Bauer Professor Strap

[RedX]

My quest for a consistent strapping for the Bauer set up goes back to the 1X. I found that wearing the Tune Fit around the top of my calf to be a near perfect strap set up. (Weirdly, the Updated Axis 2 seems to be exactly what I would be looking for).

 

As I said….Near perfect.

 

The elastic on the 1X and 2X that I wore would for the most part stay where desired, but every now and then slip off my calf while playing. For the Ultra Sonic  I did have to add more Velcro on the outer calf wrap as it took away the option of velcroing as high as I desired. 

When the Professor strap started to become popular and an option on the Bauer I thought that would keep the consistent feel that. I am not sure why Bauer didn’t design something closer to what their Pro Goalies actually looked like if you seen a Pro Return set you can see the difference. 

I switched out the Stock Professor strap and inserted the CRS Boot strap for my first mod.

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by RedX

[RedX]

I intended to use the CRS style strap going forward. That is until I seen the Mach strapping which caught my eye.

 

The Mach strapping can be bought separately so I thought I would be able to install it onto a pair of Ultra Sonics.  For those of you in the same boat, the strapping system can be added fairly easily. I went through the professor strap loop and the lower Mach Velcro looped through the traditional Tune Fit slit.

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by RedX

[Punisher Goalie]

Great idea. I'm going to try this on my Ultrasonics too. I also have been using the CRS strap as high and tight as I can get it on my calf, but find that sometimes it slips out of place. This could work as a fix while maintaining the same connected feel at that point I'm looking for. 

[tgfoo]

16 hours ago, RedX said:

The Mach strapping can be bought separately so I thought I would be able to install it onto a pair of Ultra Sonics.  For those of you in the same boat, the strapping system can be added fairly easily. I went through the professor strap loop and the lower Mach Velcro looped through the traditional Tune Fit slit.

Woah, that's awesome. Where did you pick yours up? I'd like to try one out.

Edit: Of course, I should have looked before I asked, looks like most of the normal retailers have them in stock.

Edited June 2, 2022 by tgfoo

[RedX]

6 hours ago, tgfoo said:

Woah, that's awesome. Where did you pick yours up? I'd like to try one out.

Edit: Of course, I should have looked before I asked, looks like most of the normal retailers have them in stock.

Yeah I picked mine up from Hockey Monkey Canada. 

[tgfoo]

So I received my TuneFit+ Strap and initially set itnup the same way that RedX did. 
 

Did some carpetflies, adjusted the strapping, but was never fully satisfied with it compared to a professor strap. I also didn’t like how it took up the spot where i like to bring the knee strap down to. Then I looked at how the Mach pad is set up and they have a velcro strap inside the outer flap. 
 

Inspired by this, I tried moving the outer knee flap down to the outer professor strap connector. 


 

I like the way this feels a lot more. I feel like I can get it more snug to the top of my calf without having to crank the tightness of the strap as much. I have a game tomorrow, so I’ll report back how it feels. 

[RedX]

20 hours ago, tgfoo said:

So I received my TuneFit+ Strap and initially set itnup the same way that RedX did. 
 

Did some carpetflies, adjusted the strapping, but was never fully satisfied with it compared to a professor strap. I also didn’t like how it took up the spot where i like to bring the knee strap down to. Then I looked at how the Mach pad is set up and they have a velcro strap inside the outer flap. 
 

Inspired by this, I tried moving the outer knee flap down to the outer professor strap connector. 


 

I like the way this feels a lot more. I feel like I can get it more snug to the top of my calf without having to crank the tightness of the strap as much. I have a game tomorrow, so I’ll report back how it feels. 

That looks great. And please give feedback after a couple skates.

I’ve had a similar idea but am willing to try the Tune Fit Connect as is. I’m not 100% sold on it yet as a upgraded system. Early feedback from others that Tune fit connect was a Bauer version of the Lefebvre FRS system. We’ll see. 

I have yet to see a Pro/Major junior level goalie use this setup despite wearing the Mach graphic pad which worries me a little too. I probably won’t skate for a while and am willing to give a chance. Yet from carpet flys around the house there a strong chance I give up and go back to the CRS boot strap mod. 

Edited June 5, 2022 by RedX

[tgfoo]

A couple observations from my first skate with the Tune-Fit+ strap.

First, these pull the pad up on you leg way more than a professor strap did for me. I had to adjust the straps to make them much looser when I had knee pads on, and with my fat man calves they were still fairly snug and didn’t slip down at all. I’d say the push the thigh rise up a 1/2 -1” up over how I had my professor strap. This is the most snug Ive eve had this pad feel on my leg and I didn’t hate it. Even with how snug they are they still rotated well and pad mostly returned to its position when i got up from a butterfly (a little more of this next).

With the pad being pulled up, the pad pretty much sat off the top of my skate the entire time. I use TNG spec ProLaces and have a decent amount if slack. With the offset toe and how these sit I feel like I need to cut out a lot of slack to get the bottom of the pad to consistently pull back to my skate when I get up. So I’ll make that adjustment for my game next weekend.

My initial impressions are overall positive. The few things I didn’t care for I think I can fix by adjusting some strapping/toe slack. I did put my boot strap back on for todays game. I’m going to take it back off for next game as I don’t thing it had much of impact, either positively or negatively. 

