Lefevre 20.1 First Thoughts & Living Review

[Chenner29]

These arrived this past Friday.  It looks like a few folks on the board have put their orders through with Lefevre, but I thought I'd put a couple words together to talk about the gear.  I am also working with @BadAngle41 on doing a compare/contrast, along with Eflex 4.

The CCM/Lefevre split was announced in late 2019, and by January Lefevre had started to put out promotional material on their social media advertising their new lines.  The 20.1 really caught my eye as something that blends their Premier and Extreme Flex style pads, along with some new tech. 

I've only skated in them once, so this first write up will be a broad level overview with pictures to start. 

I'm hoping I have the time to dive in later to dig in on some of the features.  I'll block out some space beneath to make my train of thought easier to follow.

Glove

I specced a 580 break, and I wanted the first picture I share to show why I think so many people peg it as a very natural glove to catch with. 
Here I've got my hand at 3 o'clock and the T is pointing almost straight up, as if my fingers were at 1 o'clock.  Great for positioning over a rising shot.  When you're in a blocking butterfly with arms tight, the T actually kicks out horizontally when your fingers are facing 6 o'clock.  IIRC, this break was initially released as the Koho 560 in 1998, so it's old enough to buy alcohol and cigarettes now.  Despite being over 20 years old, IMO it's the best designed glove for the modern game.

It looks and feels like they re-shaped the thumb angle.  It dips a little more dramatically.

Backhand shot.  They reworked the back protection and the cuff.  There's a bit more room at the cuff to angle the glove forward now.

Side shot here, you can see the floating cuff (where your hand goes in) actually comes off pretty aggressively away from the blocking cuff now.
You can also see they eliminated the finger loops and replaced them for these velcro adjustable tabs to tweak your thumb and pinky finger positioning inside the glove.

Inside.  Not much has changed here boys.

Blocker

I specced the 595 upon recommendation from Lefevre.  They didn't really explain what the 605 was.  I pulled up the customizer just now, and it looks like you can't even order the 605 anymore.

Board is nice and solid.

I'm a big fan of the straightened out finger protection.

Biggest change this year was the cuff. The half piece cuff opens up quite a bit (see right).  Plenty of flex and room for play as I had it configured on the left, though.  I also think they moved the wrist strap a little more down towards the hand to help grant more mobility here.

Pads

The graphic is a little meh and the logo placement leave a bit to be desired.  But it's workable.

I specced their new sliding material ("Fastglide") on the inner edge.  I'd say it's faster than Speedskin, but not as fast as CORTech.

Side profile.  I miss the days of stitched on logos, don't like the look of the fully embroidered logo. 
They thinned it out the pad a lot on the outer edge, but the boot is still chubby (more on this later).

Opened up leg channel

Calf wedge side of the leg channel.  There's a small soft pillow here.  You can really feel the pad seal the ice at the calf with these on.
I specced for a red FRS channel and velcro straps.  They agreed to do it, but only got the velcro straps correct. Not too stressed about it.

Backside of boot.  It's totally flat, so the pads sit higher than expected.  I put in for a 33+1.5 but I could realistically have done 33+1.
I highly recommend the ProLace Hybrids as the extra slack lets you point your toes a little better.

Top view, you can see how the pad gets thicker as it gets to the left (landing side).  There's a hefty, dense chunk of foam on the landing side, presumably for stability in the butterfly.

Small gripe here.  I'm kind of disappointed they didn't find a way to thin out the boot. It's pretty girthy, and I don't know if a modern pad needs that much stability in the boot.

[Chenner29]

Rolling train of thought updates.  I'll continue to edit this throughout the review period.  Having it here grants me easy updates through mobile.  Almost like a Facebook status for my thoughts on the gear

Quote

8/15

Pads sit very high.  Could have gone shorter.  Shin length seemed fine, overall height maybe not.  Need to dial in strapping, not sure if I should be cranking down on the FRS or letting it hang.

Very much a Premier feeling pad vs Eflex.  Not sure how to explain it, but those who have worn both Premier and Eflex will know - the ice seal in butterfly just feels better in Premier.

Usually I hate breaking in blockers, but this felt pretty good from the get go.

Some rubbing/abrasian on the knuckles on the back of the glove.

Quote

8/18

Fastglide great on fresh ice.  Jury's still out re: performance on choppy ice.

New blocker cuff feels great.  Tons of flexibility in all directions.

Felt my FRS jamming into the top of my skate on a few plays.

Quote

8/19 & 8/20

I don't think I've skated 5 times in a week since I was 18.
Looseneed up the FRS and calf strap, sliding has improved a bit.  Trying ice at a different facility tomorrow, may have just been the one I was at.

Took a couple bombs off the break in the palm.  Made me miss D30 a bit.

 

 

[Chenner29]

[Blocked] Review 1 (30 days)

(I'll add pics later, I promise - it's late but I want to put my thoughts in tonight)

Gotta beat @BadAngle41 to the punch...Lefevre users are punctual and deliver as promised.

