Are Two Piece Stick Set ups dying?

[davidfinlay276 4]

I guess margins probably lower than on shafts and blades :)

I live in MTL and I can't find any high end blades anywhere.. Only ones I see around are the apx and s19.

I will never buy a one piece again... As long as I can find a good source for blades...

Can anyone recommend a good online store that has a good blade selection?

Yeah, online shopping in Canada is way behind the States for hockey gear (and most things). I live close enough to shops that I'd never have to shop online anyways, but if you don't ahve a good shop nearby it'd be a pain. Here's a Canadian online store with a good blade selection:

http://www.thehockeyshop.com/player/sticks/blades.html?p=5

I've never bought from them online, I live close enough to just go there in person, but they have a terrific selection of blades/shafts, are Canadian, and have an online store. For some reason they don't ship the top of the line Bauer blades, but you can order top of the line Warrior, Easton, Rbk, CCM, Sherwood, etc. blades off that site. The brick and mortar shop is great, so hopefully their online shop is too.

As for the performance debate, I've owned a decent number of high end 2-piece and 1-piece sticks. In terms of how hard they shoot, or puck feel, I've never noticed much of a difference, even with "true" 1-piece sticks like the one95 and X60. The main thing I notice is a difference in balance, in general shaft/blade combos are blade heavy (especially standard shafts/blade combos where the blade has a big hosel and tenon), newer high end 1-piece sticks tend to have better balance. Never used a crazy 1-piece like the Widow or S19/RS though, I can see those being pretty different performance-wise for sure.

[kkancho 6]

I've been using the two piece combo all my life but after my Inno Novius and RLXN10 broke, couldn't find anything I liked. I tried the Warrior Dynasty recently but the shaft feels dead.. no kick. Has anyone tried the Warrior Evo or Mako M5 shaft? I'm wondering if the evo is just a repainted AK27.

[Joker518 0]

I think I bought one from this seller once. If I'm not mistaken, it may have been the same thing as a Tour Crossrip blade. I would only use it for street hockey. If it's the same blade, I wound up giving them away.

Yea, they are unbranded Crossrip blades. Absolute garbage.

[Zinger 0]

The XN10 shafts get a lot of praise around here.... What's so special about em?

[splitbtw 2]

I usually buy two piece and love when I find a OPS on sale. If you know your curve/flex, OPS makes sense. If you don't, then two-piece makes sense.

I also tend to take a sharpie to my two-piece blades so it looks like a OPS to me. The performance goes either way.

Also, $60 is a lot easier to replace than $200+ if you break a blade.

My One95 shaft has lasted over a year and if it breaks, $120 max is easier than $200+

I'm also surprised most people do not look at online for their blades. In San Diego, both shafts and blades are pretty scarce, so most of my buying is online from Hockey Monkey or Hockey Giant. If I am unsure, I make the 90 min drive up to make sure.

[fatwabbit 93]

The XN10 was popular are is was very very light, and had an absolute kick to it. I had a converted OPS and pair with a light blade it was about 460gm taped up... The shaft itself was about 270gm at 53"

I eventually sold it as I had too many sticks and didn't need a shaft collecting dust.

[the_game 452]

As a long time two-piece user, I've come to terms with the fact that expecting any upgrade to the current offerings from any of the major companies was a dead end. Two-piece set ups are still out there and probably will be produced and carried in limited quantities but thats about all we can expect.

I still use an Innovative Novius and I held out hope that Warrior would improve on the Novius with the Dynasty shaft but was disappointed to learn the Dynasty shaft was not like its 1-piece counterpart and just a regular shaft. About 4 years ago HockeyMonkey cleared out a ton of Warrior Pro Stock shafts and blades. I always thought we'd see a sale like that again but that has not been the case and to me that sale kinda signaled the end of the two-piece market.

It would be great to see a company take the new Taper Technology into a Two-piece but like everyone says there is no market for it and no money to be made. Just gotta keep searching eBay hoping another Novius or XN10 pops up again.

[Scotty 8]

The XN10 shafts get a lot of praise around here.... What's so special about em?

Uncommonly light and kicked like you wouldn't believe. I believe Chadd and a few others agree that they loaded as easily as the flex rating indicated, but kicked like the flex rating above it loaded to the same point. In short, incredible release. I tried a RedLite XN10 and agreed and am in the middle of purchasing an R2 XN10 right now.

[sickwilly 37]

Uncommonly light and kicked like you wouldn't believe. I believe Chadd and a few others agree that they loaded as easily as the flex rating indicated, but kicked like the flex rating above it loaded to the same point. In short, incredible release. I tried a RedLite XN10 and agreed and am in the middle of purchasing an R2 XN10 right now.

This sums it up nicely.

I've stockpiled enough so that I should be set until I can't play anymore. I think they're (the R2XN10 and RLXN10) that good. You may see some XN10 armor shafts kicking around from time to time. They're noticeably heavier, and I found that they didn't perform as well as the RLXN10 and R2XN10.

[Zinger 0]

I don't get why if an item is so popular and has such great reviews, why discontinue the entire line??

Do any pros use it??

[innotastic 12]

I don't get why if an item is so popular and has such great reviews, why discontinue the entire line??

Do any pros use it??

http://www.modsquadhockey.com/forums/index.php?/topic/59824-interesting-comment-by-chara-on-industrys-constant-change/page__hl__%20chara%20%20sticks

i think that thread addresses that point quite well.

[Zinger 0]

^^ are you sure you read the thread? lol

[innotastic 12]

^^ are you sure you read the thread? lol

my bad i copied the wrong link. fixed the post.