hockeydad3

Finally I could order some RinkRat Trickster X 84a dual pour wheels. My first impression is that they are amazing. They are faster than my used Labedas, and have more grip and are more agile than the centurion 82a-84a-84a-82a setup. They have the best rebound of the tested wheels. They are too new to talk about the durability yet.

I have a similar issue with pain on my whole footsoles after ten to fifteen minutes on the ice. I have no problems with a shifting period of two minutes for about one hour. I tried allmost all kinds of skates and insoles on the market. The cause seems to be a mixture of fit (skate/insole), tight laces, my bodyweight, flat feet, lack of fitness, my age and my sense of balance. Very supportive and good fitting skates, tightening the laces less tight, cutting out the archsupport area of a stock insole and skating for over three years made the pain less prominent. But the pain still exists, sometimes more, sometimes less. Learning to skate at the age of fifty can be a long way to go.

Which outdoor wheels do you like most for unpainted concrete and smooth asphalt (outdoor hockey rinks in summer)? I´m 96kg and used Hyper Pro 150 83a(too slow), labeda asphalt 85a 4x80mm, they are fast and have a great wear resistance but lost the grip after a month and some weeks in the next season. Now I´m on prime centurio 82a/84a, bought at the end of last season. Our season (no locker room, no contact, 1,5m distance, max. 20 people and outdoor) will start in one week. If I´m not lucky with the centurios, which wheels should I try? I could get these wheels: Konixx Rocket 2x Revision Asphalt Pro RinkRat Trickster x 84a Base Sudden Death 84a Hyper Pro 250 84a Labeda Asphalt 83a Any experiences or suggestions? I´m searching for the perfect mix of speed and grip, not the cheapest or most durable wheels. 😉

My Zeus with the 3x100mm/215mm frame and the 50mm lower hockeyboot is more agile than your zoom. But if you can´t use the agility because of a significant lack of stability in gaming situations, than the 4x80mm setup is the better choice for you. And my skating abilities are far away from Bill Stoppard. It was part of the IIHF regulations some years ago. I have Bauer Supreme 6.5 D hockeyskates, the Next is a little bit narrower in the heel an has way more room in the midfoot/toe area and the Zeus(Powerslide) is between them. I even coudn´t slip into Vapors.

I own a Reign Zeus (3x100mm/215mm, 4x80mm/243mm frames) and a Powerslide Next (3x110/243mm, 4x90mm/273mm frames). The Next is comparable to your Zoom, only the boot is 10mm higher. For inlinehockey on a smooth and clean concrete(outdoor hockey rink in summer) I prefer the Zeus because of the manueverability and weight. For urban djungle I prefer my Next because of the stability. On both skates i didn´t like the three wheel setup in case of stability issues, giving me the feeling like beeing on stilts. The rachets could be a risk of injury compared to a hockey-inlineskate. Maybe the official regulations require s special hockeyinlineskate like a hockeyskate for icehockey.

I´m owning the Powerslide Next inlineskate. The fit of the boot is ok for me after widening the instep of the shell with a heatgun. In Bauer skates i´m fitting best into Supremes 6.5D, but missing the depth of Nexus-boots. The feeling of the Next 40/41(it seems that a lot of hardshell inlineskatesboots have multisize-shells with different liners) is a bit tighter in the heel and wider in the forefoot than my Supremes and shoudln´t be smaller. Maybe you could find a comparison between Next and FR boots. I had been giving the triskates two chances. First try have been my inlinehockeyskates Reign Zeus with a 3x100mm 215mm frame which i had to downgrade to 4x80mm 243mm frame because of stability and acceleration issues and second the Powerslide Next with a 3x110mm 243mm frame downgrading to a 4x90mm 273mm frame because of stability, hillclimbing and stopping issues. The three-bigwheel-design has advantages like speed and maneuverability but you have to be a decent skater in good condition and skate on a skating track with no hidden obstacles. My hockey inliners are great on a clean and smooth hockey rink but not supportive enough for me to skate around my living area. Due to the lockdown i only can skate around on sidewalks, bicycle paths and in parks with streetcrossings, stones, little branches, bumps, curbs, kids, byciclists, dogs, cars and so on around. I could compare the 4x80mm, 3x110mm and the 4x90mm frames on my Next boots which are very comfy, supportive and reactive and the 4x90mm has the best mix of stability, speed, smoothnes of rolling and controllability for me. If the wheels on your skates are spinning for some seconds than your bearings should be ok for skating around. The quality, size(bigger wheels have lower resistance), hardness(I prefer between 85A to 88A for the street) and condition of your wheels(completely or onesided worn) and the skating style(rolling on the inside edge and not on the flat) are more of importance for the speed.

Looks nice. Could be that you get problems with vibrations. I used to have some caused by a wobbling Podest. @ all of you: 100/50 FBV seems to have the strongest bite for the best glide available. How long did it take to adjust to it if you like it? If you don't like it, could you tell me the reason why?

One week and 4 skates later: I gave the 100/50 a try. I didn't think that there would be souch a big difference. Compared to the 92/75 there is a huge improvement in glide and speed. The bite for turning is good. I´m more agile and can make tighter turns. But i definitely lost lateral and longitudenal stability and acceleration (more noticeable on bad ice). I skate on a 11´ radius and I´m 225lbs and 5´7". Any suggestions for the same glide and better stability? Or could i adjust to the new FBV over time. Did anyone of you make the same experience?

Once a week we are the last team on ice on our outdoor rink at 9pm. We don't get fresh ice and it is quite hard. On fresh ice a 92/75 FBV is good for me. Could a xx/50 or a xx/1 FBV be better for heavily used ice?

