The Hoji Pro is one beefy boot. Strap in, tighten the upper buckles, and most tour skiers will never say, “This thing it too soft.”
On the other hand… there are among our vast cadre of aficionados who like the design and fit of the Pro, yet would prefer a few more degrees of cuff lean angle, or a softened forward flex. Here’s a few mods that’ll get you there. Caveats: Neither mod is reversible. The lean mod will get you at most about three degrees. The softening mod has a radical effect on both the softness and progressive flex. I recommend for smaller, less aggressive skiers who are certain the boot is too stiff. Wear an N95 mask while grinding the carbon infused plastic. This mod’s overall WildSnow difficulty rating and specialized tool needs: nine out of ten screwdrivers.
Object at hand, 2018-2019 Dynafit Hoji Pro Tour ski boot.
The surgery zone. With the liner removed, it’s easy to spot the Hoji Pro cuff lean stops. Work the lean-lock lever, and you’ll see how the Hoji-Lock functions. It’s ingenious.
Hoji-lock lean-lock engaged. The slot engages a vertical plastic tab, interface is marked with grey sharpie. The lean mod involves removing a small amount of material from the tab, so the slot can engage with the cuff farther forward. The trick is you can’t remove a lot of plastic from the tab as the slot has a locator tab that has to slide behind things. How this works is obvious when you observe things live.
Grinding mark for increasing lean. I removed around 3 millimetres and measured a ~2 degree increase in lean. You could go slightly more than that, just be sure you leave enough plastic to properly located the part that slides in behind.
My measured increase. Yeah, I know it doesn’t look like much, but combined with heel posting wedge and a shim behind the calf, you’ll feel it.
Next, the WAY to soften the flex. (This might be the mod that’s never done. It was a fun experiment and I hope some of you find it interesting. I don’t mind how it feels, yet I wouldn’t ski big skis nor get aggressive, for fear the boot will collapse forward. As mentioned above, smaller, less aggressive skiers might like this — though remember it’s not reversible.)
The stop-ectomy target. What we’re doing here is simple, and admittedly radical. We’re grinding out the entire cuff lean stop.
Cuff in open, rearward position. Grinding done. Lean modders please NOTE how the tongue shaped plastic part still locates behind the lean grind. It’s not necessary to do the lean mod if you’re doing the softening mod.
Cuff stop removed, cuff in neutral position.
Cuff stop removed, cuff in forward flex position. Before remove extra plastic, carpet test the flex. I know my cuts look rough, nonetheless the flex feels smooth. I needed, a bit more grinding and hand sanding would smooth things out.
Said again: The lean mod is minor. Removing the cuff flex stops is major. Neither mod is reversible.
Reminder: One reason the Hoji boots have a nice flex in their stock form is that the cuff pivots are not offset in height above the sole, as with most other touring boots. Instead, they’re evenly located on the same left-right axis. This makes the boot even softer when the cuff stops are removed. Keep that in mind.
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
7 comments
Lou, I’m in the market for a new boot to replace my old rev 1 Masestrale RS. As a fellow fused ankle skier…whats your take the Hoji for us? With some terrain/fatigue, I like to stiff up the boot in walk mode so the forward ROM is stopped by the boot and not the screws in my talus. Way back when, I had to bail on the mercury for this very reason.
Lou, I’m in the market for a new boot to replace my old rev 1 Masestrale RS. As a fellow fused ankle skier…whats your take the Hoji for us? With some terrain/fatigue, I like to stiff up the boot in walk mode so the forward ROM is stopped by the boot and not the screws in my talus. Way back when, I had to bail on the mercury for this very reason.
I think I replied to an earlier post about the Hoji Pro but another way to get a bit of forward lean is to turn the 10mm nut on the ski-lock mechanism to ensure maximum forward lean is engaged. Not sure if anyone has talked about this yet but it does work a bit. Just not too much or locking in ski mode is really difficult. I coupled this move with adding the spoiler from the other Hoji boot (an irreversible mod like the ones above) to get a couple extra forward degrees. Since the Hoji Pro is so damn upright, I think I’m going to try the forward lean mod above and turn the nut a bit more to get the most out of the grind. It’s a fantastic boot, but I cannot for the life of me understand why modern boots force us to stand so upright. It just makes for crappy, slarvy technique – but I’m 53 so there you go! Thanks for the additional beta on making this boot more versatile!
Nice to see the Grand Master modder still at work, but Lou, please keep your grubby paws off the PGs in the next article *wink*.
Someone complained that the Hoji was too stiff? ? This world doesn’t make sense to me anymore
I’m with Josh and would love to mod my Hojis so I can stand straight up. I’ve also had major problems with the friction of the ski-mode lever and the cabling to the power strap and top buckle. I ended up disconnecting the power strap and replacing it with a normal power strap. Even now I have to unbuckle the top buckle, put about 30-40lbs force down on the lever, and then rebuckle the top buckle. I did take it apart and lube it and found nothing obviously wrong.
Now how do I make my Hoji Free boots more upright? Spoiler removal does almost nothing besides creating a sloppy fit.
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