I’m looking at getting rollerblades for my wife and I, and I’m just wondering what features I should be looking for in a good set. I see they come with different wheels, materials, boot styles, bearings, etc… and I don’t know what is best for us.
Primarily we will be using them outdoors on asphalt paths at the local park. We’ll mostly just be tooling around on them, not playing hockey or racing or anything. I have plenty of ice skating experience (played hockey when I was a kid), but my wife has very little experience. I don’t want to spend too much if I can help it, preferably no more than $150. Any suggestions?
I’ve been skating for about 8 years now, so maybe I can help.
Comfort. Shop some place where they let you try the skates. Pay attention to the little discomforts, believe me they’ll be major discomforts if you skate any distance.
They should fit snuggly, maybe a little too tight when you first get them. Your foot shouldn’t move around.
K2 and Solomen have some pretty good lower priced (under $200) 4 wheel skates. I’d recommend soft boots, rather than plastic shells.
Get skates that can take the bigger wheels (80mm or so) rather than the small ones, unless you’re planning on inline hockey.
Buy and wear GOOD WRIST GUARDS!!! A friend of mine would have spent all last summer in casts if he hadn’t been wearing them. He wasn’t skating fast or recklessly, he just caught a rut and skidded on his palms about 3 feet.
Let me know if that helps, I’m happy to answer questions.
I like the plastic shell boots, myself, but possibly the soft boots are more adjustable. Mine have an inner liner that comes out and can be washed, which makes me feel a lot better.
I also found some Thurlo (I think that’s the brand name) socks that are designed specificall for inline skating and they are wonderful. Blister prevention! Expensive but worth it.
Fit snugly, good bearings. I got mine at a sporting goods store where the sales guy actually had a lot of experience, and he recommended a certain kind of wheel for asphalt that had shock-absorbing capabilities. But I don’t remember–they came with the skates, but other skates had other kinds of wheels. They are clear plastic but feel rubbery.
Whoops, wasn’t done. Skates also come with different kinds of brakes (brakes, actually, is probably not quite the right term). Rubber blocks on the back so you stop by sort of grinding your heel forward with the toes up, a hydraulic brake on the back that you engage by (again) thrusting the braking foot forward only instead of grinding your heel into the ground, or a rubber block on the toe, which you drag behind you to slow/stop.
I have the rubber blocks on both skates and the hydraulic on the right, and I wish I’d found a pair with the stopping device on the toe because, coming from previous experience on traditional roller skates, that was the way I knew how to stop. I hardly ever use either of these brakes, and am outright hostile toward the hydraulic one as it has a tendency to catch on things (bumps, branches in the path). To stop, I turn my bake skate sideways and drag it, which creates wear on the wheels. I mention this because I’ve found stopping is the hardest thing. I have no idea how you stop on ice skates (yes this was a problem, the two times in my life I went ice-skating) but you will probably want to mimic that movement. Free advice, and worth every penny.
Whoops, wasn’t done. Skates also come with different kinds of brakes (brakes, actually, is probably not quite the right term). Rubber blocks on the back so you stop by sort of grinding your heel forward with the toes up, a hydraulic brake on the back that you engage by (again) thrusting the braking foot forward only instead of grinding your heel into the ground, or a rubber block on the toe, which you drag behind you to slow/stop.
I have the rubber blocks on both skates and the hydraulic on the right, and I wish I’d found a pair with the stopping device on the toe because, coming from previous experience on traditional roller skates, that was the way I knew how to stop. I hardly ever use either of these brakes, and am outright hostile toward the hydraulic one as it has a tendency to catch on things (bumps, branches in the path). To stop, I turn my back skate sideways and drag it, which creates wear on the wheels. I mention this because I’ve found stopping is the hardest thing. I have no idea how you stop on ice skates (yes this was a problem, the two times in my life I went ice-skating) but you will probably want to mimic that movement. Free advice, and worth every penny.
That’s good to know, about the mechanical brakes, but NO!!! you DON’T want to try to do a “hockey stop” in roller blades. Not until you’re very, VERY good! I’ve seen people do it, but it’s much harder to do on rollerblades than it is on ice skates. Rollerblades don’t slide/scrape on pavement, the way ice skates slide/scrape on ice. Rollerblades just stop. Dead.
As far as what to look for, I agree on the comfort factor, but a pair of thick socks, like the Thorlo’s mentioned earlier, can help a lot with that. Being a big guy, I look first for quality bearings, then quality wheels, then comfort. Quality bearings will have an “ABEC rating” of from 1 to 5 (usually, although I’ve seen ABEC 7’s). The higher the better, but even a 1 is likely to be better than an unrated bearing. And, look for “Recreational” wheels. Wheels are made of different compositions. Recreational wheels are a bit more rubbery than high-performance or hockey wheels, so they’re better at absorbing the vibrations from pavement.