Walking Sticks for a Present

M

munk

Joined
Mar 22, 2002
Messages
15,742
They finally got here!! Now my wife has her present. I ordered a pair of hi- tech, souless, yuppyfied, corrupt, selfish, narcistic, and overpriced Walking sticks.
There you go Hollow.

So many of you came forward with your personal accounts of how the sticks overcame injuries and handicaps, that I just had to try. This time my wife gets a present I really picked out for her. Not a blouse circled on a ad page left on my desk.... She was actually pleased. A nod to Kampfjaeger.

I'll be letting you all know how they work out for her. Her knees have had injury and these poles may be just the thing. If they don't work there are no excuses- these poles are the best. Ti, shock absorbtion, canted handles, the whole embarressing list.

Everything but the motor.

She's OK, I guess, She accepted a little 12" Sirupate as her jogging companion. My Cougar paranoia spreads far... As a rule, every woman who accepts a HI khukuri is not neccesarily great, and every woman who does not accept one not neccesarily bad; but you know which group I'd put my money on to Ride the River with.



munk
 
munk said:
She's OK, I guess, She accepted a little 12" Sirupate as her jogging companion. My Cougar paranoia spreads far... As a rule, every woman who accepts a HI khukuri is not neccesarily great, and every woman who does not accept one not neccesarily bad; but you know which group I'd put my money on to Ride the River with.

munk
Click to expand...
Glad to hear she likes them Munk.:D My Barbie has a 15" AK, a Shop 1 model with the scrolled butt cap. Pretty thing but impractical as hell for me but fits Barbie like a glove with her smaller hands.:cool:

Speaking of big cats. Some time back we were at the zoo and I was pushing my rollator up the rather steep bank towards the Snow Leopard's pen. She/he was crouched down watching my every move. Had she/he been in the wild there's no question in my mind who she would've tried to have for dinner that day.
It's a strange feeling to be looked on as mere food.:eek:
She/he isn't as large as a fair sized Cougar though, probably on the order of the leopard the Nepali killed with his sheathed khukuri.;)
 
" Everything but the motor. " :D


I hope she likes them, and I hope they do for her what they are intended to do... which is help.
 
munk said:
They finally got here!! Now my wife has her present. I ordered a pair of hi- tech, souless, yuppyfied, corrupt, selfish, narcistic, and overpriced Walking sticks.
There you go Hollow.

I'll be letting you all know how they work out for her. Her knees have had injury and these poles may be just the thing. If they don't work there are no excuses- these poles are the best. Ti, shock absorbtion, canted handles, the whole embarressing list.

Everything but the motor.

munk
Click to expand...

Sounds totally hi tech. Mine are the cheap ass models cause I was skeptical whether they worked or not. I'll be interested to see the impression on the shock absorption. I wondered like when you are climbing a real steep hill if the shock absorption would hurt your ability to pull yourself up the hill or help you. Let me know her impressions.

My main complaint on mine, which is cause they are cheap is they don't collapse very small. So if you do want to hang them from your pack like chopping thru some place they are bulky. The super expensive ones are supposed to fold up small.
 
Hollow, if you have the shocks they won't fold small.

I didn't like the shock feature- just poking upstairs on the carpet. When I put a foot or stick down I want it to stay and I want to know it will. The slight movement was disconcerting.

You can lock it out, of course.

And for me, I'd get thicker, stronger ones. Hers are Ti and Aluminium. I think I could break them. They flex. The company says lifetime guarentee on the shafts. Too much spring in them. For my wife, though, they're fine. She likes comfort and the shock will help on downhills if nothing else. The lightness is a plus and she isn't heavy or physical enough to seriously challenge the sticks.

munk
 
Munk, would you mind telling us which "yuppified sticks" your decided to get?
My wife and I gave some ski poles a try over the weekend and I found they worked well for me except the stiffness of the poles contributed to some elbow and shoulder pain I developed.
I'm keen to try the ones with shock-absorbers, have been looking at the Leki Ultralite Ti with the angled grips and shocks (they get down to 30", the shortest I found and the lightest too)
I was so taken by the earlier posts I sent a pair to my 83 year old Dad who is suffering from peripheral neuropathy and having difficulty walking ( a passion of his)...hope they help.
Guess I'll be looking for another couple of pair soon.
Will let you know.
 
That's it, Prag, the Leki Ultralite Ti with the shocks and angled grip.

I'd buy the regular one with the angled grip for me. Not the ti ultralite.

But the guy I spoke to on the phone at Moosejaw used the Ti ultra's.

You probably have a store nearby, but if you do use the net, I have to admit the Moosejaw folks had decent prices and were more than fair to me.
There was an ad on an internet search engine that listed prices. The price listed by Moosejaw was not the price you found when you clicked on to buy. I wrote to them and asked why- shouldn't people sell the goods for the amount they advertised?

Guy wrote back the site didn't upgrade very often, wasn't their fault, but he'd give me the price anyway. So I saved 20 bucks. Still, a 120 bucks for something that didn't sand, go bang, or cut logs is pretty weird for me.

But my wife deserved it, Lord knows I've got myself a lot of toys over the years.

munk
 
Munk... Don't tell me you went cheap on her and didn't get your wife the sticks with the built-in air conditioners. :p You know that we sissified yuppy trekkers gotta have those! :p :p

I'm glad she's pleased. I hope they do all that she needs and gives her many miles of pleasure. Sounds like you got her some REALLY nice ones. :)
 
These things are so light, when one model weighs an ounce less than another everybody gets excited so they can charge 20.00 per amazing oz.


They'll never replace a good wooden stick to my mind, but I've got years to go, (hopefully) and more aches and pains to aquire. Maybe they'll help me some day.


munk
 
Being fat, I have trouble going uphill so that's where they help me. That and on the rocky. On flat not so much and same with downhill.

However my pal Kate has a bad knee. She can kick my ass uphill, but going downhill on rocky hurts her. So usually when she comes with us (she's our backpacking pal) I give her the poles on the flat and downhill and then we trade back uphill.
 
Uh huh. Hey Cliff, btw, I've been meaning to ask if you strip the threads on the Leki poles, can they be replaced? Because the shafts have a lifetime guarentee, and....




munk
 
The threads on the Leki's (and most others) are simply a plastic 'wedge' style insert in the pole. You can easily pull them out and replace them. Also, I completely trashed one of my poles years ago .. sent it back to Leki and they fixed it for free and had it back to me in a week. Very good service from them.


My take on the spring is that it might not do much for me, but I think it does do a lot for the pole itself. Meaning that if you come down hard on the thing, the spring gives it some room to flex and absorb the impact, rather than stressing the tube itself.
 
My poles have a spring loaded button lock that fits in little holes. In one way this is neat, but in another way it's not. I had them hanging on my pack once and didn't have the button in a hole and lost the bottom half :( Got a replacement though.

Now they are even making tents where you use the trail poles to set it up, saving the weight of bringing tent poles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top