The minute you get on a different height wheel you can feel it. The most common are 44mm wide and 38mm narrow. The hub can help to determine your roll depending on the shape, style and strength. There are generally 2 styles of hubs — alloy and nylon.
Just like tacos, wheels can be hard or soft. The hardness of the wheel is indicated by the number on the wheel followed by an A. The scale starts at around a 78A and goes to around a A. When it comes to choosing the durometer you need to consider the following questions: What floors are you skating on floor boards, concrete, sports court?
Are the surfaces grippy or slidey? What body weight are you? Generally, the lighter you are the grippier wheel you need, the heavier you are the harder the wheel you need Your personal skating preference - do you like to grip or slide?
I want to improve my performance for next year! Thank you so much, my girlfriend and I are learning how to skate and getting really into the practice of it. Your blog is so helpful and even seeing how in depth you respond to folks who ask you more is really heartening. Thanks a lot and really looking forward to using these tips! HI My son is 7years old and he is doing speed skating. He tried Warrior and Atom striker recently for the trail purpose. Atom striker is very good and light weight wheel.
Which one are recommend for him as i am going to buy one set for indoor and one set for out door. For indoor speed skating, I really like the Hyper Cannibals. My daughters and I use them for our speed skating. For outdoor, I would probably go Atom Boom. I have used and do recommend both products as they are solid for what you want to use them for.
Learning how to buy the right wheels is absolutely essential when it comes to buying parts for your skateboard. I particularly like that the article goes over how the core materials effect the way the wheel rolls. Really great information! Ive been out of the loop for over 15 years. Im building skates soon and this was really helpful. I will probably buy my wheels from you guys. Thanks, Shaun. We no longer sell products and are instead turning into just a site for great skate information.
If you would like to help us out, please be sure to use our Amazon Affiliate link when shopping. Any commissions we earn helps us continue to maintain our site.
Wow what a great site. I Have lung disease and need a really light pair of skates. Have aggressive inline skates that have worn 3 times! Wrong skates! Not bricks on my feet like now!! I can just about Skate…. Problem is we may try outdoors too! Told about them three wheel extra extra big wheeled skates quite new out that are light and indoor and out. Any ideas? Thanks Jeff. Hi Joreeder — Thank you for stopping by the site.
I am so happy to hear that you are pushing yourself into skating. Your story is very inspiring. I love your determination! You can do it! Aggressive inline skates are usually much lighter in weight than quads. If you are going for an inline skate, than the Struts above or the VNLA Carbon are good and both pretty light for the price. The only problem is that these skates are really advanced, so if you are not a great skater, I would NOT recommend them.
They take a lot of patience and great balance to get good at them. Plus, they can really put a lot of pressure on your ankles you are skating on a thin wheel diameter. This can make even a good quad skater like me still be pretty shaky, and I too was only on them a few times before I went back to my quads. They were just too much work for me.
For quads, I would go with a nylon core wheel as opposed to a metal core which weighs more. These new Atom Savant roller derby wheels look really promising. They only weigh 68 grams a piece. I may have to get myself a set soon to try them out. If you are building your own skate, then next I would go with a nylon plate as they are lighter than aluminum.
Nylon is cheap and so you will find them on many skate packages you find online. If you want more of a personal touch and want someone to build the skate for you, I would checkout someplace like Medusa Skates which we have here in Austin. They specialize in roller derby skates and many roller derby skaters want a light pair of skates. They are well known in my area for being knowledgeable and friendly. Plus, their big advantage is they have a brick-and-mortar storefront so you can try on a skate before you buy it.
You can literally pick every piece of your skate. However, I would call them and see if they will work with you to customize it just right. You may have to try a couple of different boots before you decide on your custom skate order. The weight of the wheel is a factor not so much in comparison to the weight of the skate but more so because it will be rotating while in use.
Thanks for stopping by Jai. It really depends on the kind of skating she is doing. If she is just starting out, any 8 wheels will do just fine. For outdoors, I like the Pulse Outdoor wheels. They are softer and so good for any bumpy terrains you may encounter outdoors. I am a Jam Skates and I have been doing so for 5 years and skating for like 18 years. I was told I have been skating wrong for Jam Skating. I enjoy going fast but now I want to go slower more smooth and controlled I weigh lbs.
I consider myself and expert on wheels. My skate wheels are smaller and I have tons of speed but I want to slow it down and work on controlled spins and dancing as I skate around the rink; not just stationary in the middle dancing. Hi Elijah — Thanks for rolling by. I love my smaller As, too. They are lightning fast and small, so I understand what you mean. A lot of speed is based on durometer — how hard the wheel is — and surface. If you go with a softer durometer, you are going to go slower.
If you go harder, you are going to go faster with less effort. They tend to be in the 91AA range. They also are wider than my wheels at 42mm. A wider wheel and more surface may also help you out. We have a couple of folks from the Vanilla Pro Jam Team who frequent our rink from time-to-time.
I will see if I can get some recommendations from them the next time I see them. I will write a follow up for you. I will say that this is the most comprehensive compilation on skate information that I have ever seen.
