(This post sponsored by our publishing partner Cripple Creek Backcountry. We hear they are into tongue swapping.)
Left to right. Original Spectre tongue makes an effort at walking freedom, with bellows hinge, but still obstructs natural touring stride. Sportiva two piece ‘Double Power’ tongue solves the problem, installed on Spectre. Install hints: Tongue mount can be loosened just enough to pop tongues in and out, but in doing so you might drop a T-nut from the inside. If that happens stick the T-nut up with a square of duct tape so it’s easy to re-insert screw.
Sorry kids, this isn’t a kissing howto. You can find that over at Cosmo. Meanwhile, La Sportiva’s Double Power Tongue is one of the best ski touring boot innovations in years (see Synchro review for more details). This cultural event is not quite on the level of when cavemen went from bare feet to sandal, but close. In case you’ve been out of touch, perhaps living in a crevasse on the Kahiltna, the idea is simple. Read on.
Regular “tongue” style boot shells have trouble allowing adequately free forward motion in touring mode, due to the shell tongue obstructing forward movement of your shin. Providing some sort of hinge in the tongue is the usual solution, but doing so compromises downhill stiffness. Sportiva’s two piece tongue is easy hinged for touring (though we’d like it to be totally free hinged) , and stiffens up when you buckle down by virtue of a separate smaller-stiffer tongue the keys into the underlying full tongue. (Other companies have tried this sort of thing over the years, but in our opinion never this effectively). Sportiva’s solution works, albeit you need take care down to align the two tongues when buckling. You get used to it, and it’s worth it.
Secret sauce, the darker part matches up with the orange cutout, locking together when the boot is buckled. Getting the parts to mate during buckling is easy, a bit tougher configuring for walking as a buckle that’s too tight will lock the parts together.
Of course you mod-happy readers of WildSnow.com have already asked: “Swap this to the earlier Spectre models?” Sure. And more.
Orange on yellow? Hey, it’s La Sportiva, need we say more?
For grins, I swapped a Sportiva tongue to a Scott Cosmos 3, am pleased with the results. Problem: the tongue is sold WITHOUT the hing-holder bracket the screws go through. That part might be available as well, I got mine from an old pair of original Spectres we have here for parts.
Sportiva bracket on Scott Cosmos. The holes nearly line up, I egged them out using a roto-cut bit on rotary grinder.
This type of project requires three hands, if necessary back the T-nuts with a square of tape so they don’t fall into the boot shell as you attempt to thread screws.
Good result.
Some of the info you need for ordering, probably through a dealer. Sportiva ITEM NUMBER is 49H in their catalog.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain. For more about Lou, please see his personal website at https://www.loudawson.com/ (Blogger stats: 5 foot 10 inches (178 cm) tall, 160 lbs (72574.8 grams).
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lou.dawson.writer
24 comments
Lou,
It looks like the hinge holder lines up perfectly with the big toe hole on the Cosmos 3 and only the pinky toe hole needed to be egged out. Correct? I have the new tongues on some old Spectre and they are indeed very close to the original Spectre tongues in terms of touring. Want to switch them to my Cosmos 3.
Hi Bob, I egged out both holes, it was no big deal, the T-nuts are much larger than even the egged out holes. Original tongue would swap right back on. It’s a good mod for the Cosmos. Getting the rivets out of the Cosmos is a bit of a chore, to avoid heat and grinding damage. They can be replaced with T-nuts if necessary.
Another nice feature of doing this to Cosmos is you end up with hinged tongue, easier entry-exit.
Lou
Is there any significant difference in stiffness with this mod to a Spectre?
Stiffer in downhill mode, looser in uphill, both improved. Lou
Nice! Works on a Cosmos – how about a Backland?
Looks awesome. Will this work with the Sideral 2.0? Unclear if the upper cuff/buckle on the Sideral would lock down the tongue hinge.
Are the holes the same on a Cosmos II?
Lou if those spectres are a 27.5, would you consider selling them?
