marka

Howdy, Do you use the travel piece for the clamp and the locking screw for those trips? Mark

Howdy, Keeping in mind that I've only used my machine now five times on 3 different pairs of skates... Using my crap ebay edge checker, I've seen some variance on edge heights. A couple clicks one way or the other on the ring alignment seems to change it a little. Using the alignment tool, its hard to see a difference with just one or two clicks, so I'm thinking that dialing it in is going to be more about the edge checker than the alignment tool. But in that process, I don't know if I need to run just a single cycle, 4 cycles, or whatever else to get the full radius reground & "moved" across the blade. I'd rather not waste ring or steel life I don't need to waste, of course. I also assume that something could change in the future and I'd need to re-dial it in. Presumably the clamp is good about centering the blade on the wheel, but I could also see that not being 100% so even if the clamp is repeatable, it might have a different setting for a different thickness blade. Mark

Howdy, Similar question... When I use an edge checker to fine tune my edge height, how many passes should I make after I adjust the wheel position? I.e. if I cut the skate normally (like, 4 passes or whatever), check edges, and decide to move the grinding ring a couple clicks on the adjuster, how many additional cycles should I run to ensure that the full width is cut so that I can get a true reading on the new edge heights? Mark

Howdy, So, browsing around the Sparx site, because I realized I want a dust cover for the sharpener and I noticed they have other honing stones. Needed? The Sparx came with a 240 grit stone. I'm only sharpening regular steel. Mark

Howdy, Merry xmas to me.... :-) Opened up my new Sparx and gave it a whirl today. Everything went as the manual suggested, though I did get a weird error when I was cutting my first skate again to get the edge checker happy... Got a 3-6-10 "Translation Error - Limit undetected" and the wheel didn't return to the home position after making a "back" pass. Turned it off and turned it back on and it cut the other skate fine. Hoping it was just a weird one time thing. Otherwise it was smooth sailing. The blades on my skates are pretty cut down, so I've got the height the highest it goes, but it seems to cut fine. I should have a chance to get on the ice in a couple days, but visually and edge-checker-wise (just a cheapo ebay one), they look the same as the sharpening JR did for me last weekend. I did have to give the adjuster a couple clicks after initial alignment with the tool to get the edges coming out even. Probably more down to my crap vision than anything else. I'm going to have to write down which way the grinding wheel moves when you turn the adjuster. Forgot to the do that the first time around. :-) It's just sitting here in our dining room for now, but it'll get a permanent home out in the (heated) garage with the other hockey gear soon. Crazy that something that throws as much dust as a skate sharpener can run in our dining room without my wife yelling at me! :-) Mark

Howdy, Yeah, people said that about my Makos too. And yet I still like having them on there. Mark

Howdy, The Ribcor thread reminded me about something I was curious about with True skates... Anyone know if they can incorporate lace locks? Yes, you can add them to a regular eyelet, but the lace lock is "further up" from the eyelet, so its nicer if the mounting point / eyelet for the lace locks isn't in line with the other eyelets. Mostly idle question until my Mako M8's fall apart, but I was still curious. Mark

Howdy, Older guys that get in fights in lower level beer league hockey. For fuck's sake, you're >40. Outside of another guy taking a two handed swing to your melon, nobody cares what he did and you're just being an ass. Mark

Howdy, Crazy. And thanks for the real info, I was hoping you'd jump in. :-) My guess had been that labor cost alone on a sharpening would make it break even at best, but my "time to sharpen" guess must be too high. Mark

Howdy, I would be really interested in knowing if skate services like sharpening or repair is a profit center for a LHS. Given the costs, I have a hard time thinking it is, but ?? Mark

Howdy, I think pros and cons are fine. I started where you are in terms of skepticism. But after getting a chance to see one, talk with a rep for a long time, and have my skates done by it, I was more convinced. Then after seeing what average good sharpening had done to one of my steel set's profile, plus factoring in "sharpen whenever I want", I bought one. In terms of volume of sharpening, Sparx seems to think 1600 sharpenings per year is fine for their home unit, so I think your assumptions on durability might be a little pessimistic. They've also been out since what, 2015 I think? So there are units out there with a lot of use on them and at least so far I havne't heard of wear / durability issues. Again, I think you might be a bit pessimistic. Maybe find someone that has one and check it out, since you're in the business? Mark

Howdy, It doesn't make it ok in a pickup (because WTF dude?) but I will say as a novice guy that in a normal game I was surprised to learn that digging away for the puck under the goalie and all, before the whistle, was still illegal per the rules and that while its perhaps expected in various situations, its also expected that you'll get an earful / a shot for it. I mention it just because I truly didn't know that and maybe if the guy is new he doesn't know either? Mark

