CCM RH skates

[Dante2004 0]

I have been skating on CCM roller hockey skates now for about 10 years. I started with a pair of Tacks, moved onto a coupld of pairs of Externo Mavericks and now use Mavericks and PF8's. I am looking to buy a new pair and I would like to explore another brand. So many people love Mission and Tour...maybe I should give them another try. Anyone have any recommendations on a boot that may fit like the CCM?

To add a little complication to the issue. I generally play on two different surfaces (ice court and wood...yuck). Rather than changing my wheels twice a week, I just use two pairs of skates. So I don't want one pair to feel dramatically different from the other. Call me high maintenance, but I am picky about my equipment.

Essentially what I am looking for is another brand/line that fits very similar to CCM. Width, angle of the back of the skate, type of chasis, etc.

I play college roller hockey and compete in competitive tournaments around the US (Narch, Echo, Statewars, etc).

***I live in a small town...in an area where hockey is not popular. There is a rink, but there isn't a pro shop within four hours. So a "why don't you go try on a pair" suggestion will not be helpful. I am going to have to select these skates through research only and then order them online.

Most likely...I will just end up buying another pair of PF8s...unless someone has some good suggestions. :P

Thanks!

[sdcopp 1]

I jumped from CCMs to this years Missions and am glad I made the switch. Widthwise they are fairly close, and the Missions are definitely stiffer.

[devilsrule711 0]

why not check out some RBK's since RBK bought CCM and its all the same so could consider those

[Dante2004 0]

Hmmm...they may be the same company now, but are the skates designed off of the same ergonomic model? If so, then I would assume that they would fit the same.

But...it would seem like CCM would retain their designs/patterns. :-(

Maybe I will just wait until I make the next visit to civilization where that actually is a pro shop.

[Dante2004 0]

I went ahead and ordered a pair of RBK 6's

I will post my review once they arrive and I have gotten a few good skates in.

Thanks for the previous replies

[suppaman 0]

those are supposed to be fairly good skates...curious to see what you have to say once you get them and use them

[sdcopp 1]

outside of the issue I have with CCM/RBK's quality of customer service, the only true gripe I ever had about the current line of product was the quality of the chassis on all the mid to lower end skates. Be VERY VERY careful if you have to change wheels or anything as the frames and bolts are EXTREMELY easy to strip out and/or bend.

[Patrick67 1]

I went from a Vector Pro 7.5d to a Rbk 8k Pump 7.5d.

Exact fit, no problem what so ever.

[Dante2004 0]

Initial impression...

As someone said in a review on another board, this skates are very easy to break in. They felt awkward for a few minutes, but once the sweat started to flow they felt great. FYI...I skate barefoot, so I was concerned about blisters during the first skate. Nothing. Not even a hot spot. Also, at first I thought the pump was stupid. But, I got them for the same price as I would have paid for the equivalent CCM, so I though what the heck. It turns out this is a really nice feature, not just a gimick. I am pretty particular about the fit of my skate. I don't like them to feel loose on my feet, but at the same time, I seem to be able to cut off my circulation pretty easily by over tightening my skates. With the pump, I was able to find that happy medium pretty easily. It basically fills the voids between your foot and the boot so you end up with virtually 100% contact. I think this improves the feel of the floor beneath you.

So...I only have one game in so far, but I love them so far.

[Joker518 0]

Dante, thats awesome that its working out for you.

You said that you skate on ice court and wood... do you use a different set of wheels for both or do you stick it out with the same? I have another set of wheels with bearings and spacers all set for when I play on wood.

[ash_96 0]

I play on both wood floor and ice court, and personally I prefer the wood floor. ( i know a lot of you prefer ice court). i think if the floor is well varnished and clean you get awesome speed and grip! what are the rest of your experiences with wood floor?

I use the same set of wheels and bearings for both floors.

[Patrick67 1]

Played a bit on wood, Like the nice wood surfaces, but prefer Icecourt.

More Consistent, if you play on Icecourt, it's Icecourt. If you play on a wood floor it can vary a bit from place to place, which can be annoying. Some wood floors make the ball stick to much, most of them are nice to skate on though.

Have some Rink Rat Blue Flames, I use for Ice/Sportscourt. Thinking about useing them on a concrete surface for a tournament 3 weeks from now, but might put some Labeda fitness (indoor) wheels on instead, since the Rink Rats (74A)could chunk a considerable amount on such a hard surface?

[Dante2004 0]

I have a pair of skates for each surface (wood vs ice). I have found that changing wheels each time I skate at a different facility is not only a pain in the butt, but you also wear out the threads on your chasis fairly quickly which leads to stripping...which leads you to have to buy a new pair of skates...which led me to make this post in the first place. B) When I skated the first time on this skates, I used the Rink Rat wheels that came with the skates. They were definitely too soft for the combination of the wood floor and my body weight (230 lbs). And my speed greatly suffered for it. But, since I knew that was a result of my wheel/surface selection, rather than a knock on the quality of the skate, I chose to exclude that from my original review.

Right now I have a pair of CCM PF8's and RBK6's. Both setup with nice indoor wheels (soft). I haven't decided which pair of skates I convert to my "wood floor" skates, but I will have to do that before my next game. Not only are the soft wheels slow on wood, but in another skate of two the wheels will certainly start to chunk bad!

For those of you that skate on a wood floor and ice court with the same wheels...man, I don't know how you do it. Either you have a really slick floor, don't weigh very much or don't skate very aggressively... I would either slip all over the place on the ice court, or chunk the hell out of my wheels on the wood floor depending on what setup I went with.

[mreeves 0]

dante, you said you own pf8's and rbk6k's; which do you like better? how would you compare the fit? I'm looking into getting either the pf10's or the 8k's and any input from you would be greatly appreciated.

p.s. is there any difference agility wise between the two?

[Perry94 0]

sorry for bringing up a dead thread, but I was wondering if you could just run the usual hi-lo wheel setup (72/72/80/80) in the place of the Tri-Di (72/76/76/80) of the CCM skates? thanks

[#28tz 0]

sorry for bringing up a dead thread, but I was wondering if you could just run the usual hi-lo wheel setup (72/72/80/80) in the place of the Tri-Di (72/76/76/80) of the CCM skates? thanks

Not unless you change the chassis because I tried it when i had my PF8's

[mreeves 0]

got my ccm pf10's today. 11E, synergizer footbeds, 84a pro 250's. fit like a glove can't wait to get 'em outside!

[hockeypunk3 0]

Can anyone tell me what were the CCM Externo Bandits (high end, mid end or low end)

I seem to remember them being mid to high end but im unsure.