What is Inline Skates In 2024 (Complete Guide)
Sports lovers! We meet again to discuss What is Inline Skates? These types of Skate are used for inline skating, as evident from the name. In contrast to quad skates, inline skates have 2 to 5 five inline wheels. Inline skates also have brake blocks in the toe or heel. Brakes help the skaters to slow down or stop by leaning.
Do you know?
A generic term used for inline skates is “rollerblade.” The generic term was adopted in the 1980s and 1990s. The company Rollerblade Incorporation (founded by Scott and Brennan Olson) promoted inline staking widely under its registered trademark “Rollerblade”.
1760 it had been under experiments that there must be foot-worn skates that work like ice skating so that sports like ice skating are enjoyed in summer. In 1987 first commercially available inline Skate was introduced by Rollerblade.
If you are confused how inline skates are used and how they are constructed? Following article is going to solve all your queries.
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Important parts of the Inline Roller Skates
Inline Skate is not a simple skate; they are made up of the following parts.
1. Boot
The boot is used to provide a first grip of the foot on the wheels. Most skates are fitted with a high boot to provide more ankle support and make skating easier, especially for beginners. Speed skaters used to skate with carbon fiber boots as they provide good support to ankle being more flexible. The soft boot is fitted for recreational skating to provide a high comfort level, whereas aggressive skaters use hard/soft boots for increased support.
2. Construction Frame
The frame is built from high-grade Polyurethane for recreational skates. For low-ends, the frame can be built from another type of plastic. But, if we talk about the skates built for speed, the frames are made from Carbon Fiber or Extruded Aluminum. Frames made from Carbon Fiber or Extruded Aluminum are extremely durable and expensive.
3. Bearings
Ball Bearings are fixed in the wheels of the inline skates. Ball-bearing is added to reduce friction. Ball bearings are rated on ABEC Scale from 1 to 9 depending upon the speed they can handle. The rating of the bearing does not matter a lot for the skates as the bearing contributes about 2% of the rolling resistance. 2 Ball Bearings are used per wheel.
4. Wheels
The wheels of the skates are made up of Polyurethane which is durable plastic and lasts longer. There are different sizes of wheels used for designs of different types of skates. All of them are written below with specific wheel size:
- For aggressive skating, 44 to 72 mm wheels are used.
- For roller hockey skating, 47 to 80 mm wheels are required.
- For artistic inline skating, 68 to 72 mm wheels are used.
- For freestyle and downhill skating, 72 to 80 mm wheels are used.
- For urban skating, 70 to 90 mm wheels are used.
- For recreational skating, 72 to 100 mm wheels are used.
- For downhill inline skating, 80 to 90 mm wheels are used.
- For mushroom blading and speed skating, 100 to 125 mm wheels are used.
- For off-road skating, 125 to 150mm wheels are fixed in the skates
You will have to choose the right type of Skate with the right side of the wheel depending on what type of skating you want to enjoy.
5. Brakes/ stops
Skates are the wheels that can move you from one place to another slower or faster. Hence it becomes necessary there must be anything or mechanism to slow down or stop as the case may be.
Inline skates are fitted with a hard rubber pad fitted; either on the toe or in the heel of the Skate. If fitted on the toe, it is called Toe Stops, and if fitted in the heel, it is called heel brake.
Setups of the inline Skates
Setup of the inline skates refers to the formation and size of the wheels attached to them. This is done to enhance the utility of the Skate concerning the type of use. Following are commonly known setups of the inline skates.
1. Flat Setup
All the wheels are of the same size and touch the ground simultaneously.
2. Full Crescent rocker
This setup has a curve like ice blades. It provides the ability to change direction at sheer speed. The wheels in front and at the end are smaller than the middle wheels.
3. Front Rocker
Having a smaller wheel in the front allow the street skaters to skate on the road and the front wheel act as a guide for rear wheels.
4. Hi-Lo
Either the front two wheels are smaller than others, or the size of the wheels gradually decreases from back to front. This setup is used for sprinters.
5. TriDi Hi-Lo
This is the combination of three wheels, i.e., 72mm, 76mm, 80mm, and 76 mm. This setup enhances maneuverability in speed skates.
What is Inline Skates FAQs :
1. How many wheels should roller skate have?
Ans: A roller skate comprises 4 wheels to maintain the balance. It is ideal construction of skates.
2. How many wheels do racing inline skates have?
An: Racing inline skates have 4 inline wheels. They help to take sharp turns smoothly
3. Is it better to have 3 or 4 wheels on rollerblades?
Ans: Rollerblades have usually 2 to 5 wheels. 3-wheel Inline Skates improves he speed. But three wheels are not safe as they are less stable than the others.
4. What is better Inline Skates or Rollerblades?
Ans: Rollerblades are Inline Skates. The generic term Rollerblades was adopted for Inline Skates in the 1990s.
