muxed

Funny to see the extra edge angle required to engage mentioned here… I was just noticing this during warmup earlier tonight. For some reason I hadn’t felt it before, or at least hadn’t registered it; have been on flare for a few months now, and can’t imagine using anything else. But yeah. Was confused when I started sliding sideways a bit, and then, “oh, right, need more angle.” Weird.

Just wanted to update on this. Ended up shimming the flare blades with stainless shim stock I had sitting around; got them to not wobble side to side… temporarily. In the few weeks since (maybe 10-15 hours?) they loosened up again. Deeply unimpressed. I’m not that big/heavy, 170 something and 6’ 1”; skate well but not likely generating the kinds of forces I’d expect to need to wear out a set of holders in 6-7 months. I’ve only had the blades out of the holders once or twice (first to swap them, second to shim)… The wobble is significant at room temperature and noticeable even cold… makes everything feel kind of disconnected/uncertain while skating, and they seem to catch more often than they did when they were new originally, or after I shimmed them the first time. I don’t really see a way around this except to get the holders replaced with something stiffer/more durable, even if I have to get another set of blades. I could probably check with Bauer to see if there’s anything under warranty… but that seems like that would result in new skates (rather not thanks), new holders (and another replacement 6 months later?), or downtime (no good).

Huh, noticed something similar on my skates the other day, also Hyperlite. Have been on them since last summer, ls5 steel, but hadn’t messed with the blades at all (shop installed them)… changed over to Flare blades. They seemed to click in like, okayish, but yeah the triggers didn’t look like they were fully snapped back to their original positions after the blade clicked. Wasn’t sure what to make of it, but didn’t seem likely they would come back out, so I skated them a few hours without any issue… Other thing I noticed was walking around the rink area I could feel/hear the blades moving around a little bit in the holder… not so much that I was worried about them coming apart, but enough to make me think of the posts on here about wobbly blade fitment… might try and shim them with steel stock or something; the slight side to side play is noticeable enough off the ice to make me want to eliminate the inconsistency… Actually, looking at the, again now, yeah there’s definitely some wiggle side to side in the holder… it seems minor, but I figure if the 1mm extra width on the flare blade makes a big difference, a half millimeter worth of play to either side is definitely worth eliminating.

Helmet: Bauer Hyperlite Cage: bauer hybrid Shoulders: supreme 3s pro Elbows: supreme 3s pro Gloves: supreme 2s pro Pants: Ultrasonic Shins: supreme 3s pro Skates: vapor Hyperlite, flare steel Stick: vapor flylite

Oh, sure… goalies get hinged cuffs. Sigh. I’d love to be able to adjust cuff tightness/lateral flex without messing up forward flex… maybe someday.