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*** The SkateLog Forum Has Been Replaced by SkateDebate Dot Com ***
FROM SKATELOG FORUM HOST KATHIE FRY IN MARCH OF 2020:
NEW FORUM NAME: SkateDebate Forum
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Quad Roller Skating Forum Discussions about quad roller skates and any other quad skating discussions that do not seem appropriate for one of our other forums. |
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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 42
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I recently got back into skating when I started taking my 6 year old to the rink. After the first few visits I decided to get us our own skates rather than use the rink ones. I bought us both a pair of beginner skates. I'm not a beginner but hadn't quad skated since the 80s and wanted to start with a good but not overly expensive pair. I chose a reputable brand and went with 82a wheel hardness as tbh, that seems like a pretty standard wheel for skaters at an entry level.
When the skates arrived, I was surprised at the wheel hardness but as I literally only knew what I had read I accepted them in good faith. The first few times I wore them I was skidding about on the rink, which hadn't happened in the rink skates. I wasn't skidding around like Bambi or anything but enough to make me cautious. I put it down to the skates being new, I also had a couple of hard falls which I put down to me being overly ambitious. I'm actually a reasonably decent skater so I adapted to the new skates and didn't think a lot about it until workers at the rink started to comment on my wheels. There were a few queries about their hardness because of how fast they were spinning and they were all surprised when I said they were 82a. I've since checked them out compared to the rink skates and other skaters skates and my wheels are very much harder than the 82a wheels. I'm doing ok on these wheels now that I've adapted to them, however I'm really concerned that I've got my son in these skates. He's only a beginner skater and I'm worried about him in them. He's actually skating pretty well in them, can maintain a good speed, can spin 180 and skate on (the rink regularly plays a direction changing game) and is starting to shoot the duck. So he's doing ok. But I wonder if I should be changing the wheels? Or if I just don't have a clue and sometimes 82a wheels can actually be quite hard? And we're all fine? Or maybe even if the wheels are incorrectly hard but he's doing ok and it's fine for him to keep using them? They were bought to only ever be used in the rink. For outdoor skating he has an old but good condition pair of adjustable quads and a good pair of inlines that he's working up to. I've emailed the company but it's the weekend so obviously I doubt I'll hear from them for at least the next 24 hours. I'm just glad that I figured out that the wheels are very hard before I ordered a pair for my mother. She's come skating with us for the last month and has been bitten by the bug too. These wheels would have been an utter disaster for her. |
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#2 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 3,378
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Hi Dazzler, first of all, glad you found the forum.
![]() Last edited by Dec8rSk8r; March 11th, 2019 at 02:02 AM. |
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#3 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 42
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The wheels details are:
Wheels: 54x32mm PU Injection 82a Chassis & Truck: Nylon Toestop & Cushions: PU injection Bearings: Abec 3 I know they aren't the highest spec but the bearings are fine, they have great, smooth spin but the wheels aren't remotely rubbery. The skates are fine at the rink but when I tried wearing them at home to practice transitions they feel awful on my laminated wooden flooring and barely want to roll. I compared them to my inline skates which are 80a and they just don't compare. |
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#4 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 3,378
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Hmm, maybe do a search on wheel durometer on the forum if you are looking for your next set. Or maybe you will get lucky and live near a member with a decent wheel collection who doesn't mind letting people try his or her wheels out. I remember 92a being a soft urethane wheel, so I don't know what is going on that those 82a are hard.
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#5 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 42
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I bought the skates as one from a company with a good reputation so I'm surprised that the wheels are so wrong. I think my son really, really needs a softer wheel. He's doing ok but I think he'd be more secure on softer wheels. They haven't gotten back to me yet, so I'll give them a few more days and try again. If they don't get back to me soon I'll contact their twitter. Or better yet, get my husband to do it as he has thousands of twitter followers and I might as well get some use out of his twitter dedication.
![]() Last edited by Dazzler; March 13th, 2019 at 12:35 PM. |
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#6 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,335
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Inlines and quad comparisons dont give true results in a comparison, the wheels aren't used the same way. On loose floors I use Green Shamans @ 93a, on tight grippy floors I use White Shamans @ 97a |
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#7 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 42
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I've got good news on my wheels. The company is going to send me two new sets of wheels. I'm so happy the rink staff pointed out the wheel hardness to me, that I contacted the company and how fast they are to remedy the issue. I think having softer wheels will make a huge difference to my son's skating.
