the Way of the Turtle

MY DIONS - WHAT A GREAT SNOWSHOE!
Thursday, February 8, 2007

Yesterday my replacement cleats came - a solid "race cleat" for packed, rocky trails and the "flex cleat" for deeper snow. As always, the service from Dion Snowshoes was impressive - not only did Bob get the cleats to me in three days, but he included a note about what I need to do to get a 10% discount on any future orders. I'm thinking I'll have to either see him at a race or drop him a note and find out how much it would cost to get my broken flex-cleats fixed. I'm guessing it wouldn't be too pricey.

Even more amazing was the ease of installing the new cleats. Turn two screws, pop the old ones out, slide the new ones in, and re-tighten the screw. A couple of minutes each! At some point I hope to have to sets of snowshoes - my current larger set for deeper snow (more flotation) and someday a smaller set for packed or shallow snow (where flotation isn't an issue... in other words, everything I've done so far this season.) For now I'm confident a screwdriver and the spare set of cleats in my snowshoe bag will be enough to get me through just about any conditions I'm likely to encounter on race day.

There are definitely fancier snowshoes out there, but I'll stick with my Dions!

JMH