Stewie

noooooooooo =(

The site is much better now. Kudos! Might try out a stick or blade here soon :)

To be completely fair, most people only worship the fit aspect of makos, durability and asthetics haven’t seen that kind of praise :) I personally hate their aesthetics, but they are comfortable. chocks isn’t treating this instance as the end of the world, just voicing some concerns he had about the product he received. I think it’s fair for him to voice his concerns here. In relation to what other companies do, that’s irrelevant here. Trues whole motto is that they are obsessed with being the best, and judging by most comments here they are doing well in that regard, so I’d expect them to want people to voice their concerns, or potentially point out ways they can improve. Obviously the feedback on this thread is mostly positive, which is why I’m strongly considering becoming customer here in a month or so myself, but there’s still a few cases that as a company I’d be bothered by (I tend to be a perfectionist in my work environment). In his initial response received, he was told this was due to an end pattern of a fiber sheet. Perhaps these portions do not have to be used (depending on material expense) or could be used in a different manner that wouldn’t present this type of defect. If they absolutely must, perhaps it can be communicated to the customer beforehand, so that their expectations are known ahead of time, and they gain knowledge of the fact it won’t impact performance. As someone that has worked quality assurance for many years up until recently, this is what I would do if there was an issue like this. Open the dialogue ahead of time, create awareness, it goes a long way. If we want this to be an endless True Praise thread where discussions like this are discouraged, perhaps the title can change.

The main thing that would bother me as the company, would be the fact that to a distant eye, it actually could look like the skate is actually coming apart at junction. It just doesn’t reflect well. If there really is 4 sheets of carbon fiber, It should be easy enough to use the end cuts in the first layer or two, and have a product that looks more refined. Then you don’t have to worry about that percentage that doesn’t want their heel to look like ass.

To be completely honest, I don’t see how QA lets this skate go out, even if the visual defect doesn’t impact performance. Paying that much for a skate, you expect something that doesn’t look like crap, but even outside of the purchasers expectations, it just doesn’t reflect well on the brand to other consumers on the market for skates.

you may want to re-read the title of this thread. it has never been specifically about the case, more of a catch all on questions and input surrounding the unit as a whole.

is that the included "case" Jimmy was talking about? looks about as protective as a pizza delivery bag. marketing the wheel to do 500 pairs seems pretty unreasonable to me. Not sure, maybe I just lack knowledge in sharpening, but it seems like whenever I get mine sharpened they do more than a single cycle per blade. Also, real world, my blades get nicked up often due to rink conditions etc. All this said, as a home user, and in an era with pop out blades, the Sparx seems like a better design to me over the skatepal. you can set the number of cycles needed based on how bad the blade looks, vs the simple single cycle button of the home. the unit seems easier to align for a home user, unit looks better in a home setting, and appears easier to clean. With more than 2 people in the home, maybe you will make up the money of the grinding rings in the long run, but as a single user, that's beyond my life time, and also having the money now is most often worth more than the same amount in the future.

nice man! ive done a couple of pro rinks (Amalie, Joe Louis) its always fun!

It doesn’t really matter, but no, they are not. i pointed out that their warranty covers only a certain amount of passes in that first year, so not sure why you keep pointing out that people are going to abuse the system. If they were smart enough to program the wheels to know how many passes they have done, you can be pretty sure the unit has a way of knowing the total. you don’t have to “look out” for Sparx. I’ve met Russ, he’s an intelligent guy.

seems like the wrong topic for that discussion

the FBV will not be available on the Sparx as it is proprietary to Blackstone. Im very surprised that as someone who sharpens skates, you don't know what the FBV is. The biggest issue people have is that you are discussing cons of a product you have never used, seen operated in person, and have only the base knowledge of watching a couple of youtube videos on. They are very clear on their site which model to choose for your needs. Commercial end users are directed to their commercial model. Their base model is warrantied for 1 year or 10000 cycles and their commercial unit is unlimited cycles.

