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Howdy, Is it possible to ban users from specific threads? Mark

Lol. Yeah, this kinda went off the tracks. At any rate, even with all the back and forth banter, as a relatively new Sparx owner I was able to take some information from this post that was helpful. The multiple people which have vouched for 1-2 passes being sufficient every few hours of ice time will surely save me money over time, so it was worth sifting through everything else for that. Several years back I purchased a Blackstone X01 and roughly learned on my own how to sharpen skates. Even once I did I found myself spending much more on spinners and grinding wheels as it required more work for me to get an even finish and even edges and I imagine my pressure application wasnt the most even, changing the shape of the steel over time. For the common person willing to drop the coin the Sparx machine is great. The simplicity, consistency, and convenience for me makes it worth every penny.

What a colossel waste of time... Anyway. On the economics or if. That 7, 8 year range is about what I figured. Money wise, I doubt I make my money back. I sharpen for me and maybe a few friends. I never charge. The convince of it though, oh hell yeah. Not having to rely on anyone else is nice and I love having fresh edges. I never put a dollar value to that but it has to be worth something. For me it's always been about the convince and consistency. It's the same edge every time. If they're hosed, its on me.

How about Lange...

I have had this type of issue for years. They never positively diagnosed it. Some stenosis in my neck but not a lot. I have seen tons of docs, had MRIs, etc. Bad posture seems to aggravate mine, so the stenosis would be effectively worse as my neck bends. I focus on posture and do a lot of upper back work to help with it.

You make a lot of really solid points. I know many people who have kids playing high-level hockey but do not have access to skilled pro shops for sharpening, and they all buy Sparx units. In many cases there are pro shops in the area but when it comes to sharpening its just not consistent quality. These are areas like Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, very big cities. The fact is most hockey moms/dads have families with multiple kids and they dont want to learn to sharpen skates or simply dont have the time. However, they do want to give their kids and teams access to quality skate sharpening. I see more parents investing in Sparx units lately for their kids entire team and then sharing the cost. Overall, people are making a mountain out of a molehill in many of these arguments. If we are complaining about $1-$2 then we are all involved in the wrong sport. Hockey is not cheap by any means and surely is not going to become cheaper any time soon.

Okay guys just leave it alone. Don’t feed trolls. We don’t need to waste another four pages on this. At this point it doesn’t benefit anyone to reply to ridiculous statements.

Yeah, here are only a couple places/people who do skates well even in Pittsburgh. One is near a rink 30 mins away that we never go to and you need an appt. The other is a specific guy at the rink who is rarely there, and the last i over an hour away. Go to Pure and some guy asks what hollow you want, skates get lined up with 10 other pair with no way to know what skates get which hollow, and two kids manning a machine each do your skates while BSing the whole time. Convenience is by far the #1 motivator. I would love to get a traditional machine just because cause I would enjoy learning to do it but without someone to mentor I don't know if that makes sense.

That’s a great breakdown, and while I agree that you obviously can’t directly correlate time wasted to your hourly salary, my time is definitely worth SOMETHING, and keeping my sanity is worth even more. Not having piss poor sharpening done, or showing up during posted business hours to find the shop closed “because it was slow so the guy went home” after the 30+ minute to drive there. Bottom line, for me: I didn’t buy a Sparx to save money. Not even close.

Or Barge cement thin leather over the wear area.

Those Kings Unis might as well go all the way and have one black glove and one white. I think black glove on the white sleeve, and vice versa, for maximum regrettableness.

At the risk of sounding like a handwringing parent, why wear shoulder pads for protection is you’re just going to cut off the caps? The shoulder injuries I’ve seen in adult leagues are never from checks. It’s typically incidental contact that you wouldn’t otherwise think about. The two that stand out to me are a guy watching the play move up ice and banging hard into the glass, not knowing how close he was, and the other catching a rut by the bench and falling shoulder first into the boards. Both guys are good skaters and just had bad luck while not wearing shoulder pads (but now they both do). In my opinion, if youre going to wear equipment for protection, wear it correctly and avoid potential problems. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Looks like retailers are already getting the holding pages online. Looks like the price will be $399 CAD, $40 CAD more than the Supreme ADV. https://www.sportszonecanada.com/bauer-nexus-adv-gr-stk-sr-142613.html

The ones that fit your feet when you get fitted at the store.

Because the pros do it so it must make your skating better

That is a 600 break.

I have also re stitched some areas on mitts I loved, but the fact they were brand new top of the line gloves made me nervous enough to make a post haha.

Good for scrummin’

This is getting ridiculous. Almost half the price of top end skates.

Yes. I ordered these for myself, 70 flex Flylite senior with a Pasta curve. They are very whippy and I don't think I would order a Flylite with that low of a flex again. I think the kick point, length, and flex all need to be accounted for when looking at dropping to that low of a flex.

Or maybe a chunky two-tone glove like the old Flaks. Or shiny silver gloves. The aftermarket demand for those would be insane. So would the durability, I’m guessing.

I have not tried the x2.7 myself, but moving from x:60/X7.0 to the 1X Vapor I went from 8.5EE to 8D, so to me it felt like the fit had changed (YMMV). I'd definitely try the curv-based skates in store first.

Cool Cylon helmets though.

Just because someone says it feels good does not mean in actual fact they are skating better or more efficient. Hence, what we found in the pitch Study done. Ironically, similar happened in the profile study that showed the best performance was achieved at duals and they were 9-10 and 9.5 10.5 all other profiles were slower and less agile. They were 7-13 and 11 foot all with I believe a slight forward pitch if I recall correctly.

with his shot, meters per hour.