Wheels chunking and cracking?

[MDE3 0]

My son will be trying a new set of Labeda x-soft wheels in the next few weeks.he has been very happy with his RR wheels, but wants to see if the newer Labedas have something to offer as well....

[kovalchuk71 212]

DONT use Rink Rat for ice court......skated in them for about 2 months and they are all cracked and nasty......kinda dissapointed as these are a replacement when the same thing happened.....im ~120 lbs and these are cracking like crazy.....:(

[Aussie Joe 0]

I can't beleive they are STILL using ice court. They used to have an ice court rink in Aus. It was so unpopular with players that it was boycotted and forced to close down in the same vein. That and it was in the middle of nowhere!.... <_< :P

I personally found the surface to be like a cheese gratter! Wheels, jerseys and skin included.

[kovalchuk71 212]

Ya, my home rink has ice court........

[olv4hky 0]

Labeda Wheels have been around longer than any other inline hockey wheel out there. Labeda has been providing wheels for the top amatuer roller hockey teams in the nation for several years now, with many of them winning all the major tournaments our sport offers. This is not a coincidence. The best players use the best equipment.

I have been playing roller hockey for 7 years now as a pro, and have chosen Labeda wheels hands down. For me it is not only an issue of the wheel. It becomes an issue of dealing with the people from these companies, travelling with these people all around the globe all year long, as well as performance capabilities. I have had a succesful journey in hockey with the support of Labeda and would play on a Dynasty wheel hands down over any other product out there.

If you are a recreational player playing indoors, get the wheel for your weight. If you are playing outdoors, don't wear indoor wheels. If you live in extreme cold/heat, my experiences tell me that would affect the compound of any wheel. If you just bought your first pair of Dynasty's 1 of the wheels chunked, well, by another one. Give them a go. You won't be dissapointed.

[monoclub 5]

olv4hky - considering you just joined and this is your first post, and that you have been financially rewarded by the company in question for many ears now, you haven't just been wheeled in here to say all of this have you? just asking...

[TourDragon91 0]

Yes I agree. Labeda has been around since the early days of roller hockey and have supplied wheels for basically all of the top teams in the country. I have tried almost every wheel and I can say Labeda is #1. Definately go with Labeda they are the best wheels out on the market.

[MANonFIRE 0]

I can't believe there was this much feedback on a defected wheel. The dynastys have been out for awhile now and all of the best players use them. If you look at a lot of the teams at NARCh you will see that a majority of them choose dynastys. They are simply the best wheel and after experimenting with other wheels I know now not to use anything else. Maybe that is why we won NARCh this yr?? :D

[KC83 2]

well, i love my dynasty wheels...

and i won't go with any other wheels... i haven't even tried any other wheels, and i know i'm going to stick with labeda, i don't think wheels get any better...

[kovalchuk71 212]

yes they do.....i love rink rat and will never go back to labeda....RR last sooooo much longer. THe reason more people are using labeda is because RR is a relatively new company and plus, if your sponsored by labeda, you cant wear RR anyway ;)

[Aussie Joe 0]

...and plus, if your sponsored by labeda, you cant wear RR anyway ;)

lol....I already pointed that out. But you did it better Kovy!

"I can't believe there was this much feedback on a defected wheel"

MANonFIRE, did the wheel flee its communist oppressors or something?

[MANonFIRE 0]

Yeah, It sounds like you have been watching the presidential debates way too much. No need for you to say anything about my posts.

Thanks guy.

[MDE3 0]

We have been using Rink Rat Hornet 78/62's for 18 months of the past two year period...with a couple of forays into other brands (Labeda Gripper Lites, x-soft..not happy; Labeda Dynasty Red, not happy; Hyper Trinity 2004's..not happy) to check and see if we found anything better, either in performance or durability. During that period we had two sets of the RR's with two different "hub" problems and one set which chunked out very early(we did recieve replacement sets for two of those)..the others (4 sets) typically lasted 3-4 months and maintained excellent grip over the period of use.

Starting today my son is trying some new Dynasty Gripper x-softs on Hum'er chassis..we will see...intial impression was there is not much difference in the grip(both are excellent) or a significant loss or gain in speed(vs the 78/62 Hornets)...durability we shall see.....They will be used only on Sport Court or similar..(no ice court or wood) The last set of Rink Rats are 3 months old, and are starting to show cracking and fraying, but still gripping fine, however in fairness as they were getting older they were used on wood 5-6 times..which will definitely accelerate the wear.

