flip12

Interesting they’ve changed the eyelet pattern to Graf’s classic skip to the top. Makes sense for their concept.

Makes sense. Catalyst is one gen older than Hzrdus. Edit: Duh. I see what you meant. They just updated Cat so you'd expect a HZRDUS update next, and then maybe a new line replacing Cats.

Same. I have a pair of Air 9000s that are still holding on from the ‘90s. They’re beat up, but still amazing.

True has some deal with Tackla, so their new pants have the classic Tackla fit. I’ve never had any wish for better than that. The fit, feel, function, and look are all great IMO.

I think the pitch / balance point shift is what I like most about the Ellipse II. The back being a little longer than my 13’+1 feels good, but the change in balance point is the most freeing thing about both profiles. I thought it was about achieving a similar pitch to VSi on 72-80 HiLo, but that’s actually a little less pitched than most hockey holders. Maybe it’s really about moving the center line of the blade to be where my push naturally is, which is probably somewhere close to the third wheel from the front.

That sounds interesting. I may have had a quad on my first pair of MLX. The eBay seller I got them from didn’t know what the steel specs were, but I liked the feel. It was like a flat on the heel that fell into a ramp as you rolled forward. I have Ellipse II on my Cat7s now. It feels better than what they came with, but I’m not bothered by the flatter back portion. Some say it feels longer than Quad II. I’m more interested in seeing how long of a single radius I can roll with and at what balance point. I think balance point is the most effective variable for my skating. The shorter front on combo profiles and Ellipse don’t seem to be much of a feature for me.

My Mission Proto Vs had a metal d-ring instead of the plastic loop. I think it was one generation before they went to the plastic loops. I don't think I used it. I just laced snug, but not overly tight, all the way up. The cut on those was like 90's Tacks on Ozempic. I think that was the basic idea behind the Proto line. By reducing the volume with lower vamping, it made for a nice snug fit, similar to Tacks with the ankle hinge flex, but more connected. The first two generations of Vapors were similar in that respect. The ankle creasing made for a boot with great forward flex while maintaining lateral stability.

The boot flex definitely has some effect on this equation, though I was stumped just when I thought I was getting it. I had some VSi's converted to ice, on VH/Step holders, thinking they'd be as amazing on ice as they were on their original 72/80 HIlo. They were not. They felt comfy, but pretty much as frustrating as any other ice hockey skate I've tried, with a few exceptions. I think that was the moment that I decided to actually start trying out profiles, which I had been thinking about doing for a long time. My favorite boots do feature a similar degree of forward flex and lateral stability as the Proto Vs did though: Vapor 8, Vapor 10, Mega Air 90, 703, and MLX with the right tongue. With the right boot, like the Vapor 10, even a profile on the opposite end of the spectrum feels quite nice. I can only imagine how Vapor 10 on my ideal profile would feel, once I find it.

I'm not the best to comment because I'm drifting toward the long end of the profile spectrum. I think the closer I get to what my skating mechanics were developed on, the more natural I feel on the ice. I really honed my skating for hours in my apartment building's parking lot on '96 or '97 Mission Proto Vs on a 4 x 72mm chassis. The more my blades mimic the pitch and flat radius of those rollerblades, the more natural I feel on the ice. I get why some skaters would feel locked on rails in a 10' radius, but my mechanics seem to center around something closer to 20' +2. 13' and Ellipse II, both at +1 pitch, feel perfectly short and quick to me. 13' neutral felt a little rail like, but as soon as I had it redone with +1 pitch I never felt stuck on the ice again. It seems like the shorter front sections can mimic the effect of pitch if you don't actually want to mess with pitch. My favorite ice setup so far has been Cobra's stock 11' (now I think they're doing 10') on what felt like at least +2, compared to the +1s I have at the moment.

I love the Vapor 8 and 10 perforated steel though. I was skating on some again with the Vapor 10s I picked up. I was really enjoying the feel of those blades until one of the Tuuks cracked on both towers. I've only skated on LS perforated steel a couple of times. I don't really remember it being all that different from standard LS steel.

Found a better shot of it:

The original black set that debuted on the Vapor 8 did, but the LS2 perforated steel from the Vapor XX era had wide wedge perforations that lined up with the holes in the holder bridge as seen here on the best player ever deliberately excluded from the Hockey Hall of Shame:

I'm the same: 9.5 R in True, 9 Fit 1 in Vapor. Bauer's Birkenstockier toe cap makes the difference.

I was thinking of Cobra and VHStep's aft bolt too. It's hard to tell from the pictures I've seen. The wavy shoreline of the holder where the rivets go reminds me of MLX. I know Cruikshank said they were working on boots and holders with D'Cosi, but it's hard to find anything on them. I agree, it doesn't seem like this is actually Bauer.

