gosinger

The upper part looks like a Marsblade chassis upper part, maybe a prototype / DIY construction?

Better make sure you know what you are doing, you don't want to blast paint chips into your eyes upon impact. So make sure you are using a suitable paint and not just the first white spray you see on the counter.

Still on VH skates, but I had both my copper rivets on the tendon guards fail and replaced them with t-nuts. Never pushed on the tendon guard and keep them at the rink rather than tossing them in a bag or something.

Just to make sure, you are talking about something like Epoxy putty, right?

Thanks for the follow-up, I'll definitely check out Ko, Pure if there is time. Both will be amazing compared to any LHS here, but of course pro-stock would be a plus. I'll be staying in Downtown, 3 blocks from PPG Paint Arena. Over here some rinks offer rental equipment (from single player who drop-in to whole locker rooms for company events), so as long as you bring your own skates you should be fine to pop in for a quick shinny - naively I was assuming this was a standard offering everywhere 🙂

Hi, I've got a business trip to Pittsburgh (PA) Mid-August, and decided to add a week of vacation in Downtown. Since it is early pre-season prep-time currently, I'd love the opportunity to get a few ice-times (3-4) in and maybe get some nice pro-stock gear while I'm there. So I am looking for: Rinks with Pickup hockey / Stick & Puck and Gear rental (traveling from Europe, can't bring full gear bag on company flight) Shops with a decent selection of gear (preferably pro-stock stuff hard to get in Europe) Maybe someone is familiar with the area and can help me out? Any hints are greatly appreciated.

So the chip looks to be from a skate blade, if someone steps on a stick with a bit of force it will always leave a mark. Will be interesting to see what Pure says.

Hello and welcome! On keto since about 15 months, first 9 months very strict wrt carbs. I felt an increase in speed due to the loss of weight (95kg (210lbs) -> 72kg (160lbs)), but a definite loss in explosiveness / power. I could still do 2x 90 min practices back to back and my performance was OK, but I am aware a "regular" diet with more high-quality carbs would most likely be beneficial, and it would allow me to use my beloved Creatine & Maltodextrose booster again. Then I decided that hockey can't be that strong a deciding factor on my spare time, and relaxed my keto by still eating clean, but drinking the 1-2 beers after evening practices (4-5x / week). Simply this introduction of "bad" carbs essentially kicked me out of keto after practice, and my weight went up slightly again (72kg (160lbs) -> 80kg (180lbs)). However, the weight has made me "stronger" on ice, I don't get knocked off the puck or tumble when receiving a check. This has also been noticed by teammates, so it is a perceivable difference. So I will continue to do High-Fat-Low-Carb / Keto, but not renounce the pleasures of a beer after practice, maybe just not after each session. While not the best for my hockey performance, I still feel a lot better and perform a lot better on the ice than when I was eating pre-processed food and didn't follow a specific regiment. So unless you are "in the show", don't shy away from diets restricting carbs just because "hockey players need carbs for explosiveness after the ATP buffer runs out".

A lighter boot and different tongue would be great - I can't fit mine (granted, second hand) with the default tongue. And the "other cool feature" of the holder might be a pitch adjustment system or similar, something people without access to a blade profiler would appreciate 🙂 So this has convinced me, I'll wait with ordering my own True skate until the new one is in production.

@IPv6Freely very interesting girdle, could you maybe share your thoughts after a little use on how it compares to e.g. the One95/T1/NXG/MX3/... or the Project?

@JR Boucicaut I saw your post on the RAT here, would you mind giving some insight into how you would do alignment of a fresh skate both without specialized tools (to show what we are trying to achieve) and with such a tool (to show how mechanical engineers assist in achieving it - twitter #1, #2)? Would be greatly appreciated.

I've got a kinda long face, while using a M helmet I have to either use a L cage or drill additional holes in the J-clips to lower them so the cup sits on the chin but still contacts the clips. Currently rocking 5100 M with Re-Akt L and 5100 M with Profile III L.

