Boge ujs are nice to use - not too stiff and absorb shock better than the others but they have the life span of a may fly with congenital heart disease. This is because internal corrosion (within the rubber) blows them apart. They use what looks like brass for the nut that's bonded into the rubber and stainless steel for the bolt that screws into it.
I was wondering if anyone knows of a boge that uses only stainless so you don't get that corrosion?
Another query - Who make the strongest Euro pin, the male threaded one not the one with the threaded hole into its base ?
been using the chinhook boge for 3 seasons now.... (time 4 a new 1)
this are the only uj's that have never failed me.
ALTHOUGH i wish they'd put the bolt in the centre instead of off set,,,, it's f**ks up the paintwork on all my boards
Looks like he left his cammed sail too long before he tried to waterstart it..
I think tendon is best as your failsafe is downhaul rope (breaking strain like, what, a ton?) whereas boge is that nylon strap which would be nowhere near as much. Going off my rated tie downs, that webbing would be 500kg absolute tops.
Anyway that is not what you asked.......
The best europin by far is the stainless chinook
The pin is one piece incorporated into the top cup that the tendon goes into. ie- it is all 1 CNC machined piece so the pin can't break off at the threds. Awesome bit of kit.
I will use nothign else now I've seen one in the flesh, everything is overengineered on it.
There was a batch of faulty Boge rubber U.J.'s a year ago. (Britain.) My new one pulled apart on it's first outing. Luckily it wasn't extreme and the safety webbing held to get me back in.
On examination it was clear that the rubber part is in three seperate sections which are GLUED together, with a thin continuous rubber casing on the outside. The upper part had pulled away from the main central part because there was next to no glue in the joint!!
There is no way of checking because the joints are hidden by the outer rubber casing. The glue will either hold, or not.
I was told that Boge had moved factory to reduce costs and were having quality control problems. (Skimping on glue it would seem.) They may have cured the problem but I changed the joint (no hassle from shop) for a Chinnok tendon. You can check them!
Tentative +1 for the chinook europin tendon. The new tendons are softer than the old (streamlined) ones that everyone loved or hated. The chinook has quite a wide load dispersal area in the base whereas most of the brands using boge have really small base areas. I haven't really looked into how bases share the load though- if the base disperses load through most of the base plate or whether it just point loads the centre (I dont imagine this would be the case though). That all said I still use boge's on my waveboards, I cant say they are any softer on landing jumps/through the chop than the tendon but they are 3 dimensionally a bit softer (if that makes sense).
Brass is not entirely unsuited to the purpose- chinook and others used it for years with their old hourglass type uj's and they didn't fail the same way. I had a boge fail where the nut was some dodgy white metal which just crumbled with corrosion then split the rubber- thought it was weird since all the boge replacement bits where all brass and had been for a longtime prior to that. If the brass insert is staying in one piece maybe it's the rubber isn't suited to the purpose. The problem is that when the boge's fail like that there is no failsafe- there is nothing holding the webbing in place so sail just seperates from board.
+2 for me chinook stainless with twin bolts - over engineered to the max cant see it failing in a hurry
I had a Boge brand uni break on me today, about 14 months old. I'd guess maybe 50 sessions 
As you can see the whole threaded section has pulled out of the hard plastic bottom and rendered the safety webbing useless. Luckily this happened in the shorebreak and not a few km out to sea.
The next pic is a spare the same as I replaced the Boge with. It's a Kinetic brand and is one solid piece of rubber with the brass thread moulded in. This is the same construction as the original Chinook joint which broke through the narrowest part of the rubber after about 7 years of use.
I won't be using Boge again.
I don't know how to post pictures of the failed three piece Boge joint, or I would.
Rubber U.J.'s must vary in construction so which are fully one piece (like the Kinetic - are you sure?) and which are not?
Withe Boge, the top and bottom are seemingly moulded around the metal (or plastic) inserts) seperately then glued to the main central body with a thinner continuous rubber sleeve glued all around, so that it appears to be one piece.
If other makes are truly one piece (and safer) how do they manufacture them? Is it really possible?
