Teezle

30 minutes ago, RedX said:

Did you opt for the traditional palm? The Hyperlite version I have has the updated Bauer palm. 
 

The customizer I used on the retailer's website only had options for the Mach palm (in regular, XL, or int sizes). If you choose the Vapor 2-Piece on the Bauer website's customizer, your only options are the Hyperlite palm (regular, XL, or int sizes). Interesting, but I don't think it matters much either way; the palm is just as comfortable as the Hyperlite one I had before this.

Passau Pro Pack Chest Protector - Size Medium (fits like a Small in other manufacturers). Used 10 times. $400 USD.

Ships from Houston, TX.

For the blocker, I went with the 2-Piece Vapor blocker. This is the old 1X spec, but with updated materials and the Mach palm/finger protection. Many years ago I tried on a 1X blocker and loved it immediately, but was dissuaded from buying it because I was told it had durability issues. Now that it is available to order again (as a Pro Custom spec), I jumped on the chance to finally use one. It does not disappoint - the blocker is light, well-balanced, and extremely comfortable. I am very happy with this one.

For the glove, I went with the Game Ready palm + 3mm Poron on the palm. I find that when I don't catch cleanly, it is mainly on the palm/finger area and wanted to beef that up. I had a Pro Palm on the Hyperlite glove and did not like the way you could feel the reinforcement running through the break of the glove, but still wanted some extra protection. Pucks hitting the thumb side of the break usually deflect into the pocket, so I didn't feel it necessary to beef up that side. The red line circled in green in this photo is what I am referring to for the Pro Palm - whatever material they used for this part was not comfortable to close your hand around, in my opinion.

So far it seems to be exactly what I wanted. The glove is very easy to close right out of the box, the pocket presents super wide, and the extra protection in the palm is noticeable when you take a hard shot there.

The lack of a traditional wrist strap gives you great mobility to present the best angle for the glove, and it also eliminates the possibility of your chest protector and the wrist strap rubbing against each other (infrequent, but annoying). There is an attachment point to have the new strap go closer to your wrist on the outside, but I found it more comfortable, and easier to close the glove, leaving it how it came.

Another really nice feature of this glove is the grippy lines for your fingers. They really help you get a solid grasp of the glove to close it, and prevent the glove from feeling like it is sliding off no matter how much I sweat in it.

Lastly is a difference from the stock Mach glove when ordering custom: the T is attached traditionally, instead of the flexy tie down shown in the HockeyReviews video. The closure is still great.

My Mach set also came in this weekend. I was hoping they'd have come in a few days earlier, but I still used them for the a couple games in the Memorial Day hockey tournament and in my game last night. Here are some first impressions and comparisons between the Mach and the Hyperlite.

Pads: The stock stiffness is considerably stiffer than the Hyperlite. This makes sense, as it is about a 4/5 stiffness on Bauer's scale compared to the 1/5 that is the stock Hyperlite flex. The profile of the pad makes it look taller than the Hyperlite, despite being the same size and both having the 100 degree boot angle.  

The less curved profile did save a goal in my game last night, when the puck was whacked towards me during a scramble in front of the net and just clipped the top of the pad to keep it out. It probably would have gone through with the Hyperlite profile. That said, it will take a bit of adjustment to the extra stiffness before I am completely comfortable in it.

Like @ZeroGravitas, mine were built with the single bevel on the calf plate and the smaller calf pillow. This is definitely a positive; they are incredibly stable when in the butterfly, and I agree that the larger pillow on the Hyperlite was a little too much. It also means that your leg is already positioned a little closer to the spot for getting an edge to engage and push when down, instead of having your leg essentially lie flat across the pad. I.e. knee and lower leg are at approximately the same height on the Hyperlite; on the Mach your lower leg is a little closer to the ice.

A couple other distinct differences from the Hyperlite: the boot channel and the knee strapping. The boot on the Hyperlite was basically a flat boot, whereas the Mach has a more defined boot channel. This helps them sit in the same place despite the overall straighter profile on the Mach. For the knee strapping, the Mach really encourages you to strap down to the calf (as I have done on the Hyperlite as well) by sewing the knee strap at an angle already. The Hyperlite knee strap is sewn straight across the knee.

I'll get pictures of the glove and blocker for the next post.

On 5/20/2022 at 8:26 PM, TVille31 said:

Can't wait to get mine!

Looks great! When did you place your order, and which store did you go through?

