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Leif

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Everything posted by Leif

  1. Some features: Flat wheels (cross grind) available. Firmware update via wifi. Blade clamp operated by a touch button, not manually. Displays the current wheel hollow and usage. Displays the current user profile: preferred hollow, number of cycles and blade type i.e. goalie/player.
  2. The ProSharp Home was made in Sweden, which explains the high price. I assume this is pretty much the same beast but made in China to make it competitive. Incidentally, if you Google “prosharp advantedge home machine” you can find the user manual. I won’t paste the link in case it violates the forum rules.
  3. As I said earlier, Bauer custom won’t fit many people. I’m repeating this as I am angry that the Bauer marketing is deception, and screwed my skating for years, and people need to be aware of this. I’ve talked to a lot of people, including shop staff, and the concensus is that CCM is midway between Bauer and True for mouldability, so I’m not convinced CCM custom would fit me either.
  4. Except that custom doesn’t work for many people. Custom is essentially a pair of stock skates, individually sized to each foot in width and length. with a bit of pressure and heat applied. If your feet are far from Bauer shaped, the result will not be a good fit. If you have Bauer shaped feet, but there’s a bump or two that makes stock skates painful, or you are just a bit off Bauer shaped feet, then custom is ideal.
  5. For inline skating I bought some ankle sleeves made by Powerslide. Not ideal, but they might help. https://powerslide.com/products/footie-high-2mm There are of course other brands. I rebaked my right skate today, and use a pair of ratchet clamps and a piece of wood each side of the skate, to tighten the ankle a bit. I placed a towel between the skate and the wood to even out the pressure. I don’t think Bauer skate shells are thermoformable, just the foams, but you might try this, assuming it is okay to rebake the skates. Alternatively, True skates are very thermoformable, CCM are said to be thermoformable but I’ve never owned any.
  6. It took me quite a few hours to get used to my new skates, which had a different profile and pitch. I now love them. Hence I agree with the others here.
  7. Don’t doubt it. There a lot of people here who know more than me about hockey etc. However, if you ever need to know about the quantum theory of solids, and mycology, just ask …
  8. His family were big in speed skating, and he got to national level. The first skates he made were speed skates, so perhaps some of the ideas he has brought to hockey skates came from the speed skating world, as well as his later involvement in MLX. And as you mention, perhaps his biomechanics background helped. I can’t help thinking that the popularity of Bauer in the UK, compared to CCM and True, is due in large part to availability.
  9. This is strange as they have arrived, and they are very snug and my fingers touch the ends. So the opposite to your experience! You must be right about size ratio of hands. I’ve always worn size 13” gloves (Bauer and Warrior, low and mid range) that are slightly loose. Never mind, it’s only a 15 mile drive this Saturday to do an exchange.
  10. They do: https://www.truetempersports.com/en-us/hockey/hockey/about-us/hockey-technology.html
  11. Thanks, very informative. I always assumed hockey was very big in north america. When you say Graf’s overall technology is still lacking, are you referring to holders, steel, thermoformability?
  12. I think you misread some of my remarks: 2) I referred to non-sponsored players to indicate that their skates were not free. I also used the phrase “I wonder if” to indicate that I don’t know if it is genuinely profitable. When you say it is very profitable, where does that information come from? 3) I know CCM has one piece boots and high thermoformability, and did not say otherwise. (I’ve only read about it on this forum, never having worn CCM boots.) 1) Fair enough, I read a biography of him which didn’t mention MLX. That said, he started out in a small company, and I know from experience of working in many small companies that it’s hard to scale up. Cash flow is your enemy, invest huge amounts without the sales and you’re finished. I guess that’s why he went custom first, you build on demand. You don’t need to tool up a large factory and build large quantities. Shops are loathe to stock inventory of expensive products that are unproven. I was chatting to an owner of a local shop, he said they hate top end stock boots. When the new range comes out, they have to sell off old stock on discount, and margins are low, hence they will lose money.
  13. I’m sure that’s mostly, or maybe completely, true. The True skate was pretty much developed by one man and his dog in a shed, and they had no previous production experience. Bauer buy in tech such as CarbonCurv. The advanced hard foam in my Bauer 2S Pro shin pads is polystyrene. The soft squishy foam is bought in tech. They also seem to spend a lot of time designing somewhat dubious features such as CarbonLite blades. In addition Bauer spends a fortune on advertising and sponsoring players. And I do wonder if supplying non sponsored NHL players is genuinely profitable. I wouldn’t be surprised if Graf had the nous to figure out how to produce carbon fibre skates, they understand production on a smallish commercial scale. But they would be expensive. And they would need a decent selling point. True has thermoformability and one piece. True outsource their stock TF7 and TF9 skates to China, I assume they do the same for stock Catalyst and Hzrdus skates too.
  14. Thanks. Here in the UK we have the right to return a mail order product within 14 days anyway. They do have 12” (junior) in stock, just in case.
