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cgin6

Wheel setups

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I know that not everyone believes in having wheels of varying hardness but for those that do, I was hoping they could explain the logic behind having softer front wheels and harder back wheels.

My understanding is that softer wheels help increase a wheels contact patch when cornering, and harder wheels have better rebound and are good for increased speed. However, when I break down my skating (ice at least), I find that when I am cornering my weight is on my heels and when I am skating straight, my weight is primarily over the balls of my feet. Would this make the back wheels more important to turning and the front wheels more important for speed? Would it now make sense for the softer wheels to be on the back and the harder ones at the front (for simplicity I am ignoring any benefit of increasing contact patch for acceleration)? Or am I thinking about this the wrong way, and the real objective of having soft wheels in the front, hard in the back, is to even out the contact patch of each wheel in comparison to each other during weight transfer ie, by having hard wheels in the back and soft in the front, when you corner the contact patch of each wheel on the ground are more similar.

Anyone have more input?

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Of course it goes by what you feel, but with a standard high/low set up with wheels of identical material, you already have additional grip on the back wheels which are either 80mm or 76 mm depending on which wheel set up you have. The larger diameter already gives you a "larger patch" on the rear with which to sustain grip.

Because most inlines are not rockered, this allows you to keep "four on the floor" for maximum grip when turning. For maximum performance at the Pro level, this is what most are using...not the rocker or Mission's vibe.

Tour's new Beemers have 4 x 80 mm all the way across...and I would say from those I have talked to who just switched to these skates..they like the increased "push" they get and feel it results in better speed. No doubt some will prefer the std. Hi/Lo design still..and this difference is what makes life interesting.

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