gosinger

Very much looking forward to seeing how this holds up, might be worth buying for some repairs as-well 🙂

Just check your local classifieds, ask at your local pro-shop (one of ours sells used skates from the pro team), ebay, for the US also stuff like sideline-swap, etc.

Sorry, I know nothing about the XX, before my time. However, rather than modifying the toe cap I'd look into stretching the boot, the XX might be old enough to be stretched successfully. I doubt it is worth it though, just flip em and get a pair of used ice skates that fit to convert (I recently picked up two pairs of APX and an 1X for ~60€ each).

I am a big proponent of sticking with skates that fit, so I'm mainly gonna talk about Bauer Vapor in your case. So the material your XXXX had was Tech-Mesh, which was on the top model until the x:60. Then it was available on the second-tier (x7.0) to the APX which already featured Curve composite. The completely different cut Nexus had Tech Mesh on the top skate for a little longer, but also made the switch to Curve. If you take a look at the Bauer Roller skates, you can see that they essentially added more wear guards / bumpers to their ice skates to make the suitable for outdoor play. Last season I took some Kydex (thermoformable plastic sheet), heated it up and glued it to the high wear areas of my APX skates - it held up nicely (especially in area where the toe-cap and the boot meet) and will most likely extend the life of the boot by quite a bit. Others on this forum have added multiple layers of 2 component epoxy as "bumpers" to the same area for wear protection. However, I only covered the regular high wear areas, so if I was to take a high speed spill / slide the boot might come into contact with asphalt in other areas as-well. If you are concerned about something like this (rather than usual wear and tear), you might consider covering the entire side of the boot with Kydex (kind of like a shotblocker would be mounted) or b) switching to a different boot.

On a side note, I was at the Las Vegas Center Ice hockey shop a few weeks ago, they had a stack of Mako II and a few Mako I available, sizes <= 8 and >= 9.5 iirc. Might be worth a call if someone is still searching.

Looking very much forward to this sub-forum :) About me: While working full time, in my off-time I am co-coaching our clubs beginners practices (40 ppl between 16 and 60), host a few small training sessions before shinny most weeks, and have recently started working with our local girls hockey team. I currently hold the lowest certification level of our national hockey body, but am looking forward to spend the time next year to progress to the next level. I looking forward to exchanging drills and experiences on running practices.

Sweet looking! Very nice setup.

@Sniper9 I'm interested in your experience, I just fixed my Edge + Step setup with tape but I am a little concerned about the holder, and as I have plenty of spare LS2 holders + blades moving "down" might be an option to consider,

With M4 T-Nuts the inner diameter is 4mm, so you will use a 4.5mm drill to do the new holes (depending on the outer diameter of your T-Nut and the "stretchability" of your outsole). I so far had the best experience with slotted stainless screws and have not had a problem yet, but hex-bolts should work out nicely if you can get them. I always place a washer between holder/chassis and the screw as-well for good measure. With the heel lift: yes, you fit them between holder and the heel of the skate to get a more aggressive forward-pitched stance. Definitly, a conversion is a very easy but rewarding thing, and once you've gotten over the "mystical fear of touching something as complicated as a modern skate" you'll do it without a second thought.

With regards to euro/metric sizes: I always use M4 hardware, worked out fine for me. Just get a few different lengths of stainless screws for the different areas of the boot, a few washers and some LocTite or similar. So get M4 T-Nuts (about 50% more than you actually need, I always mess up 1-2) and M4 stainless screws (plenty of 10mm, few 12mm/14mm/16mm, at least one 20mm+ in order to easily pull in the T-nuts tight). Sidenote: I just had added a heel-lift to my 1X for ice, and didn't even need to extend the holes, the M4 T-nuts were pulled right into the existing ones.

Without being any kind of foot specialist, if you experience rubbing you could try the spot-heating and punching method, you can do it at home with a heat-gun and the back of a screw-driver as demonstrated here (I know there also is a VH vid about this somewhere): As the Mako can be baked multiple times this shouldn't do any damage (as long as you don't burn them) at all and might be worth a shot.

Just note that the STEP steel for the Easton CXN holder is not profiled for +1, so compared to the Easton retail holders it puts you slightly more on your heels (still, the boot+holder is +2, so not that bad). I've got 2 pairs in active duty, one with STEP and one with retail, switching works fine for me.

Depending on your hockey store (how much of a cut they take since you don't order directly from Fischer) and your request. If they have the mold for a common curve iirc its something like 150€ each with minimum order of 3 for the top model. That post was a year old, but I haven't heard anything else to make me think they offer low-kick now as-well. The 2016/2017 catalog doesn't mention anything either.

From what I've heard the 20k (previous model to the Ultra Tacks) was more protective, as they thinned the padding to show off the D3O. I've got the 20k, no major complaints on knee protection.

While I've got nothing factual to contribute, I wanted to thank you for your updates, as it shows one persons detailed experience with something that could happen to anyone in this sport. Not mainly for the medical information, but as a window into what goes on in ones head after such an event, and the road to recovery. Keep your chin up, and good luck with your return to the ice :)

iirc there were some QC concerns with Graf CA, maybe those will be a thing of the past now? All Graf skates I've seen in the past were from Graf CH and those looked fine.

Would be awesome to have them in the UK, from there everyone within the EU can get them (at least until Brexit or something....) :)

Playing with them on both my skates since about 2 years, couldn't be happier.

@HeppTrimCosmetic, have the similar "swirels" on some of mine

I was never able to make the "traditional" (EQ50/EQ5/...) Easton skates work for me, but I love my Mako's (3 pairs and counting - stocking up). The EQ50 is a very stiff boot in all directions, while the Makos feature plenty of forward flex. The EQ50 is also higher cut. I think there is not much in common between them except for the brand name. However, I switched from a x:60/x7.0 (similar stiffness to EQ50) to the M2 during a training camp and at the end of the first training I've adapted.

Just bought my 3rd pair of Mako 2's and stocked up on holders and runners, that should keep me going for a while.... :)

They look like the Fischer FX9 / Sherwood T90 Narrow / TPS R8/T10 Narrow, but they are missing the split top bar on the back hand - but it could be the same factory...

Could we move speculation over to the Performance Sports Group Acquires Easton Hockey thread and keep this about the skate rather than the company or speculations what another company might do?

I have some as-well, they do offer quite a few curves (which is not usual in Europe, but since they are local they can do it) at the different price points. Their curve 19 would be the same as the Europe CCM/RBK 19, which is a clone of the P92. Kickpoint is always mid-kick iirc. Fischer sticks are also hugely popular in the KHL, as they offer good bang for the buck and have a good custom/player-model program. Durability is excellent for mine.

Well, I'm pretty picky about my gear, but the Mako skates are here to stay for a long long time....so it is warranted to have such a huge thread giving people a nudge towards those skates :)