I use BMX tyres on both mine and my son's bocks. They give excellent grip and, at least for us, seem to last much longer than the standard soles on tarmacadam surfaces. I fitted them in June, 4 months later here's what they look like



I should add that I was out of action for 5 weeks during this period and I only use them for approximately 4 hours per week. I'm telling you this because I think the physical time used is more important than the calendar time.

There are a lot of things you can be scared of.

Yeah! For example, horses are scared of paper or plastic bags sitting on the roadside. My son is scared of brushing his teeth or tidying his room. And I'm scared of mirrors.

oh and girls who wear makeup are dishonest, as they don't need it in the firstplace, hehe i'm old fashioned like that

Is it dishonest to giftwrap a present? You only know what's really inside after peeling off the wrapping. Bah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!

my brain is here, im fine , i know what im doing and loving it, no pads- i know the risk but i take that chance and with it ill prevail stronger,..
      

You are NOT taking a risk. You are playing russian roulette. You WILL get hurt. It's not a question of IF you get hurt. It's a question of WHEN. But go ahead, keep on spinning that barrel and pulling the trigger. 

First let me add to the glued bike tyre conversation. Both my stilts and my sons have had this mod done to them from new. That's right, neither of us even walked a single step on the stock soles because I read what you guys were saying about them here before I bought mine. In another post concerning hoof modification I posted photos of mine to prove that they wear extremely well compared with tyre socks. In fact my son uses his much more than I do and after 3.5 months, not only are they still stuck to perfection but there is very little sign of wear to the tread, and he only uses them outside on the streets.

Replacing worn soles with either new ones or bike tyres is far from dishonest, it's doing the buyer a favour because he would have had to do it himself anyway. The difference is that if you leave it to him the price of your stilts will plummet.

Now let's come back to the accusation of dishonesty. The moment you claim the stilts are used, that means they are not new, neither can they be considered to be as new even if the photos appear to be beautiful. A well known truth in vehicle sales is "all that glitters is gold" which means that people will buy a total dog if it at least looks pretty. But is that dishonest? Nobody wants to buy something that appears to be in bad condition. Even girls wear makeup to appear as attractive as possible. When they remove it they don't look the same. Are they being dishonest?

The bottom line here is that provided you do not claim your stilts have only been used a couple of times there is nothing dishonest about giving them an overhaul so that they fetch the highest price possible. And let's face it... do you want to get the highest you can when you resell them or would you prefer to just give them away?

The whole point of my post was to show students on tight budgets how to avoid having to save heavily when trading up from their first pair of stilts. I'm sorry if that bothers you guys but it's a reality which you can choose to embrace or not.

Not bocks but just as terrifying in my opinion...

Code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13aWRolieiM&feature=related

I remember seeing another vid of a young guy jumping off a very high roof on his Flybar. His mate doing the filming was convinced he would break his neck, but no, he made the jump perfectly and soared back up to around 12 ft. Those things are wicked but too expensive and not as practical as bocks. You can travel on bocks but you can't go very far on a pogo stick!

i'd say 70% of new buyers of bocks are under 18 and have to save up just to afford the stilts, it would be a pain to need to save up again for new springs after a few months.

As a retailer, that has not been my experience. In fact, my stats show approx 6% being sold to under 18's. My largest percentage of sales has gone to people aged between 22 and 35 but then I have only been a retailer of this product since June and at least 80% of my sales to date have been made online.

Nonetheless XS, you make a good point which I feel compelled to add to...

Used stilts from authorised brands are worth a lot of money if:
a) they are in excellent condition,
b) they are not modified,
c) the hooves are as new.

So here are some tips for you guys:
1. When modifying your stilts, make sure all mods are reversible. That means, if you intend taping up your springs, put an inner tube over the original plastic protection before taping. That way, when you come to resell them you can remove everything to make them appear as new. You may believe your mods have improved the stilts and that may well be the case however, one man's cup of tea is another man's poison. Buyers like to personalise their stilts in their choice of materials and colours.
2. If you have changed the standard straps for snowboard straps, keep the originals and at the time of resale swap them back again. You can use your snowboard straps on your next pair of stilts. If you intend giving up the sport, let the buyer know how much the snowboard straps cost, why they are an improvement, and tell him you will supply the original straps also. If the originals were broken, tell him you replaced them with snowboard straps as they are much stronger but that you did not keep the originals. Whatever you do, do NOT tell him you broke them because that simply signifies massive usage which to a buyer is like a high-mileage vehicle.
3. If you have taped up the foam around the knee bar it would be best to replace the knee bars. Nothing looks more ugly to a buyer than a taped knee bar.
4. Replace the soles of the hooves either with the original part if you have the new type of bolt-on soles, or by cutting out a piece of bike tyre and superglueing it to the old one. Buyers fear worn out soles. Again, it gives the impression of overuse.

