Leif

For UK sales you have to include the cost shipping skates by air from Quebec, Canada or elsewhere in North America. Then you have the relative cost of labour, North America is a high wage area compared to China, or wherever stock skates are made. They will save some money by not having to store stock in warehouses, and not having to sell off excess stock at a potential loss when the new model is introduced. And they will not have to guess what quantity of each model and fit to make. They have almost implemented just in time (JIT) manufacturing. As far as I know there is only one shop in the UK that sells CCM custom skates, and I don’t know if there is any good reason for a non hot shot rec player to opt for CCM over Bauer and True when the journey to buy them is 250 miles each way.

Here in the UK there are two big retailers that I am aware of, one is huge and I think they carry stock for all Bauer skates. However, they are 250 miles away. The other, which is nearby, cannot afford to have each size and fit in the high end skates. I went custom, as I wasn’t prepared to buy skates without trying them on. I am told that they make more profit on lower end skates which just adds insult to injury as come the end of the season, they struggle to sell off excess high end stock before the new models come in. They love Bauer custom, and True custom, as they make profit without risk, and the customer is happy which is good for their reputation.

Thanks, I will give it a go once our rinks open.

Thanks. I was told that I pronate in running shoes, so what you say makes sense. I keep meaning to skate on ice with laces undone, which you have recommended. Would I be able to do that with pronation?

I don't pronate (as far as I know) in my Bauer Custom 2s Pro ice skates, nor in my Powerslide Zoom Pro 100 (3 x 100mm wheels) inlines. I pronated massively in Bauer x500r inlnes, which is why I sold them, they gave no support. I pronate slightly in my Bauer x2.9 vapor inline skates. Anyone know why I might pronate in the latter given that it's a stiff boot? Or is this normal for hockey inlines? I wear Bauer Speedplates in all skates.

England. I saw one skate with a step along the length of the blade hollow. The skate wasn't high enough in the holder when sharpened, so the wheel created a step. It's not uncommon to see a BAT gauge tilt significantly one way at the front of the blade, and the other way at the back of the blade. A few nicks in a blade are insignificant in comparison. I used to only go to sharpeners I could trust, before getting a Sparx of course.

As above. Small nicks don’t do much harm, but an inch or so of damaged edge probably isn’t good. Mind you, I’ve seen worse damage done by some sharpeners.

Last year there was a serious shortage of inline skates in the US and Europe as so many people were getting into skating due to lockdown, and rink closures. Some were returning to a hobby of their youth, others were newcomers. Maybe that is why prices are high. Wheels are still hard to get in the UK, and skates are available in limited sizes. Incidentally in the UK the old Missions were recently available with a huge discount, they sold pretty quickly.

I bought a Flypuck, the black one that is 8oz and said to be the least likely to bounce. It’s well reviewed on YouTube by some respected people. It’s complete rubbish, utterly unusable on every single surface I’ve tried as it bounces around uncontrollably, even on a smooth outdoor tennis court. To be honest that is what I expected as it is a solid lump of plastic. Has anyone else tried it? Am I allowed to question the integrity of YouTubers here?

Maybe that’s where they belong given the looks. Fortunately I fit into Vapor inlines. I fit Supreme ice skates, but not Mission inlines, they feel uncomfortable. Odd.

Duplicate post deleted.

I took up inlines last March thanks to lockdown. After many months without ice skating, I returned to ice hockey and skating lessons. My skating coach commented on how well my backwards crossovers had progressed. That was thanks to countless hours on inlines. I’m sure roller hockey can improve improve icecskills including stick handling, game awareness/observation and skating. I just wish I could stop properly. A power stop just isn’t the same. Now I love inlines, but I don’t have the control I have on ice. I love ice, but playing roller hockey on an outdoor park, surrounded by trees, on a sunny day, and then the sun setting as we finished, that’s magical. You play until you are knackered rather than till the end of the paid slot.

The web site says Copyright 202, so rest assured this is a long established company. You don’t last 1819 years without providing quality products. There are countless off ice practice puck patents, yet this looks identical to Green Biscuit, so I guess the patent expired. I pay about $20 per Green Biscuit in the UK.

Yes. You said the skates come with runners that have a ProSharp profile applied. That means when you buy new runners, you will have to pay extra to get them profiled as per the ones on the skates, assuming you like the profile, and assuming I understood.