I've been putting in 4-5 skates a week with these things for the past month and feel like I've kind of dialed them in.  I have them for sale currently, and another set on order (going from a 33+1.5 to a 32+2.5), but may actually hold on to them and put them into a rotation when the new set comes in. 

RE: FRS.

There is definitely an adjustment period with the FRS.  It's funny, when you look back at the old Koho by Lefevre designs, you had a minimal leg channel.  Now with the FRS, it's gotten a bit busier.  I've found that if you set up the FRS wrong, it will hinder rotation a bit - you need to keep tweaking it to get to a good place.  I ended up drilling extra holes into the toe bridge towards the inside and adding extra slack to the toe lace to accommodate, as I have pretty restricted hip mobility.

I found my sweet spot on the FRS to be the middle "rib" on the top calf strap, and the loosest possible setting on the bottom strap.

RE: Fastglide. 

I honestly had a lot of beef with Fastglide when I first started skating in these.

Fastglide plays incredibly well on a fresh sheet, to the point where it almost feels too fast - on the flip side, it seemed to play very poorly at the end of a session.   It's summertime, and I'm in SoCal.  There's very few rinks open with Covid going on, and the one that I've been skating in the most has very choppy ice.  It almost felt like I was trying to slide on roller hockey Sportcourt at the end of my sessions.

However, I made some adjustments with the toe and FRS, and it seems to have evened out these last two or three skates.  I'll keep putting more time in them and report back on this - I have two more skates this week.  I am starting to believe it was a rotational issue that was inhibiting the slide.

Overall

Outside of the Fastglide and rotation issues (which might be fixed?) I am really loving the gear (obviously, I ordered a second set).   It's a joy to take shots off the pads in the butterfly as rebounds are very predictable, and the squareness, seal and consistent feel in the butterfly are unreal.  The wrist mobility in both the glove and blocker have been welcome improvements - it is much easier to present the whole piece of equipment to the shot.

[Chenner29]

[Blocked] Review 2 (60 days)

[Chenner29]

What to cover next in future installments

• Fastglide v Speedskin
• Glove thumb shape comparison (20.1 v EF4)
• ???

Ask questions if you have them.

[coopaloop1234]

I wonder if the added material on the "landing side" of the pad is the continuation of the CCM design where they put more weight on that side in order to help with pad snap/seal?

[TheGoalNet]

Any skates yet? If yes, any initial thoughts besides "faster than speed skin, slower than CORtech"?

[Chenner29]

On 8/18/2020 at 10:04 AM, coopaloop1234 said:

I wonder if the added material on the "landing side" of the pad is the continuation of the CCM design where they put more weight on that side in order to help with pad snap/seal?

Good point; I do feel them hang off the leg a bit as I’m mid-drop. 

On 8/18/2020 at 1:53 PM, TheGoalNet said:

Any skates yet? If yes, any initial thoughts besides "faster than speed skin, slower than CORtech"?

Got three more lined up this week, one pickup tonight and one tomorrow. Target practice on Saturday 

[EB99]

What was the wait time for your order? And Did you happen to use the order tracker on the website? If so was it accurate? I placed an order about 11 weeks ago and it hasn't been updated from the “processed” stage and im starting to get impatient lol.   

[Chenner29]

37 minutes ago, EB99 said:

What was the wait time for your order? And Did you happen to use the order tracker on the website? If so was it accurate? I placed an order about 11 weeks ago and it hasn't been updated from the “processed” stage and im starting to get impatient lol.   

Weird story about the order.  So I placed my initial order direct through Lefevre in March/April in US Dollars.  I found out a week later that ordering in CAD would save me a ton of money.  Lefevre wouldn't re-bill me in CAD so I placed my order through a Canadian retailer, saving me almost $500.

Order went through with the retailer on May 18th after Lefevre reopened after Covid.  Retailer got them on 8/7, so about 11/12 weeks.  I didn't use the website tracker.

[Yzueblin]

7 hours ago, TheGoalNet said:

Any skates yet? If yes, any initial thoughts besides "faster than speed skin, slower than CORtech"?

CORtech and primo slide better , I didn’t notice any difference between speedskin and the material Lefèvre use when used to test it 

 

 

[Teezle]

5 hours ago, EB99 said:

What was the wait time for your order? And Did you happen to use the order tracker on the website? If so was it accurate? I placed an order about 11 weeks ago and it hasn't been updated from the “processed” stage and im starting to get impatient lol.   

Whoever runs the Lefevre Instagram account told me last Thursday that the current lead time for an L20.1 full set order was 10 weeks.

[Yzueblin]

10 hours ago, Teezle said:

Whoever runs the Lefevre Instagram account told me last Thursday that the current lead time for an L20.1 full set order was 10 weeks.

weird because my friend wanted to order a set 3 week ago and lefevre said to him 16 weeks , he decide to go with someone else 

[mr_shifty1982]

5 minutes ago, Yzueblin said:

weird because my friend wanted to order a set 3 week ago and lefevre said to him 16 weeks , he decide to go with someone else 

Looks like they don't have the man power to mass-produce and obviously at this time would rather cater to the pros. Not very smart in my view. Anything 12 weeks and over is a little much. I understand the craftsmanship but still.   

