Bauer Vapor X60

[Jarick 5]

Bauer Vapor X60 Stick'um

Flex: 75 flex (intermediate)

Curve: P92

Time used: four months (30-40 skates)

Reviewer: 5'8 185 C-leaguer

Aesthetics: Good looking stick. I prefer the white color with the 12k wrap visible on the blade. Red accents means it matches my team's color scheme too.

Weight and Balance: Very light weight and great balance due to the monocomp construction. At full length, it didn't feel blade heavy, which is rare. Cut down and with an Oggie grip installed, it felt nicely balanced. Replacing that with a 4" wood plug, the stick feels light as a feather.

10/10

Blade: Feel is more lively and ceramic than a Bauer Supreme or wood, but it feels a lot more solid than most one piece sticks, possibly because of the monocomp construction. Blade is incredibly stiff, just like new. It also features an expanded throat which is supposed to reduce twisting.

8/10

Shaft and Flex: Slimmer shaft due to intermediate dimensions with rounded corners means it does feel a touch small in the hand. Designed with flex points near the blade and the butt end for quick release on shots. Feels and performs like a low kickpoint stick to me, which is exactly what I wanted. Flex is true to rating and the perfect compromise for someone between intermediate and senior whip flexes.

10/10

Stick Handling and Passing: The light weight and blade light balance allows for quicker hand movement and less fatigue in stick handling. The lively feel can make the puck feel a bit jumpy though. Receiving crisp passes requires a bit of cradling, although the blade does seem to tame them a bit (and better than the previous year's Vapor sticks).

9/10

Shooting: Great power and quick release for all shots. With slappers, the stick loads nicely and they feel fairly powerful coming off the blade. Snappers load and unload very quickly. Wrist shots are very quick and hard and easy to shoot with the light weight of the blade. Accuracy is never a problem as everything goes where you expect.

10/10

Durability: There are a couple small chips in the blade and shaft but the stick plays and feels just like new, including the stiffness of the blade. Graphics are still in great shape. It feels like a tank.

10/10

Conclusion: Having used 67 flex intermediate and 77 flex senior Vapor XXV's from the previous year, this stick was a huge improvement. The flex was perfectly in the middle, suffering neither from the 67's lag and weak slapshots nor from the 77's difficulty to load and stiff feel. Blade feel is the only concern for players who would prefer a softer blade, but everything else is fantastic. It still performs as new and has held up wonderfully.

Overall: 9.5/10

[sharks25 9]

Bauer x60 Grip

p88 curve

85 flex uncut

Intro: Im a roller travel level player, about 6'1, 175 lbs. This stick was used for ice and roller hockey on ice court. I shoot a lot, since im more of a shooter than anything else. Because of this sticks either whip out or snap on me within 6 months on average. The stick was used for about 7 months before breaking about 8 inches above the blade.

Looks: I love the way the stick looks. The white color up top is very clean looking, and the exposed weave at the bottom is very nice. The red accents are also flashy, yet subtle. They held up very well for me, there was very little chipping. 10/10

Weight: I loved the weight. Not too heavy, yet not ultra light weight. Great balance as well, which is what im pickiest about. No complaints at all. Another 10/10

Blade feel: It has a pingy, lively feel to it. Some people don't like it, but i grew accustomed to it fairly quickly. I grew to like it a lot, as it felt extremely lively. I like to believe that I have good hands in roller, so I could control the liveliness of the blade easily. On ice less so, but it still wasn't that bad. I could feel the puck on my blade confidently even with the pinginess. 9/10

Shaft/flex: Its a bit stiffer than rated. Though it seems to kick extremely hard, like a softer flex. A stiff stick with the benefit of a softer stick. I could load it quickly on snapshots, yet it didn't seem to over load on hard slappers. The dimensions feel like they're made for me. I love the way it feels in my hands. 10/10

