K2 Hockey Pro's a trip down memory lane

[MDE3 0]

Anybody else here ever skate on these tanks?

First commercially sold inline skate(that I saw anyway) with an aluminum chassis, also had an adjustment for chassis centering or skew if so desired(only two bolts held the chassis in place..and I never had them come loose)...Tremendously comfortable with memory foam liners and carbon fiber outsoles, carbon fiber toe and heel caps.

Slightly porky in the weight department however...maybe 2200 grams per skate before they got soaked. Guaranteed to give your legs a thorough workout....

[tryandstopme 35]

Anybody else here ever skate on these tanks?

First commercially sold inline skate(that I saw anyway) with an aluminum chassis, also had an adjustment for chassis centering or skew if so desired(only two bolts held the chassis in place..and I never had them come loose)...Tremendously comfortable with memory foam liners and carbon fiber outsoles, carbon fiber toe and heel caps.

Slightly porky in the weight department however...maybe 2200 grams per skate before they got soaked. Guaranteed to give your legs a thorough workout....

never seen em', but if you've got some pics i'd like to check them out.

[Sprungster 5]

I remember them. I was going up to see K2 a lot Re my hockey and aggro prototypes. This was probably in 98 or 99 just as they were discontinuing their hockey line.

Had about 11 different guys and girls skate on the hockey prototypes to a lot of eye-rolling about how nice they would have been if they were still doing hockey boots. I was pitching them for the rec/fitness category. I still have a pair of the yellow and black fitness skates that were the early model for what became the normal way boots are made today. I'm not sure, but I think the OG Kor guy came out of K2 with that technology.

I was in on the development of the standard mounting system that Soloman started and went on to become the UFS mounting system for aggro skates. The actual two mounts and the flat base came off my aggro prototypes. If you look at the front and rear mount areas of Sprungs, you'll see two beefy mount holes, just in case they got used as early free-skates which was very popular, using hockey frames on super lightweight fitness boots. All the companies were making them including Nike.

In case anybody knows about that really injured category, I designed and produced Fiziks for Tom Hyser and Skatepile. The Yasutoko brothers made them famous.

[KYHockey3 0]

i used to have some k2 skates. they really were tanks. they werent hockey skates, but they were like pure plastic and bricks.

i liked them way back when i used to use them!

[sdcopp 1]

Those K2's were comfy though, but heavy beyone belief. They were heavy long before the skate weight war really got going. Funny you should mention the two bolt system, that's exactly why I didn't get them. I'd have to periodically tighten the frames on my Bont boots all the time and didn't want to do it for hockey as well.

[Jim A 4]

If those were the ones with the adjustable aluminium frame (before the Mach series correct?)..yeah..K2 used to send us all sorts of stuff to test...they were good, but did retain some water and the ventilation panels would always pop off..but comfy skates...as were the RB Evo Max when they came out (and featured the MG 12 frame...)

[MDE3 0]

Those K2's were comfy though, but heavy beyone belief. They were heavy long before the skate weight war really got going. Funny you should mention the two bolt system, that's exactly why I didn't get them. I'd have to periodically tighten the frames on my Bont boots all the time and didn't want to do it for hockey as well.

Actually when I bought them in and around late 1996 or early 1997, I was initially worried about that attachment system. However once tightened to my taste..they never came loose. The outsole on those was at least .625" thick if you included the carbon ribbing...so there was a lot of "purchase" on the bolts which were 1/4" x about 1/2" long...However I can see where on speed skates the system could become a problem, because I could not imagine any speed skates having a sole thickness like those "Hockey Pro's", and could see where the deflection of a lighter outsole might cause the bolts to work loose.

The real reason I bought them was because I had previously been skating on Tour boots and CCM boots equipped with H 405 chassis' which I mounted. Because both of those skates used PVC outsoles, (which on the cool surface of an ice rink would offer no problem) the outole used to deform to the shape of the chassis sole plates once the boot warmed up in the heat of an inline rink where the skating surface offered no "cooling"...

The skate became a "heat sink" and the PVC - a very heat sensitive material - would get "soft" allowing the edges of the aluminim sole plates to push up a hard bump on the inner sole of the skates...and killed my feet. At the time I was often required to be on my skates 4 - 5 hours a day and once they warmed up, I could barely skate because the soles of my feet would get so bruised.. Evem extra insoles could not mask these sharp protrusions.

When I saw the heavy ribbed carbon outsole on the K2's I said "aha, someone has recognised the problem with mounting aluminum inline chassis' on ice hockey boots with PVC out soles, and designed around it"....and jumped all over these skates. No more swollen and bruised soles of my feet....I loved them for that reason, and forgave the additional weight in exchange for the comfort.

[Jim A 4]

Tony & John's speed background was a boon for the inline market as a whole...I haven't spoken to Tony in a while..wonder what he is up to post-kor?

[sdcopp 1]

the PVC sole issue is another reason why I loved the Final Factor frame, it had contoured mounting plates that escaped alot of the pushing and damage universal frame plates had because of the materials. I was often on my skates for anywhere from 6-12 hours working at the rink and then skating/playing both before and after.