Howdy, Anyone whacking away at a covered puck at a pickup with no refs is a douche. Hell, I expect to take a push / shove or two or whatever when I try stuff like that (before the whistle) in a regular adult league game with refs. And when that happens, I'll just say "good save" or whatever and skate away. And if someone cross checked my goalie in the head on purpose the absolute best he could expect from me would be for me to knock him on his ass. Mark

Howdy, I had a hard time deciding to order the Sparx vs. a traditional sharpener. What ended up convincing me was that when I compared one set of steel on my skates to another set, the profile was fairly different. And that correlated to a difference I felt on the ice. They both started the same. The only real difference is one had been sharpened a little more. A machine that provides a consistent pressure and speed, optimized for good results, seems better to me than a system that relies on human technique. The guys sharpening my skates all have WAY more experience than I will ever get sharpening my own stuff. They act in conscientious manners. I had serious doubts that my results would be equal, let alone better. The Sparx is going to be awful if you need it to do something it hasn't been programmed or designed to do. Its going to suck if a proprietary part breaks and Sparx is out of business or just has bad support. Its going to be awful if they go under and you can no longer get their proprietary grinding rings. But if you stay within the Sparx "window", my take on it is that you will get at a minimum an equal sharpening to what a human can do and in many cases, better. YMMV. Mark

Howdy, If I'm ever forced to go on a cruise again, I'll keep that in mind. :-) Mark

Howdy, Yeah, that makes sense. This was on the Norwegian Breakaway. 7 day Bahamas cruise out of NYC. Not a base cruise, no real spring break feel. I will admit to the possibility that another cruise might be better, but the primary ways I can see improving on this one would be cut the # of people and the general volume level of everything to 1/4 of what it was. And after that, I'd still have the "not enough time in the port", "can never see any of the actual ship stuff", "motion sickness", "dry land sickness", etc. etc. etc. We went on a cruise not knowing if they'd be for us. Per your experience and others, some folks love them. Turns out I don't. I didn't put enough weight on the whole "casino/show/eat all the time/drink/nightclub" stuff vs. the "on a ship in the middle of the ocean" part. I was interested in the latter. Mark

Howdy, Just got back from a 7 day caribbean cruise out of NY this evening. My wife, 10 year old, and me. The good bit is that they seemed to have an ok time. As for me, basically I'll summarize as "I spent $4k to learn that I never, EVER, want to go on a cruise". Holy crap did that suck. Trapped on a boat jammed together with 4k people in a floating Vegas Casino. Noisy and crowded everywhere, at every hour of the day. Oh, and for the first time ever in my life managed to get motion sickness. Which is still fucking me up even now, ~12 hours after I got off the damn thing. There were some good parts. Two of the onboard restaurants were nice, seeing the Kennedy Space Center was cool, and riding a Segway for the first time in Nassau was fun. But that good stuff pile is pretty small compared to all the crap in the "holy fuck, I PAID for this?" pile. Now I'm sitting here at home with the weebly wobbles or whatever the hell and I'm wondering if I'm going to even be able to skate tomorrow. And I missed fucking Winterfest for it too. Tell your friends: Cruising. Not even once. Mark

Howdy, Any Black Friday or xmas deals planned on the Sparx? Mark

Howdy, Oh, cool. Yeah, at least some of those teams / guys are ones I've played against. A bunch of them switch between the league that plays here in Boardman (The Ice Zone) and Hess seemingly depending on the weather. :-) Normally the problem around here is "not enough folks", so its crazy to hear that there's a team with 20+. Hess remains the rink I always think of when I'm somewhere else and people are bitching about wherever that is being a shitty facility. I've yet to see anything as bad as the locker rooms at Hess. :-) Mark

Howdy, Where at / what division? That sounds pretty lame to be sure. I love having 13 skaters and that seems like a goal for teams I'm on over at Baierl. 10 is ok, but I'm old and slow and get pretty beat if its a quick game / against someone tough. At 8 I know I'm going to be slowly dying, its just a question of when I go into "ah, fuck it, I probably couldn't get there anyway" mode. :-) I can't imagine 20 guys though. That sounds awful. I don't think I've ever played with more than 15 and guys were bitching about that one. Mark

