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About Rollerskates

If you are new to roller-skating in any of its forms, you've probably found that the sport has it's own jargon rich language that only those in the know seem to understand. This section aims to explain what it all means, why it is important, and whether it is something you need to consider when buying skates.

You will find 2 types of rollerskate available nowadays, rolelr skates with two wheels at the front and two at the back are known as Quad skates, those with all of the wheels in a line are called Inline skates.

The history of Roller skating goes back to the mid 1700s, predating both bicycles, and of course the first motor vehicle. You may think that the INLINE skate is the more modern of the two types, so it will probably come as a surprise to you to learn that the INLINE skate was actually the first type of skate ever invented, with the QUAD skate not showing up until the mid 19th century. Today's quad skate is the result of constant redesign and development over the years, and we now have a broadly standard design to which all modern quad skates adhere.

Skating Styles

There are many different styles of roller skating popular today, and each of these styles puts very specific and different demands on their skates. For instance, speed roller skates are designed to travel fast in a straight line, but they would be absolutely hopeless for playing rink hockey, where manoeuvrability is far more important than top speed. Jam skaters (break dancing on wheels) want a low cut boot so they can bend their ankles, however an artistic skater trying to land a Triple Axel on a jam skate would soon be paying a visit to the Accident and Emergency ward at the local hospital.

So before you buy your roller skates, you should take some time to decide what you want to do on them. Will you skate indoors, outdoors, or both? Do you want to enter competitions on your roller skates, dance, or just potter around the local park once in a while? What facilities are there to skate in your local area? The answers to these questions and many others will point you in the right direction when it comes to choosing your roller skates, and perhaps save you making expensive mistakes early on.

Quads Roller Skates or Inliners???

Your choice of inline or quad roller skates will once again depend on what you want to do with them. Aggressive skaters wanting to leap over ramps and grind on metal bars will be wanting an inline skate, indoor hockey players can use either quads or inliners, depending purely on personal preference, and most artistic skaters prefer quad roller skates. Quad roller skates are generally more manoeuvrable than inline roller skates, because of their built in steering ability (see below). It is possible to improve the manoeuvrability of an inline skate, but this usually makes them less stable.






Most Inline roller skates are sold with 4 equal size wheels, all fixed at the same level so that all 4 wheels are in contact with the ground. This makes the skate a little reluctant to turn, so inline skaters often introduce ‘rocker’ to their roller skates. This is usually done by fitting slightly smaller wheels to the front and back to give the wheel train a curved (rockered) profile, much the same way as the curve on an ice skate blade. This means that only 2 wheels on each skate will be in contact with the ground at any one time, instead of all 4. Some top level roller skates have an adjustment which allows the heights of the individual wheels to be altered to set the precise rocker that the skater wants. The downside is that there will be occasions when skating when only one wheel is in contact with the ground, which can make the skate unstable and prone to speed wobbles.

Nike Bauer came up with an ingenious solution to this problem where the middle 2 wheels were mounted on a separate pivoted frame so the skater is usually skating on 3 wheels, the middle two and the front one, or the middle two and the back one. In the transition between front to back, BOTH the middle wheels remain in contact with the ground, which makes the skate more stable.

Here is an example of an inline plate designed to mimic the feel and behaviour of an ice skate blade. All 4 wheels are the same size, but they are mounted on the frame with the front and rear wheels set slightly higher than the middle 2 to provide the rocker, and a rubber ‘toe pick’ is fitted to the front. This frame enables the skater to perform all of the same jumps and spins as an accomplished ice skater and is perfect for ice skaters wanting to practice ice skating moves without the need for an ice rink!

Aggressive roller skates (skating using grind bars, ramps and jumps) usually have an inverse rocker, with the middle 2 wheels smaller than the front and back ones. This allows the middle section between wheels 2 and 3 to be wider to accommodate a ‘grind plate’

The wheels on an inline skate are usually bigger than a quad skate, up to 100mm diameter,  whereas quad skate wheels seldom exceed 66mm because of the risk of them catching on the plate.

