I should preface this with my frustration with steel rivets. I've ran a pair of Vapor X7.0's for six years now. I've consistently played about twice a week over that span, and I'm meticulous with taking my insoles out and having a fan on my equipment when I get home after every skate.
For the first five years, the rivets that Bauer used held up well, hell, they lasted five years before I had to replace one. In April, I had my skates overhauled, all steel rivets replaced, and since then it's been a nightmare.
The place I took the skates to have a reputation in the Bay Area as doing quality work...but within a month the rivets they used were already rotting away. I had the majority of them replaced within two months. I took them to another Bay Area shop and while those have lasted longer than two months, even those are now starting to rot out.
I don't know if the rivets that pro shops use are just shite, or if Bauer uses some crazy specially treated rivets that actually last a long time.
What's your experience with replaced rivets? How long do they typically last for you?
I just picked up a pair of pro stock 1N V-Cuts, but they have heel lifts I need to have removed...I don't want to have anyone in the Bay Area do this work because of the poor quality rivets they use. Thinking of sending them to SkateTech as I would like to think former pro EQMs use quality hardware.
Appreciate anyones input.
-Mike