Dabe, we don’t sell much gear, quite a bit of it is on loan or else ends up too worn out or customized, I emailed you to discuss further, perhaps we can offer some advice. Lou
Thanks Lou! I replied there but will also second the_teees query, do you think sideral or spitfire buckles will work with synchro tongue?
Thirded on the query whether this will work on a sidral 2.0. My main concern is that the two parts wouldn’t detach with the top buckel undone as there is not much slack space.
I think it might work, I can experiment today. I’ll make a point of doing so. Give me a few hours. Lou
I asked Sportiva warranty dept as I recently broke a rear cuff on my sideral (which they have felt with in A+ fashion – shipped a new pin and cuff with instructions on how to repair). The response was that it would not work:
“The Synchro tongue will not fit on a Sideral.
The attachment point is oriented in a slightly different direction, and will not line up with the rest of the boot.”
But I think like Lou’s cosmos, you could get the alignment right if you made new or modified old holes.
Thanks for the info Dabe. I just had a look at the Sideral 2.0 attachment point and notice that it dosen’t have the same metal peice as the specter/syncro and has 3 mounting points. So despite the Sideral tounge looking the same as the blue one in the first picture it must actualy be different. The difficulty of swapping would therefore be simlar to the Cosmos. For me this wouldn’t be worth risking as they are my only boots and it might not work out….
Lou – were you able to check if it would work on the Sideral 2.0 (despite the response above, thx kip).
Hi Skis, yeah, I want to check this for myself. Got delayed, I think I can get to it today. Thanks for asking. ‘best, Lou
Ok, SkisTrees, I have some Sportiva Sideral boots here to play around with, but I can’t mod them. It looks like you could widen the hinge slot in front end of the Power Tongue by a total of 8 mm (4 each side) and you could snap it into the same fitting-hinge as exists on Sideral. The original Sideral tongue can probably be removed with some heating and prying, but might require removing the 3 rivets holding the tongue hinge fitting and replacing them with T-nuts.
Also, as mentioned above, I’m not sure the buckles would fall in the correct places on the Power Tongue.
In all, possible but probably not worth the effort and expense.
I’m just about to purchase my 2.0’s to try this on so was revisiting post and noticed that flashy yellow rear spoiler! Do you have a part number for that Lou?
Dabe, those came with the boots, you’d have to ask Sportiva if they’re sold under their own SKU. Lou
Lou,
Is there anything different (sans liner) between the modified spectare and the synchro? It seems like they are the same shell after this?
Thanks!
Hi Rossco, my recollection is the Synchro has a few changes to the mold that make it stiffer, possibly a different plastic formulation, and some work to change the fit here and there. I also recall changes to lean lock. I would not call it the “same shell” though I’d call it quite similar. Bottom line is if you like the fit and overall flex of the Spectre, and do this tongue swap, you’ve got nothing to lose and could avoid buying a new pair of boots. But if you want a bit more from your boots, consider overall upgrading. Ski touring boots these days are in a time of rapid development/improvement, thus always good to look at new options, especially if you can find something on sale. Interestingly, contrary to the incessant drumming of the PR stories, I feel ski touring bindings are in a time of static development, with machines such as Shift taking attention away from the fact that what most people will use for actual human-powered skiing are virtually the same thing they were 20 years ago. Not that that’s bad (the classic tech binding is still genius), but point being the boots are where the fun is these days.
Were there significant uphill/downhill performance improvements doing this swap on the cosmos iii?
Cory, it reduces the effect of the tongue blocking forward movement of your shin during the uphill. No real change on the downhill, as the standard Cosmos tongue is already moderatly stiff. Lou
Lou,
Does the additional forward range put the Cosmos III close to the Spectre/Synchro in regard to mobility? I would like like to pickup the Cosmos III because the fit is great but the ROM is a concern as i’m coming from the Spectre 1 and enjoy the freedom of movement it provides in the skin track and booting.
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