Fixed chassis will always feel different, because you are in contact with the surface with 3-4 wheels most of the time, as compared to the few inches of contact you have on ice blades. I tried to mimic the ice feeling in the past by "rockering" my wheels (put the more worn ones front and back, and the newer ones in the middle), however while nice for turning this was rather detrimental to top-speed. Afaik every manufacturer has gone either slight high-low (80-80-76-76) or straight (80-80-80-80), the more strange variants (80-80-72-72, whatever TriDi and the TUUK Rocker had, ...) have essentially disappeared. Are you planning a conversion (turning an ice-skate into an inline-skate) or are you looking for what inline-skates to buy? In the second case, I'd say go with what fits best, rather than a particular chassis setup, the difference in setup in the fixed chassis is minimal by now. My personal preference would still be the Marsblade/Sprungs route, as I have just recently mounted another set of skates with new Marsblades all while having some brand new Mission Titanium HiLo chassis on a shelf somewhere. I simply prefer the feeling by now, even when I'm on asphalt for 3 months.

Easiest transition would be a flexible rather than a fixed chassis, so either Marsblade or Sprung. I have both, love both, and can transition from ice to inline and back with just a couple minutes of adjustment.

+1, for kids / players starting late it makes a big difference if a coach only tells them "this is how it should look like" vs actually showing them.

I just skip the shoulders + jersey and go with a hoodie & elbows, with full shins, pants & helmet. I demonstrate skills and sometimes participate, and often players lose their edge and crash slide into me even from behind. Even doing the same setup when refereeing, was hit in the shins 5x last match after face-off, took a puck of the visor, etc.

I'd be interested how good the protection is on the FT2, as some people were not too happy about that on the FT1 (same with the Mako I&II).

@Vet88 if you ever get the time to snap some pics of your process and prints it would be greatly appreciated - for the visual learners among us 🙂

Thanks for the detailed pics. Interesting that Putins version has a chin cup attached while the basic model appears to be without (or the seller not wanting to put a branded part on display).

@Left Wing King how would you go about making it yourself? I have done a few cage -> combo conversions in the past, but this one here looks a little more complex. The cage extends back fully towards the rear clips and is fixed together with the visor at the temples, so not hinged on the front two screws like regular cages. Thinking about it, the visor looks fully mounted to the helmet, while the cage only mounts to the rear clips and the lower of the temple holes - do you guys think the rear one can be undone so one can easily get the helmet on and off? Getting a regular helmet + cage on without opening the rear clips is horrible at least for me.

This one always cracks me up, I just paid 23 € (Link) for the version with the sock attachment, prices in Europe range from 20-40€ depending on the seller. Fantastic cup, I don't get why Rbk wouldn't sell in in the states...

The Nexus dressed Vapors are the "V-Cut" version, essentially a Vapor x:60 / x7.0 which was the most popular Vapor in the pre-Curv days. This skate is available to teams directly as team-stock, and also available for custom skates. However once it gets to "regular" players, that is as far as redressing goes - Connor might get a pair of redressed skates, but everyone else "just" gets custom (players select their heel/forefoot width, get custom molds, etc).

@IPv6Freely Could you clarify the reasoning for charging? From the short clip it looks like his skates didn't leave the ice before making contact, and such a hit is generally performed with an upward trajectory (make the contact with the shoulder while pushing off the opposite leg, transferring the energy diagonally through the shoulder - at least thats how I learned it). Not trying to flame or be biased, just wanting to further my understanding of the rules and if they differ / are applied differently in NA as opposed to IHF.

Always crazy to see absolute tank-like elbows and shins combined with something that barely qualifies as shoulder pads 🙂 (queue to image of suspenders with caps attached)

Then again, emotions can run high (especially when losing), and in the heat of that moment it is easy to chew out someone else about something minuscule (that you wouldn't usually care about) when you are unhappy with your own performance. So I'd stay on the side of "these things happen" and wouldn't give it much thought anymore, and just assume the other person won't as-well.