Thank you so much for the effort that you have put into it. Thank you so much, Fred. You are why I am here. I love researching topics that I love, and I adore roller skating. I appreciate your kind words. I am 43 and I sure hope I am skating with my grandchildren in 35 years.
Keep on skating and thanks for rolling by to say hi! Hi i am from india. My daughter is 9 and Half and she is using Lowboys 95A quad wheel for Competition. She performs well on synthetic track with timing of around Recently she participated in one of the competition where track was cemented and on little rough side. Tack was painted with normal paint. With the same wheel she could get a time of plus 1. Can you suggest what type wheel to be used on different surfaces. Thanks for rolling by Atul.
A 95A sounds about right for speed skating. For speed, you want the hardest wheels possible that you can control on the surface you are skating on. The harder the wheel, the more speed.
But a harder wheel also means more slip, less grip. I would imagine the biggest problem on rough cement is choppiness or a bouncing feeling. Every time I have skated on rough cement or asphalt, I have felt a bit jolted. My best advice for today is to experiment a little.
If she is complaining about bouncing or too much choppiness, then a softer durometer wheel is the way to go…but not for speed! You want as hard of a durometer as you can control for speed. Thanks for the question and best of luck to your daughter in her future competitions!
I bought some skates with speed wheels and they feel too heavy, sticky and bulky but they are fast. But, it really depends on the skater. Do you know what durometer your wheels are? If you are doing mostly indoor skating, you can get away with a hard wheel on most surfaces. For my fun rink skating, I use the hardest wheel I can find. Roller Bones Elite is my current favorite quad wheel.
It is a narrow, super hard, slick and very light wheel. They are super slick. But they are really light and super fun to skate on. If you are more into speed skating and want a hard wheel, then I recommend the Hyper Cannibal speed skate wheels. These are the ones I use at speed skate practice. They are a 98A. Again, not for slick surfaces. But, if you are on a tight wood floor, then they are a great wheel. They are a speed skate wheel, so the wheel is much wider than the Roller Bones Elite.
Hi My son is 4 year old and is good in indoor skating on quads … I want him to go for outdoor too. His weight his 13 kg and height 3 feet 2 inch and using skates of 17 cm long ……. Please recommend when should he go for inline …..
And if to continue with quads then please recommend which skates for both indoor and outdoor ……. As far as inlines go, I think once they have enough ankle strength they are good to go. You were smart to start him on quads.
Both are a super soft wheel that make them perfect for outdoors. I hope you two have a great time skating together! Hi Jeff! I just started roller skating again after 20 years away from it. I still have my 45 year old skates with their 8 red wheels so I used them to see how it would go. In my opinion, next to boot comfort, the wheels are the most important thing on the skate.
Have fun out there skating. The bearings I use for most of my wheels is the Bones Super Reds. They are a good steel bearing that roll better than most I have used straight out of the box. I hope you have a great time skating! Perfect article to get detail information about the roller skate wheels. I am a skater and searching for good long lasting roller skate wheels via online. After read this article I came to know about the parameters which could be considered while selecting perfect roller skate wheel.
Here you have also mentioned the highest priority parameter in a descriptive way which is also beneficial for a person who has no knowledge about roller wheel. Before buying the best skate shoes, I have followed the buying guide. Now after reading this buying guide, I am very much confident about roller wheel and I think I will buy best product for me.
If you liked the article, be sure to check out the podcast. I give even more details there. Just click on the Podcast link in the main menu. Thank you for all of the free information. You truly love roller skating! If so, what are the best options?
Thanks ahead of time! Hi Elisa — If you are trying to do both indoor and outdoor skating, then you could do well with a mid-range wheel.
If you are skating outdoors on smooth concrete think tennis court , then you could get by with a harder wheel in the A range or even harder depending on how good your balance is. Next, if you are doing artistic dance waltz, foxtrot, etc.
RollerBones Elite is a good artistic wheel and is the one I prefer. You can find a write up of it here. It would NOT be good for outdoors, though. In that case, I recommend 2 sets of wheels. Let me know what surface you are skating on and what type of dance you are doing. That will help. I previously owned a pair on inline skates with 74mm wheels and found that these were a good size but found that it was really difficult if there were any small rocks in my way and I felt like it was hard to not trip over them.
Instead I ended up purchasing a different set of inline skates with 84mm wheels and are 83a hardness. Can you recommend a wheel size that would be better for my balance and not so quick to build up speed, while also easier to roll over small rocks in my path. What hardness were your 74mm wheels? When roller skating outdoors, softer wheels just do better.
And small pebbles are relatively speaking easier to go over in softer wheels. Your legs will also thank you for it as harder wheels shake your legs a whole lot more than softer wheels. Also, the taller a wheel is the harder it is to balance on it. This is especially true with inline wheels.
As the inline wheel gets taller, it typically also gets narrower, making it even harder to balance on. The taller the wheel, the longer it will take to get the speed of the wheel up, but also the faster and longer it will roll once you get it going.
