I'm just curious about what differences it makes in the slide when you use one heel as opposed to another. Also, what types of players use which heel. Right now, I use the one with the ridges, but am thinking about trying out the red one. I have bad knees, and would like to maximize my ability to stay down on my shots. Thanks.

I use either 7 or 8 sole and the red heel or the smooth rubber heel.
never had to use anything else........

I use Custom made heels and soles from the guy in the back of bowling this month magazine adds. he's a pro-shop from MN.

He has finer adjustments when you need to slide more. They will cost you. his best offer is 3 soles and 3 heel for about 100 plus shipping.

I started off with a 7,8,9 soles which are equal to 6,8,10 in dexter. The 9 is way better that a dexter 10. the transition from dexter 8 to 10 is huge. it's like sticking then going on ice.

The custom soles and heels work nicer because of simple math principles.

each one is a hard synthetic material with fiber attached. each sole/heel has more or less area fiber. changing the coefficient of friction and not jumping to different material to do so. I think the soles go to 10 of 11 for even more slide and the heels go from negative to positive. so he has a complete solution.

If you have bad kness( I do) these are a great investment.
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Listen up you primitive screwheads, this is my BOOM! stick

I'm reading this poll with a lot of interest, even though I am not a Dexter fan and don't use Dexters.  What I'm seeing here is that the majority of the bowlers are using a longer slide sole ( or even the 10, and most everyone is using the softest braking heel (red leather).  Since the vast majority of the bowlers are using the equipment on one extreme end of the spectrum, it seems to me like Dexter has missed the boat on "normal" slide conditions.  Most of their variable slide soles/heels aren't even being put to use, especially the ones on the shorter slide end.  You would think that they would reengineer the soles and heels to make the 8 sole and red leather heel as the middle of the road combo, and work out both directions from there.

I know that with the variable Linds, most bowlers tend to use more of the middle range setups on their shoes.  Sure they tinker around on some approach conditions, but the middle of the slide range seems to be where the Linds users work out from....that way you can easily go either direction, and in single cleat increment steps.

Getting involved with the P.B.S. shoes opened my eyes somewhat about the Linds/P.B.S. concept.  P.B.S. stressed that when changing the slide cleats, switch out a particular cleat first, and test the result.  Then, switch out another cleat if more or less slide is needed.  Basically, work in smaller steps until you dial in what you really want.  Linds could have put the same info in with their Exxxtras, but they overlooked some of the finer details that P.B.S. went to in order to explain how to get the optimum performance out of the shoes.

This all makes me curious as to how the new ABS shoes are going to shake out.  I don't know of anyone in my area using them yet, so it is new territory to me so far.

no babz299, i'm referring to the #5 smooth rubber heel that was found on the sst 5 until recently. you know the one, it's one big piece of smooth rubber but it's large enough to fit the sst 6 shoe. it's made of a different rubber compound than the "horseshoe" heel.

Edited on 6/24/2003 10:32 PM

I use the red heel with a "Slidz-Rite" slide sock for all approaches.