[goalieThreeOne]

I don't want to de-rail the conversation, but after having looked at this thread it looks like some are attaching strapping using the assembly lace inside the leg channel. Previously I used the assembly lace to attach a Keneskey prof strap. Regardless of the setup, have y'all found that the assembly lace starts to stretch out where it's attached? I had to ditch the prof strap because the lace stretching made keeping my strap tight almost impossible.

[tgfoo]

1 hour ago, goalieThreeOne said:

I don't want to de-rail the conversation, but after having looked at this thread it looks like some are attaching strapping using the assembly lace inside the leg channel. Previously I used the assembly lace to attach a Keneskey prof strap. Regardless of the setup, have y'all found that the assembly lace starts to stretch out where it's attached? I had to ditch the prof strap because the lace stretching made keeping my strap tight almost impossible.

I had a Kenesky professor strap attached to my CCM P2s via the assembly lace. It did stretch the lace out a little bit, but I didn’t notice any issues with not being able to get the strap tight enough. My strap was elastic, might be different if it was nylon with no give.

I don’t think it will be an issue with this set up. I think most of the pull from the tune-fit+ will be on the built in professor strap attachment point. It’s something I’ll keep an eye on and note in further updates if it becomes an issue. 

[ArdeFIN]

On 6/2/2022 at 12:52 AM, RedX said:

 

Is the above picture of your pads? They just don't look like really fitting well. Toe straps are being stretched a lot and into a upwards direction? I'm not saying that it is wrong or cannot work but it looks like the setup is stressed in a wrong way or stressed in a situation where there should be no stress on pads. Sure the picture is cut so we can't see what is happening above. 

About the laces in the pad. There is very minimal stretch in that lace and the extra lace is from the professor strap tightening the pads lacing through the whole pad. On Bauer and I think some other brands nowadays are using hidden lacing that leaves the face of the pads laceless. That requires hidden loops that attach to the face material some way and I would avoid making any extra stress to that structure just in case. 

From all that said  I would suggest using any other method than the structural lace of the pad to attach the professor strap. 

[RedX]

5 hours ago, ArdeFIN said:

Is the above picture of your pads? They just don't look like really fitting well. Toe straps are being stretched a lot and into a upwards direction? I'm not saying that it is wrong or cannot work but it looks like the setup is stressed in a wrong way or stressed in a situation where there should be no stress on pads. Sure the picture is cut so we can't see what is happening above. 

About the laces in the pad. There is very minimal stretch in that lace and the extra lace is from the professor strap tightening the pads lacing through the whole pad. On Bauer and I think some other brands nowadays are using hidden lacing that leaves the face of the pads laceless. That requires hidden loops that attach to the face material some way and I would avoid making any extra stress to that structure just in case. 

From all that said  I would suggest using any other method than the structural lace of the pad to attach the professor strap. 

I’m not using the cording to attach the straps. The Bauer’s come with a slot designed for a professor strap that I’m using. 

However this isn’t from the Mach set up either. This is from using the CRS bootstrap instead of the Ultra Sonic professor strap. I am hoping that that the pads sit a little lower with the Mach set up.

[ArdeFIN]

@RedX I didn't point that "lace the strap" writing to you but all readers whatsoever. I quoted you only for that picture of not very naturally sitting pads.

[ser33]

On 6/7/2022 at 10:15 AM, ArdeFIN said:

About the laces in the pad. There is very minimal stretch in that lace and the extra lace is from the professor strap tightening the pads lacing through the whole pad. On Bauer and I think some other brands nowadays are using hidden lacing that leaves the face of the pads laceless. That requires hidden loops that attach to the face material some way and I would avoid making any extra stress to that structure just in case. 

Your fears are valid, at least when it comes to Brians and other pads with a similar design where the cord loops are sewn to the nylon inner lining of the skin. Excessive tension can, if not tear off, at least stretch the loops.

At Bauer, although the loops are glued to the soft foam of the skin’s inner lining, they have a length corresponding to the thickness of the cortex in this place and the cord actually does not have such tension, and its excessive tightening cannot ruin the loops

[tgfoo]

Update - Now that I've had a couple more games with these I'm really liking this set up. I removed as much slack as I could from the TNG spec ProLaces I use which eliminated the feeling that the pads weren't fully rotating back when recovering from the butterfly. They're still pretty snug even after loosening them as much as I could, much more snug than I've ever felt comfortable wearing a pad before, but I don't mind it at all. I feel very connected to the pad but it is still loose in the lower leg which gives me that freedom of movement. Initially I got the Tune Fit+ strap to test them out with the thought that I was possibly going to pick up a custom Mach set, but I'm so happy with how these pads are working for me right now that I think I'm just going to continue rocking them for a while. I did pick up a Mach glove and blocker (both of which are awesome) so I'm feeling pretty satisfied with my gear right now for the first time in a while it feels like. 

[RedX]

My search continued. The Tune Fit plus worked but didn’t quite scratch the itch. so I tried the Vapor Tune fit.
 

The one mod is I kept the CRS boot strap end point as I found the regular one a little too cumbersome. And this is how I’ll finish the year.