from the rest of the boot; only a small section at the toe held the two pieces together. My heel could swing four inches either way from the ski, but my toe was still locked in.

Had some fun taking the boot back to the shop the next day...

Try Heierling as a spelling (the folder name is correct).

No offense, but if you can ski the cliff bands at Squaw, you should be generally able to tell if the boot is too flimsy for your purpose. I've skied the Nordica 9.0 and it doesn't require much flexion input compared to, say, top-perf '80s skis, but don't forget you're going to drill the nice ski to match an iffy boot. Trust your feel, I say.

If you do go ahead with the project, consider putting a BOOSTER strap on the boots.

My "flamingo flame" i.e. orange-sorbet TNTs split from the little toe back to the mid-cuff and around the instep to the base of the big toe, i.e. everywhere it wasn't clamped into the binders. Fortunately, there were only 1,200' vertical to go . . .

[This message has been edited by comprex (edited 10-15-2003).]

[This message has been edited by comprex (edited 10-15-2003).]

>> My "flamingo flame" i.e. orange-sorbet TNTs

LOL. I always described my boots as radioactive-orange, i.e. cheese wiz. Guess your diet is higher-class than mine.

All this talk of food is making me hungry.

Everybody's eyes back to normal from the radioactive green glow of the Cabers of the mid- 80's?

Tom / PM

actually the boots are about 3 years old, I'm getting them simply because they're mens boots and too big for my girlfriend whose parents are very generous. dont know if that changes anything, oh they were used for the past two years as well. and yes i mispelled heierling (what do you expect at who knows what time that was)

I'm not familiar with those particular boots (btw, I presume you mean Heirling, not Heieling), but I suspect that since you are getting them for free, they are probably pretty old.

Before you worry about performance, the first thing I would worry about with these boots is safety.

A lot of boots from the 80's and 90's were made of a type of plastic that became extremely brittle and fragile while sitting unused over the years, and literally cracked into little pieces the first time someone attempted to use them again.

Over the years, I have personally seen this happen to three guys, each on their first day of skiing using boots that hadn't been used in years. One was walking from the parking to base area of Whitetail. I was walking behind him, following his trail of boot droppings and picking up the pieces.

This scenario isn't too bad, but I have also personally seen it also happen to two guys while actually skiing. One took a bad fall because of it, the other wasn't hurt, but was stranded part way down the mountain when his boot came apart. From what I hear, self-destruction is extremely common in boots of that vintage.

My strong suggestion is that you should freeze the daylights out of them (either naturally, or in a freezer), and then get in them quickly (before they warm up), and then powerfully flex each one multiple times (while holding on to something) to see if it will hold up when you attempt to use them on the mountain.

With respect to performance, I wouldn't worry about it. (1) After a run or two in them, you will know more than all the internet talking heads could possible tell you; and (2) Lots of back country skiers love their seeming flimsly, soft flexing randonee boots when doing pure alpine skiing.

If the fit to your foot is decent; if it doesn't fall apart; and, if you can't wiggle your leg side-to-side more than maybe 0.5 to 0.75 inch when clicked in and somebody is standing on your skis (ie, transmits edging forces well), it will probably be fine.

HTH,

Tom / PM

The boot fits?
There's no deterioration of the main buckles?
You can't afford a new boot?

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

If you can afford a $100 swap boot, buy a new footbed and a shin strap and a lift pass instead.

My SO at the time wore a pink/neon Nils jacket to match the boots. I wore yellow-lensed Carrera Ultrasight. How in the blazes do you expect me to even notice snowboarders?