Heel lifts or profile blade?

[sticktime 12]

I can't seem to figure out how the two concepts are different or are they the same?

In other words, I have a +2 profile on the blade of my 190's, and I like how it puts my center of balance a bit more forward and i"m on my toes. But, would a heel lift do the same thing?

What i can't figure out is if the balance point on the blade would be the same or not. And I think that's the key.

Thx in advance.

[sticktime 12]

EDIT: What I think I meant was, if a +2 pitch was put on an out of the box Supreme, is the balance point on the blade going to be in the same place as putting in a heel lift to match the +2?

I don't think that it would, but I'm hoping that some on this board would drop some knowledge.

[YesLanges 128]

I believe that some skaters could benefit from heel lifts but that lifts and profile aren't equivalent or interchangeable that way. I think you'd always want your weight as much over the "flat" of your blade as possible wherever it is. If you raise your heels, you'd probably want to shift your blade contact area forward as well. Also keep in mind that profiles can be changed back and forth and tweaked whereas you can't easily do the same with heel lifts (assuming you mean under the boot and not an inner heel insert). I actually tried inner heel inserts before going to the pretty extreme forward profile (CAD 60/55) that seems to work best for me. (My guy said he doesn't usually go beyond 60/40 but 55 feels best to me.) Raising my heel inside the boot definitely reduced ankle support for obvious reasons and I didn't even need to skate on them to feel it as soon as I laced up.

[Mimizk 114]

Maybe I can help you.

Always I tried to make balance point at first. With normally, no shim, no pitch contouring. To find the balance point. When I was finding it, I contoured my skates changing the center point of Custom Radius.

Probably you can see different center point marked on the holder.

Then after I changed its pitch by both of shim and contouring. I usually use 3mm shims and +1 or 2 contouring pitch for Tuuk Litespeed2 263mm holder. If I take 272mm holder, I don't need the shim. Because 263's heel height is 3mm lower than 272 holder. But finally it is just our feeling.

Then I thought as same as you. It must be as I have to change the balance point back 1mm or little more because I change the pitch forward. But in fact, it was useless. I've changed it but again I changed it first point. I changed the pitch finally +4 or 5 but the balance point was no need to be changed.

The balance point is great number. You should think separately about the 2 numbers.

[sticktime 12]

Well, what I ended up doing was to simply use a +2 pitch and it seems to "propel" me on the ice better. Can't explain it but it feels so much more natural.