[EB99]

8 hours ago, Yzueblin said:

weird because my friend wanted to order a set 3 week ago and lefevre said to him 16 weeks , he decide to go with someone else 

Wow 16 weeks seems like a long time. they shut down for a few weeks and that might have been why the wait time was so long. Nobody ive talked to recently has said anything over 12, I just hope my set is finish soon

[creasecollector]

Great looking set!

[Chenner29]

Weights (and vs EF4):

Pads
Lefevre 20.1 (33+1.5, 2 leather straps): 4 lb 7.4 oz
EF4 (33+2, 2 plastic straps): 5 lb 1.2 oz

Glove
Lefevre 20.1 (double tee, leather wrist strap): 2 lb 3.7 oz
EF4 (double tee, leather wrist strap): 2 lb 9.6 oz

Blocker
Lefevre 20.1: 1 lb 15.3 oz
EF4: 2 lb 0.2 oz

[cuprajake]

Its still heavy gear then isnt it, but suppose if its balanced you wont feel it wearing it. 

Be interesting to see if they rotate correctly for you, as quite a few ive seen have an issue with under rotation. 

[ThatCarGuy]

1 hour ago, cuprajake said:

Be interesting to see if they rotate correctly for you, as quite a few ive seen have an issue with under rotation. 

I think people are strapping them incorrectly. Tight feeling doesn’t always mean tight elastic. Looking at the FRS it looks to me like you want it a little looser than snug so it can rotate easily. The FRS provides plenty of support on its own due to the nature and shape of the system. I imagine it as I much smaller and tighter version of warriors calf wrap

[Chenner29]

On 8/23/2020 at 7:38 AM, cuprajake said:

Its still heavy gear then isnt it, but suppose if its balanced you wont feel it wearing it. 

Be interesting to see if they rotate correctly for you, as quite a few ive seen have an issue with under rotation. 

You're still on the weight train?

I'll add @BadAngle41's Bauer 2x and Axis weights in here so you can compare.  Winners are in green italics.
Would love to put Warriors up here as well.

Pads
Lefevre 20.1 (33+1.5, 2 leather straps): 4 lb 7.4 oz
EF4 (33+2, 2 plastic straps): 5 lb 1.2 oz
2X Pro (no boot strap): 4 lb 9.6 oz
Axis (33+1): 4 lb 8.9 oz

Glove
Lefevre 20.1 (double tee, leather wrist strap): 2 lb 3.7 oz
EF4 (double tee, leather wrist strap): 2 lb 9.6 oz
2x Pro: 2 lb 6.7 oz
Axis (w/D3O): 2 lb 8.9 oz

Blocker
Lefevre 20.1: 1 lb 15.3 oz
EF4: 2 lb 0.2 oz
2X Pro: 2 lb 2 oz
Axis (one piece cuff): 1 lb 14.1 oz

On 8/23/2020 at 8:53 AM, ThatCarGuy said:

I think people are strapping them incorrectly. Tight feeling doesn’t always mean tight elastic. Looking at the FRS it looks to me like you want it a little looser than snug so it can rotate easily. The FRS provides plenty of support on its own due to the nature and shape of the system. I imagine it as I much smaller and tighter version of warriors calf wrap

As far as rotation goes, yes - I have had more success getting the pad to rotate with loose FRS. 

Sliding has improved as I've strapped the FRS looser.

[cuprajake]

slow down cowboy,

you weighed them....

and yes weight matters, i mentioned it as most the ccm stuff ive ever owned and tried has been heavy, yes i know its no longer ccm

my new glove with skate lace pocket weighs 1.95lbs and the blocker stock is 1.88lbs

[ThatCarGuy]

The weight differences are so minimal in modern equipment anything is good to wear if you just went off of weight and nothing important like flex or strapping 

[Chenner29]

On 8/24/2020 at 5:52 AM, cuprajake said:

slow down cowboy,

you weighed them....

and yes weight matters, i mentioned it as most the ccm stuff ive ever owned and tried has been heavy, yes i know its no longer ccm

my new glove with skate lace pocket weighs 1.95lbs and the blocker stock is 1.88lbs

So translated to pounds and ounces, glove is 1 lb 15.2 ish oz, blocker is about 1 lb 14.08 oz.

Are they pro or senior?  Going through your post history, someone is mentioning you got non-pro, intermediate level gear, and we're trying to compare apples to apples here...

[cuprajake]

Sorry i work in grams not lbs 8 just google converted 

The glove was 886g and blocker 855g

These are snr level yes, not the pro version. Couldnt warrent it 

Jeez this forum 

[BadAngle41]

8 minutes ago, cuprajake said:

Sorry i work in grams not lbs 8 just google converted 

The glove was 886g and blocker 855g

These are snr level yes, not the pro version. Couldnt warrent it 

Jeez this forum 

I'm a little confused on your last comment. We're just trying to get apples to apples comparisons out. In this case we're more like an apples to pears now knowing your gear is Senior model. Great to know still... just not a direct comparable.