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.

[Blocked] Review 2 (60 days)

[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.

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

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.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this. The extra arm shields made it impossible to bend the arms, so they came right out. If you get it, I'd ask for a smaller shield there. The one he gave me covered the entire upper bicep. I'd snap a pic for you, but they're somewhere in my office and I can't find them. I've actually been playing well with my CCM Pro Spec unit so I'm not changing for the time being.

Man, going off some of your posts, you know more about what's going on with "your buddy's" gear than I do about my own

I don't know, I never used 1S or 2S. I demoed 1X pads when they were still new. Never tried the gloves. Finger protection on the US felt a little sloppy, like it would impede the stick.

I didn't like the index finger protection on the blocker

Not really an action photo, but I got to share the same ice surface as Justin Pogge yesterday morning. Super cool dude.

@SaveByRichter35 I told you these things were heavy.

I'll let you know when I get it back and skate in it. I've said it elsewhere in here before but... This was my first new c/a out of a 5 year old Bernier spec P1. I picked up one of the Goalie Crease D30 CCM ABPros shortly before. This felt more like the Bernier P1 after 1 skate than the D30 CCM ABpro.

Got some pics from the factory, thought I'd share: Looks like they've added a hard plastic sleeve, similar to the CCM Pro units, or a player' shin pad. I was also given the option (and accepted) the addition for a stinger pad that sits just under the upper arm protector (on my unit, the rectangular piece in red). And an airbag. They told me Helleybuck has these too.

Update - Mike got the arms, we talked for a bit on the phone today. He's going to add a layer of plastic on top, and a soft layer of foam beneath.

That's the first thing I think of...

Have a broker receive it for you in Canada, they can then ship it to the US I think you pay double the shipping, but if the savings warrant, it should be worth it. You're getting a double discount in the US (Conversion rate and sale price)

I knew you'd find your way here It's almost like your ears perk up every time someone mentions Brown Edit Somewhat relevant joke about brown pants I just remembered

No idea. I did some modding of my own on the arm so they will probably charge me because I did a pretty shit job at it. I was told the protection package is identical to what they're giving pros. Given my personal experience with it, I find that a little hard to believe. In context, the unit was already in process of being built when they told me that, so I don't think it was some tire-pumping sales tactic. They also told me that guys who are wearing the new CCM unit have switched the CCM arms out to Kenesky ones. Despite the bruising, I really do like the mobility I get in this thing. I had a brief stint with an CCM ABPro while I was waiting for the unit, and the Kenesky actually felt more like my old Reebok P1 than the ABPro did. I'm playing (or was, until COVID) in Silver leagues out here (leagues rank from Gold to Tin Can), so decent hockey. You'll see a few college guys and one or two junior/travel players sprinkled throughout. The Gold leagues have a heavier concentration of former NCAA and pro guys. Schedule permitting, I get called from time to time to come out as a target in private lessons with skaters ranging from AA travel to pro. Not bragging or anything, just want to give you an idea to the kinds of shots I'm taking in the list of units below. As for recommendations, my shortlist would be, based on usage and personal experience: Kenesky (we'll see how the arm beef up is) - I told them I wanted an extra layer of plastic on the outer surface to be like the new CCM Pro Issues. CCM Pro Issue (arms feel like player shin pads) No personal experience with these, but I like what I see/hear: Simmons 1000 (I've known JT for a while. Him and John know their shit and I trust them when they say their unit is good) Vaughn Velocity with arm beef up. I'd ask for SLR2 or V5 shoulder floaters, not sure if they'd be willing to do either. No personal experience here. Every time I put one of these on, I'm impressed at the crazy light weight. I'd be concerned for protection, hence the beefier shoulder floater request. And every Vaughn unit I have ever worn has had issues with arm protection. A few people will pop in and say Passau or Brown, I would disagree. For the Passau, every picture I've seen has shown the shoulder floaters sticking up at a weird angle - it looks like it would cause interference with the mask chin. Wore a Brown 2100 for a few months. It was really warm and super heavy. Believe it or not, I still caught a few bruises through it. Taking everything into account, I did not see very much in terms of protection gains, and when factoring in the downsides (heat and weight), it's just not worth it IMO...although I always felt super buff taking it off after an hour and a half skate. The price of a new one for what you get technology-wise is also a turn off - Brown has basically been using the same makeup for the past 30 years in a new form factor. I guess if one had the cash, they could get one of these for practice only and treat it as a weighted tracksuit, then switch to something like a Velocity for games and zip around. Hope this helps, let me know if you want me to dive deeper into anything.

More pics please! This set looks great.

I dropped off the arms at the post office today to go back to the Kenesky boys to beef up. I should have done it when COVID first hit, but now that I have the CCM Pro Spec, I have a backup unit to use while I wait.

Sir, You don't know me well enough to call me "regular" I've eaten pizza every day this week

Lined up some ice time next Saturday. I'm gonna die

I tried opening it up and adding more padding - it's only gotten a little better. They are still using the original P1 composition - a sandwich of two layers of LD foam and an HD layer inside.

Build quality is fine, but I've gotten smoked in the arms a few more times than I can count. This was the worst one - image is reversed, it's actually my blocker arm - pic taken maybe 6 hours after getting off the ice. The bruise spread out even more on day 2 to the point the entire front of my arm was covered