A larger wheel is better suited to uneven surfaces like roads and pavements, so if you are planning to skate on these surfaces often, then an inline skate may be better for you.

Construction of a Quad Skate:

Boots:

The first thing you’ll need to consider when buying a quad skate is the boot itself. They come in a vast range of shapes and styles, some with ankle reinforcements, some without, and some are designed to be more like a shoe than a boot. Some are built to suit the serious competitive skater, others just for fun. Each boot style is designed for a specific purpose, like street hockey, dance, jam, track, speed or artistic skating, and your choice will depend entirely on what you intend to do with your roller skates.

Plates

Attached to the boot with nuts and bolts is the roller PLATE. This is the mechanism which supports the wheels and the toe stops and forms the pivot points which enable the skate to turn. All modern roller plates function in the same basic way, and it is the build quality and structural strength of the individual components which determines the eventual price. Cheap plates are usually made from plastic or nylon, with better quality plates being made from aluminium. Top of the range plates are usually made from tempered aircraft grade aluminium. This material is both very strong and light weight, enabling the skater to skate faster and harder, and jump higher without risk of the breaking them.

Each plate has two posts attached to it, one at the front and one at the back. The front one is tilted a little towards the front, and the back one tilts towards the back. These are called the King Pins, and it is these that support the wheel assemblies. The angle of the king pin helps the skate to ‘steer’ when pressure is applied to one side of the skate or the other.

Trucks

TRUCKS are fitted on to each King Pin, one at the front, and one at the back. They are identical, and are mounted back to back. Each truck is mounted between two rubber bushings, also fitted to the King Pin, and the assembly is  usually secured in place with a single shake proof nut. The hardness of the rubber bushings, and the tightness of this nut controls the steering sensitivity of the roller skates. Looser on the nut makes the skate turn more freely, and vice versa. Likewise, harder rubber bushings will make the turning action stiffer. Higher level plates usually have a slightly different set up with a grub screw in the centre of the king pin to lock the nut, but the basic principle of operation remains the same  Each truck has a ‘pivot pin’ which locates in a slot on the base of the plate and and acts as a fixed point around which the axles can twist.

Bearings

Steel ball-race BEARINGS are fitted, 2 to each wheel, so each pair of quad roller skates will have a total of 16 wheel bearings. Bearings are usually rated on a scale defined by ABEC (Annular Bearing Engineers' Committee), known as the ABEC rating. This rating will be 1,3,5,7,or 9, and the number relates to to tolerances used in its manufacture,  1 being the lowest rating and 9 the highest. Put simply, an ABEC 9 bearing will run smoother and quieter than an ABEC 1 bearing.
A common misconception is that higher rated bearings allow you to skate faster. This is not the case. The speed the bearing runs at is primarily determined by the lubricant used inside the bearing. A bearing lubricated with thick grease will run slower than one lubricated with light oil. It is true that higher rated bearings will run smoother and last longer, but the speed of roll will have no noticeable effect unless you intend to skate faster than 320 mph!
One thing to check carefully when you are buying bearings is the diameter of the centre hole. Most US manufactured trucks have 8 mm diameter axles, whereas European manufacturers tend to prefer 7 mm axles. You must get the right size bearings for your axles, a 7 mm bearing will never fit on an 8 mm axle, and an 8 mm bearing on a 7 mm axle will be very sloppy.