That said, (never say I can't find the cloud around my silver lining) I'm wondering if I'll find the proper 82a wheels a bit slow/sluggish now? I'm considering upgrading to a pair of derby skates to have as well and alternate between the two. I can use my original skates at home and when I'm skating with my son, especially when the rink is packed with kids. And use the derby skates for my adult skate nights so I can more confidently work on speeding up, jumps, turns, etc. I literally only started skating again on NYE and this will be my third pair of skates bought in as many months. ![]() |
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#8 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 3,378
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We all make this very same conclusion. ![]() http://216.92.62.225/forums/showthread.php?t=6574 http://216.92.62.225/forums/showthread.php?t=10249 |
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#9 | |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 42
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#10 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 3,378
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#11 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 117
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I think for beginner (i.e. your son) then 82a is pretty good. They will give great grip on an indoor rink and allow your son to get going, get some speed, grip sound corners when learning crossovers etc. As he gets better you will likely want to move to a lower grip/harder wheel. Although these lose some traction, they improve your ability to manouvre, spin etc.
If you get some harder wheels, keep the old ones for use outdoors as the general advice is a larger, grippier wheel is better for outdoor skating. I should add most of this comes from reading this forum and talking to a few folk. I'm still a relatively new beginner to skating. I had trouble in the beginning with slippy wheels so got some grippy ones which helped be get up and running, but they soon came to restrict my ability to manouvre when I stepped up to intermediate level. Just need to make sure the wheens (size and hardness) are suitable for a) your competence and b) wthe type of sakting you want to do. Who knew this was all so complicated ?(well you lot of course, me only in the last 6 months!) |
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#12 |
Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: KY USA
Posts: 1,224
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Two thoughts on this thread:
1. Hardness is only tangentially related to grip. Some soft wheels have less grip than harder ones. In general that is why many here pay for better wheels. They have good grip while rolling like mad since they are not so soft as to squish out. 2. Specifications mean little in the skate world. This is especially prominent in lower end skates. Until one has a good amount of skating and skate equipment experience comparing "specs" is an exercise in futility. .
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Common wisdom is anything but... |
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#13 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 117
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My experience was I started with similar wheel to yours (in my case 78a). I found them good to begin with in the rink as I slipped too much when trying to accelerate forwards on harder wheels.
As I progressed they became a limiting factor as they prevented easy manoeuvring of the skate for dance/jam/rhythm moves. I've not got Radar Riva (96a/57mm) for indoor and Radar Zen (85a/62mm) for outdoor. The small, hard wheels indoor really help my manoeuvres, the larger, softer skates prevent me falling on my ass so much outside! |
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#14 |
Ninja Naked Mole Rat
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: San Antonio Tx
Posts: 4,348
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Were the skates really cheap? Like under $100, maybe around $50? If so, they will likely break pretty easily with an adult skating them.
It strikes me odd that your supposedly soft wheels are not soft. A soft wheel, sometimes termed and indoor/outdoor wheel is pretty low on the totem pole price wise. Of course, on the other hand, a really soft wheel actually works. I have had a couple of low end skates that have had them. Slow, but grippy. It sounds like you have some hard slick really bad wheels. They can be really bad. So bad that there is no reason for anyone to make them as they are next to useless.
__________________
Don't let people live in your head rent free. ~princessfluffhead~ BontQRL/InvaderDA45: Seba-FRX: Alkali CA9 |
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#15 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2019
Posts: 2
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I remember being young and buying a cheap pair of skates, and found the wheels wicked slippery too, I am not saying this will work for you, but what i did and it worked for me, is i wore them outside on the pavement several tymes and really broke them in outside, and they seemed to work a lot better the next tyme I went to the rink.. just a suggestion, do what feels right for you
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#16 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 42
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The update on this is that the wheels that came with the skates were total plastic crap, rather than the 82a pu that they were advertised as. The company admitted the mistake and sent me 16 new wheels. Very soft 80a wheels. Since then I've learned a range of new skills, from changing bearings from one wheel to another super efficiently, buying myself new bearings taking them apart and cleaning and lubing them properly to get rid of factory dust, dyeing the new wheels because the replacements they sent me were white and looked really, really, really stupid on my son's black skates. I keep a little tool set with a skate multi-tool, separate socket wrench, screw driver, pair of allen keys, bottle of lube and even spare bearings, with my skates at all time.
