Black Mounting Plate 23

Description

This mounting plate is designed to accommodate all RIKT kick tails. It comes with two screws and a hex head L key for mounting any RIKT kicktail, and 3M adhesive on the bottom which you can peel off to mount the mounting plate to your surfboard.

IMPORTANT!! Since RIKTs allow you to push with a lot more force against your kick tail than you can with a typical traction pad, the bond between the mounting plate and your surfboard needs to be at maximum strength. To achieve maximum strength and keep your kick tail and mounting plate from coming off in the water, just follow these simple steps:

#1 Clean the surfboards surface thoroughly with an alcohol based solvent and wax remover to remove any grease, grime, oil or wax from the surfboard surface.

#2 Rough the surfboard surface with 120 grit sandpaper.

#3 Apply in a room where the temp is at 70 degrees or higher.

#4 Apply clamps and a ten pound weight and let sit for 72 hours with the ambient temperature at or above 70 degrees before taking your board into the ocean.

#5 For even greater mounting plate to surfboard strength, install a RIKT front traction pad which fits on top of the mounting plate tongue and holds the mounting plate in place. This increases the adhesive bonding area and overall strength of the adhesive bond by about 300%. Follow the same procedure with the traction pad installation as with the mounting plate installation (clean the deck surface with an appropriate solvent, rough the surface with 120 weight sandpaper, install in a room temp of 70 degrees or higher, apply a 10 pound weight to the pad and let sit for 72 hours with an ambient temperature at or above 70 degrees before going in the water).

#6 If you’re worried about your mounting plate coming off in the water you can glue it on. We use J-B Weld 50172 25ml. MarineWeld Syringe. After cleaning your board as described above, you peel off the 3M adhesive from the bottom of the mounting plate, apply a thin layer of epoxy evenly to the bottom of the plate, stick the mounting plate on your board exactly where you want it to go and let it cure for 24 hours before surfing.

Click here to watch a video that shows how to mount your mounting plate to your surfboard deck.

This mounting plate has a circular cut-out so it can be mounted as far back as the front edge of your leash plug, with the ramp extending up and over the leash plug, or as far forward as you want. Mounting as far back as possible results in sharper turns, allowing you to “whip” your board and shoot spray more easily than if you mount the mounting plate further forward. How aggressively you surf to a certain extend will determine the placement of your mounting plate. If you’re more of a smooth carver you may want it further forward. If you like to get vertical and execute very sharp snaps and turns shooting lots of spray, farther back could be a better choice. Try a couple of different boards with mounting plates in different positions to nail what works best for you.

IMPORTANT!

It’s undeniable that RIKT kick tails take your surfing to the next level. But it’s very important to choose the right RIKT product for your surfboard and install the RIKT mounting plate properly if you choose to ride our interchangeable kicks like the one featured in this package.

Our interchangeable kick tails offer the highest level of performance of any RIKT product, but the mounting plates require a really smooth surface for the adhesive to bond to that is 100% free of wax or dirt so the bond between the board and the required mounting plate is at full strength. For this reason a new board is the easiest fit for an interchangeable RIKT.

If you want to use a RIKT on an older board that has pressure dings from your heel where a mounting plate needs to be installed, a RIKT Grip 2 traction pad is your best bet and we would NOT recommend an interchangeable kick tail set up, unless you want to glue on your mounting plate as described above. The pressure dings will make the surface area under the mounting plate uneven, the adhesive may not bond at full strength and your kick tail could come off in the water. Our Grip 2 traction pad has an integrated kick identical to the Chris Ward flat top, offers great performance, and supports your entire foot like the interchangeable kicks.

But if your board, new or used, is a good candidate for a RIKT, to insure the mounting plate adhesive bonds at full strength you need to thoroughly clean the deck surface before securing the mounting plate the board. Not an issue for a new board but definately an issue with a used board. If there is any wax at all on the deck surface, there’s a good chance your mounting plate will come off. You absolutely need to use a solvent or dedicated wax removal product to prepare the surface. Scraping off the wax on an old board won’t do it.

If you attach a mounting plate to a new or used board the adhesive requires 72 hours of curing time at room temperature before exposure to water to bond to your surfboard deck at full strength. This is coming straight from 3M tech support and is good practice for any traction pad installation, but critical for a RIKT mounting plate. If you get your RIKT on a Tuesday, stick on the mounting plate and take it out to surf Wednesday morning, it may not come off Wednesday but it will likely come off at some point.

We also recommend using clamps or anything you can find to weigh down the mounting plate during the curing time. Clamps from your local hardware store work best but if you don’t have clamps you can use a can of paint, books, just use something to press the plate onto the deck and keep it there for 72 hours. With a RIKT you can push with tremendous force against your tail so it’s much more critical to let the adhesive have the time it needs with pressure applied to achieve a full strength bond to the deck of your surfboard.

Using clamps, thoroughly cleaning the deck surface and waiting 72 hours before exposure to salt water we installed a RIKT mounting plate on a 35 year old board and it’s stayed on great so you can install a RIKT on older boards if you follow these recommendations. Chris Ward was at the Palm Springs Surf Club a few weeks ago and he wanted to surf on a new board that didn’t have a RIKT installed on it yet so we stuck on a mounting plate, weighed it down with a backpack full of drills from the club’s maintainance area and he surfed on that board an hour later with no issues. So you can surf on an interchangeable RIKT the same day that you attach the mounting plate, it’s just not recommended.

At RIKT we’ve tested many boards and to date have never had a mounting plate come off that was installed correctly. Follow these recommendations and your mounting plate should stay on your board until you decide to remove it.