Leif

Excellent advice from Vet88 except that I’ve known gel pads to work for several people including myself.

There’s huge amounts of useful information about lace bite on this forum and elsewhere. I used to get it with Bauer S160 skates. I had the Bauer scan and it put me in Vapors which have even less depth, so they should be even worse. Mmmmm. Anyway, I now have Bauer S2 Pro skates, I skate more often now, and I’ve never had lace bite with the new skates. Higher end skates tend to be more comfortable. When I used the S160 skates, and lace bite appeared, I’d wear a bandage with a gel pad made by Silipos, similar to Bunga pads, u til the lace bite went away. Don’t just skate through lace bite as it will get worse. As said above, wide non waxed laces are good, I liked Howies, I have had issues with QC on the last two pairs of A&R laces, one pair being unfit for purpose ie impossible to put on a skate. Anyway, let’s hope this was a one off for you.

Unfortunately Massive is not sold in the UK. 🙁 Thanks Nicholas, any idea how many passes the Sparx would need on new runners? I know one local shop charges £10 for the first sharpen compared to £6 usually, but it’s free if the runners are bought from them.

Does anyone sharpen Step black steel on a Sparx with a normal ring eg 7/16”? Do you have any issues? I’ve used mine on Bauer LS5 and standard Step steel, and they sharpen nicely. However, I prefer the Step blade profile, so I’d like to move over to Step black. Does it work okay on other brands of black steel? And a side question, how consistently flat are Bauer LS5 and Step black? My ordinary Step steel blades were not plane parallel, and gave different BAT readings on each face.

Seems like a sensible choice. His biggest gains will come from learning to skate, stick handle etc. Higher end skates provide more comfort, and last longer, but he has growing feet.

It looks like a Jewish skull cap on his head. The guy is big.

Thanks all, oh well, I’d better get some ear defenders so I can’t hear the neighbours shouting. 🙂

I’ve just got me a full size goal, and this evening I was taking shots with biscuits, using my shooting pad. To be honest snap shots made a hell of a racket when the stick hit the pad, and I’m concerned I’m annoying the neighbours. Anyway, the pad is made from six of these: https://www.skatestation.co.uk/stilmat-inline-hockey-tile/p3041 Are these known to be noisy, or would a one piece plastic board be just as bad?

Interesting comments, summed up I think as “adjustable and fits me well”. But on my ipad the image is tiny, filling about 1/8 of the screen. Do you think this helmet (in S, M and L) can fit almost everyone? As you know, it can be hard to find a lid that fits properly, unless the LHS has a good range.

You can get last season’s sticks for half price if you keep your eyes open, but popular curves sell fast.

I could never get the same reading on both sides of my old blades for that reason. Which steels are not punched? I now have Bauer LS5 runners and they have parallel sides. My previous Step steel runners didn’t. Just a sample of one set of each though, so you can’t draw firm conclusions.

If you look at Bauer charts you’ll see that Nexus is exactly what you don’t want. You’re more likely to fit Vapor or maybe Supreme. I have duck feet, Bauer scanner recommends Vapors, but Supremes are comfy too. My feet are widest at the front, but not that wide.

That was released before the MyBauer programme, it’s unclear if the process is the same. Certainly the foot moulds don’t look like 3D printed ones, maybe actual casts.

My understanding is that both Bauer and CCM use a similar process for custom skates, taking essentially stock boot components but adjusted in cut to the individual feet - including different lengths and widths for each foot - and then as you say pressure moulding each to a printed cast of the foot. How much they tailor the quarter package and the in/outsole and tongue to each person is unknown. I’m sure Bauer has a stash of toe caps so they can accommodate most fore feet. But I am very impressed by what Bauer has achieved, and I assume CCM is as good, not that I know.

Bauer alone have thermoformable insoles, injected facing and thermoformable tongues. I was very screptical of these features, but they work extremely well. The high end quarter package is made from carbon curv, basically carbon fibre, not curv which is a cheaper alternative, albeit extremely good. However both companies buy in a lot of tech. CCM buy in d3o. Bauer buy in G-Form, Curv, the wicking fabric, and other technologies. As for the one piece boot, surely the stiffness and the fit are far more important. The 2x Pro looks ugly as hell though. They remind me of silly cars (automobiles) with big exhaust pipes and go faster stripes.

I’m not convinced about that. Bauer custom does not cost much more than stock, and you get a custom skate. I have 2s Pro, and I am impressed, very nice skates, well worth the money albeit expensive. However, I do find the pricing structure odd. The actual cost of each ‘feature’ such as comfort edge and injected facing can’t be much, a few dollars, and yet the 2s Pro costs a fortune compared to a mid range skate. I can only assume I am paying development costs, and higher overheads due to lower unit sales of high end models. My LHS tells me that profit margins on high end skates are low, much lower than for mid range skates. They won’t keep them in stock, as unsold ones will cost them money, and they don’t make enough profit overall if any.

You poor lamb, I’m sure we all feel sorry for you. 🙂

One point to note is that the 1s has the original speed plates. They are not as comfy, and not as durable. My last set lasted six months.

If it makes you feel any better, the UK price is £1200, or over $1,500. That includes 20% sales tax. I’d be curious to know how well they sell in Europe.

FWIW I have 6.5 and 6.75 and the holders are 263. I was a perfect fit for a Vapor, and a borderline fit for a Supreme, but went for Supreme. The heel and depth are perfect, but the toes are too tight which is nothing to do with the family, since they adjust the width to suit.

Nicholas G. said "Our store is considering doing a loaner/lease program to the hockey association for the 16U and 18U AAA teams " If you're going to do that, you need to know if the machines can stand up to the sort of abuse customers will give them. I am also interested in the robustness of these machines, in case I do transport mine. I'm going to take care, but accidents do happen, and it'd be nice to know the sort of abuse they can take. A two foot drop onto a floor is unlikely, but a 6" drop could easily happen. Colins posted a nice video which shows the Pelican case is very tough. But I honestly don't think I can trust myself to carry a $1500 machine around.

You missed the key point, which is that I (maybe not you) find the Sparx hard to carry as it is big and heavy, and it has no carrying handles, and I’d quite likely drop it. With two people it’d be fine. I doubt there are any laptops that weigh even half the Sparx weight. Most people don’t walk round with TVs.

Yes, I know the Sparx is made with a solid steel frame and the case is tough. My concern isn’t damage while in the case, it’s concern at what happens if it drops on the floor while putting it into or taking it out of the case. I find my Sparx hard to lift as it is so heavy, hence easily dropped if I slip. That’s why I’d opt for the ProSharp if portability was a key requirement. Regarding the glass, I know someone with Sparx machines that have taken a hard puck shot to the glass, it’s tough. The exterior metal case is tough too, although the cosmetic plastic ends might break more easily.

I guess there’s two issues. How many grinds can it do before failure, and how robust is it when knocked about. It looks like it can do oodles of grinds, but can it survive regularly being carried, and potentially dropped albeit in the carry case, or even accidentally dropped 6” onto a bench? These things are heavy.

I doubt Sparx said shops suck, but I find most are poor, and the good ones are 25 miles away. Anyway, if a shop buys a Sparx, it requires far less attention and concentration, so they can serve customers more quickly at peak times. My LHS has one of two top staff members sharpening at the weekend. I’d rather they were serving customers because they kniw what they are talking about. Curiously they have a ProSharp SkatePal, looks like an aluminium camera case, but it sits unused. The wheel clogged up with steel and customers apparently preferred the hand sharpening. That said, my Sparx is incredible.