Now here's some proof of what I have just been saying. One of the members here has just sold his Poweriser PR7090's (2008) on eBay for £90. The springs were taped and the hooves had tyre socks on them. One month ago, the same item was on eBay but in original condition and it went for £150. Last night a pair of good condition Pro-Jump M70's (2008) went for £120 on eBay. They didn't even have the box or manual! If that doesn't impress you, consider that they sell new on eBay for £135. Personally, I think this case is rather exceptional because they weren't really worth more than £72 but it does go to show that demand is high for used stilts and people will pay good money if they are in original condition.

So why have I told you all this?

If an 18 year old wants to trade up, he won't have to save very much if he can sell his existing stilts for a high price. If he tries to sell them modified and with worn soles, he is going to get burnt and will have to save up much more than he expected.

How much do you weigh skatenpaint?

they'd be harder to learn on, but they'd get more height in the long run.

That's a given! But surely it's better for a beginner to learn on a pair adapted to his weight so that the process is easier and he doesn't lose enthusiasm. Then, when he finds himself bottoming out eventually, he can either trade up or change the springs. Or am I missing something here?

Hi XS. I'm all prepared, xept that I don't wear a hat.
I get my weight range info from sites like:

Code:

http://www.powerizer.org.uk/purchase.html
http://www.powerizer.co.uk/models.htm
http://originalpowerizer.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=41&osCsid=e267827e589df0229ba865ee092ca9b0
http://www.poweriserstilts.com/
http://www.boysstuff.co.uk/product.asp?id=12639

@ masterking09
I started bocking in June this year but broke my wrists first stime out which put me out of service for at least 5 weeks. Sooooo, I can't say I have any more experience than you. But, XS is a serious bocker and he HAS been at it for a long time therefore, if I cannot bow to your experience I certainly can to his. Nonetheless, I still won't recommend any of my customers weighing 75 kg to invest in a pair of M90's.

M90's are in the post.
Anyway, he has already bought them so he should be able to tell us both whether he can use them or not.
I retail Powerisers and the FlyJumper range of brands. I use Powerizer M90's myself. Therefore I'm only going by experience.
You have been bocking much longer than I have so I bow to your greater knowledge.

With all due respect, you are on a Poweriser. Their springs are purposely softer to accomodate a greater weight range. The Powerizer has a stiffer spring which is why they are rated in 10 kg levels. I repeat, my bocks are Powerizer M90's and at 85 kg I am totally unable to bottom them out. If he can compress them at 75 kg, let alone 71 kg, I'll eat my hat!

Some members on this forum would say that but I think it largely depends on your precise weight. Your friend is 75 kg which is the start point for an M80. There's just no way he could compress an M90. If he had been between 81 to 85 kg I would have recommended the M90.

As for you at 71 kg, you have gone up 2 levels. The M70 is for 65 to 75 kg which would be ideal for you however, if you want room to grow and a stronger bounce once your springs are well worn in, then you should consider an M80.

The M80 is good for 75 to 85 kg which is fine for your mate but you need an M70. Don't know why you think you both need M90's? I use an M90 and I weigh 85 kg. The springs are rather rigid because I'm at the bottom of the scale. An M90 is best for someone weighing between 85 to 95 kg.

Don't know whether you bought those PoweriZers polarbear but I sell plenty of them and use them myself. You will be very happy with them. They were made by FlyingLocust who since changed their name to FlyJumper. The manufacturer's site is at www.flyjumper.com but don't be in a rush to visit it because the home page downloads a virus onto your machine. If you have a good firewall it will prevent that from happening. If not, run a virus scan afterwards. For the life of me I can't understand their motivation for doing that unless its financial as the virus pops up all kinds of casino, watch, and pharmaceutical sites once it activates. Incidentally, it lies dormant on your machine for 60 days before activating so that you don't suspect the source.

Coming back to PoweriZers, their name has since changed to PowerStrider which is in the same colour as Pro-Jumps, AirTrekkers, and FlyJumpers. They are all reasonable stilts for the money, unlike Skyrunners, SkyJumpers, MoonJumpers, Powerskips (the fake ones) which come out of Bowei Powerwell.