Ribcor 70K Skates

[flip12 715]

9 minutes ago, krisdrum said:

Cool.  The Makos in EE were super comfy and fit me pretty well everywhere but the heel.  My Graf 535 wide fit my foot really well, but I've struggled to adapt to the lower cuff height and much softer boot.  As a new skater, coming from Vapor x4.0 EEs, a much stiffer boot allowed me to compensate for my weak ankles and pronation issues.  There is nowhere to hide in the Grafs.  The Vapors had less than ideal heel lock and had to get them punched in a few spots in the forefoot, but kept my ankles from flopping around.  I should have kept them, but stupidly sold them before really running the Grafs through their paces.  Although maybe a blessing as the Grafs expose just how weak I am, so I am starting to do some strengthening exercises. 

My LHS fitter started to talk to me about the Ribcors as another option last time I was in there that I might want to try at some point.  With the new model coming out, I am tempted to pick up some of the last version on clearance, but this new version sounds like there are some improvements I could really use/appreciate. 

How do you lace your Grafs? I've noticed a lot of people try to crank on the top eyelet to get it to snug up to the ankle, but the secret to a lot of Graf's classic skates was to keep the top eyelet wider and stiffer with added structure, to allow full ankle rotation. On top of the extra stiffness they had a little extra space between the second from the top eyelet to the top, essentially enforcing the skip-the-2nd-eyelet lacing pattern (used by Crosby for example). It's a different approach, but it can feel amazing once you get used to it. For me it helped to focus on snugging up the boot in the forefoot and above the talus, roughly around the third eyelet from the top. The rest was less essential than those two areas. Just something to try that might help.

I've thought about the difference between Graf's eyelet pattern and low cut and the 70K. I'd like to try the 70K before tinkering with that, but after getting used to the Graf pattern, everything else feels incredibly restrictive.

[ginjaninja 19]

I'm real excited for these. Hope to see some of the new line soon.

[krisdrum 233]

52 minutes ago, flip12 said:

How do you lace your Grafs? I've noticed a lot of people try to crank on the top eyelet to get it to snug up to the ankle, but the secret to a lot of Graf's classic skates was to keep the top eyelet wider and stiffer with added structure, to allow full ankle rotation. On top of the extra stiffness they had a little extra space between the second from the top eyelet to the top, essentially enforcing the skip-the-2nd-eyelet lacing pattern (used by Crosby for example). It's a different approach, but it can feel amazing once you get used to it. For me it helped to focus on snugging up the boot in the forefoot and above the talus, roughly around the third eyelet from the top. The rest was less essential than those two areas. Just something to try that might help.

I've thought about the difference between Graf's eyelet pattern and low cut and the 70K. I'd like to try the 70K before tinkering with that, but after getting used to the Graf pattern, everything else feels incredibly restrictive.

Thanks, don't want to get too off topic, but I will give the "Crosby" a try and maybe not go so tight on the top eyelet of the Grafs.  I will say most of the boot fits like a glove, so I know the potential is there for top performance. 

[freeflyer14 11]

Why did the ditch the lacelocks???  My single favorite feature of my 20k's....  I love the ability to keep the lower part of the skate tight and the upper portion extremely loose.  Time to start stocking up on replacements to add to my next pair of skates...

[Haggerty 144]

On 4/15/2017 at 1:00 AM, Cosmic said:

No pump = 75 grams less in each skate.

 

 

Look at that bro on the left  @IW Team - Chase

[tpedersen3118 58]

Do these have the narrower toe cap like the Tacks do? I'm in a Supreme 190 EE and tried the EE Ultra Tacks with no luck b/c of that toe cap.

[Cosmic 178]

On 4/20/2017 at 1:43 AM, tpedersen3118 said:

Do these have the narrower toe cap like the Tacks do? I'm in a Supreme 190 EE and tried the EE Ultra Tacks with no luck b/c of that toe cap.

check out 6:36- not sure if that answers your question (I cannot really tell):

 

[rawkstar 45]

These look great, best looking skate ccm has made recently. Curious about the fit and if the whole "flexible construction" actually works or if its all just marketing. I guess it makes sense to pick the narrowest boot and make it so it stretches to fit? Maybe?