So does that mean that when you buy new steel, you have to pay almost the same again to get it profiled?

The ProSharp Home and Sparx claim to maintain a constant pressure, unlike a manual sharpen, which should preserve the profile. I checked an old LS5 blade against a fairly new blade, and the profile over most of the blade feels the same. The toe and heel are very different as expected as they are very different heights. I have old manually sharpened runners and they are nearly flat. When I swapped them out my skating improved markedly.

Something I forgot to mention, they have different warranties which might be a deciding factor for you.

I bought the previous version of the Sparx for £1200, back then the ProSharp Home was £2,000. I found very few owner reviews of the ProSharp but they were all positive. Hockey Tutorial reviews both on YouTube.

The Sparx wheels last 320 passes, if I recall correctly. Assuming four passes per sharpen, and two skates per user as typical (!), that works out at 40 pairs of skates sharpened. That was the original Sparx estimate. Sparx now assume less than four passes are needed for a sharpen, and give a value of 60 pairs of skates sharpened by one wheel. I find that I do one pass per skate per sharpen as that is enough to get the edge back, some people do two passes. Of course you need more if there is significant damage to the edges. There is a post by the owner of Sparx on this forum where he states that they tested the ProSharp Home, and found that it takes less metal off per pass and the per sharpen cost is similar for both machines. Obviously that's not an independent test, so maybe a good amount of salt is needed. I have no issue with the toe and heel, but I'm no elite level skater. You really do need an edge gauge even if you buy the ProSharp Home, so factor than in to the cost. I had a Prosharp BAT and sent it back to the head of ProSharp USA in disgust as it was out. Never got a refund, and they claimed it was fine even though it disagreed with Sparx, BladeMaster and no name gauges. I assume mine was untypical.

Didn’t Flare blades have a non parallel sides ie flared outwards? I think these have a rectangular cross section, but wider/thicker at the front and back. This freestyler has reviewed them: Unfortunately the review isn’t very informative, it lacks depth although he likes them. It’d be interesting to know the min and max blade widths and any issues with Sparx sharpening.

Everglides in Gosport have several automated ProSharp machines, which preserve the profile and I believe they can profile runners too. I think SkateStation can profile runners. They do good manual sharpens too. I no longer trust manual sharpens, one is fine assuming a competent operator, but over time they ruin the profile. I had runners that became flat after a year, one sharpen every fortnight. I don’t believe any person has the skill to preserve the profile, and if they do, they are few and far between. It’s hard enough finding someone who gets level edges. The new Sparx machine can be bought direct from Sparx at a very reasonable price.

When I change hollow, I mark the blade with a sharpie, and try a couple of passes. Two usually removes all of the ink when going from 1/2” to 5/8” normal hollow, and vice versa.

I do one pass every 4 hours or so assuming no damage to remove, I use a 7/16" ring and LS5 runners. I don't swap round rings between sharpens which helps. I once sharpened some cheap skates with fixed blades and that was awful, I gave each boot 5 passes, soft steel, just didn't feel right.

I play rec, or did before lock down and the ban on scrimmages. I would go to stick and puck sessions, basically drop in non contact hockey. I’ve been deliberately slammed into the boards, once I stepped onto the ice on a line change and a wannabe skated into me at full speed, knocked me flying, he just got off the ice and ignored me. I’ve had a slapshot to the helmet, above the forehead, to the shoulder and to the legs. I had a huge guy skate into me at full speed when nowhere near the puck (he looked very embarrassed and sheepish afterwards, careless rather than a moron). I’ve had someone take my legs out from behind, falling backwards, that’s the most scary and dangerous one. I’ve been cross checked into the lower chest, that hurt. There’s a lot of wannabes who try to prove their virility by steam rollering over some other players! I wear top end Bauer 2S Pro pads for health reasons, and I’m sure I’ve been saved from injury several times compared to entry level stuff. That said, the arm pads are rubbish.

A player of that ability could wear pink skates with dayglo green holders and flashing lights underneath and everyone and their dog would be queueing up for a pair. CCM do seem to have an ability to create fugly skates, it’s as if they don’t employ a graphic designer, and hand the job over to a friend’s ten year old child. Or maybe I am officially an old fart ...