Rubber for my rig

'84 Fire

Suggestions on rubber and resoler for these classic skids appreciated.

I picked these up fresh in the original box 25 years ago. Somehow after 4-5 resoles (mostly done in colorado) I've got no idea what rubber has worked best for how I use them. They get 10 days a year on choice to me routes.

Hard enough slab and all day any where routes is about it. Rubber trending toward friction would be the best since you can climb fat man like all day crack and such with most types.

What rubber and where?

Mucho respect and thanks!

I've had a LOT of luck resoling with the guy at New England ReSoul. He's smaller and pays a lot of attention to detail, with a pretty good turnaround time (10 days?) Check them out. As far as rubber goes, I've had my Anasazi VCSs resoled with Stealth Onyxx something like 3 times now and have never been anything but stoked on the performance in all temperatures and across all rock types. Friction is A+, but the rubber is just hard enough to edge without "melting off" and stays pretty new for pretty long if you take care of it.

I've been thinking about send my Fires out to be resole. If I do, I'll probably go with Virbam XS.

I bet they smell great.

c4 will be soft and smeary ... high temps might make em feel slick

XS edge will be harder and more edgy, though they can still smear decently ... low temps might make em feel a tad too hard (less friction)

XS grip (1) is between the two more on the smeary soft side ...

onyx is between the two more on the harder/edgy side ...

i own and use shoes with all the above and more

basically you have to decide whether you want more edging or smearing .... also sometimes when resoling stiffer shoes with C4, they may soften up ...

the rubber makes no real difference to good climbers ... the best sponsored climbers use all types of rubbers

;)

Really great feedback, thanks! Much respect for the thoughtful input.

Shoes will be enroute to Re-Soul. Not only the fires but also some tc pros, a left foot from 200x and a right from 200y. Sending with the simple instructions 'whatever's clever'. It's not the rubber that keeps you on the road.

Mostly now I wish I had something else to climb on besides some random slipper or other worn out skids from a worn out quiver while waiting for return shipping.. Or on second thought it doesn't matter as its hard for me to out climb my approach shoes as of late, reality strikes.

Post script.....RG you'd be happy to hear fires ( and my) first route at Joshua happened last fall, on double cross of course, and they smell like roses. How bout that restaurant at 29 palms hotel. Put it on your to-dos.