Wonder how the heel works, like the heel size and shape is usually a pre determined part of the skate thats pretty rigid, it either works for you or it doesn't. 

[Indo16 1]

Has anyone heard about when these are supposed to come out? When these videos were initially released they said July 21st. I've checked with local and online shops and they said CCM hasn't informed them of a release date yet. I reached out to CCM and they were pretty vague and just said later this summer. I wonder why there's a delay.

[steve66 45]

6 hours ago, Indo16 said:

Has anyone heard about when these are supposed to come out? When these videos were initially released they said July 21st. I've checked with local and online shops and they said CCM hasn't informed them of a release date yet. I reached out to CCM and they were pretty vague and just said later this summer. I wonder why there's a delay.

They come out this Friday (June 30th) in the UK. Really excited for these skates! When we were presented these skates at the same time as the FT1, the 70K stole the show for me.

[krisdrum 233]

I heard late July early August from my LHS a few months back.  Not sure if they are still on schedule for that delivery date in the US.

[swede 49]

The ribcor 70k has been out for like a month now here in Sweden.. but only at a few selected retailers (not monkey and greatskate because of their american connection)

Edited June 30, 2017 by swede
Spelling, english is not my native language

[flip12 715]

3 hours ago, swede said:

The ribcor 70k has been out for like a month now here in Sweden.. but only at a few selected retailers (not monkey and greatskate because of their american connection)

Are there any online retailers that show them? I'm curious about the pricing of the 68K. Looks like it lines up with the JetSpeed 370 at $300 according to the pricing on a UK retailer I found yesterday. If that's the case, I'm twice as keen on trying these as I was before. It's great what technology you can get for $300 these days. Back in the 90's, that was almost a top of the line skate and it is again, only with a few of the extra bells and whistles and bling excluded.

[swede 49]

9 hours ago, flip12 said:

Are there any online retailers that show them? I'm curious about the pricing of the 68K. Looks like it lines up with the JetSpeed 370 at $300 according to the pricing on a UK retailer I found yesterday. If that's the case, I'm twice as keen on trying these as I was before. It's great what technology you can get for $300 these days. Back in the 90's, that was almost a top of the line skate and it is again, only with a few of the extra bells and whistles and bling excluded.

68K not available yet, only 70K and 64K available at the moment. The 68 and 66K will be available in August when beer league season starts 😄

Lannasport.se and tinghockey.com are two online retailers.

Edited June 30, 2017 by swede

[JR Boucicaut 3802]

US launch is now August 12. 

[Rockingsquat 4]

I thought I'd post my review of these on here.

I've been skating in them for almost 2 months now.

 

LOOK

By far the best looking skates around, all brands are dying one after another now a day. Bauer appears to be making skates for teenager-only with ridiculous colour and styling. True skates are ugly as S…

Here is a classic black boot with a white holder. Only let down by the hideous black steel. Though I have to say it looks much better in person, just like vintage school black board. It gets scuffed up in no time and then just look horrid.
I would not change for step, as the stock steel is very short, and slapping some heavy/tall aftermarkers on them will make them bottom heavy. Unless you want to shave half of the steel off.
The stock steel comes with a radius of 9 ! They sharpen extremely well, which lead me to believe the exterior black coating is purely cosmetic. Good point, CCM blade are cheap to replace.
The holder SB4.0 sounds fruity and unique, and is well stiff. It has a superb finish.

FEATURES
It’s simple there’s nothing new. It’s all old and approved tech. If anything they have removed some (no lace lock and pump). No 3D construction, no one piece boot.
One thing I have never saw before on a top end skates is the carbon outsole is actually fake carbon paint…
The construction is as traditional as it gets.
I have to say for a boot made oversee, the quality is almost identical to “custom” made in canada items. The stitching is clean, and adjustment of the different elements is well executed. Same goes for the alignment of the holder with the outsole. Overall it’s not 100% perfect but much much improved compared to what we used to see few years ago.
Only down side, is the inner lining is not full clarino, but instead some cheap cloth-looking fabric that is unsurprisingly not be durable. Mine is already half worn out, but I do skates almost every day. It reminds me of what mission used in its entry level skates in the 2000s. It dries fast, but it’s absolutely not a hard wearing material, and it has nothing to do in a skate.
They weight around 800g each in size 8D. 1x and 1s are noticeably lighter.

