foot brace use

[Glenn MacGrady]

Some other things about foot bars and seats.

The bar brace is also useful as an attachment point for lightweight gear. I have four D-rings glued onto the bottom of my SRT, but sometimes I'll just clip my day bag onto the foot bar.

I also carry a small Ziploc bag inside the foot bar containing some spare wing nuts, regular nuts and plastic bolt end caps, just in case my wing-nutted adjustable seat loosens and falls apart, which happened to me once in the middle of the Sparkleberry Swamp.

As an idea I stole from Mike McCrea, you can put some foam pipe insulation over the foot bar. This makes a nice place to rest your spare paddle off the floor, and onto which to put your bare feet when you are paddling nude.

Here is a picture of a carbon fiber Deal kneeling bucket seat lined with Ridgerest foam. I didn't foam mine; I just left it with it's sparkling white gelcoat. I did put some strips of bath tub friction tape on the seat to reduce the slipperiness of the gelcoat. The other seat is an 8" depth Conk Comfort Curve seat custom made for the SRT. It's great for kneeling, but it's not as comfortable as the 10" Conk seat (or the bucket seat) for seated paddling. The Conk seats are laminations of cedar and ash, and hence both lighter weight and stronger than stock ash cane seats. I have a 10" Conk seat in my black-gold Wildfire.

The SRT seat can be adjusted forward and aft on rails, and it can be adjusted higher or lower using different spacer wedges.

 

[bluegrasscanoe]

What about fiberglass canoes, Is it safe to drill holes in the sides to mount foot braces, glue them, bolt them, what is the best?

 

[charlie wilson]

Plexus 300 is available from Johnstown Dist in small units and is a less invasive attachment than through-bolted machine screws. Be very sure to clean the hull with acetone, and scuff sand, then acetone clean the backside of the footbrace unit.

 

[Guest]

You don't need to bolt or rivet the Wenonah bar track to the hull. I had the track screwed into a strip of ash, which is glued to the hull.

I’ve used the method Glenn illustrated above when installing foot brace bars in composite canoes.

If the hull has significant curvature or tumblehome in the location of the foot brace slider track it is necessary to shape the edge of the wood that is epoxied to the hull so that it is a close match |).

That method has the advantage of helping keep the track straight instead of having it bow slightly against the curve of the hull. Foot braces are easier to adjust is the track isn’t bent. This is especially true if using tracked foot pedals instead of a bar, and is even more important with sliding rudder control pedals, which will bind and not operate smoothly on a curved/bent track.

 

[Guest]

Knee bumpers

If one uses this type of brace along with some foam "knee bumps" glued to the hull sides just below the gunwales, a bar brace allows one to not only brace the feet forward against the bar, but against each other. That allows you to push your knees into the bumps for more stability.

I have minicel “knee bumpers” on or under the gunwales in every canoe with a foot brace. Those knee bumpers provide padding for two more points of what Charlie calls “bone to boat” contact, but I don’t keep my feet pressed against each other on the bar, but rather spread some distance apart.

For my inseam and typical seat height/boat depth in an open canoe those knee bumpers work best if my knees are - (I’ll go measure a couple of boats) – about 24” apart.

 

[Potterdave]

Hi YC. I installed footpegs as per the photos and thru bolted them to my old royalex Mohawk (used primarily for whitewater and other bumpy situations) more than ten years ago. They remain rock solid with no discernible damage to the Royalex in any way.

 

[Guest]

You can see the screw heads on the near side of the boat in the bottom picture.

 

[Potterdave]

I installed foot braces on a Mowark solo that I use for moderate whitewater by thru bolting about ten years ago.
no cracking and no problems whatsoever.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I've been experimenting with a makeshift footbrace system in my Sojourn. First trip out with it to test placement of the mounting brackets (explain later with pics when I mount it permanent), I noticed afterward that my legs were a bit tired. I take that as proof that the footbraces are providing a useful service.

 

[bluegrasscanoe]

I've been experimenting with a makeshift footbrace system in my Sojourn. First trip out with it to test placement of the mounting brackets (explain later with pics when I mount it permanent), I noticed afterward that my legs were a bit tired. I take that as proof that the footbraces are providing a useful service.

Know of anyone in centreal Va who would install foot brace in a fiberglass canoe ?

 

[yellowcanoe]

Probably these guys.

http://www.paddleva.com/