Smooth blacktop is by far the easiest thing to bounce on IMO.

Provides the smoothest surface to run on, and the least road-rash if you fall.

Sounds good, that'll be coming up in the next two weeks. 

I cannot wait, i'm very excited.

I am in contact with a Gymnastics gym, and they are going to be providing me with floor trampoline time, sprung floor time, spotting, and a wire rig.  That way, i can learn how to flip correctly with AND without powerisers attached to my feet.  I want to be able to do this proficiently, and reliably.

Hmm, i like the wetsuit idea... but they make neoprene knee/shin pads already.  661 (six six one) is one supplier of such materials.

Seems cheaper than wrecking a wetsuit.

I personally hate the knee buckle arrangement too.

When i get paid next, i'm going to get ahold of some sort of shin-guard... re-inforce it with a steel plate, add two ratchet type straps, and make a custom leg plate, to act as a "Sandwich" assembly to apply even pressure to the front and rear of my leg.

This would effectively remove the knee loop, and any sort of cloth or fibre strap from the equation, and still provide more than sufficient support in which to be able to use them easily.

What do you think of this?

Awesome, I can't wait to compare them to how I went about doing it.

I'm going to attempt to shoot pictures of my own set tonight.

Post how long it took you to do it, too.

It took me roughly 1.5 hours, including cutting the tire.

Welcome to Poweriser Pages

Those are indeed tire-socks on the hooves.  They are street treads off of a 16 inch Schwinn.  I figure i should be able to get 2 sets out of the one tire.  So far, so good.

I didn't quite follow Bill's writeup off of powerbockresources.com, but I did borrow his general idea.

I ended up folding the metal wire into the tire center, and using that as re-inforcement.  After that, i used friction tape to tape each end directly to the aluminum frame, pulling it as tight as possible, prior to using a hose clamp to hold it all in place.

This gave me extra leverage and allowed my tire socks to sit really flat and hold on quite nicely.

They aren't shifting at all with bouncing. 

I do however have to make one tighter, as it has a little more room to move, than the other.

The sidewalls of the tire are folded under, and not wrapped around the outside edge of the poweriser foot.

As far as noise levels, just make sure that everything is tightened to the right torque level, and you should have minimal noise.

That really sucks to hear,

Can you take pictures of your spring? 

at what point did they snap?  Did they splinter, or did they just give out on you mid jump?

Were your powerisers new?  How much do you weigh, what model number are they?

Anything that the rest of us can learn from this, is appreciated.

If this only happened a few days ago, and they are brand new... the company you ordered them from should replace them as defective possibly.

Where did you order them from?

Any of that above information will give the rest of us a clearer picture of what happened.

 

I wish you luck!  They'll be shipping from MI, so you're aware of how long shipping will take.

Go really easy on them at first, the springs will be VERY stiff.  Don't attempt to get flex, until you can walk and feel very stable.

Do yourself a favor, and get wider strapping for your knees.  They send you stock strapping, that is 1 inch wide.  It cuts into the back of your leg, even with decently thick jeans on.

If you have a local ski shop nearby, go check out snowboard bindings.  My local ski shop hooked me up with a set for 10 dollars an assembly.  Cost me 40.00 for the straps, ratchet straps, and hardware to attach them with.  You are looking for a metal ratchet clip, and thicker zip straps.  Padding, and wider foot contacts are necessary.  This is what comes into contact with your feet, and provides "grip" and also disperses the extreme amount of force that will be holding your feet in place.

After much deliberation, I came to the decision to mount the strap so that when buckled, the metal clip would end up on the "outside" edge.  This prevents them from hitting, or rubbing on each other.  If you assemble it backwards, you run the risk of potentially detaching them if you crash.

The stock strapping on both powerisers and fly jumpers are identical.  They are both crap.  Your feet WILL thank you immediately after you replace the straps.

Make sure you take into account that the straps you get to replace the current ones with, will work for your setup.  You may need to get a few washers, to act as spacers.  Nylon stretches slightly, which is why there is a steel retaining assembly molded to the current strap assembly.  You may need to shim the bolt head, with a washer to prevent it from tearing through the nylon strap you are retro-fitting.  This is something i learned after I obtained my fly jumpers.  If you want me to, or are having difficulty following my written text, i'll dis-assemble my straps and take a whole bunch of photos, and make a tutorial.

This makes the bouncing stage of learning, MUCH easier.  It makes your feet more stable, and the fly jumpers feel a lot more like an actual appendage than they did before.

I took it too quickly, and ran before i could walk well.  It ended up with me tearing a nice pair of pants, slightly bending me top knee support, tearing the foam, and most importantly, gave my knee some serious road-rash.  I managed to do this, by dragging my toe support across rough pavement and basically tripping.  Granted, i was lucky.  I got back up on them 24 hours later, in the same torn and bloody pants.