PowerFlyByeBye

Different profiles for different people though. I feel much more agile on 13'+1 than I did on neutral 10' or 9.5'/10.5' (if that's True's stock profile). I don't feel the blade catching at all when I don't want it to. I'm thinking of going to an even longer profile next. I haven't tried any of the more complicated combos, but I really don't want a super short profile in the front of my blade as well as the added pitch. The added pitch is enough. Just like ROH, I'd say go with what works. If you get good enough grip at a shallower hollow or if you have enough agility and quickness at a longer radius, it'll only help. As soon as the blade is grabbing when you're not expecting it there's too much dig, either front-to-back/profile or side-to-side/hollow, and it's time to back off. That's my work-in-progress theory.

Steel for True's new holder looks like it has cut outs at the top reminiscent of Tuuk Light Speed perforated steel. It doesn't cut out as far down, but you can see space between the holder and the steel across the bridge if you zoom in a bit. I like the look of the holder. A lot less busy compared to everything going on on the surface of Shift and Shift Max.

I actually like them. You can see where some flourishes could be added to make the more window ready, but they have a decent silhouette. Looks like a pretty average cut pattern—in between L and C. I like the static pattern on the quaters better than a bunch of lines that don’t mean anything. I’m surprised they’re going with unreinforced facing on the fore and midfoot. Every time a skate company does that they go away from it after a generation or two.

I saw some TF roller boots with vented toe caps at one point. I guess they must have gone away from that.

There's definitely something that doesn't quite work out from his diagrams and calculations to the actual feel on the ice. Cobra feels way more pitched than Custom+, but his work shows them as the same. LS2 and Edge are supposed to be more pitched than Cobra but to me they feel less pitched. CXN and True Shift are supposed to be the same, but Shift feels closer to LS2 to me and CXN feels very close to Cobra. I've recently gone from 13' neutral to 13' +1 pitch on LS2s and they feel much better than before, closer to that Cobra/CXN feel. What profiles have you tried?

I only skated on Makos once and the pitch reminded me a lot of being on Cobras. It just feels so much better for me to have that pitch. Even though Bauer’s holders from LS2 on are supposed to be as pitched as Cobra and stock Graf steel it still feels off to me, too far back.

Again, there are others who definitely know that can correct my guesses, but if my recollection is right, Bauer's stock replacement steel has been 10' for a while, and Step is usually 10' as well. If the steel at the toe was getting in the way, going to 11' from 10' would only make that worse, even if just a bit. But if you went from Custom+ to PowerFly or Edge, I think you're also experiencing a difference in forward pitch again. Maybe not as drastic as Cobras with their stock 11' forward pitched steel. The more I think about it, the more it seems you want to be back in a more neutral pitch. The most comprehensive pitch resource I've found is this https://icehockey360.ru/baza-znanij/geometricheskie-parametry-stakanov/ It's in Russian, but it makes sense from the measurements and diagrams. If you liked Custom+ with 9', skating on a newer Bauer holder with 11' is back in the direction you were at originally in 707s on stock Cobras. That's a big difference. I know it from the other side because that stock Graf setup is my favorite of all that I've tried and as soon as I have that pitch back it's so much better for me. Pitch is the big difference maker for me from my recent profilings. That could make my advice here biased, but as I said, hopefully those who know better will correct anything that doesn't quite add up. I'm still very much a novice when it comes to profiling. I'm a believer now, just one with very little knowledge in the area.

What profile were you on when you went from tripping over your toes to 11'? Over here there was discussion about Bauer putting Quad profiles on top of the line boots: If that was still the case with Mach, you may have been skating on a +1 pitch before profiling them to 11'. A Quad would have a shorter radius at the front than 11', so it would make sense you'd only catch your toes more, if that's what you were coming from. It sounds like you need to get the blade profiled back to neutral. I've just started experimenting with profiling and the difference from LS2 stock neutral (still more pitched than Custom+ if I'm not mistaken) to +1 from shifting the balance point back 20mm was night and day for me. Just my two cents. I'm far from expert in profiling by MSH standards.

Totally agree with @start_today. Try whatever you can on to avoid buying more boots that you can't use. Personally, I felt great in a Hyp2rLite 9 Fit 1 in the store--toes feeling the cap but not smashed at all. Bauer's scanner recommended Fit 1 at just over size 10. 10.5 True sounds like you'd be swimming. I wear 9.5R Catalyst 7s and I don't think I could comfortably drop down to a 9 because of the toe box shape.

Can you elaborate a bit on the Vapor outsole and pitch?