MountainKing

Well I was just put in my place.....

I'd be curious what you're doing when you're playing to keep your skates looking so new.....

Gotta squeeze every dime you can get. Our Total Hockey has done a great job fitting my kid and myself for equipment over the years. They also don't charge for sharpening or baking on new skates regardless of where you buy them, I'm shocked and felt bad about not compensating them for their time but those reasons are enough for me to go to them over any local shop we have here, well and most of our local stores lack in the customer service arena. When I was upgrading the steel in my skates I tried working with a local store, they were $10 more on the steel and wanted another $10 to sharpen, they weren't even willing to meet in the middle. I get you pay for service, but at some point when the big box store is offering quality service at less money it's hard to support the ma and pop shop. Maybe I'm fortunate that the store I go to has little to no turn around in the last 5 years. Hockey is an expensive sport and if I can save a few dollars for myself and my son on gear then that money can go towards our seasons.

There's a few guys in my league that use Tron gear and I'm going to make sure I show this around. I already replaced my Tron bag yesterday and my stick or socks will no longer go out in public, don't want any questions about where to get that stuff. After seeing this threat there's no way I can support this company anymore. This type of service will eventually bite them in the butt. I never expect a company to kiss my butt or another customers butt, but I do expect companies to have some decency, even with difficult customers. If this type of thing can happen to one of us with these guys it can happen to us all so that's that.

I placed a lot of orders through Tron but after seeing that I'm also going to take my business elsewhere, even if it means paying a bit more for items. We all have a ton of options, while we don't need ass kissing from companies we do business with this type of thing is totally unacceptable and says a lot about the company and the way they conduct business.

Made some changes last week, after a few skates in the crazy light shoulders I'll probably make the move to paid down the elbows and maybe even gloves to that line. The shins, while bulky I'll probably never change..love the 11k's and need the knee protection they offer. Skates: Bauer Vapor 6.0 Helmet: Bauer 9900 w/ Re-AKT cage Shoulders: CCM U+ crazy light Elbows: Reebok 11k Gloves: Reebok 11k Pants: Total One Girdle Shins: Reebok 11k Sticks: CCM Crazy Light Pro stock

I would think this stick would have better feel with an inline puck because it's a lighter puck made out of different material. The ice puck, while you can tell it's there it just has this dead feel to it. I can't really explain it any other way than that. It's hard to feel where the puck is on the blade. Given how durable the blade has been on the thing I would guess it has something to do with the weight being removed from the stick with a combination of the really stiff blade not having any type of give to it.

Yeah feel is horrible. IM not a puck carrier or danger kind of guy but even I still can't get past it. I think a lower end clearance stick would still be a better buy unless you are really set on something cheap and light weight.

Agreed on the 405...part of the reason I gave the stick a spin was it being all black. Btw not that anybody cares but I've put the 405 back in play and in three playoff games it has taken a beating and still holding strong. I'm not sure how they got a stick so light to be so durable.

Yeah the workmanship in the fuse area is a mess, which is funny because when I got it the blade and the rest of the shaft looked very well put together. On another note, I played with the stick again last night and got it stuck in a situation where I thought for sure the stick would come out broke and it actually held up. For how light the thing is I gotta say it's held up much better than some sticks. 6 games in with a lot of abuse and it still looks good, it seems very hard to chip up the finish on this one. On the other side, I'm done playing with it as my main stick just because as a stick it sucks...I have no feel for the puck with the thing, it's just a dead feeling stick.

Since that post I've put the 405 to use in a game to see how it holds up to game play. It's seen action now in 4 games and I'm shocked at how cheap it feels but how durable it is. I play forward and I generally play in pretty high traffic area's in the corners and front of the net. The stick has been banged, knicked, landed on a few times by multiple people and has held up to the abuse as good as any stick, the blade has some knicks in it but no chipping and I couldn't find any chipping anywhere else on the stick. So I guess if you can deal with the stick being too light and the feel being dead it will hold up to abuse.

Helmet: Bauer 9900 Visor: Bauer Re-Akt Cage Shoulders: Reebok 9K Elbows: Reebok 11k Gloves: Graf G700 IX Pants: Reebok 9K Girdle Shins: Reebok 11k Skates: Bauer Vapor 6.0 Sticks: CCM Prostock Tom Gilbert curve

I've tried a few items myself just looking around to save some cash: *Their socks are nice, I agree the logo is horrible looking tho *The locker bag and it's a nice bag especially for the price, I know there's been durability questions on it but my bags get used and abused (my son plays goalie in one league so that bag gets rotated between me and his goalie gear) *The Tron jerseys are great for the price...my team ordered half a dozen with numbers for sub jerseys for our league *Visor is awesome, I use it on my practice helmet..if I played full time with a visor I'd order a dozen just in case they raise the price *The 405 stick is interesting, it's light but I think it's too light to be functional, it feels dead when the puck is on it and It really just doesn't feel solid at all so I've never used it in a game. I might one day to see how it holds up, since I'm not that big on it if it breaks I won't be too heatbroken They've been good to deal with, most items arrive within 2 days and I'm in the Chicago area.