TGN CCM Axis Review

[TheGoalNet]

 

[mr_shifty1982]

@TheGoalNet @BadAngle41 need some input on the strapping for the Axis as I find my 5hole closure not being 100%, how did you strap these on? I'm coming from the P2 and just loved the seal on those, I find the pad to move a little too much. Is it that my strapping isn't tight enough? I do like to strap below the knee, should that portion be tighter? I have stock pad. 

Any input is helpful thanks, nice review. 

[BadAngle41]

On 2/26/2021 at 10:29 AM, mr_shifty1982 said:

@TheGoalNet @BadAngle41 need some input on the strapping for the Axis as I find my 5hole closure not being 100%, how did you strap these on? I'm coming from the P2 and just loved the seal on those, I find the pad to move a little too much. Is it that my strapping isn't tight enough? I do like to strap below the knee, should that portion be tighter? I have stock pad. 

Any input is helpful thanks, nice review. 

When you say it's moving too much do you mean that the pad comes off the ice and you lose seal when making movements? Or do you mean moves too much like rotationally?

To me the key is dialing in QMSS. The excessive amount of adjustability (and I know that sounds crazy) makes it more difficult to dial in than if it was simply a doubled up short elastic (which would be my preference if it was offered.) I get that you need some flex there to allow your leg to apply pressure to the calf plate sliding surface... and maybe doubling up the elastic would act more like a suspender... I dunno. Personally I think the QMSS has WAY too much elastic and too much adjustability. Trial and error got me to essentially wear the QMSS pretty tight... in fact I removed several inches of elastic to take out some of what was simply excess. I ended up having to loop the elastic back through the slider to keep the elastic from loosening up. But I feel like you can keep most everything else pretty loose for ration... but have QMSS tight for responsiveness. QMSS sits right on my calf with the knee elastic going down to the calf wrap (wear Bauer knee sleeves & Bauer knee guards) somewhat loose. The strap to the calf plate is kept roughly where it came from at the factory... pretty loose. Where I start "cheating" is when i clicked two options in the customizer... I opted for the lower strap and a boot strap. 

The lower strap helps my shin still feel connected to the face of the pad... and the boot strap lets me keep most of the pad loose without coming off the knee stack. In fact I had to bring the boot strap in 2 notches when I changed from 2X Pro skates to the Graf XSG holder. Went under the heel of the 2X Pro... but the XSG holder's holes are set up very different so I go 2 notches tighter under the arch of the foot. Lastly... ProLaces Armor Hybrid with 1.5" slack... just the right amount of snap back when getting up... but no pulling on my toes.

Overall:

QMSS: When empty white binding overlapping looped attachment. Has gap between the two padded pieces of about 1.5" to 2" when strapped to my leg. 

QMSS: Just enough elastic between the D-ring and the white binding for the slide.

QMSS: Pulling elastic back through the slide.

Strap & Lower Strap:

Boot Strap: Under arch of foot on 4th notch.

ProLaces Armor Hybrid: 1.5" slack

QMSS: Original Elastic Length

[Chenner29]

2 hours ago, BadAngle41 said:

When you say it's moving too much do you mean that the pad comes off the ice and you lose seal when making movements? Or do you mean moves too much like rotationally?

To me the key is dialing in QMSS. The excessive amount of adjustability (and I know that sounds crazy) makes it more difficult to dial in than if it was simply a doubled up short elastic (which would be my preference if it was offered.) I get that you need some flex there to allow your leg to apply pressure to the calf plate sliding surface... and maybe doubling up the elastic would act more like a suspender... I dunno. Personally I think the QMSS has WAY too much elastic and too much adjustability. Trial and error got me to essentially wear the QMSS pretty tight... in fact I removed several inches of elastic to take out some of what was simply excess. I ended up having to loop the elastic back through the slider to keep the elastic from loosening up. But I feel like you can keep most everything else pretty loose for ration... but have QMSS tight for responsiveness. QMSS sits right on my calf with the knee elastic going down to the calf wrap (wear Bauer knee sleeves & Bauer knee guards) somewhat loose. The strap to the calf plate is kept roughly where it came from at the factory... pretty loose. Where I start "cheating" is when i clicked two options in the customizer... I opted for the lower strap and a boot strap. 

The lower strap helps my shin still feel connected to the face of the pad... and the boot strap lets me keep most of the pad loose without coming off the knee stack. In fact I had to bring the boot strap in 2 notches when I changed from 2X Pro skates to the Graf XSG holder. Went under the heel of the 2X Pro... but the XSG holder's holes are set up very different so I go 2 notches tighter under the arch of the foot. Lastly... ProLaces Armor Hybrid with 1.5" slack... just the right amount of snap back when getting up... but no pulling on my toes.

I just remembered I was supposed to measure the length of the QMSS off my old EF4 for you....3 months ago.  Sorry

[mr_shifty1982]

2 hours ago, BadAngle41 said:

When you say it's moving too much do you mean that the pad comes off the ice and you lose seal when making movements? Or do you mean moves too much like rotationally?