Howdy, My primary question re: Sparx at this point is "why are all the grinding rings on back order?" with a concern of "if Sparx goes out of business my cool Sparx machine that I love (really, I saw one at Summer Fest and thought it was great!) is a paperweight because I won't be able to get grinding rings. But your comment makes me wonder... are there pictures of the internal guts of a Sparx somewhere? And have you QC tested one _after_ the shipping company lauched it off a dock to a 4' fall? :-) I don't believe I've ever seen a piece of machinery with moving parts that has been unable to be whacked out of alignment. Mark

Howdy, Interesting to read a pro review. Is the clamp system the same as the home unit? On the home system, I'd have said that by design it would accommodate different thickness blades, since it clamps to a centered position, not one edge. Mark

Howdy, The new team my wife and I are playing on has a "locker room music guy" who also likes to give lots of advice and direction to others out on the ice. Sigh. Mark

Howdy, 1/2" Radius ring is still showing as being backordered 10-15 days today... What's the scoop here? Everything all right in Sparx land? Mark

Howdy, When Bauer recently came out with their new Re-Akt 200 helmet, their claims of "next generation protection" and "enhanced impact management" caught my eye. Virginia Tech also rated it as their first 4 star helmet, leading me to think that there might be more behind that than the standard "bold new marketing". Couple that with me not being particularly happy with how my previous helmet (CCM Resistance 300) interacted with my cage (Bauer Re-Akt Titanium Face Mask)*, that helmet having been a used purchase, and me using it ~4 times a week for over a year. I was ready to explore getting a new helmet. I picked one up at SummerJam in Toronto and have been using it since. Coming up on 2 months now playing ~4 times a week and I figured I'd give folks my thoughts. Price paid: $349.99 CAD, without cage Purchased From: Pro Hockey Life - Vaughn Mills, Toronto, ON (note that the cage shown here is one I already owned, not the one that comes with the combo) Protection Let's start with a protection review, since this was certainly a major factor for my interest in this helmet. But this necessarily has to be anecdotal. I do not have a helmet impact testing lab, I don't have a degree in mechanical engineering, and I'm not a brain surgeon. I didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn. I'm also not willing to go skate head first into the boards, even if I could somehow manage to do that consistently enough to have it be meaningful. Instead, like basically everyone else, I have to rely on information from others. Luckily, it seems like I've started playing hockey in a time when the protectiveness of helmets is receiving increasing attention. Bauer claims that this helmet is their most protective to date. They tout their VTX Technology, Suspend-Tech NG Liner system with XRD foam, FIT PLATE customizable occipital lock, etc. That all sounds good, but its not like any manufacturer is going to introduce a new helmet with a claim like "uses the same old tech we've always used, but we added a new decal!" Luckily these days, there's an independent testing lab attempting to quantify these types of claims. Virginia Tech's Hockey STAR rating system attempts to assign a value that "represents the theoretical incidence of concussion for one player season assuming that the player experienced the same range of head impact conditions and frequency as outlined in the Hockey STAR methodology." Ok, look... VT's ratings are hugely controversial. I've heard every possible detraction... "Its a football test", "no helmet can prevent a concussion", "helmet xyz didn't score as well as helmet abc even though its the same helmet except for some minor padding changes". "They only use one head form so the test is naturally biased to helmet that fit that head shape". Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. And it doesn't help that VT's system doesn't just report the average impact attenuation and instead attempts to assign a number that is supposed to be "how likely are you to get a concussion?". But even with all that, they're the only game in town who is publicly testing impact attenuation of hockey helmets. Do I think the Re-Akt 200's rating of .330 - 3.30 (the best they've ever tested) REALLY means that I'll get one third of a concussion next season? Not really. Do I think it means that this helmet attenuated impacts better than any other helmet they've tested? Yeah. I think that is pretty likely. As for my own personal anecdotal evidence (which, again, is just barely this side of meaningless since this is anything but scientific), I've had the occasional impact to pucks, sticks, people, ice, etc. This helmet seems to take more force to twist it out of position in those impacts. The worst impact I've had so far was running into another player hard enough that the helmet was twisted up on my head some, a contact popped out, and I was really wondering if I'd managed to injure myself. No headache or concussion symptoms resulted. Anyway, I've got to give this a rating so with both Bauer claiming this to be the most protective helmet they've ever sold and VT rating it the highest they ever have, I'm giving this one full marks. 