On 4/30/2022 at 8:18 AM, ThatCarGuy said:

He’s also EBUG with the ECHL Allen Americans and practices frequently with both them and the Stars. Unfortunately due to some medical issues he was unable to make it pro. Once again, being at the game neither Gibson or Stolarz looked truly injured. 

Medical issues like being 5'9"  In that case, I, too, had medical issues that prevented me from going pro. You heard it here first!

All kidding aside, it's a great story and I'm happy for him that he got to be in the game and the locker room afterward.

4 hours ago, ilyazhito said:

What's the difference supposed to be between that and the regular straps used to tighten a blocker? 

I think he means that he wants that strap to be like the regular one you use to tighten a blocker (velcro), and not the one shown here which is a nylon strap with a buckle to hold it tight. Brian's has their BOA tightening system there (though you can order it with regular velcro instead), so it's all just personal preference.

On 4/16/2022 at 11:35 PM, ilyazhito said:

What is the quick strap? I can't tell from the pic. 

This one:

1 hour ago, seagoal said:

One thing that is not clear, to me, is that there are no values for the vertical axis, so there is no value assigned at any level of the hierarchy.  Clearly, the arrow says "improved" is the ones up top, so the hierarchy is arranged by relative value to one another.  But, if we don't know what the values are vertically...and where, say, the cusp of acceptable vs unacceptable is vertically, then we can't really conclude much other than which helmets are better than others. 

So, if #1 is better than #4, but "acceptable" or "safe" starts at say #6, then #4 is still a good choice even thought it is not as good as #1.

Without that info, it's not clear that any goalie with any given helmet should be concerned based on these graphs.

Agreed. There should be values assigned to each measurement, so we can compare them to other available safety data. E.g. there is a lot of data from car accidents and test pilots about what the safe g levels are, which could be used to compare the linear acceleration. Or studies like this one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3217370/ which can be used for the angular acceleration, to provide cutoffs for safe vs. unsafe masks.

Are these results published externally somewhere?

Betting on games seems like a fast way to get a lot less enjoyment out of following any sport. Instead of "hooray my team won!" or "disappointing, but we'll try again next game" it turns into "even though we won, my team didn't score enough to cover the spread" or "my lousy team cost me $10 today!" I have never understood the appeal of it.

11 hours ago, ilyazhito said:

What glove do you have now? It would be helpful to compare.

Is the G6 more of a V or a |_| style?

Using a 580 now, so a much different closure, but I like it.

On 3/28/2022 at 9:55 AM, BonesDT said:

That's a good description, thank you.

All I know is, I have a baseball background, and many said the 590 is most baseball'ish (though that description is wildly inconsistent too), so I tried it for a year and could never get a puck to stay in the pocket and I thought I was just getting old and sucky.  Same with Supreme.  Then I tried the G2 and it's a vacuum and I feel like a shortstop again.

I don't fully understand the different anatomies of the gloves (due to my lack of experience with them), but all I know is I'm not leaving Warrior catchers for a while.

One of my favorite things about the G-series gloves, which I feel like nobody talks about, is the segmented |_| pocket closure.  Not only is it a perfect fit to catch a puck in the palm, but it's also ideal protection for the palm IMO.  I absolutely despise and do not understand those "pancake" catchers that have a pointy V hinge.

I experimented with Warrior's "60-degree" and "90-degree" swappable velcro liners and I think they are very deceiving.  The difference is they stitch the placement of the 4 fingers slightly to the left or slightly to the right.  It's like literally a couple millimeters difference in where they lay the finger separation stitches and that's what they call "60-degree" and "90-degree".  It's probably nowhere near similar to other brands' 60-degrees and 90-degrees.

It is funny, and goes to show just how personalized glove preference is, because I hated that they changed the V style closure of the G3 to the |_| style of the GT2. It could be because I have small hands, but that flat spot really prevented my fingers from being able to get a good grip to close the glove, and I was constantly shifting my hand position inside the glove to try to make it line up with where my palm naturally folds.

1 hour ago, RedX said:

You can see my photos of the new cuff on the previous page. 

I see what you mean. Bauer just took it further than the CCM/Lefevre option of one-piece or half-piece cuff to no piece cuff

11 minutes ago, maxtm30 said:

By the name of the spec, I figured what it was. Switched to stabilislide and never looked back in 2020, With the way I strap my pads I don't feel my inner calf wrap anyways.

My mindset it typically to always go with the new tech.