This is why inline speed skaters wear taller wheels — usually somewhere between mm and mm. If you are having balance issues on inline skates, I would definitely recommend that you go with the shortest wheel you can find.
Also, make sure your inline skate boot rollerblade goes up over your ankle and part of your calf. You want your boot to help support you. I think you were on the right track with the 74mm wheels. They will be easier to balance on than the 84mm. I found a Labeda 72mm inline wheel on Amazon that is an 84A. There are a couple of them out there. I even found a Bauer Hockey wheel that is 76A and only 59mm tall.
Just remember that a shorter, softer wheel will be slower. Softer is also better for outdoors, especially if you want control. Shorter wheels also give you more control. So, I would look for a shorter, softer wheel when you can based on what you are trying to do on your skates outdoors.
What an incredibly helpful article! Thank you! I picked up an old pair of roller skates at a thrift shop a few weeks ago and have been cleaning them up and seeing what I can do with them. I am currently working on cleaning up the wheels and something has me puzzled. Thanks to your article, I now know that my wheels are 54mm in diameter and 32mm wide; they have hollow cores, square lips, and no tread on the contact patch. Do you have any idea what these numbers mean? Are they supposed to go in certain positions i.
Hi Hope — thanks for stopping by. I have not come across wheels with different numbers like that on the back. Maybe someone else reading these comments has seen that before. Those are some pretty tiny wheels, though. Send me a photo of it when you get a chance. I have some year old Rollerblades with 70 mm diameter wheels hardness is unknown, the wheels literally fell apart over time so I can barely see inscriptions; but they are definitely outdoor.
I want to just exchange them bearings and spacers are in good shape , but it seems that nowadays more wheels come in 72 mm and higher diameters. Do you think it is possible to insert 72 mm in my originally mm roller skates? Lots of thanks in advance! You should look to see how much additional room you have in diameter on your rollerblades.
I know with some of the inline skates that my daughter has I stupidly thought I could just go from a mm to mm and learned the hard way that they were not going to fit. When you have the 70mm wheels in the roller blades, check to see the distance between the top of the wheel and the plate. If you have the extra 1mm space most likely you do , then you should be good to go. Best of luck and happy skating! This great article was written in and you are still answering each of the comments.
That is very good to see and it seems you updated the article recently because the earlier one was a bit different…. This was super helpful. Skating is my main source of cardio and I am looking at roller skating as an option since I have some good socially distanced space outdoors. Gotta get the skating in somehow. Stay safe everyone. Thank you soooooo much. With all your explanations I will be able to buy to correct wheels for them.
Thank you again. Hi, thank you for your wonderful site and this incredible article. The extreme slippery floors would work only with the softest wheels? But also, are the softest ones good for jam dancing? What is the very ideal durometer for the jam skating? What size length and width do I need? Thank you and take care! They are one of the leaders in jam skates and make some pretty good jam skating wheels. My favorite outdoor wheels are the Atom Pulse.
Great article. One thing I noticed missing in the discussion about bearings is axel size. I was looking into new bearings recently and discovered my skates have 7 mm axles and the standard today, every place I looked, are 8mm.
We called these oversized back in the 70s. I have Douglas Snyder plates. My concern is wheel height and width. I do not want them rubbing my boot. Any suggestions? As a pivot I need to be able to execute a wide variety of moves and change from blocking to jamming in an instant and the Savants are very responsive, light, and just about all I could ask for in a derby wheel. So, good pick! My Dad uses Powell Roller Bones Elite Wheels which come in four different colors, two different hardnesses, and two different wheels sizes.
On the flip side, the featherweights of the derby world might want to seek out slightly softer wheels that will help provide the grip that their weight does not. The chart on the left is a good place to start but remember that nothing beats lacing 'em up and trying it out for yourself. For more information watch: Wheels Durometer.
All derby wheels have two important size measurements attached to them, height and width , measured in millimeters. Most wheel specifications will list size as "height x width," so when you see "62x38mm," the wheel is 62mm tall and 38mm wide. These two numbers will each have their own significant impact on the wheel's performance.
Shorter wheels, those with a smaller diameter, are able to accelerate faster than taller wheels. The benefit of taller wheels is that it takes less effort to maintain those speeds. Most indoor wheels are either 59mm or 62mm, while many outdoor wheels are even taller for easy cruising in the great outdoors. How wide a wheel is will determine how much the wheel favors either balance or agility.
Narrower wheels, those around 38mm and slimmer, enhance maneuverability and help prevent clipping wheels with other skaters. A wide wheel will traditionally measure between 40mm and 44mm. Due to a larger amount of contact with the ground, these are more stable. Now that you have a rough idea of what durometer you want as well as the ideal wheel size for you and your skating ability, you could pick out a wheel with confidence that will serve you well.
However, there is much more to any wheel than just the black and white measurements, such as the hub. The hub is the plastic or alloy component in the middle of the wheel that houses the bearings. One of the most under-appreciated traits of any derby wheel is the shape and depth of its edges. This is because nearly every skating action you make will engage those edges, so how they respond will have a great impact on how the wheel performs.
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