10/10. Fit Ah, but what about fit? We all know that fit is the most important thing about helmets, right? "A helmet that doesn't fit well won't protect you!" "Ratings don't matter, the helmet that fits best protects best!" I don't have the background to validate those claims (and, frankly, I don't think 99.9% of the people making the claims do either). But that's beside the point. A helmet that doesn't fit well makes your head hurt, distracts you, shifts on your head screwing up your vision, etc. None of that is fun. Nobody wants to deal with any of that. But fit for a hockey helmet is a weird thing. First off, the damn things all adjust for size! As someone who comes from a motorsports background, that flat out just blew me away the first time I saw it. Second, everyone's head is different. Some are rounder, some are more oblong / egg shaped, some have weird bumps, some are pointy, etc. Making it worse, some people are more sensitive to pressure points on their head than others, some are less. The Re-Akt 200 adjusts two ways. The first (and primary) way is the standard sliding interaction between the front and back halves of the shell. Release the central (and tool free) locking clip and push/pull to slide the two halves such that the distance between the forehead and "backhead" are shorter/longer respectively. Note that this only adjusts the length... There is no width adjustment, unlike the Resistance 300 I used previously. The second mechanism is the Fit Plate at the back of the helmet. You bake this, after you take it out of the helmet, in your handy skate oven. Be sure to only use the Bauer branded skate oven attended by a trained(?) 16 year old professional or you will burn your house down. Then stick it back into the helmet, install the supplied foam wedge behind it to provide pressure to help form fit the Fit Plate to your head, and pop the helmet back on your noggin. After the Fit Plate cools, it'll have a new shape customized to your very own head. Primary Adjustment: Fit Plate: Fit Plate forming foam in place: One note on adjustments... It seems like the central locking mechanism releases catches higher up in the shell. For the sliding to happen though, the rear shell is slotted at the lower screw area (where a cage strap connect point will be), and it has to slide back and forth there. The locking mechanism doesn't affect this area, and my experience with a few of these helmets at the store showed that some of them slide easier than others here. Pay attention to this when you're adjusting them to ensure that the shells are sliding uniformly on each side, etc. I also had the helmet "self adjust" a bit in this area when it was in my bag. Now I glance at the slotted opening before I toss it on my head, to make sure its showing about the same amount of slot as it was before. Pay attention! I'm now going to tell you how the helmet fits on my head. I'm not sure this is particularly valuable to anyone, but I'm writing stuff down so I might as well keep going. My previous helmet was a CCM Resistance 300, size large, adjusted to around 1/3 from full closed. I thought that fit reasonably well. The one before that was a Bauer 2100, also size large. My recollection is that that one rocked around on my head a little bit more, but its been a while. I mentioned these helmets had caught my eye, and I'd tried a few on. The first Re-Akt 200 I tried on was a size Large, with the size closed down fairly tight. I did this while I was waiting for skates to be sharpened. It felt ok, nothing special one way or the other. When I actually bought this helmet (at Pro Hockey Life - Vaughn Mills location in Toronto... Simply awesome hockey store, with a HUGE selection), I got serious about it and brought along my then current helmet (the aforementioned Res300). This time when I put on a size Large and compared it directly, it came up wanting. The helmet was comfortable enough, but it rocked around on my head some, with the sides of the helmet seemingly a decent ways away from the sides of my head. I was ready to throw in the towel on the helmet at that point, but decided to see if a Medium helmet would work. Turns out a Medium adjusted out to near the max size seemed to fit great. I had even pressure all the way around my head, with no rocking at all. When putting on the helmet, it seemed like there was almost a 'suction fit' between the liner and my head. This of course makes some intuitive sense... With the standard "sliding shell halves" adjustment mechanism many helmets use, clearly whether a particular helmet fits a more round or oblong shape depends on where that helmet is adjusted in its range. This type of helmet at its minimum size is necessarily going to be more "round" than a helmet adjusted to its maximum size, so the Medium size was a little better for my more egg shaped head than the Large. Cool trick! Anyway, just to be sure, I put my cage on it (again, I re-used my Re-Akt Ti cage) and it still felt great in the store. The store clerk who was helping me said it looked like (and felt, we did the standard "hold the helmet, move your head" test) it fit great as well and recommended not even bothering heat forming the Fit Plate since it was comfortable and not moving. I still haven't heat formed it, and for now it remains "factory", though I eventually would like to, mostly "just because", vs. any real expectation that the fit will change. Initially on the ice at my first game, I had similar feeling all around as in the store. I never had sweat running into my eyes, the helmet never shifted, etc. The helmet felt more form fitted to my head than the Res300 I'd been using. That stayed consistent for 1.5 hours of continuous play. What did happen is that one of the pads dug in a bit just over my right ear. It was just that one side and I would say I first noticed it around 30 minutes into the