For those who wonder..we are not biased..and if the new Labeda Dynasty's perform equally to the Rink Rats' we will be happy to say so..its always good for us customers to have fierce competition between suppliers.(I say "we" because I pay for the damn things)

[STLtour85 0]

Go Rinkrat and never look back... Only wheel that does not chunk.

as far as reffing and playing goes, i have seen far more rinkrat wheels chunking and "blowing out" than any other wheels. i referee 3-4 nights a week, and spend 6-7 hours a week playing..

rinkrat wheels use 3 pieces. well call them the innercore (just like a labeda) the outer core (soft), and the urathane outside..unless the pour on these wheels is PERFECT in 2 stages, the soft outercore and the urathane outside are going to rub against each other after about 20-25 hours of playing full tilt. (yes, i have used rinkrats) that friction is what makes the wheel chunk or blowout..

i know that labeda milleniums use one pour..they have the harder innercore, then the urathane. anyone who doesnt believe me, cut a rinkrat wheel in half and tell me what you see. just the numbers make more sense. there are more chances for mistake or human error on 2 pours than 1. go with the labeda's... ;)

[Jim A 4]

c'mon now ..Tour and Labeda have been joined at the hip for a number of years...i know you, TD, and the rest of them like em..and are used to them..perfectly cool..and is that Oliver David out here as well..man..

experience is different for everyone..and there is a variety of levels of play on this board..

as for pour's gone wrong..we used to have a Labeda TLS wheel (speed wheel) in our shop that arrived with a coin inside it!!!..someone was a dime short that day at the toll booth. speaking on the quality control issue since you were discussing wheel pour's..as a retailer, I had to swap out more Dynasty wheels this year on OEM/Retail skates than anything else ever...know what having to replace a poor pair of Dynasty's with Trinity's does to your profit margin?

my own experience is that I used Millenium's for a long time..and just kind of dealt with the fact that I was going to go through them quick at my size..however, it was hard for many of us typical Labeda users to find wheels consistently last year.so i tried something new..

I did pick up a pair in March, Hornet's, to see what all the talk was about, used them in leagues at C2C, bunch of pickup at Irvine, etc..even gave a pair of Hot Shot's to a kid out in Cali who's notorious for breaking stuff, and they held up under him for a good 6-7 weeks, truly a record..

..those same wheels lasted me from the time i rec'd them..(march?) until the skates were recently stolen out of my car (oct)..and i never get wheel wear like

that..so for me the switch was worth it..and i'll spend the little bit of extra cash on the 'Rats because the durability is worth it...

[Jackal3688 0]

As far as my chunked up wheels go, Labeda just sent me a brand new full set of dynasties. My team gets discounts through rink rats, and specially made hot shots for our team, but I still choose to skate on labeda for the time being. I havent had any problems, other than this defect wheel, so i figure why switch until i run into a problem? Also, Labeda was great with their customer service as well.

[RINK RAT 15 0]

Gentleman, Great conversation. I actually received a phone call to have a peek at this post, can you believe that.

Let me address a few issues, the first is the comment that we copied labeda's wheel... We own 2 patents on our wheel. That means we own the technology. Thats all I'm going to say about that.

Number 2 As far as the gentleman who made the comment that all the winning teams wear labeda well thats False. I remember Team Rink Rat winning $90,000

over the past 18 months winning back to back PRO SERIES championships at Torhs and winning Narch Pro at Teco in 2003.... Keeping in mind we didn't play at Narch this year. going 21-0-1 undefeated in the process over the time period.

The only reason this was brought up is because not all championship teams wear Labeda.

GER, send me your address again and I will personally send you out a replacement set.

And finally, there are plenty of wheel companies out there. Choose the wheel that is right for you. We feel we have the best product but in the end you the consumer and player need to make the decision that is right for you.

Again, great conversation, keep up the chatter and if you need to talk with me directly you know where to reach me...

Later boys

Hunter

[Jackal3688 0]

Sorry about that everyone.. Didnt mean to create a huge debate or anything ;) . But the people at Labeda have kindly replaced not only that one wheel, but they supplied me with a whole new set of wheels. Thanks to labeda on that one. As for rink rat, I am not doubting that they make quality wheels. From what I can tell for the most part, rink rats are great, and they are a great company. No disrespect, but like RINK RAT 15 said, choose the wheel that is right for you. I seemed to like dynasties and I only ran into that one problem with that one defect wheel. And Labeda sending me a whole new set of wheels makes me respect them alot more as a company. I like to try new things, as I'm sure most people on this site do, it all just comes down to what you can get and for how much. Of course, if anyone would like to send me a set of rink rats for free, I would be more than happy to try them out lol :D .

[cgin6 0]

Just thought I'd add in my 2 bits. I bought 4 sets of RR Hot Shots for myself and 3 team mates last season and after 3 months of once a week hockey on sportcourt each set had wheels which failed. I am not experienced with upper end wheels but I was expecting much more from what ive heard from other people on the msg board.