Does anyone definitely know the structural differences of the three stick variants? I thought that a high kickpoint stick has the same stiffnes from the top to the bottom.

OK. But for me it's important to go the quick and dirty way to skating. I'm 52 and want to have some fun playing basic hockey. I will never become a decent skater as my boys are. I didn't do any sports for more than 30 years and had never been on skates. So my biomechanics are not existant.

Is it just try and error or are there predicting factors for someone to buy the right skate? A typical statement is that beginners should use a softer skate. Are there beginners who need an advanced skate?

Another thread is leading me to the question of the ideal stiffness of a hockey skate. Is the ideal stiffnes of a skate only a subjective feeling or are there objective parameters to determine the right stiffnes?

Some people have the opinion that there are differences in bearings but they would not be relevant as long as they are not defective. If a wheel spins 15-20 seconds without making a noise the bearings should be ok. The spinning time tells nothing about the behavior under load. A not serviceable bearing has grease as a lubricant needing to run in for about 50km and should be warm. A serviceable oil-lubricated bearing needs almost no running in time and spins better but has to be serviced! High quality bearings (100% european/us/japan made) should have a longer livetime and can make a difference for competitive long distance speedskating. But for inlinehockey the bearings have to stand the lateral stress caused by stopping and the sudden change of directions. So high quality low ABEC/ILQ bearings could do it better than more expensive midprice highend-bearings. I had the chance to get some greased SKF-ABEC5-skate-bearings (german manufacturer, 18 euro/16 bearings, online auction) and they are going into second season outside-hockey two to three times a week without any service. But there is a big noticeable difference if you have high quality wheels beeing optimzied for your skating-style, weight, skating-surface and even the temperature of your rink. So spend your money for wheels and not for bearings.

The other guy in the lhs suggested 90/50. I was scared that it would be too shallow, but he was right. Enough bite for me. The new profile is a big improvement in stability and glide and only a little loss in agility.

I went from a 10 feet stock profile to a neutral pitch 13 feet single profile. On the 10 feet profile a 92/75 fbv was fine for me, my lhs suggestion for the new profile was 98/50 fbv. Wtf, way too sharp on medium-hard ice. Couldn´t stop at all and was cachting edges all the time. The profile itself was feeling fine for me. Bauer nexus N2900, 6.5D, 170 cm, 95Kg beginner level. Any comparable experiences/suggestions for FBV?

It is a known issue that the centerhole in the grinding wheel is slightly larger than the arbor. But this imbalance should be gone after dressing a new wheel. The fact that a wheel which was dressed by hand at very low rpm(having a smooth contact to the spinner all around) vibrates at high rpm and has the blackline-phenomenom indicates that there is a weight-imbalance in the wheel-arbor-combination. I think the maximum of the imbalance should be in the center of the black line. More experiments after i get a workbench to bolt down my x02.

This evening i had the time to make some experiments. One theory was that there could be some problems with the dressing system. So i dressed the wheel turning it by hand without vibrations. This didn´t change the black line, nor the pattern on the blade. For the second step i used much more pressure on the skate during my passes. This was a significant improvement ont the black line and the pattern on the blade, although both symptoms remained visible. So i think that my problems are caused by the remaining vibrations. I dont´t know how much the pattern influences the performance of the skates because i can´t skate myself and don´t have an adult test pilot. Maybe i try bolting it down because the metal plate shelf my machine is located tends to vibrate. By the way my little player is a fast skater, can make very tight turns and wants his skates done by his dad.

The black line changes horizontally. One third of the circumference of the wheel has a black line fading on the beginning and the end and one third has almost no line.

It´s a picture before. The spinner is spinning and not worn. The pattern gets smaller when i reduce speed and pressure and use fineshine. I can feel the vibrations getting stronger in comparison from an empty wheelholder the wheelholder with the upper nut and a wheelholder with a grinding wheel. Burns can happen if the speed is to low. When i use fineshine the black line on the wheel is not consistent.Could this mean that the wheel is not dressed equally ?

Now a picture of a goalieblade without fineshine.

Hello, let us talk about the reasons for a pattern similar to fishskin with scales. It is very hard for me to reduce the pattern on the bottom of the blade after grinding the skates of my three boys. I use a X0-2 and there is no big difference between the orange and ruby grinding wheels.It is better when i use fineshine-oil but i was never able to produce a mirror-finish. In my opinion the pattern is caused by vibrations due to imbalances of the grinding wheel, the wheel-holder and/or the driving-belt. What do you think? And what can i do against this phenomenon ?

Does anyone know how to adjust the height of the grinding wheel against the center of the spinner for an X02 ? Because the wheel is to low which is ok for player-skates but to low for goalie-skates. I used to put a thin piece of plastic under the wheel but i think this causes some whobbling.

@ nunavut "... one edge is always sharper..." Hi, I think that your holder is de-calibrated. Have a look at the wissota-Homepage for a detailed calibration-instruction: "Understand skate sharpening - 3D three dial skate holder set-up and maintenance" p.s.: I can`t quote or copy-paste anymore !?

I don´t know if i have a problem with honing the blades after grinding or not. I´m using the 220grit orange blackstone honing Stone with water. If i use an older stone the burrs are completely removed but the edge doesn´t feel very sharp. If i use a fresh stone the edges feel quite sharp but i can feel a little burr left when i use my thumbnail moving against the edge. Using the stones without water produces quite the same result. How do you hone the skates ? What kind of stones do you use ? Do you use them dry or wet or with oil ? Thanks