flip12

The way a lot of elite skaters (not just pro, but high level juniors all over the world) use work arounds on the degree of structure and stiffness in Bauer boots is a major factor in why I think that. Essentially, Bauer's stock setup just reminds me of being on a city cruiser bike compared to ease of moving on racing bike, which at first is a scary posture for most people.

Chadd, exactly that, and also, JunkyardAthletic, from the little I've seen of the Oilers lately, how can anyone not like Marincin? Sure, he'll make a mistake now and then, but he's a young defenseman on a crappy team, that'll happen. To me it looks like he has huge upside.

The only way that and the ultra high boots make sense to me is they're tailored to the preferences of beginning skaters.

They keep emphasizing their need for bona-fide offense, when they have great parts in place. RNH will be a solid first-line center once he's fully developed. They need guys like Horcoff to exemplify veteran consistency for their young forwards, and probably one more solid veteran defenseman to do the same. It looks like it'll be good for Perron to get out of there. He could be an asset to a lot of teams. Marincin too, if that's who they'd package him with as I just read in a rumor column. But I completely agree with everyone here--they want a No.1 center in return? No way. Not without perfect Inception.

My thought: it could be strange to skate on that aggressive pitch with a short radius. The CXN comes radiused at 9' I believe, while Bauer and CCM are both 10'. Graf, which is more forward pitched, like the CXN, comes with an 11' stock radius. I know exactly what you mean about feeling like you're skating in high heels on that pitch, but I also know what you mean about it feeling more restricting or sluggish to be less pitched. I haven't been able to skate on an aggressive pitch with a long radius recently, mostly because I've been dealing with getting the right boot first, but I will go back to a similar setup to Graf's stock when I get the chance and the spare money. If what you want is that ease of skating feeling from the forward pitch, plus more stability, I'd say go back to the aggressive pitch, almost all the way if not all the way, but just get a longer radius on your blade which will give you a larger blade/ice contact area and thus more stability.

Well, neither does any pro non-goalie either. If it breaks, the eqm fixes it or it gets replaced.

D.Roy was in Makos for a long time, until now. Some guys that had them have switched back out. Personal preference as always, but I still get excited when I see someone new in VH.

I hope it's ok to revive an this thread. I have some questions about Channel Z as I'm considering it instead of FBV, which appears to be incredibly difficult to find in Europe. I skated on FBV twice and loved everything except how much I was grabbing the ice with stopping and pivoting manoeuvres. I'd be happy just finding which FBV suits me, but the only place I've found online that has FBV is a place in Hamburg, and I suspect I may like even less edge than they're going to be offering. 1. Most Channel Z sharpening for hockey appears to be adding the (small, medium, or large) channel to an otherwise standard ROH cut, is this correct? 2. Unlike the FBV, which has a flat between the diagonal edges, Channel Z can be done to skates with that but Pro Sharp only seems to recommend a "flat" middle for bandy skates. How similar is Channel Z's flat grind to an FBV grind? 3. Overall, Channel Z feels similar to FBV in terms of glide and edge grip (both of which were amazing in my FBV sessions) with their normal radiused and channeled sharpening? There's at least one place nearby in Malmo that does it, but I haven't been able to get a hold of them on more specifics about which options are available, and being an addicted MSH'er, I'm anxious to do my research before going in any one direction on it. Thanks for any help! :) Edit: forgot 1.A: How does a small, medium, or large channel differ in its effect on edge and flat feeling from the blade?

I've noticed a couple-three pairs in the KHL, but now, Max Afinogenov:

Bauer already kind of did that with the one90, but didn't they just go back up to their higher cut boots? That's just their thing. Easton/VH will have to take a bigger bite out of Bauer's dominant market share for Bauer to think about doing anything to take back what they lose. I could be wrong, but that's been my projection of Bauer's stance on this trend.

Really impressed with the fit so far. First pair of skates I can say that about since my One90's. In case you haven't seen it yet, there's a huge thread on VH in here. It's a good read :)

Also Jets, Trouba, Stuart, and Peluso. Just spotted Cody Eakin with Dallas. Kulikov still wearing VH, has been since late last season. I think it's new with Hannan. Pictures I've seen show him in Nexus last year.