until it breaks off after a shot, and someone doesn't see it on the ice, and their skate hits it, and then they fly head first into the boards. Having actually, and not "theoretically" skated on a pair of skates that were cut by a demo sparx unit which had logged many sharpenings, including at least 12 right before mine, no I would have no issues giving my skates to the LHS some towns over if I saw they were using one. My only issue with the Sparx is preference of the FBV cut over Fire cut, but in terms of quality, and consistency, id trust the Sparx over a lot of local sharpening jobs i've had. I am extremely lucky to have a shop within 30 minutes of me that produces at least 95% favorable results in my time using them, so the unit is not for me. and to your point of someone in an area filling a need, this product fills a need that no other product or person can, creating an easy, out of the box experience that can save its end user time in not having to drive elsewhere, which to some people, is worth more than money, and space, as not everyone has room to setup a commercial unit, and attach it to a vacuum. The Sparx is about 50% larger than my printer.

8 or 9 is probably my ideal number for a one hour game. for longer drop ins, 4-5 on the bench isn't half bad a situation.

they just released some shorts and socks not too long ago. I think they are supposed to have a new line out fairly soonish here, but haven't seen much chatter from them about the line since early august I think? looks as if they are moving away from purlyn style boots and going for a more budget approach.

not as much as they would/do make selling their own sharpening units.

I've skated on FBV exclusively for the last few years now since trying them at WF. This last summer, I tried the Sparx Fire cut equivalent, and personally did not like it as much. Used the cut for about 5 skates, then got cut back to FBV. Personally, lack of FBV and large initial investment would keep me from buying a Sparx, even with the convenience factor.

Finally mostly healed from injury. Skated a total of 3 times from April until September, wasn't fun, but I cant complain too much as i've enjoyed good health and low amount of injuries the first 35 years of my life. Skating regularly again now. Starting to regain speed, but understandably my stamina is a bit off. Mostly private drop ins for now, hopefully start playing leagues again here soon. Local roller rink closed down, so the roller hockey experiment is mostly over, and I don't think I want to rejoin my tournament team for that. I would be bummed, but this means less EDM in my life, and more ice, so I'm cool with it .

Nope, one team a team 9-0 can be in a league with three teams at 3-6 (18 total wins and losses) indicating the bottom three teams are balanced butthe top isn’t.

Yeah, very sad. When he was the play by play guy for the Wings he came to a restaurant I was working at with Mickey Redmond and they were both very cool and approachable. Always partial to him as that's the voice of hockey I heard growing up, but I think he was the best in the league.

Definitely notice it a lot more at the lower levels. When I first started skating again regularly some years back I joined a D team and we'd actually go through each goal after the game and kept our own stats. My B league team usually just leaves the score sheet on the bench after the game, or it immediately goes into the trash, no one really cares about the points.

those must be the specially licensed Blades of Glory edition.

if any retailer is pushing you to a skate generically, you probably should choose a different retailer. not every skate fits everyones feet. my alkali stuff has been pretty good, but I think the fit is a bit off for me, so I am probably going to be doing a conversion soon.

I understand what the options are, and when the time comes I will work with someone knowledgeable to get what I think is the right performance/fit/price ratio. if theres any sort of tie, ill only then go with aesthetics.

honestly I thought it looked worse in person than in photos somehow. How they look will play very little into my decision of which skates ill buy next, but if its a tie breaker, I'm going for the ones that catch my eye. I am interested to see what the options are for bauers 3D, True, and just getting some custom CCM skates, when I go to make that decision in a year or so.

Thanks Steve for coming to the event, and going over all the questions and curiosities we had. The machine performed well, even if I am not much of a fan of the Fire cut over a traditional FBV, it seemed to do a better job of sharpening than many random sharpenings ive gotten from places without FBV capabilities. Personally with access to free FBVs within reasonable distance from me, it might not be a machine for me, but I can definitely see its use and utility on the market.