maestro

Yeah, it's pretty frustrating. I'm a small business owner myself and if I'm not confident in my ability to provide customers with a quality product, I pass on the job. Not to mention this shop charged me twice what I would have paid elsewhere (I didn't check prices until after I had paid them). I had the steel rivets in the heels replaced with copper. Skated a full game in them and they seemed ok, hard to tell since I'm adjusting to several variables. I'll likely replace the boots in the next year or two, so that takes a bit the sting off. If they were new boots it would have been a different story.

Looking more closely at the skates the rear inside of the left holder (the one that looks really ugly) is starting to pull away from the boot and I can flex it and open it up more by hand. I guess I should deal with that before my next game tomorrow night

So the copper locations should be changed, or I'll have the rivets loosen up?

Aside from the "hack" mounting (sloppy rivets, copper in the wrong spots at heel, slipped drilling into the outsole, using rivets that are too long, old holders massively beat up when removing), I took them to another shop yesterday and the tech there said in terms of being "centered" they looked about where he would have put them. He also ran a steel tool down the blades to check for straight and said they passed the "test". He fixed a couple of the rivets for me, and I got out for a skate this morning. They felt ok, but it was hard to tell if the one blade was pulling or not. Part of me was thinking the sensation was just in my head. The tech who mounted them did say he reused the rear holes, and only had to drill 4 holes up front, so I'm not sure if they will be mounted too far forward? I don't know if it's worth bringing up with the original shop and asking for some sort of refund, or if I should just move on and take future business elsewhere.

I got out for a quick skate this morning. I was coming from a 263 Lightspeed holder with ls4 steel, stock radius but probably even shorter due to years of sharpening (standard ⅝). I swapped to a 272 i2 with DLC steel on a ¾ hollow. I started with the 23 radius insert. With that one it felt like I was really planted, which is probably due to the longer steel and 11' radius. Straight line speed felt better, but edges felt a little too locked in. With the 20 it felt much better and a bit more similar to my old skates. Speed was still good, stability was great, and edges felt locked but not too stuck. 17 I started to feel the rocker more. Still felt fast on the straight aways, but edges were looser. 14 felt really nice on the edges, and was a bit more "squirrelly" feeling. Less tracked when going in a straight line. My skating style (more power/straight line than agile/quick) felt best with the 20', so I'll start with that. I can see the benefits of the 17 as well, so I'll maybe test them both out tomorrow during gameplay. I was definitely second guessing/overthinking if one blade was pulling due to the botched mounting job, which I had a second shop "fix". I'm not sure if that was just in my head though. Overall they feel pretty good. I only spent about 20 minutes on them, so I'll have to update once I play a game with them. I'm the kind of person who likes to have stuff to tinker with, so that aspect of it appeals to me. For the average player who just wants to toss on their skates and go, I'm not sure they would see the benefit of the upgrade. I will post another update in a couple of days.

I just ordered a set to try out after seeing the discounted price and refunded mounting offer. Got them last week, mounted them and picked them up this morning. Unfortunately the shop butchered the mount job and one holder is off center. My next ice time is Tuesday night, so I'm hoping it's fixable before then. I'll update on my first impressions if it can be resolved by then.

I decided to give marsblade i2s a try and had them swapped out at a local skate shop. I went from 263 tuuks to 272 i2s, so I knew some holes would have to be drilled. Picked them up this morning, didn't look too closely, but there are clearly issues, primarily the fact that one holder is mounted quite off-center. Upon looking more closely, the holders are pretty beat up, rivets are installed at an angle (one wasn't even set and fell out), copper rivets are in the wrong spots (not sure how much that matters?), they appear to have cracked one section of the carbon outsole, and one holder appears to be bent so the steel isn't straight when inserted. At first I thought it might not be too bad, but this is pretty mangled. Now my big concern is the extra holes in the outsole. Is this repairable? They also mangled the old holders when removing them, so they don't seem to be usable either. Going to take them to the only store that's open on Sunday (big box store unfortunately) tomorrow to see if they have a solution, then going to see what the original shop can do to resolve their f up. https://ibb.co/Bw9XWj7 https://ibb.co/Pt115xn https://ibb.co/zG9DTgX https://ibb.co/Bw7xP35 https://ibb.co/kgRg39K https://ibb.co/s6rDcBb https://ibb.co/998HGTd https://ibb.co/3FyZ6y7 https://ibb.co/mzr1zbT https://ibb.co/qmj7cfW https://ibb.co/3szH5fw https://ibb.co/7QfmwD9