when steve told us about the meeting the other day re removing lugs off rings, he wasnt quite sure if it was right what he had heard.......ive just seen this on the rpra web site and this is their rules on it...

By Resolution of Council made at the meeting on Friday 27 February 2010, the lugs on the 2010 Combi-Ring may be removed provided that the integrity of the life ring is not compromised.

IF YOU REMOVE THE LUGS YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

For example, altered rings may not be accepted by other Unions including Foreign Unions should you decide to race with organisations other than the RPRA.

Council intend to make a decision on the 2011 ring at its meeting in March once it has considered all the options and the various proposals have been costed.

i personally do not like the rings but im not sure if ill start removing them or not.....

Just to let you all know I bought a few rings last year on ebay, they were Nl rings , I think I mentioned it before my son was collecting rings for a while so I bought some strange ones for him and the Nl rings had lugs which were unusual so I bough some...however My ocupation is a panel beater and I have to repiair pastics like bumpers, I have a plastic welding kit with a heat gun and it has a soldering iron type tool for heating up areas.

So this is what I did today, I heated the end of the iron up with a small blow torch till it was red hot then sliced off the lugs on the ring, they just came off lie butter and the hot end sealed where I removed them you could hardly notice. Doesnt compromise the ring and with no impact it hasnt marked or cracked the ring..so thats one thing that works, the end of a normal soldering iron should do the trick.

hi martyn, so you say an ordinary soldering iron will do it.....? im in two minds weather to remove them as if i make a balls of it they wont be able to race, did you remove them from rings which were on birds or ones which you are going to put on.....? have read that some new sharp nail clippers do the job very well, but will it leave a rough edge or an open space with them removed.....?

Hi david, As I said no impact is best for you, if you use a clippers or similar all you are doing is snaping them off, I wouldnt do this as it causes stress and shock impact, when I did it with heat it was easy. I did do it on a ring in the hand, but can see no problem at all with it on the bird, I did it by myself if it was on a bird and someone was holding it i think it would make it ever easier. If I lived near you I could do 30 birds in 5 min I think. Thats how good the heated iron gets them off, it does leave a little mark where its melted but really nothing at all.

i will raid sons pc tool box hes got a few, in fact hes used to using them getting him to do mine tomorrow

might give it a try on a ring and see if it turns out ok........if i could do them good enough id do them all then, lets hope for those who do it that they can still enter their ybs when the time comes, as we all know, the rpra could change their minds again......

Only tip is keep it very hot, I used the heat gun to heat the end as well as plugging it in the iron that is..the first one came off easy then when I went at the second it had cooled off a bit, so heated up again and away it went easy...KEEP THE END HOT RED HOT.

HOT...

i myself personaly wouldnt tamper with them wont harm anything so just leave them alone wouldnt like to win race and be thrown out for damage to ring

dont think i will alter them as if i do happen to do well in a race i dont want someone saying the ring isnt right for any reason, as i think this will happen now the go ahead has been given to remove the lugs.....