Choosing The Right Wheels

Hey Guys,

So I just wanted to say sorry for the fact that I’ve taken so long to finally make my first post. I’ve been taking my time to figure out what would be an appropriate topic to talk about.

A little while ago I was playing in a drop in and broke one of my wheels and realized hey “wheels’” can be my topic. One of the most crucial things out of your equipment is your wheels. If you’re new to roller hockey this might be something you don’t even think about. I know for a fact that the first time I started playing roller hockey I had no idea that I would need specific wheels to play indoors. So when I played my first league game all I had were the stock wheels that had come with my brand new inline skates. When I took my first couple of strides on the rink I could feel my wheels slipping and losing grip on the surface that I was playing on. Throughout the entire game I had no idea what was causing me to slip as much as I was. So I talked to a few people that I knew who had been playing longer and had more experience with the game as well as consulted the staff at various hockey shops. I came to the conclusion that it was the wheels that had come with my inline skates. I realized that the hardness of your wheels played a significant part in your skating. So I took another look at my wheels and found out that there were ratings on it that told you what the hardness was. I checked the rating of the wheels I had and found that they were rated 82A which was the rating for outdoor wheels. Anyways, what I’m trying to get down to is that the softer your wheels the better the grip you’ll have on the playing surface because the softness of the wheels will dictate how well you turn. Aside from the fact that having softer wheels for playing indoors is key, there is a slight downside. The downside to having softer wheels or wheels that are too soft is that you end up trading grip for speed. This is because the softer the wheel is the slower it spins mostly because of the fact that the wheels softness makes it bend more while you move or while you make your strides which is great for corners or sharp turns. For for straight away speed having harder wheels will actually benefit you more. Although if you’re a person who isn’t going to try and blow past anyone with your speed then having softer wheels may be of an advantage to you as you will be able to maneuver better. Another thing you could do though is that you could try using a mix of different wheels on your skates. At one point I used to use softer wheels on the front and back of my skates while using harder wheels for the two middles slots to optimize for speed and control. So if you were to look at the wheels of your skates it would look like this:  S.H.H.S … which means Soft, Hard, Hard, Soft. Anyways part of all this also has to do with the brand of wheels that you use. I haven’t tried all the brands out there but I have tried a few. Personally I use Rink Rats which is usually standard on most Mid-High end Mission Skates. A couple of other good brands out there are Kryptonics Revision, Hyper and Labeda; out of those I’ve only tried Kryptonics and Labeda which are both pretty good. Rink Rats are my favourite though since I’m familiar with them and they make extremely durable and grippy wheels.

Anyways for most of you out there you probably already know all of this but for the few of you who don’t I hope this helps. I’ve also got a chart here that you can look at that may help you figure out what type of wheel rating will work best for you. You can also find charts like this on other websites that sell wheels and equipment. Oh and even though this chart below doesn’t specify it there is actually a higher rating than 80A but anything above that is usually used for outdoor play so it’s not recommended but just in case you were wondering. Alright well hopefully this helps some of you out there. If you guys have any questions or thoughts on the topic please feel free to make a comment on the blog and I’ll try to respond when I’ve got the chance.

Thanks!!

Andrew

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