game. It got slightly worse as the game went on and by the time I was done I was happy to take the helmet off. Looking at the area, it seems like there's space behind the pad, plus the helmet was new, so my plan was to live with it for the next ten games or so and see if it got better before I take any more invasive measures. Bad pressure point. Bad! Unfortunately with a couple months in, I can't report any significant improvement. It might take 45 minutes to an hour for that area to start being annoying, but it still happens. If I play back to back games, I'll yank the helmet during warm up for the 2nd game to give my head a rest. I have not attempted to address it in any fashion, mostly because I can't see what I can do to change it. I've confirmed that there is still a little space behind that pad when the helmet is on my head and because those pads are "floating", I don't see any way to convince that area to have a little less pressure except for perhaps cutting the pad, which I'm hesitant to do for fear of destroying it and/or making the pressure points worse. Anyway, all that said, I'm going to put fit at 8/10. I was really hoping break in would take the annoyance away, but at this point I'm not holding out too much hope. Still, the level of irritation is minor enough that I can ignore it. Weight On my completely uncertified postage scale that's been kicking around my house for 20 years or so, the helmet plus my Re-Akt Ti Cage is ~29oz. You, the dear reader, can go compare that to whatever you'd like, so I'm going to base my rating on "did I notice anything different about the weight while wearing it compared to any other helmet I've worn"... And the answer to that is no, I did not. So I'll go with 9/10 here, just because I didn't jump with joy about how light it was. Durability Well, it hasn't broken yet playing 4 or 5 times a week for a couple months. There's been no appreciable wear to anything either. Of course, I wouldn't expect there to be either of those things in 30 games or so, so I'll rate it as 8/10 because I think I scratched it with something in my bag and it didn't magically heal itself. Intangibles Let's throw "style / looks" into this one. It looks like "a normal black hockey helmet" to me. I'm pretty oblivious to style though, so maybe you might care about something more. Look at the pictures and make your own call. I'm also going to put in "mechanics and such" in here... A few things to note... The chin and cage strap points are easy enough to reach and feel and the cage straps seemed to solidly hold the cage closed. I never had sweat run into my eyes. I never felt like the helmet was appreciably hotter or cooler than my previous helmet. I'll lump all that into a 9/10 rating. I don't want to have its babies, but I'm not kicking it out of bed either. Cost I'm going to add cost as its own category because this is obviously a driving factor for everyone. About the only good thing I've come up with for starting hockey so much older than the average bear is that I'm fortunate enough to be fairly well established in life/career/etc. As such, I'm in a position where if I think a $300 (USD retail) helmet is something I want, I can afford to buy it. However, that 18 year old kid I was sitting next to on the bench a couple weeks ago who's just graduated high school and works at the local ice cream shop isn't in the same position. This helmet is the most expensive one currently at Hockey Monkey. I have to rate cost as 1/10 for that reason. I had to pause at the idea of replacing my helmet with it, even though I clearly wanted it. Conclusion This is a really expensive helmet. It is a helmet for people that believe that there are meaningful differences in the protection offered by helmets, even between helmets that "fit well". Its Bauer's current state of the art. Its Virginia Tech's highest rated helmet. It fits me quite well. I like it, I can afford it, and I'm happy I bought it. All those categories above will be weighted differently for different people. If you're the 18 year old ice cream shop kid, the cost category is probably going to matter a heck of a lot more than the intangibles category. And even though maybe it shouldn't, I bet it'll matter more than the protection category as well. But for me and my weighting of the categories, all that above comes out as a 9/10 combined rating for me right now. I wish it cost a little less. Warrior's top of the line Covert PX+ is less than 2/3 the cost. CCM's top of the line Tacks 710 is even less. I'm also not ecstatic about that pressure point above my right ear, and may eventually try and address it. Those are my two nits as compared to all the positives and at least at this early date, I'm quite happy with this lid. About me Height: 5'10" Weight: 175 lbs Head Circumference: 22 3/4" Location: Youngstown, OH (Pittsburgh, PA hockey area) I'm a 47 year old parent who got skates and a stick when his son got interested in hockey, then discovered I loved it. I've been playing for a little under 2 years now, typically on the ice four or five times a week. Nobody would mistake me for someone that is good at the game, but I'm slightly better than a true beginner at this point. * The Re-Akt cage "fits" on the Res300 helmet, but the helmet has adjustment sliders where cage strap snap points usually are. They (presumably) put the snap points lower on the helmet because of this and that, coupled with the fairly high attachment points for the straps on the Re-Akt cage, meant that the strap angle was such that it didn't do a great job of holding the cage closed. A nit, but one that annoyed me.