FIT
Strange. CCM removes the pump and replace them with 2 fat thermoforming pads on each side of your ankle and hope for the best. There’s no direction or proposed fit here, it will not fit like a vapour or a supreme. The volume and toe cap is not as big as a supreme 190 or 1s.
Be aware that with only 2 minutes @ 220deg as recommended by ccm in the oven, it did not seem enough.
The boot become significantly bigger once these are completely broken in. I found the boot kept giving me more volume after the 3-4 skates. The ankle pads are so prominent, and not pre-shaped it’s very hard to get any heel lock pre-baking. It is the kind of skate you initially need “to small” and they will just expand around your ankle and lock your heel as you break them in.
I think they may be quite challenging to fit for retailers.
If you want to go the custom route, it’s only 150-100 on top of the retail price and apparently only takes 2 weeks.
The insole is basic and offers no arch support at, if you are used to superfeet, they will fit nicely in without changing the boot volume too much.

PERFORMANCE
The inside is soft, the boot is very forgiving and flex nicely (wondering why they fitted some small abrasion pads at the neck, you don't need them here) but somehow the rigidity of the ankle piece associated with stiff holder works very well, the skate is very responsive for that level of flexibility.
You won’t get the feel of very stiff/very light skates from top end supreme/1x/jetspeeds that makes you fly between strides, where you can barely feel the skates and feel your foot is in direct contact with the ice.
The feeling on the ice is very close to the graf 7xx series, I find.
i do feel they make me work harder, probably because they are nowhere as stiff as other top end models, but it’s a real pleasure to skate with them. If you’re a technician/danser and love to take 4 steps in 4foot square you will love them.

CONCLUSION
A great looking skates that feels like good old vintage skates. If you’re still in your old supreme 5000 or micron 90-10 but want something with updated material and stiffer without compromising comfort and flex. go for it.
They are easy to skate with. They sharpened well. They look great.

[Haggerty 144]

On 7/15/2017 at 0:58 AM, Rockingsquat said:

I thought I'd post my review of these on here.

I've been skating in them for almost 2 months now.

 

LOOK

......

Please post this in the proper section : http://modsquadhockey.com/forums/index.php?/forum/18-skates/

[yipperzz 28]

Hmm...the weight difference between my SB 4.0 and Step runner is 6 grams. I don't consider that very heavy.

[Davideo 99]

Anyone know how the width is in the forefoot?

[hollowicked 39]

any other feedback on these skates?

[stick9 892]

@hollowicked I tried them on at WF earlier this month. I liked them so much I tired them again at a local shop when I got home. Super comfortable. The new ankle packs are a thing of beauty. The CCM rep at WF called them the coaches skate due to the level of comfort.

Fit wise, they had a little bit more volume than the 1X. The forefoot and toe box were a touch wider. Heels were about the same. That was out of the box, no heating.

I ended up with the 1X, but I really liked the 70k. 

Edited December 23, 2017 by stick9

[chippa13 1844]

Strangely, I found the new K line gave me better volume and forefoot room than the Tacks line.

[FlyChicaga 21]

I went to 70k from 1X (2015 and 2017). I was using the 66k for a couple months until I could find the 70k a bit cheaper. I love these skates. My feet and toes do not hurt after games now. Very good heel lock and I get no issues with pressure or lace bite anywhere on the skate. I have thin ankles and heel with a wider forefoot and large toes. These skates have done wonders for me.

I play D, and I have great balance and maneuverability skating backward, and feel more balanced in front of the net.

If you can fit into these I highly recommend them. Caveat is I'm 36 years old now and my tolerance for foot pain skating is low, so I really dig the comfort level of these skates.

[itslunchtime 17]

On 12/24/2017 at 1:07 AM, FlyChicaga said:

I went to 70k from 1X (2015 and 2017)

Same size across both brands ?
I am a 8.5 wide in Supremes, not sure what size to try in these 

[FlyChicaga 21]

13 hours ago, itslunchtime said:

Same size across both brands ?
I am a 8.5 wide in Supremes, not sure what size to try in these 

Yeah, I was 8.5D in both.