  15. I’ve seen some True 9x Catalyst gloves for a decent price, and my Bauers have holes in them. I have owned Bauer and Warrior gloves in 13”, would I be safe with a 13” in the Trues?
  16. It took me a few hours to adjust, mainly because I had to go down from 5/8” to 1”, the grip is insane. Best skates I’ve ever owned.
  17. It’s based on a lot of reading around and experience. For example, I’ve come across a number of people who learnt to skate incredibly rapidly. I got to chatting to them all, and in every case their background explained it. One was a professional dancer. Another had boxed at a high level. Another was a black belt in martial arts. Another had skied for many years. A good example from a book is the case of Kenyan long distance runners who dominated in competition. Someone researched this and discovered they all came from one area where from a young age they ran long distances. Their culture had trained their bodies to excel. When you research successful people, you usually find an early obsession, or opportunities. If someone comes from a family of musicians, they’ll pick it up naturally, they will have ‘talent’. teachers will see ‘talent’ and give them extra encouragement and teaching. Matthew Syed was Britain’s top table tennis player. Most of our best players including Syed came from one street. Turns out they all had access to a table, allowing them to practice huge amounts. Obviously you need the right physique for a sport e.g. fast twitch muscles for sprinting, tall for basketball. And you need a decent IQ to do well in academic scientific research. However, everyone I have met believes that talent exists, that some people have it, some don’t. I won’t change anyone’s mind here, and anyway this is well off topic. I recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck and books by Matthew Syed.
  18. I spent three years trying and failing to master several edge drills (powerpulls, backwards crossrolls, backwards scissor skate, forward inside edge three turns). After less than a month with skates that fit, I’ve almost mastered them. Talent is mostly a myth anyway. It’s hard work and good training with huge amounts of luck.
  19. My earlier post was probably a bit overenthusiastic. However Bauer, even custom, don’t work for me because they don’t fit my flipper shaped feet with very narrow leg bones, and hence I can’t skate properly in them. So yes in my case True skates have given me a huge improvement in my skating. If you wish to call that personal preference, fair enough. There will of course be people for whom stock True skates don’t work. Or they simply prefer something else. So I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s all personal preference. Of course I might be very unusual, but I suspect not. Bauer and CCM have the hard task of producing a range of skates that fit as wide a range of people as possible, which is very hard to do, especially when Bauer skates are barely thermoformable. You just have to look at the three Bauer fits to realise they assume a certain forefoot width to heel width for example. I have no experience with CCM. True probably do better in that respect, but they get their fair share of complaints if not more. One of the best amateur skaters I know - he skates pairs dance in hockey skates, yes I know, unusual (1) - wears secondhand Bauer APX skates. He discovered that they work for him, so he’s stockpiled lightly used second hand pairs bought for £50. One of the best hockey skaters I know wears old Grafs. Friends who play at a far higher level than me usually wear old skates. Someone more knowledgeable than me (my experience is limited) might correct me here, but I suspect fit is paramount, alongside skating ability, and the latest much hyped features such as the supposedly energy giving Reflex Pro tongues on my Bauer customs are little more than gimmicks. That said, Bauer speed plates are superb, and do improve my skating. So some features, of course, do work. It’s only recently that I discovered that my difficulty learning skating drills was due to my skates. So yes I do think True are innovating by having very thermoformable skates, as there must be many people who don’t fit stock boots, or semi-custom boots. However, innovation is risky, and the market might not take to it. Scott van Horne for example went into making figure skates, custom and stock, but ran into financial difficulties, and had to sell his company to Wilson skates. (1) He had skating lessons in hockey boots, with the intention of moving to figures. However, he got so much abuse from other figure skating coaches, some hate hockey skaters, that he now refuses on principle to get figures. For example, they would complain about the noise his skates make, or make derisory remarks in earshot.
  20. You can see here the difference between my Bauer customs (right) and Trues (left): I forgot about the injected facings, they provide less wrap, maybe that has an influence too.
  21. I was using a 5/8” grind on hard winter ice with my Bauer skates. With my TF9s I had to go down to to a 1” grind as the bite was insane. I’m getting more glide for a given grip, hence skating should be less tiring. However, I’m now able to put in more power. It took me several hours to get used to the forward pitch.
  22. They do a lot of infomercials. They might even have been paid to take a camera crew over to Switzerland. Do these old skates still hold water? Or have they been overtaken by modern designs? I know a very good skater and player who swears by his Graf hockey skates.
  23. The issue is that I cannot get Shift runners in the UK, and Max Shift runners do not fit my holders. Fortunately I was able to get some Shift runners from Finland, just in case I need to replace my current ones.
  24. I had my Tuuks replaced after a few years on my Bauers, they had been loose for a long while. I have no idea if True are any worse, but clearly they thought fit to improve them.
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