Fresh/brand new powerisers/fly jumpers are the perfect tool to learn on.  At first, you will find that no matter how hard you jump once you grow used to them, you will not bounce very high.

Keep an eye on the cross beam, directly below your foot pad.  mine seemed to have a penchant for loosening up after about 3 days.  It made the foot and leaf spring have a very minor side to side motion.  This started to affect my balance.  Tighten it back up, and you'll be back in business.  Also keep a close eye on the top knee bar bolt assemblies.  These also seem to shift slightly.  Do not over-tighten.

Last mod:  the foot pads.  Take a look at Bill's resource website.  He has a great reccomendation for "tire socks"  They REALLY work nicely.  The stock pads showed considerable wear after only 6 hours on them.  I'm talking like 1/16th of an inch, at most. (1mm give or take) 

  I took my own spin it, and used racing tire slicks, and folded them slightly different, and taped and clamped them on.  They are holding up beautifully, and i won't have to replace my footpads any time soon.  My mod made the foot-pads a tad bit wider too... and provided a much greater traction than the stock pads.

I reccomend you have some assistance at this stage, and take small breaks.  It's also nice to have someone shoot digital photos of you to keep track of your height and running stride progress.

Only other reccomendation, GLOVES.  They will save your palms if and when you fall for the first time on concrete.  Leather is a must.  Bmx ones are my choice.

I also have elbow/forearm plating, and kneepads.

I ordered a helmet, but i haven't needed/worn it yet.

Hope I didn't make this post too long.

That is all of my learned knowledge on the topic of Fly Jumpers.  When you get yours up and running, lets compare notes.

http://www.totaldominion.com/jump/

Just a short clip of me jumping on the fly jumpers.

Not maxed out, nor are my springs fully broken in yet.

That was shot yesterday,  today i'm getting about 30% higher.

dominion,
Do you repeatedly put all your weight over one hoof, then shift it over to the other?

No, i just stand very still and bear down on my hips.

Lock your knees, and elbows.  Keep your arms at your sides.

You should easily be able to stand still for 30-60 seconds, without lifting a foot.

Well, I can.  Took me a few hours to get used to.

I've abused em for about 5 hours so far.  The only thing i replaced from the get-go were the straps, and wrapped the leaf springs with tape.

They are totally awesome, and Matt?  They are wearing in nicely, because I'm really beating on them hard.  Jumping really hard, and I have quite good balance, and muscle stength.

BOSSBI carried powerisers for many months, and then replaced em with Fly jumpers.   They still carry kids powerisers, and never bothered to rename the page.

They are indeed fly jumpers, though.

I'd say, go ahead and get em.  You won't be doing yourself a dis-service.

Phyics

If you weigh 200lbs, and you have the strongest pair of power risers on, you can jump roughly 6 feet.

A person weighing 200lbs, should be somewhere around 6 feet tall.

This is rough estimates, and it's a rough example... but it should make sense.

If you are jumping on powerisers, in the real world and not a physics lab...

You are going to lose energy that you put into your jump in a couple of ways.

You lose energy to : Absorbtion, Heat, Gravity, Etc.

So, your body absorbs some energy, your powerisers absorb some at key points, and produce heat due to friction.

Fiberglas provides a great spring, due to its nature.  It also doesn't heat up and due to stress factor, in the application that they've implemented it.

It also has elastic properties, that allow it to retain it's shape, and provide resistance.

Hey fuse,

What kind of helmet do you use, for mountain boarding?

Sounds like you need to get a better helmet.

They aren't designed to take a lot of abuse. 

The 661 Helmets have a crash policy.  You send them the wrecked helmet, they send you a new one, free of charge.

They are meant to take abuse once, and protect your head from serious injury, once.

You shouldn't be using a helmet that you've crashed in, a 2nd time. 

Be safe.

http://www.totaldominion.com/pictures/?album=TotalDominion%2FPowerisers%21&page=1

That is a few more shots of myself on the Fly Jumpers

I have the model M90, which is 177 - 198Lbs.

http://bossbi.com/skate/poweriser/poweriser.php
is where I got them from.

I weigh in at 170lbs, fully dressed.

I've been on them for about 4 hours over the course of a few days.

They absolutely rock.

I find that the cross bar between the bridge of your foot, beneath the foot pad seems to get slightly loose, after a considerable amount of jumping.

I tightened it back up, so that i don't have any side to side motion.  Otherwise, i haven't had any problems with bolts loosening up on me.

I just made tire socks for my risers last night.  I should get a little bit of jump time in today, when i get out of work, and before I go to Class.

The only mod i've done, other than the tire socks, is the replaced foot straps.

I still can't fully compress the springs, but I should be able to do so in another few days.  (1-1.5 Hr a day on them)

I've gotten a lot of stares, and a lot of people asking a lot of questions, too.