Which Wheels?

If you haven’t rollerbladed since you were in primary school, you could be forgiven for thinking that they’re pretty simple. Four wheels in a line on the bottom of some shoes…  Not much to it, right? 

Not so!  Skaters have figured out a bunch of different setups for their wheels—some for aggressive skating on rails and benches, others to maximize speed or turning angles. Serious skaters can change up their setup based on where they’re going or what their mood is.  

The first question is…

How many wheels? 

Freestyle Wheel setups have just two (~80mm) wheels at the front and back of the skate, allowing easy grinding without wheels getting in the way. 

Tri-Skate setups use three large wheels (from 110mm to 125mm) in order to give skaters increased speed and turning ability.  Since you’re higher off the ground and have less wheels down, you’ll feel a bit less stable on your skates. 

4 Wheel setups are the standard, keeping skaters lower to the ground and more stable.  With four wheels, though, there’s a lot of freedom to use different sizes and combinations to get different results.  

To rocker or not to rocker?  

(Or to anti-rocker?)

A Flat setup is exactly what it sounds like: you’ve got four wheels, all the same size and all on the ground at the same time.  You can enjoy skating perfectly fine with a simple, flat setup, but there’s certain things you’ll only be able to pull off with a…

Front Rocker setup, which has a slightly smaller wheel in the front position. This will give you more agility when turning, because you’re only on three wheels, but help keep you stable when going over bumps and shit.  

You’ll go a little bit slower with a full rocker than a flat setup because your front wheel won’t be helping you push off. 

A Full Rocker setup takes the above to 11.  You use smaller wheels at both the back and the front, making it possible to turn on a dime.  Street hockey players and artistic skaters use this setup. 

Finally, aggressive skaters use an Anti-Rocker Setup, which puts two small wheels in between two larger wheels.  This is another way of making it easier to get air and grind.  Many aggressive setups even have an upside-down v in between the two wheels.

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There’s a lot more to inline skating than meets the eye.  After all, it’s an urban sport and not just a pastime for kids. 

What setup do you wanna get?