Need advice Goalie Chassis

[harringbh]

I just bought the Nike Bauer Vapor Xg Lite goalie skate and am not happy with the chassis and wheels. They are too low to the ground and skate causing my toe ties to keep getting caught in between the front wheel and the bottom of the skate.

First, does anyone have any suggestions to solve this?

Secondly, I am thinking about changing the chassis. Does anyone have a suggestion on which Chassis to get and also where I could buy it? Any help would be great. Thanks!

Brian

[whalercane]

I just bought the Nike Bauer Vapor Xg Lite goalie skate and am not happy with the chassis and wheels. They are too low to the ground and skate causing my toe ties to keep getting caught in between the front wheel and the bottom of the skate.

First, does anyone have any suggestions to solve this?

Secondly, I am thinking about changing the chassis. Does anyone have a suggestion on which Chassis to get and also where I could buy it? Any help would be great. Thanks!

Brian

Unfortunately, there's not yet any exact science to toe-tie methods for goalie skates. Some goalies have gotten so frustrated with this whole concept that they've stopped using toe ties altogether. On the other end of the spectrum, I've seen examples where people go to such great lengths as drilling holes in the front of the cowling, inserting a permanent loop, running another piece of string through that which then connects to the toe tie and then through the bottom skate eyelets (sound crazy enough for you??).

The long and short of the toe tie dilemma is: this is a case-by-case issue that's rarely caused or solved by any chassis currently on the market. My personal suggestion would be to simply use the method you currently use, but leave about 1" slack between where your lace comes out of the toe of your pad and begins wrapping around your chassis (get ahold of me on AIM at ryand826 or email me [email protected] if you want me to send you a couple of pics of how I do it).

I would also recommend that you use the thinnest possible lace- a shoe or figure skating lace- not a hockey skate lace for this kind of thing. Another way to help get around the problem is switching to a 47mm wheel if you currently use a 59mm because obviously, 47mm wheels give you a lot more chassis clearance and therefore leave more room to pass a toe tie through the chassis without risk of interference. The problem, however, with 47mm wheels is that a lot of goalies don't like their thick, square profile because it doesn't mimick an "ice skate profile" closely enough. If you'd be willing to spring for a new set of 47mm's (if you're currently using 59mm's), I'd recommend the RinkRat Cross Bar 47mm's that you can get from Inlinewarehouse.com for about $8 per wheel. It's not cheap, but way cheaper than a Predator chassis which is super hard to find nowadays and will likely run you over $200.

I'm sure others have thoughts on this topic but since I've had about 8 years of trial and error under my belt, I thought it couldn't hurt to weigh in!

-Ryan

[cus32]

Well, I have the ultimate solution. I have used it for one year in PIHA and it has worked great. No strings, simply zip ties. You need to make a brass clip to attach to the front of the toes of the skates, pop rivot it onto the cowling directly on the front of the toe. It is difficult to explain in writing, I will get some photos up in time. I'm selling my Bauer XXX inline skates on ebay now, and there is a picture where you can see the brass clip. Once every 20 games the zip tie breaks, but for the the 19 that it stays, you have complete and total control of your pads. I experimented for 4 years on this, and this is the one that works.

Stay posted as I will get some pics up, check out the ebay pic.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bauer-XXX-Inline...QQcmdZViewItem


Cus32
"Retired" - Scottdale Inferno PIHA