Sorry, I didn't mean to just throw it out there without clarification. VH stands for Scott Van Horne's company VH Footwear. There's a huge thread on here about the whole history of his current production line, but the short story is Scott's a former Canadian national team speed skater who started making speed skates about 20-years ago and has been making hockey skates for a little over 5 years: first under DASC, which became MLX, which got bought buy Easton and became the Mako, and now VH makes their own skates a lot like the MLX, with some variations made to that design. I'm a huge fan of classic Graf attributes (in a lot but not all of their old skates): lower cut boots, more foot-wrap and much more anatomical fit (for my feet), longer steel, aggressive pitch. I'll finally get to skate in MLX boots once my pair clears customs here, but from what I've gathered, they have a lot more in common with those attributes I like about Graf than they do with other skates on the market, but with newer technology and an extremely thermoformable boot. A few links: VH Footwear thread on here, which has links to VH Footwear's site. MLX thread, which died a horrible death due to seriously sad marketing practices from within MLX. All in all, I'm thrilled about the speedskate's incursion on the hockey market.

Also VH in Winnipeg, not knocking your choice in Graf though. Other than VH, I'm an admitted Graf kool-aid drinker.

Good to know on your follow up. Love the detail of your posts AfftonDad.

Is there a difference in the steel weight? How reduced is the set on your Makos?

Not really, if you follow his reasoning. He's thinking out loud about different production cycles of the same version of a particular skate model, where a batch of Mako I is not in the same set as a batch of Mako II: he is just comparing batches of Mako I to other batches of Mako I, and batches of Mako II to other batches of Mako II. Since MLX were not made by the same people in the same facilities, and also vary significantly materially from the Mako I, they aren't even the same product.

I agree, it could make a good team look. For me, it's just been a matter of circumstance--way too old royal blue helmet, red Eagle gloves because they were too good of a price to pass up, purple socks because that was my teams' colors (high school and college intramural), black pants and then whatever color jersey I have on for pick up usually completes the look. Unfortunately (or...?), I don't have any pictures of me in that setup, but you get the idea.

That would be perfect with my usual skittles look, each piece a different color.

Right, not only that, it's not really in their purview to 'join forces' here, as it were. This VT group are about publishing research and, I'm pretty sure, consulting from the basis of their results. Sometimes, a lot of times, it's good for a new tree to start in the same domain as an existing one, in order to further the state of the culture. If it were to instead be a branch off of the existing tree, its would likely suffer from existential crises owing to an unnecessary burden to prove itself in the eyes of the larger tree. It's the benefit of competition, arms races, etc.

I saw one person's custom measurements, and if I saw correctly, there are two for volume: around the instep and around the widest part of the forefoot.

Yes, I think Mako and Vapor both have 9' radius. Isn't Bauer doing something with 10' now too? I just found that with my Cobra holders and Graf's stock steel, which I think is an 11' radius, my skating was much better. I didn't feel I lost quickness on the longer edge and now that I know what radiusing does I'd maybe try something even longer, but with the background in roller hockey first, it makes sense to me why a longer radius can feel much better: we're used to working foot quickness without the help of a smaller arc to swish through stride by stride.

My experience going from roller to ice was the opposite to what you're expecting here. I had Cobra holders, with a long radius (11' I think) and aggressive pitch, and that made going from ice to roller much smoother for me. It's the radius (9' still feels too short for me) that felt strange compared to being on 4 wheels. Now I can't go back to stock Tuuk pitch or radius without noticing a lot of skips in my contact with the ice. You may like the CXN more than you're assuming now.

Good to know, but I kinda figured that would be the case.

That's an interesting point. Cruikshank + Van Horne had a much more notched angle on the top eyelets of the prototype boot shown in various history of the Mako videos. It looks like MLX and VH both have more of that L-shape, like the Vapor...also, are Makos higher cut than VH? IIRC, they don't specify what other skates participants wear in the study, just that they use their normal skates for half of the trial and Makos for the other half.