Wheel size on the Bravoblade GL
William duPont
wheels and was wondering if my skates can handle a larger size. I
started with 70mm's (by the way the wheels that came with these skates
sucked) and moved to 72mm's. I seemed to wear these out fairly quickly
and as I was also looking for more speed I moved up to 76mm's. Now I
seem to be ready for another move in size but I am not sure if the skate
will handle them.
This some what leads in to my next question. I seem to wear down my
wheels very quickly. My 72mm's were Hyper (82A's). They were good
wheels but were hurting after ten to twelve sessions of ten to fifteen
miles each. Is this normal? I weigh about 200lbs and am a straight
forward recreational skater. I skate on a fairly smooth surface around a
park and I think that I have decent form even though I have really only
been skating since Christmas. Do I need to be prepared to drop $60 on
wheels every six weeks?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Will
Shooshie
<wi...@atlanta.com> wrote:
I don't know the maximum size that the Bravoblade will handle. If you can
get them to hold a size 80mm, then you'd be better off. If not, then you
might try the X-360 Cross-Fit by Hyper. It comes in a 77.5mm size with a
durometer of 82A. It is a hard wheel, made out of the same urethane that
giants are made of. At your weight, you probably are best off with the
harder wheels - up to 84A, such as the Hyper Power Edge street hockey
wheel, which comes in 76mm maximum size. As I have posted elsewhere in the
past few days, the Hyper Shock is one of the best wheels made, and comes
in 76mm or 80mm, with three durometers up to 81A.
Since your skates are 8 wheel skates, you should not be having to pay $60
for a good set of wheels. In the neighborhood of $50 is more like it. And
yes, they really do wear quickly. Things you can do to preserve your wheel
life are:
1)No powerslides or hockey stops
2)Minimize the use of T-stops and use your brake instead
3)Practice skating moves on old wheels, and use your new wheels only for
straight-ahead skating.
4)Perfect your strokes so that your wheels are sliding minimally when you skate
5)Rotate wheels each time you skate. They won't wear less, but they will
preserve their profile longer.
6)Distribute your weight more evenly across all wheels rather than just
digging your heel all the time.
7)Avoid skating 100% on the inside edge. Try use inside, outside, and
center edges when you skate to even up the wear.
One other trick would be to get a superhard wheel - 85A or greater for the
heel, and the wheels of your choice (but at least 80A) for the other
positions. They need to be the same size, of course.
Shooshie
Darklord
Will, I have almost exactly the same situation as you do. I weigh
bout the same as you (197 lbs) and have size 12 Bravoblades GL.
Well, the bad news is that Bravos will only handle 76mm wheels and no more.
Also, I skate mostly (or only) in the park but I do some tricks like a
little jumping, some spinouts, etc, nothing major. The problem is that I
feel that Bravoblades GL anre no comfy. My foot tends to twist and turn
this way and that ESPECIALLY on 76 mm wheels. THey proved themselves to
be durable though, even though I have lost some of the control I had on
my 70 mm originals that lasted bout 4 weeks and died... Well, I have
Hyper Superlites 2 76/82A . They are strong wheels but have bad grip on
the ground, slide a lot, but are durable. If I were you I would actually
go down and not up. Try a harder wheel, like 85A but in 72mm (I wonder if
Kryptonics would be good or Fat Boys).... Otherwise you might need to
get new skates that can accomodate bigger wheels.
Another point though, instead of getting new wheels get yourself
ABEC-3 or 5 bearings. THe original Bearings that Rollerbalde puts inside
the
skates are NOT too good (understatement)... FOr the past two weeks I have
been trying to decide if I want to dish out 20 bucks for the new bearings
or wait till ABEC-5 become cheaper... SOMEONE PLEASE RPLY TO THE LAST
SENTENCE :) ....
Lemme know what you decided to do.
On 16 Jul 1995, William duPont wrote:
> I have a set of Bravoblade GL (size twelve). I am currently using 76mm
> wheels and was wondering if my skates can handle a larger size. I
> started with 70mm's (by the way the wheels that came with these skates
> sucked) and moved to 72mm's. I seemed to wear these out fairly quickly
> and as I was also looking for more speed I moved up to 76mm's. Now I
> seem to be ready for another move in size but I am not sure if the skate
> will handle them.
>
> This some what leads in to my next question. I seem to wear down my
> wheels very quickly. My 72mm's were Hyper (82A's). They were good
> wheels but were hurting after ten to twelve sessions of ten to fifteen
> miles each. Is this normal? I weigh about 200lbs and am a straight
> forward recreational skater. I skate on a fairly smooth surface around a
> park and I think that I have decent form even though I have really only
> been skating since Christmas. Do I need to be prepared to drop $60 on
> wheels every six weeks?
> Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
> Will
>
>
>
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________________________________________________________________________________
William T. Smith
>
>
> Will, I have almost exactly the same situation as you do. I weigh
>bout the same as you (197 lbs) and have size 12 Bravoblades GL.
>Well, the bad news is that Bravos will only handle 76mm wheels and no more.
> Another point though, instead of getting new wheels get yourself
>ABEC-3 or 5 bearings. THe original Bearings that Rollerbalde puts inside
>the
>skates are NOT too good (understatement)... FOr the past two weeks I have
>been trying to decide if I want to dish out 20 bucks for the new bearings
>or wait till ABEC-5 become cheaper... SOMEONE PLEASE RPLY TO THE LAST
>SENTENCE :) ....
>
BravoBlades size 12 WILL take 80mm wheels. You have to perform a slight
modification though. The only thing preventing 80mm wheels are to little
notches at the rear inside portion of the frame. These notches perform no
useful purpose and are probably intended for production purposes. What you
need to do is get yourself a file, or rough sandpaper, and grind them off.
After that your skates will have no problem with 80mm wheels.
One note on wheels though, if you weigh 200lbs. you might not want to get 81A
wheels. You'll probably wan't them to be a little harder (Try Labeda wheels,
mail order).
Oh, and yes, the Bravo bearings SUCK!!!! Any ABEC-3 or ABEC-5 bearing sould
be a good replacement. If you grind though you probably 1) don't need ABEC-5
bearing. 2) Will tear them up anyway. Try Killerbee ABEC-3. Some of them have
plastic retainer rings, that should preclude them from breaking.
------------------------
William T. Smith
smi...@cs.purdue.edu