[pct-l] pole maintance

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good evening, Shepherd,

Several years ago I had a similar slippage problem with my black foam grips.
I really liked the feel of those grips but after a thousand miles or so they
just wouldn’t stay in place on the pole; very aggravating.  That foam, and
other grips I’ve had made of solid rubber or plastic, was softened by DEET
from my hands.  With the solid rubber and plastic grips the only real
downside was that my hands were always a real yucky black – worse than
expected even on a hiker.  When the foam grips were DEET-damaged I believe
there’s an 80-90% chance that they just became too loose for the adhesive to
do its job or, alternately, the sweaty DEET also permeated to similarly
damage the adhesive.

DEET doesn’t affect all plastics, but I resolved my specific problem by
pitching the foam-grip models – which by then were pretty well spawned out
anyway – replacing them with poles that have composite cork grips.  The
composite filler material may also eventually degrade but at least it is a
light brown color and will be less noticeable on my hands.

Enjoy,



Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 6:32 PM, Amanda L Silvestri <aslive at sbcglobal.net>wrote:

> The rubber handle on one of my tracking poles has come loose and has slid
> about three inches down the pole shaft.  I can nudge it back up but it keeps
> working it's way back down again.  I want to secure it.  For adhering rubber
> to metal would rubber cement, an A/B epoxy, hot glue or some other adhesive
> be the best way to go?
>
> Shepherd
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