Day 1: cannot stand, walk, or move in any way

[rdshackleford]

Help!

Day one here with my Flyjumpers.  I have the "pro" model with the pivoting foot plate.  I cannot seem to make a move without going horribly off balance. 

I have the things adjusted and fitted per the instructions.  They feel secure on my legs.  But this pivoting foot plate is making me feel like I am about to fall off a ledge.

The only way I can take a few steps (assisted) is to put my weight only on my heels.  This, of course is tiring and painful.  If I put my weight toward my toes, the foot pad pivots down, my knees and legs move forward, and if I manage not to fall forward, I put stress on my shins and straps, which is also  tiring and painful.

If I try to balance my weight on my toes while standing, I have to lock my knees and arch forward.  Then I can't really move any more.  And it is tiring and painful.

WTF?  Do you have to learn to walk only on your heels?  My newbie, novice, dumb opinion is that the footplate should not rotate.  I am tempted to start drilling holes in them and bolting the foot plate in place.

Does anyone understand where I am coming from?  Could you offer any help?

- Rusty

[Locky]

Not many have used the tilting footplate (because its crap) but I thought you could lock it into place?

[Athoul]

WTF?  Do you have to learn to walk only on your heels? 

Thats exactly what you have to do, the centre of balance is over your heel. Once you have this you will do it naturally

The pivoting footplate on the PoweriZer pro's are a bad design and many people dislike them.
I remember a few people drilling a hole either side and bolt it so that the footplate doesn't move and this can be taken out more when you feel more confident with using them.

Not many have used the tilting footplate (because its crap) but I thought you could lock it into place?

Thats only on the Upwings and new Skyrunners i think

[Mr Frank]

It seems to me that the only good pivoting footplate is on the Powerskip Pro.

Yeah, drill some holes and lock it.  If you feel like getting the running advantage from them, then you can unlock them later, but it seems that they've misplaced the axle.

They probably have it placed for little underfed Chinese people's feet...

[Chocl8]

They probably have it placed for little underfed Chinese people's feet...

...?

[Sprog]

They probably have it placed for little underfed Chinese people's feet...

Bit of a racist comment there Frank?
Think before you post...

[Trip Master]

They probably have it placed for little underfed Chinese people's feet...

Thats not funny matey

[Chocl8]

And you wonder why there aren't more Chinese people on the forum...

[rdshackleford]

My shoe size is a 9.5.  I don't think that matters here. 

I feel like I am standing straight and tall when balanced on my heals.  When I begin to more foreward, the foot plates pivot down, and I am falling off the cliff.

So, either I drill & bolt the foot plate in place, or I what?

-Rusty

[rdshackleford]

I just went out for a 3rd try with the Flyjumpers.  I felt only a little more comfortable with the 'balance on your heels' strategy.  Again, it is quite tiring, because I must flex my foot upward constantly in order not to fall or trip.  If I get going fast enough, my foot plate pivoting downward is not too much of a problem because I am already on the other leg for balance.

I get the impression that you must be running at a pretty good clip before the pivoting foot plate feature becomes useful.

Interestingly, I noticed that my Flyjumpers have holes and grommets on the shaft under the foot plate.  These holes are not used on my model jumpers.  Are these holes for use on non-Pro models?  Or, are these holes for people like me who don't like the pivoting foot plate and want to bolt it down?

-Rusty

[XarnuSonci]

bolting the foot plate has worked well for other users here, they learn how to bock with it locked, and then once they were confident on their stilts they unlocked it and decided if they wanted it.

[Bill C.]

Interestingly, I noticed that my Flyjumpers have holes and grommets on the shaft under the foot plate.

Don't know what you mean.  Attaching a photo would be helpful.

[rdshackleford]

Good idea.  Here they are.

[Bill C.]

Yep.  Use those holes and drill through the footplate to add two bolts.  Here's an old thread discussing that exact fix.  Hope it helps.

http://www.PoweriserPages.com/forum/pros_with_still_footplate-t1538.0.html

[Mr Frank]

I was not being racist.  Perhaps it would have been polite to omit the word underfed, but Asian people do tend to be smaller.  You can point at Yao Ming, but he's one in a few billion.  All of the Asian people I know are fairly small.  A small body has small feet, and smaller feet have the ankle joint closer to the back of the footplate when strapped in to bocks, possibly placing the center of balance on or a little behind the axle of the footplate.

Since the factory is in China, this does not seem like an unlikely explanation for the issue at hand.  If they had larger-footed test subjects on hand, the axle would probably be a few millimeters forward from its current position.  The difference between stable and difficult to deal with seems like it would be very, very small.

Of course, the engineer could also just be stupid or lazy and this flaw could be from lack of any research at all...