Ski Boot Cuff Pivot Rivet — Elegant Repair

This came in from Tomas K. It’s one of the best homebrew repairs for skiers we’ve seen in a long time. Goes under the category of “Why didn’t I think of that?”

From Tomas: “I broke one of the cuff pivot joints on my Garmont Endorphin boots. I found a pretty elegant solution to solve this problem. For new axle I used a standard chainring screw from bike. This type of screw fit right into the hole. I made a short movie (2min 10s) about installation of the new axle.”

11 Responses to “Ski Boot Cuff Pivot Rivet — Elegant Repair”

1. DRS January 21st, 2013 7:47 am

   The set up in the video seems like it would have a tendency to loosen itself over time.

   In order to mitigate auto-unscrew action I would use a longer chain ring bolt (they come in many lengths) such that the bolts snugs up against itself rather than the shell, but with minimum extra space. I would also use a bit of threadlocker.

   Chain ring bolt would be a small, light addition to an expedition repair kit.

2. Lou Dawson January 21st, 2013 7:53 am

   DRS, excellent point, thanks much. I’d probably even use a bit of epoxy on the bolt threads, the kind I can loosen by heating the bolt with a soldering iron. Lou

3. Lynne Wolfe January 21st, 2013 8:05 am

   I have seen these boot cuff rivets blow out a number of times, on both AT and tele boots. I carry a bolt with 2 washers and a self-locking nut(with a plastic lining) in my repair kit. An easy fix in the field, have used it at ski areas too.

   The field repair does look a little Frankenstein-ish with the rest of the bolt sticking out of the end of the nut, but it works great.

4. Scooter January 21st, 2013 8:21 am

   Great fix. A couple bits of insight
   You want the medial cuff attachment as flush to the shell as possible.
   You’ll want to use steel chainring bolts instead of the lighter weight alu. A ski edge would shave off the protruding head of a alu bolt in short order.

5. RobinB January 21st, 2013 8:24 am

   I wonder if he is somehow connected to the Rossland crew – we’ve been doing that one for years! Ironically, I think it all began when one of the crew had the main rivet blow out on his Endorphins, and the owner of the bike shop was sitting next to him in the change room.

6. Tom Gos January 21st, 2013 9:03 am

   This is a great idea, but i second the comments about treadlocker, bolt length and steel. Chain ring bolts are notorious for loosening on bikes, and the alu ones shear/strip pretty easily. One concern i would have about using this as a permanent fix would be that the holes molded into the plastic might be larger diameter than the bolt/nut, seems you could get some lateral slop in the cuff.

7. Tomas Kasanicky January 21st, 2013 11:38 am

   I am very glad that you found my solution useful and yes I was glue the screw by epoxy.

8. XXX_er January 22nd, 2013 8:36 am

   Very cool Tomas! I still own a pair and I’ve wondered when the rivet would go cuz there were a lot of blown cuff rivets on that boot …thanx

9. Rick Shaw January 22nd, 2013 9:33 pm

   Scooter,
   titanium chainring bolts, guaranteed to cold seize, loc-tite not necessary, make pretty sparks too when hit with the edges …

   😉

10. AdrenalinRushedMyRivetsOut March 23rd, 2013 8:59 pm

    Just did this repair today on my Garmont Adrenalins, used alu chainring screws, some modified washers and epoxy. Modified= half a mm too big so I filed it down a bit. It fit great after that.

    Will update if I have problems, if no word from me than it worked great, is still working, or I bought new boots!

11. farkle February 28th, 2018 8:23 am

    Great concept and repair. Thanks for the video. Please post the length and diameter of the chainring bolts for reference. Red Loctite for me.