I bought a really great pair of used derby skates from another skater at the rink. I mainly use those for rink skating but I sometimes take the small soft wheeled skates with me for when I need to go slower when I'm learning something new. For example, for the first few sessions after I learned the move, I absolutely could not do mohawk turns on the derby skates due to a mixture of the speed and a total mental block. Getting out the smaller slower skates and turning on those while I built up speed helped me gain confidence. I'm now using the older skates for practicing the stroll step (continuous forward cross unders) It's also an amazing workout because boy do I have to work extremely hard to go forward on those wheels, even with their great new bearings. I've also, very occasionally used those skates at the skate park. They are really soft and gummy, so just what I want on ramps. Tbh, I haven't a huge interest in ramps, pipes, etc but my son is very keen and there is no way I'm going to take him skating and then stand around in stupid shoes. So I'm learning to pump. We're going to the indoor skate park for the first time in a couple of hours. I will be taking my padded underpants! At some point I'll probably invest in a good pair of jam or artistic skates because those are my favourite aspects of skating. And while this is the wrong forum for it, I've also been working on my inline skating, correcting my glide and learning to go longer distances with a goal of doing the Berlin marathon in the next few years. I have a new pair of 80mm 4 wheeled skates but am tempted to get myself some 110mm tri-wheels in the future. On that note, I've also set up a mini shelving unit in my hallway to house my 3 pairs of skates, my son's two pairs, our pads and helmets. Though I think I'll move that into my bedroom as my son's friends tend to think that the shelves full of skates are fair game to play with. And the girls in particular aren't too impressed when I palm them off with the crappy kids' skates I have in the boot of my car and won't let them try any of my (admittedly very pretty) skates. (I have now been skating for just over 3 months, so very, very clearly have an addiction.) |
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#17 |
Sk8 Ninja
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Huntington Wv
Posts: 3,423
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Bearings dont do crap for speed(for the most part, if you want to know more, just ask ). It's all about straight axles, good hubs, and good urethane. Bones reds is all you really need until you have top level plates, wheels , and boots. Hell not even them really... you just need clean bearings, 0w20 synthetic motor oil. Cheap, easy to clean, super low friction. If your bearings spin for minutes on end, they arent lubricated properly.
What kind of skates are you rolling on? Theres a lot of cheap modifications out there for the entry level skates to really improve their performance.
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Home rink: Roll-A-Rama in Huntington Wv. "Focus on form and speed is a byproduct, focus on speed and falling is a byproduct." - Matguy |
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#18 | |
Ninja Naked Mole Rat
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: San Antonio Tx
Posts: 4,348
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__________________
Don't let people live in your head rent free. ~princessfluffhead~ BontQRL/InvaderDA45: Seba-FRX: Alkali CA9 |
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#19 | |
Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: KY USA
Posts: 1,224
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Since they are usually around $35 I looked for something else in that range and found Qube 8-ball for about $40. I skated the crap out of those for a couple of years and they still work great. Highly recommended! I own and have skated a lot of different bearings (including Bones Swiss Ceramics) and see little difference in performance. For the last several years I've been on Bont 7mm microbearings and they are great! Spin better than the day I got them and no anything yet! .
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Common wisdom is anything but... |
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#20 | |
Sk8 Ninja
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Huntington Wv
Posts: 3,423
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Qube are great, but the reason I don't reccomend them is because they do not have much room for misalignments like the reds do. Qube have much tighter internal clearances than the reds which are very loose. So axles that arent real straight and wheels that have poor hubs will still roll effortlessly, but you put Qubes in there and people will think they suck even though they are superior. Straight axles. Wicked Scott's and Qube 8balls for the win. As for micros... I eat them for breakfast... but I got some new axles put in to test to see if they can hold up
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Home rink: Roll-A-Rama in Huntington Wv. "Focus on form and speed is a byproduct, focus on speed and falling is a byproduct." - Matguy |
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