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Larry54

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Everything posted by Larry54

  1. Larry54
    I wonder if the heel cup acts as a shim on the rear tower to adjust the pitch of the Step holder. Maybe the Step holder has a negative pitch and needs the heel cup to give it a neutral pitch equivalent to LS holders?
  2. Larry54
    I'm very curious as to what will come of these. But logic leads me to skepticism. The recurring theme in the videos is "Wow, these make skating so much easier." But easier doesn't necessarily mean better performance. In cycling, touring bicycles are much easier to ride than racing road bikes. Because of their geometry, the twitchy race bikes require more skill and focus to ride than touring bikes. But racers favor the liveliness of the race bike over the stability of the touring geometry in order to be able to suddenly shift position in a race... performance over ease of use. Kgbeast mentioned heel digs and toe carves. With the rocking of the Marsblades, will one have to lower his heels or lean back a bit more for "heel digs"? Will one have to push ones toes down further or lean more forward for "toe carves" when skating backward? If so, this might require more ankle movement for such maneuvers wasting precious fractions of seconds and reducing mechanical efficiency. But on the other hand, maybe you won't have to worry about heel digs and toe carves to perform the same maneuvers with Marsblades. I can see these helping lower skilled players just like an automatic transmission makes driving "easier" for everyone. It might be more like a crutch for those with reduced skating skills and maybe even a hindrance for accomplished skaters. I'm very interested in where this will go. But like I said before, I'd like to see scientific testing on their performance. Clap skates were proven to be beneficial for long track speed skating (but not for short track) using a stopwatch. The Marsblades performance need similar testing. I'm such a Debbie Downer.
  3. Larry54
    I'd like to know what a more scientific test would reveal. I'd like to see them time a player on a lap of the rink and also through an obstacle course of sorts. This would have to be done after a proper warm-up on each type of holder obviously because switching from one type to the other requires a small period of adjustment to re-tune your muscle memory. This may not be very relevant, but I remember one of the skaters in one of the videos comparing his Bauers + Tuuk holders to VH boots + Marsblade holders.
  4. Larry54
    Is it possible that skaters don't realize that they have this issue with the LS Edge that's affecting the quality of their skating even though it's quite apparent to a sharpener like yourself that the blade is not as solidly held as on a LS2 holder after a certain period?
  5. Larry54
    Unless you play in the NHL or are in a situation where you can't afford to miss a shift because of a broken blade or damaged edge, I would avoid the Edge holder. The blades are known to loosen and develop side-to-side play after a while. NHL players change their skates every few months so they change them before the blade has a chance to develop that looseness. When I bought my VH skates, the step holder wasn't available yet. I had a choice between Tuuk Edge and Tuuk LS2. I went with LS2 to avoid that and other known problems. What's the point of having the rigidity of a monocoque skate boot if your blade get's sloppily loose. I might have chosen the Step holder if it had been available, but I would go with LS2 over LS Edge.
  6. Larry54
    Well...that depends on which Tuuk holder you're talking about.
  7. Larry54
    You get a more efficient transfer of energy between your foot and the ice because less energy is wasted flexing the boot. It's the same principle as comparing stiff carbon fiber bicycle frames to the older more flexible steel frames. It's basic physics. And apparently many NHL players have moved to a shallower hollow when they went to VH because the skates provided increased grip.
  8. Larry54
    Just noticed that Carey Price is back to the cowlingless 2-piece version.
  9. Larry54
    Is it just the clear coat that's chipped or is the carbon fiber behind it damaged?
  10. Larry54
    Damn! I ordered a Reign LT on Monday at full price. The next day I get an e-mail offering 15% discount. I'm missing out on the discount because I ordered a day too early. Talk about the luck of the Irish... more like Murphy's law.
  11. Larry54
    Maybe he was the Zamboni driver.
  12. Larry54
    Call me an idiot, but I bought a pair of custom-made skates that fit me from the get-go instead of buying a pair of big-name skates that despite being backed by millions of dollars of R&D have to be customized by some unknown self-proclaimed expert with an @yahoo.com e-mail.
  13. Larry54
    I think the problem is that these shafts and blades are designed to be assembled into one-piece sticks with solid epoxy filling the gap. They just happen to offer the pieces separately for those who want to make two-piece sticks out of them.
  14. Larry54
    It's amazing to see how much you've improved since the beginning. The fact that you fell in one of those videos shows that you're still pushing and testing the limits, which can only lead to more improvement. Keep it up!
  15. Larry54
    But you haven't tried it so you can't say that it's a problem. Graf Sidas insoles are formed to the feet, not to the skate footbed. Their purpose is to bridge the gaps in the footbed, not fill them. It makes more sense for the insole to hug your foot than your skate. You can't have both unless your foot is exactly the shape of your skate's footbed or unless the speedplate varies its thickness to fill both the gaps in the sole of your foot and gaps in the skates footbed at the same time, which it does not. Wicked3Aussie makes an excellent point.
  16. Larry54
    As far as the heel goes, your comments may have been true about some of the first VH skates. But I don't really see that issue on my 4-year-old pair. However, if you compare the skates I got about a year ago with my 4-year-old pair, there was already a flat platform molded into the carbon fiber heel and it continued up the middle toward the toe to compensate for the space taken by the toe covering that wraps under the boot on each side.
  17. Larry54
    The doctor who fraudulently claimed there was link sure made a killing from it, and he was planning on making more. I wonder if VA Tech will be testing tinfoil lined helmets soon. I know at least one guy who might be interested.
  18. Larry54
  19. Larry54
    The first pair of VH skates that I had were very light. I got my second pair three years later, and they were stiffer and heavier than the first. I think it's a result of the improvements in durability that they made including the new toecap. I also got Step steel which is taller so the additional metal surely added a bit of weight.
  20. Larry54
    VH skates never came with moldable footbeds. They still come with the red liner under the insole. And the new insole is different but neither was moldable. This video shows a small degree of customizability that is possible.
  21. Larry54
    I wonder about the effectiveness of this holder. I mean if we look at roller hockey, how many players use Marsblade chassis compared to fixed chassis? In speed skating, the clap skates are used in long track for better top speed but fixed blades are used in short track for better control. By automatically centering your weight over the blade, does it remove a certain degree of control, like an automatic transmission in a car makes it easier to drive but manual transmissions give the driver finer control for racing? Out of curiosity, I look forward to more reviews on this product.
  22. Larry54
  23. Larry54
    Allan Holdsworth. He's one of the few that I would call a genuine musical genius, and I don't just throw the word "genius" around.
  24. Larry54
    The reason I've come back to this post is because recently I was getting numbness only in my left foot despite having the skate much looser than my right skate. One day I removed the tongue and noticed that the felt edge was folded under at some places. Because of the great wrap of these skates, inserting the tongue when putting on the skates caused the edge to roll under. I guess it ended up cutting off circulation in the blood vessels on top of the foot. To fix this, after straightening out the felt edge, I used a vice to compress the felt all around the tongue so that it tapers towards the edge. That made the felt edge thinner and a bit stiffer so it's easier to insert the tongue between the foot and the eyelets when putting on the skate. Hopefully this tip will be helpful.
  25. Larry54
    Then stop bitching about it and go ahead and do it. I won't stop you.
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