To me the key is dialing in QMSS. The excessive amount of adjustability (and I know that sounds crazy) makes it more difficult to dial in than if it was simply a doubled up short elastic (which would be my preference if it was offered.) I get that you need some flex there to allow your leg to apply pressure to the calf plate sliding surface... and maybe doubling up the elastic would act more like a suspender... I dunno. Personally I think the QMSS has WAY too much elastic and too much adjustability. Trial and error got me to essentially wear the QMSS pretty tight... in fact I removed several inches of elastic to take out some of what was simply excess. I ended up having to loop the elastic back through the slider to keep the elastic from loosening up. But I feel like you can keep most everything else pretty loose for ration... but have QMSS tight for responsiveness. QMSS sits right on my calf with the knee elastic going down to the calf wrap (wear Bauer knee sleeves & Bauer knee guards) somewhat loose. The strap to the calf plate is kept roughly where it came from at the factory... pretty loose. Where I start "cheating" is when i clicked two options in the customizer... I opted for the lower strap and a boot strap. 

The lower strap helps my shin still feel connected to the face of the pad... and the boot strap lets me keep most of the pad loose without coming off the knee stack. In fact I had to bring the boot strap in 2 notches when I changed from 2X Pro skates to the Graf XSG holder. Went under the heel of the 2X Pro... but the XSG holder's holes are set up very different so I go 2 notches tighter under the arch of the foot. Lastly... ProLaces Armor Hybrid with 1.5" slack... just the right amount of snap back when getting up... but no pulling on my toes.

 

 

Thanks for this,

I just notice that my closure of the 5hole isn't as good as lets say my P2 when I wore the pad relatively loose.  Your QMSS is very tight, I think that's my main issue, I will try to get it on tighter tonight, I just hope that it doesn't hinder with movement.

[TheGoalNet]

Just now, mr_shifty1982 said:

Thanks for this,

I just notice that my closure of the 5hole isn't as good as lets say my P2 when I wore the pad relatively loose.  Your QMSS is very tight, I think that's my main issue, I will try to get it on tighter tonight, I just hope that it doesn't hinder with movement.

@BadAngle41 saved me a lot of typing, we have chatted about this before

QMSS is too adjustable now in my opinion vs P2, but it still works well on Axis

[mr_shifty1982]

1 minute ago, TheGoalNet said:

@BadAngle41 saved me a lot of typing, we have chatted about this before

QMSS is too adjustable now in my opinion vs P2, but it still works well on Axis

Waaaay too adjustable, over exaggerating but a leg of an elephant can fit that lol

[BadAngle41]

1 minute ago, mr_shifty1982 said:

Waaaay too adjustable, over exaggerating but a leg of an elephant can fit that lol

Agreed... and it almost made me question if I was doing something wrong or not at first. Sometimes less is more... and when you have more... it's just more to go wrong. Hope the trial with tighter QMSS goes well tonight!

[ULTIMA]

I'v heard multiple outlets on the sliding material of CCM's Speedskin and that it sticks to the ice or has more resistance vs. the competitors. WHat say you @TheGoalNet ?

[Charlie T]

8 hours ago, BadAngle41 said:

To me the key is dialing in QMSS. The excessive amount of adjustability (and I know that sounds crazy) makes it more difficult to dial in than if it was simply a doubled up short elastic (which would be my preference if it was offered.)

By doubled up short elastic did you mean similar to the "super tight fit" option on the eflex customizer where there is no QMSS its just 2 elastic straps brought tighter to the leg?

[TheGoalNet]

11 hours ago, ULTIMA said:

I'v heard multiple outlets on the sliding material of CCM's Speedskin and that it sticks to the ice or has more resistance vs. the competitors. WHat say you @TheGoalNet ?

Touched on this in the video

1. It's not isolated to the speed skin. Speed Skin works significantly better on Axis compared to P2 or EF4. The stiffness and shape  of the materials under the material matter

2. Speed Skin is great on clean smooth ice. It does snow down on bad ice. The only brand that does not have this effect is Brian's.

3. In Axis though, the diminishing slide performance does not "stick". With EF4, I could see people saying they "stick".

[BadAngle41]

10 hours ago, Charlie T said:

By doubled up short elastic did you mean similar to the "super tight fit" option on the eflex customizer where there is no QMSS its just 2 elastic straps brought tighter to the leg?

Great question... I hadn't even looked at the EFlex line customizer for comparison. Seeing it now I'd say no. Not looking for a tighter leg channel or the additional buckled calf straps... more just the elastic itself on the QMSS doubled up. Ironically... more like the QMSS close up in the EFlex Super Tight Fit QMSS... fixed length elastic sewn in to a Y strap. Although I'd question that that is what is actually provided if that spec were selected given the standard EFlex QMSS shows the same thing but is actually more like the Axis difference being where the slider is located. Granted that alone may have given me the additional tension I was looking for (and probably something I could have tried prior to cutting off the excess elastic) but simple sewn into Y strap would have worked for me or something like what is found on Premier II. Only having the elastic sewn in for one end of the elastic just provides more give that I like. I do understand the desire to include more adjustability at retail though (custom spec or off the shelf.)

@TheGoalNet @mr_shifty1982... perhaps this answers why the elastic provided on Axis is so long... so you could move the slider to the EFlex 4 location? I dunno but seems like it would make sense as to why there is so much additional length.

EFlex Super Tight visuals from CCM Customerizer:

QMSS Comparison:

Probably not a coincidence that what I'm looking for is very similar to the setup I had when I modified my EFs... detailed below. Come to think of it... Axis just about sums up what I've wanted in a pad for a while. While I wear them relatively loose overall... I get the feel of EFs from the strapping and soft boot break with the performance benefits of stiffer pad like big rebounds etc. Not a shocking revelation by any means... given almost all pads are going to this setup (at least as custom options) generally speaking. But the pad is super playable to about anyone I'd say... and maybe that's why it doesn't get as much love as it should... the most vocal people love to be dug into either the soft pad or stiff pad camps and this is a happy medium.