Tour RedMax & Hum'er

[urukhai74 0]

OK...Tour just cannot seem to get the entire skate right, I just do not understand this company at all!

I LOVE my 902 & 962's, but they are now starting to wear out after almost 5 years of use! I need some new skates!

I tried the miserable G-Series...EERRGGHH!

I then decided to try these new ones and here is what I found out:

Fit - Great! They did return to the old 962 boot style of fit! - GOOD! :D

Tongue - Bad! Wafer thin and the rim of the tongue is like a solid piece of wire that will dig into your ankle when you lace them down! - BAD! <_<

The RedMax Boot - Nominal! Too weak for any player over 185-190 lbs.

Now the part that everyone has been waiting for...the Chassis!!

The Hum'er is Great! I took the time to really study what they had done and once I figured it out, it made a lot of sense! :D

Basically they flipped the Hi-Lo over. They put the difference in height on the boot, instead of on the wheels!

Make no mistake, the chassis is a Hi-Lo, when you place it on a smooth surface and just rest your hand on the front of the boot, only the first 3 wheels from the front are touching and vice versa when you apply the pressure to the heel of the boot, the front wheel does not spin. This Hi-Lo is right inline (no pun intended) with the Tours of the past. That is the mild Hi-Lo effect. Most other brands were much more radical in their Hi-Lo designs and that caused a much bigger difference from the Tours! I thought they were almost flat compared to my Missions when I first got the 902's.

The height of the skate is no higher than a 72/80 or 68/76 setup, so the recessed boot does work and it is not recessed that much, meaning you could use the Hum'er on a different boot with minimal customization!

You can put a 76mm or 72mm setup on the chassis, but it makes the wheels real spread out, the chassis is designed for the 80mm wheels.

Labeda should make one for all three sizes, 72/76 & 80. I would buy it in a minute for the 76, the 80's still seemed a bit too tall for my taste, I am a defensemen and the taller wheels do not help me altogether in that task!

First thing you notice is the Speed and it is there Big Time!

Only one negative though, with the lack of support in the RedMax boot, and the lack of upper ankle support in the boot due to only 9 eyelets instead of 10, it cancels out the speed, because it is too unstable to support the style of skating necessary for Hockey! All three boots are identical in this capacity, only 9 eyelets and about half and inch less boot on the top of the boot around the ankle!

Everyone is different, but I am a very aggressive player and over 200 lbs. I like the extra support of the 902/962's for that reason!

Comfort - the boot is comfortable, except for the before mentioned wafer thin Tongue!

Turning - I found no noticable difference in turning with the Hum'er!

Stopping - Great!

Transitions - no problem!

Backwards skating - even easier, very fast!

Advice: if you are a lighter player, 185 or less, the RedMax will probably work for you!

Except for the before mentioned tongue issue I experienced!

If over 185, I would go with the BlueMax or Beemer, they claim those skates are much stiffer!

Tour needs to stick with what has worked in the past (902/962) and just make subtle changes, like putting a different color or design on the same product, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every year!

I have converted a pair of GRAF 703 boots to inline, using a RED STAR chassis and so far so good, but these boots are going to take a bit of time to break in though!

I have given some thought to getting a pair of Beemers or BlueMaxes and having the tongue augmented to make them wearable for me, but not sure I want to go to all that trouble, depends on how these GRAFS turn out once I get them broken in!

Hope this helped everyone out! B)

[cgin6 0]

What size boot and chassis are you using?

[urukhai74 0]

I wear a size 9 in the TOURS and a size 9.5 in the GRAFS. The RED STAR chassis on my GRAFS is a medium or 9.9.

[jrock 0]

The Max 700 (Tour's low end '04 model) has a different tongue from the higher end models - similar to the tongue on the old Tour 950 (which was a great skate).

[urukhai74 0]

Yeah I noticed that, man...if they could only figure it out!!! EERRRGGHHH!!!!

Thanks! :D