Wheels

There is a huge variety of WHEELS available for you to choose from, and just as with boots, the ones you choose will depend on what you want to do with your roller skates.
All roller skate wheels consist of a hub, either metal or plastic which will support the wheel bearings. Moulded onto the outside of the hub will be a rubber tyre, usually urethane. This tyre will have been given an ‘A’ rating which refers to its hardness. The numbers range from 70A to 103A The higher the rating, the harder the tyre. As a rough guide, anything below 85A is designed for outdoor use, the softer rubber being better able to absorb the unevenness of the road or pavement being skated on. Above 85A is intended for indoor use, or on very smooth surfaces. If you intend to skate both indoors and out, then a wheel with a rating of 85A will give you the best of both worlds, although in truth, it is a little too hard for outdoor use, and a little too soft for indoors.
If you regularly skate on different surfaces, you may find yourself carrying several sets of wheels and bearings to suit the various floors
All too often we see children skating in parks and on pavements with wheels designed for indoor use. To the skater, this is like riding a bike with no tyres, and it tends to rattle the eyeballs in their sockets, and makes feet and legs ache with the vibration. It does nothing to encourage the child to progress, and they often decide that skating isn’t for them very quickly. That is a shame because in most cases, simply fitting softer wheels would make the world of difference. Another consideration to bear in mind is the diameter of the wheel. Bigger wheels feel more ‘sticky’ than smaller ones with the same A rating, simply because more of the rubber is in contact with the ground at any one time. A bigger wheel will usually be a better choice for outdoor use because of its ability to ride over small stones and bumps in the pavements. Diameters of between 57mm and 66mm are common for standard axles. Bigger wheels than this run the risk of contacting the plate when the skater turns. If you want a larger wheel, there are also some specialist trucks with longer axles designed to hold much bigger wheels. Finally, there is the width of the tyre to consider. A wider wheel will have more grip than a narrow one, because more of the rubber is in contact with the ground. Some wheels have micro-grooves moulded into them to improve grip still further, while others are completely smooth.
If your skating involves a lot of close up footwork, such as artistic skating, then you may do better with a narrower wheel to prevent them clashing with each other when your feet are close together.

Toe Stops

Toe stops screw into a threaded hole at the front of each plate. Whether you use toe stops or not will once again depend on what style of skating you do. Jam skaters don’t use any toe stops, they just plug the holes with what is called a ‘jam plug’ to protect the threads. Artistic skaters (similar to ice figure skating on wheels) use the toe stops as the launch platform for many of the high level jumps, such as the Toe Loop and the Flip
The length of the shaft of the toe stop is important, with artistic skaters usually using wanting a long shaft so the stop is closer to the floor. Track, speed and dance skaters prefer a stop with a much shorter shaft.

The Complete Unit

Ready for bolting onto a boot of your choice.
This one is an aluminium frame with a medium length toe stop and 62mm indoor (101A) wheels. The bearings are ABEC 9

How a quad skate steers

Steering a quad skate involves applying pressure to one side or the other whilst skating. This makes the trucks ‘twist’ around the king pin. This causes the wheel axles to become offset in relation to the centreline of the plate, and because the front and rear trucks are installed back to back, the action of each axle is reversed. So applying pressure to the left side causes the wheels on the left to move closer together, and those on the right side to move further apart. The result is that the skate turns to the left.
The sensitivity of the turning action can be increased or decreased by tightening or loosening the nut on the king pin, or changing the hardness of the rubber bushings, and the correct sensitivity depends on the skater, their weight, skill level and what they are trying to do on the roller skates.

Recycle your old Ice Skates...

Rollerskate boots tend to have softer ankle support than ice skates, so if you have an old pair of figure ice skates which are no longer strong enough for ice skating, there is no reason why you can’t fit a quad plate to them and learn to rollerskate. The technique is similar to ice skating, and you can practice all the same moves that you do on the ice. Best of all, if you fit outdoor wheels to them you can skate for free, no more rink fees!

It is a little more difficult to adapt an ice hockey skate to take a rollerskate plate, because the heel and the toe are not on the same level. It can be done, but you first need to pack the heel of the hockey skate with a wedge of some sort.

YOU TUBE, a great skating resource...

There are some excellent videos on You Tube (www.youtube.com where you can watch the experts performing some amazing moves on roller skates. There are videos for all disciplines, and all kinds of other stuff covering pretty well any subject you care to name. Give it a try:

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