Sad we cannot get an UltraSonic blocker build, but we can order an UltraSonic Glove at pro custom. I would defenitely get US build on blocker if I could.

Yes, I'm more picky on blockers call me crazy.

Did they change anything from the US to the MACH blocker? It doesn't matter for me, because I went with the 2-piece blocker. Been looking to get one of those since I tried on the 1X blocker in the store years ago, but was dissuaded from buying it because the people working the goalie section said it had durability issues and would fall apart in 6 months. *Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery voice* Failing to do so has been my biggest regret.

31 minutes ago, maxtm30 said:

Little update for my choices, I played a bit more with the customizer, got up to 5 possibilities, narrowed it back down to 3.

Here they are;


Again, eager to hear what you guys think, I wear a plain Rangers jersey. These all feel like good choices IMO.

I like #2 the best here.

Got an answer to what the calf bracket is when I inquired on my order: "For the calf bracket, this is a new option on the MACH pads and going with this option will make the calf plate much stiffer to help with sliding and ice seal. If you’d like the calf to have some more movement like a traditional pad, I would opt to go without this option."

I decided to go with it; I've been moving towards wearing stiffer and stiffer pads anyway.

Just now, coopaloop1234 said:

It's a gimmick where they've "pushed out" the top front of the gloves and pads to take away more room away from a pucks trajectory. 

So instead of a pad being like this: | 

It's more like: /

The theory is somewhat sound. If you had an imaginary blocker board that was a foot thick, it would be a foot closer to the puck which gives it less room to go around it and into the net, like how my defensemen always manage to hit the other team's forwards in the shins with their slapshots - not because the forwards' shin pads are very large, but because they are very close to where the puck is being shot from.

My issue with it is their implementation is so marginal that it won't realistically do anything for you, and is just marketing hype. If it saved you one or two goals over the entire life of the equipment, I'd be surprised.

41 minutes ago, ZeroGravitas said:

2!

My order:

I went with #2. I went through Pure Goalie, as they had the ability to do the ProCustom level order on their website, which I didn't see on GoalieMonkey, and I wanted some of the expanded options:

• Vapor 2-piece blocker (old 1X style)
• 100 degree boot, Vapor Tune Fit (professor strap), leather boot strap
• Add Poron foam layer to the palm of the glove

2 minutes ago, maxtm30 said:

Hello all,

I will pull the trigger on a mach set before next season starts, waiting for some personnal stuff.

So 1, 2 or 3.

Current set is on my profile picture, trying to keep the same style.

#2 for me, but both 2 and 3 look really nice.

#1 or #2?

17 hours ago, ZeroGravitas said:

I have not heard a hard release date, but I understand that the opening of custom orders is imminent.

Anyone else have info on the retail launch date?

From what I heard when I talked with some of the pro shops this week, the openings for pre-release custom orders are a month or two away, so I figure retail is another month after that. I don't have any hard numbers though.

I did get confirmation that the updated version of the online customizer will have the ability to select the "2-piece" (ie old 1X style) blocker, which is good news for me. 

23 hours ago, jrutherford said:

Hey guys,

I've been using a Brian's Optik2 90 degree boot for the past few seasons.  I'm potentially interested in looking at the new Mach line, but I don't have any experience with their 100/125 degree boot angle.  If anyone has info on the difference or your experience with the taller boot flex, that would be awesome.  Thanks.

I think those are talking about two different things. The 90 degree boot on Brian's refers to their toe taper - how much of the inside of the toe is shaved down to make it easier to transition back and forth from butterflying/not slip out in your stance. See my crudely drawn overlay:

The Bauer 100/125 degree boot angle refers to the angle between the boot at and shin of the pad itself: 

You can see from their catalog picture that the 100 degree boot for Bauer sits flatter on your skate, where the 125 degree boot pushes up your pad somewhat and will sit taller. If you like how your current pad sits on your skate, I'd measure the angle and go with that one. Personally, I feel more connected to the pad in the 100 degree boot angle from Bauer. The 125 degree will be similar to the Reebok/CCM Premier/P1/PII boot angle; the standard Brian's Optik2 boot angle looks to be close to the 125 boot as well.

SOLD

11 hours ago, Desert Tendy said:

What size do you wear in Vaughn?

I have not worn a Vaughn unit since I was in middle school, so I don't know.

I fit nicely into a size Small for both the Warrior GT2 and Bauer Hyperlite chest protectors.