Im not sure about if this is normal, but the wheels that I were sent from the Canadian distributer all had significantly large air bubbles in them and they started showing wear after only 3 uses. Please tell me if the air bubbles are expected or if they are unusual, perhaps it is an indicator of a defect. And if this is true, then maybe I am off base with my assessment of the wheel. To their credit, the wheels did have absolutely phenomenal grip up until the end.

The worst part of all of this was not my own wheels falling apart but the fact that I had convinced 3 of my team mates to try this brand which was new to our part of Canada. They didnt hold me accountable but I did feel responsible. I emailed Mike about my concerns after the first indications of the wheels showing premature wear (about a month after receipt) and unfortunately I got no reply. Anyways, I hope everyone elses wheel luck is better than mine.

C

[MDE3 0]

"after 3 months of once a week hockey on sportcourt each set had wheels which failed."

"all had significantly large air bubbles in them"

First...are you sure it was sport court and not ice court (looks pretty similar, and I think ice court was more commonly used in Canada than sport court..as it allows an ice arena to "flood through" the floor)? Ice court is notoriously hard on wheels due to the small perforations in the floor.

Most RR wheels I have seen do have one bubble in them..I also thought this was a defect, but I think it must just be some sort of manufacturing leftover from the pour....the failures my son has seen with the RR wheels(one set failed that we recieved as a "freebee" from a source outside RR that we later found out were factory rejects) did not seem related to these bubbles...

As I state earlier..we had 4 good sets which each lasted about 4 months and maintained grip right up till we changed them....in fact my son could have kept on using them as they had not yet failed, but started looking pretty ratty, so he changed them to be sure they didn't come apart in a game situation. His usage was 3 -5 times /week playing pro/semi-pro league and some tournament hockey.

We are currently trying the Labeda Millenium "Pros" which came on a set of Beemers...about 2 -3 weeks now but not much serious hockey yet...so far so good.

[Eazy_b97 1]

as least in my general area Sport court took over. I played once out west on Ice court, and once on Spider court, but its been all sport court/ painted concrete for the past 5+ years.

[MDE3 0]

It could certainly have happend..we also know others who got some of the "bad batches" and will never use the RR wheels again....we have been more fortunate.

Just curious...I have heard about a lot of failures with the Red Dynasties, but have not heard so many about the Dynasty pro's .....supposedly just a different color scheme but otherwise identical. Some people who that I know who are in a position to see the failures have noticed the same thing ...anybody else?

[cgin6 0]

Just thought I'd add in my 2 bits. I bought 4 sets of RR Hot Shots for myself and 3 team mates last season and after 3 months of once a week hockey on sportcourt each set had wheels which failed. I am not experienced with upper end wheels but I was expecting much more from what ive heard from other people on the msg board.

Im not sure about if this is normal, but the wheels that I were sent from the Canadian distributer all had significantly large air bubbles in them and they started showing wear after only 3 uses. Please tell me if the air bubbles are expected or if they are unusual, perhaps it is an indicator of a defect. And if this is true, then maybe I am off base with my assessment of the wheel. To their credit, the wheels did have absolutely phenomenal grip up until the end.

The worst part of all of this was not my own wheels falling apart but the fact that I had convinced 3 of my team mates to try this brand which was new to our part of Canada. They didnt hold me accountable but I did feel responsible. I emailed Mike about my concerns after the first indications of the wheels showing premature wear (about a month after receipt) and unfortunately I got no reply. Anyways, I hope everyone elses wheel luck is better than mine.

C

This is an update to my wheel situation. I spoke with the people at Rink Rat and told them of the problem I had encountered with their wheels. They said they would take care of me and they followed through with their promise. I am extremely pleased with the customer service I received at Rink Rat and I feel as though I speak for all of us when I say that these sorts of positive experiences with equipment companies goes a long way. When making my purchasing decisions in an increasingly competitive field of equipment design and manufacturing, knowing of a company which will stand by their product and back it up with action instead of words, has a huge impact on my ultimate decision. The good vibes do get around. Much respect to the people at Rink Rat.

C

[shelton 0]

hey

i see you are all in favor in the rink rats wheels. have baught a brand new pair of rink rat hornets 2 weeks ago an i was in a game on saturday and as i turned the rubber on the wheel came off the inner plastic part. now i knoe that isn't suposed to happen. but with all respects i showed the makers and i got refunded with 2 new sets of rink rat hornets and hot shots :o

[stevoc 0]

I am adding this comment only because I recently experienced my first wheel chunking. I have a set of Labeda Millenium's x-soft (purples) that I've used about once a week for the last 6 months. I just noticed last week that one 72mm and one 80mm wheel are splitting close to the center seam.

I add this because I have tried R.R.'s earlier and had a little trouble adjusting to the feel of them. But, overall, they have outlasted the labeda's listed above with about the same use.

Just my 2 cents...love hearing everyone experiences.....keep it going. :D