How to Repair Your Trekking Poles at Home

The right to repair is one of our most important brand values. No gear is unbreakable, so durable gear is repairable gear. We offer in house repairs for many of the issues you may run into, but we also want folks to be able to perform DIY repairs on their own if they prefer. We’ve outlined the most common breaks that can be repaired from the comfort of your own home with minimal tools and supplies. 

Rebonding

When it comes to our poles, “bonds” are any area where two parts are fused together via a bonding agent. It is possible for these areas to separate over time. Bond fails are covered during our warranty period, so please reach out to us at support@dioritegear.com if you’re experiencing one. However, if your poles are out of warranty, or you would just rather repair the issue yourself, you can re-bond the parts at home.

Step 1: If needed, purchase any needed replacement parts from our website. If your poles are in warranty but you want to repair the poles yourself, reach out to use for replacement parts before purchasing.

Step 2: Clean the surface with rubbing alcohol - hand sanitizer works in a pinch! Remove any leftover bonding agent with sandpaper. We recommend gently scouring the carbon fiber and the part you're bonding with sandpaper to allow the bonding agent to grip more strongly.

Step 3: Coat both surfaces liberally with any two part epoxy - while the bonding agent we use is not commercially available, we've heard of folks having great success with J-B Weld.

Step 4: Attach the needed piece to your carbon fiber shaft. Twirl it around for maximum coverage and wipe off any excess epoxy on both the outside and inside of the tube. Allow to dry upright - we recommend using a small box.

Tip replacement

Replacing pole tips will be one of the most common repairs folks will run into - while utilizing rubber tips in rocky terrain will extend the life of your tips, we know many folks prefer not to use them. For you, we’ve made tip replacements as simple as possible. We’ve designed our tips to allow for easy replacement of the entire housing as in our experience, the housing wears down before the carbide tips in many cases. 

You’ll need a pair of replacement tips - while we offer them on our site, you can grab them from most outfitters as you can use replacement tips from almost any brand (Note: the exception to this is Leki’s universal replacement tips - we’ve found them to only be compatible with Leki brand poles). 

Step 1: The plastic tip housings are threaded onto a metal piece you won't be able to see called the EZ tip. The first step is to remove the housing from the EZ tip. Grab a knife or box cutter, slice through the length of the old housing, and remove it by twisting it off. You may need to use a pair of pliers if there is a lot of dirt and grit inside the housing itself - we see this when the carbide tip has worn down completely. This housing unfortunately can’t be recycled, and will need to go in the trash.

Step 2: From there, thread on your new tip. Use a pair of pliers to screw the tip down tightly - just make sure to wrap the tip in a rag fist as the pliers will scuff up your new housings. The threading probably won't look as smooth and clean as the tips you got initially - we use machines to fully thread our tips on - but they will work just fine on trail.

As seen in the image, there may be some metal threads visible - the poles will work just fine like this!

Extra Credit: If you'd prefer a more seamless fit, warm up the easy tip first, which will allow it to thread more deeply into the housing. For advanced DIYers: heat up the plastic part a bit and (without burning yourself!) thread on the softened housing as far as you can.

Strap replacement

Our trekking pole straps are removable for folks that prefer poles without straps, or not using straps for certain activities. This also makes broken straps easy to replace. To remove or replace your straps, you’ll need to remove the strap pin with a multi-tool or a pair of pliers. You’ll find the strap pin protruding from one side of your grip.

Once removed, you can pull out the straps as needed. If you’d like to replace your straps, just fold the strap in half and tuck both ends into the gap for the strap, before replacing the strap pin. Check out this video for a visual of this process. 

Replacing a section

Snapped a bottom section? Bought a replacement, but now have no idea what to do? Replacing sections may seem obvious to some, but for folks unfamiliar with the ins and outs of telescopic trekking poles, it may be less obvious. Our telescopic poles come in three sections (two for our UL Staffs) - these sections can be pulled out from the section above it without damaging the poles in any way. Simply loosen all your quick locks, separate your broken section, replace it with your new section, and tighten all your locks again. 

Warehouse Repairs

Not interested in DIYs? We offer in house repairs when possible. Contact us at contact@dioritegear.com to see if we can repair your poles. Please note that we do not cover shipping for repairs on poles that are not covered by warranty. 

Interested in how to repair your poles in the field? Check out our field repair blog to learn how to make repairs on breaks that happen while you're in the backcountry.