Shooting: A little story: I was playing the rebound game with a goalie friend and 2 others. I stepped in to a snap shot from in between the dot. Dead over the goalies shoulder, off the bar, down onto the ground, back up off the crossbar, and in. Its never going to happen again, but it really made me confident in my shot with it. My shot has never been better. Slappers, wristers, snapshots, anything you throw at it; it will perform. By far the best aspect of the stick. Better than the s19 I used before it, which I considered a great shooters stick. 11/10

Passing/stickhandling: Pingy, lively blade. If you arent used to it it will be hard to corral passes. I got used to it and loved it. It gave great passes, crisp and accurate. The stickhandling is what i loved the feel for the most. Very responsive, and I could go from a quick toe drag to draw it in for a snap-shot easily. The feel gave me great confidence in my stickhandling. 10/10

Durability: Great. The first x60 I had was used for 6 months before the bottom of the blade cracked. It had no other issues and stayed strong till it broke. This stick also held up to all the abuse it took. Very little chipping, as said above, and no deep gashes. The blade didn't even have much wear even though I only tape toe to mid heel. My last time using it was a shooting session and it felt "off" the whole time that day. Some shots kicked hard, some just trickled off. It broke on a one-timer. 7 months and only one game it felt weak is fine with me! It lasted pretty much the longest out of all other sticks ive used. 10/10

Conclusion: I tell everyone that its my favorite stick, because it is. I loved the stick and would buy another one. The Mako im using now is great, but doesn't give me the confidence that this stick did. A great stick if you get used to the pingy feel, which I did. 10/10

[JR97 2]

Bauer Vapor X60 Stick'um

Flex: 67 flex (intermediate)

Curve: P88

Time used: Sporadically over 10 months

Reviewer: 5'7 140 Beer-leaguer

Aesthetics: I love the subdued earthy tones. I'm not a fan of flashy sticks.

Weight and Balance: The weight and balance are great for this stick.

10/10

Blade: I'll agree with a previous poster that the blade feels livelier. This helps with my stick handling and receiving hard passes. Which you'd think the opposite would be true. I guess it's a force feedback response sort of thing for me. When I can feel that much "detail" my muscles react quicker/better compared to something more stiff. I don't know. Either way I really like the blade.

8/10

Shaft and Flex: When I first bought the stick I absolutely loved the feel and flex. My snappers and slappers had some serious zip. The stick didn't feel like a 67 flex until I loaded it up. Even loaded it never felt like noodle. It felt solid. Having said that, after picking up a Vapor X:50 with a different flex and the concave shaft, I couldn't go back to the One60 without making serious adjustments. There's nothing wrong with the One60 flex/feel. I'm just more comfortable the X:50 now.

8/10

Stick Handling and Passing: I really liked this stick for stick handling. The lively feel gave feedback that made things easier. Probably all in my head but the outcome was not. Receiving hard passes was great. Passing was good but nothing that stood out above any other stick I've used.

9/10

Shooting: This is a great stick for slappers and snappers. I really liked not only how the stick loaded up but where it loaded up. The only thing I didn't like was hard one timers. Probably because I"m using such a whippy flex, I couldn't get any mustard or accuracy on hard pass one timers. It was like the shaft absorbed all of the energy and never gave it back. My wrist shot wasn't as good with this stick compared to the X:50 though and I'm more of a wrister guy than slapper/snapper. I did get comments from 3 different goalies I played with last year that they noticed my shots in warm ups were coming with a lot more heat when I was using this stick.

8/10

Durability: I used this stick for about 2 months straight of 2-3 games/drop-ins/scrims a week with no issues. The blade stayed stiff. I relegated it to backup duty once I picked up an X:50. I whipped it out for a game last month and some schnozzle slashed it hard right in the middle. It didn't break, but it's creased pretty good and pretty much done. It'd probably break taking a hard pass let alone a shot. The blade is still in great shape. I'm not sure I used it enough to give a decent durability rating.

8/10

Conclusion: This is a good stick for over all play. It did just about everything well and was a good shooter if you're a slapper/snapper kinda player. Which I am not. However, it's a great price point for a OPS and at that price point is a great value. Even though I prefer the Vapor X line now, I have no qualms recommending the One60.

Overall: 8.5/10