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I took my very aged rollerblades out yesterday to accompany my 4 and 6 year old on their bikes. (We’re in central London, they’re too young to be on the road and I won’t cycle on the pavement.)
As a family outing it worked pretty well until two of my wheels seized and the buckles on one boot stripped the threads.
Any advice on what to buy these days and where from? The world seems to have moved on somewhat in 15 years. 3 wheels? Different kinds of brakes?
Decathlon do some for about £45 or so if you just want them for occasional use
www.locoskates.com
Long time skater here, that's the best place to go and they'll advise on anything you want.
A pair of Bauer vapours with the hi-lo wheel set-up. These may also be highly inappropriate if it's not a smooth surface. Big wheels for outdoors?
Brakes aren't needed just gotta learn the motions of slowing down.
If you just want to roll around the streets with kids then get some lower end K2 or rollerblade recreational skates. Anything 80mm wheel plus will do.
As ever, you get what you pay for.
Thanks everyone.
Another recommendation for loco here. They are really nice guys and have a great range of skates.
I called up Loco, they were great and I've ordered a new pair of Rollerblades. Very excited to try them when they arrive. Thanks all.
Loco is a great site, very helpful.
I picked up a set of Ventro-pro's a couple of years ago along with some Sims wheels and thoroughly enjoy getting out for a skate.
Miss my Bauer Turbo's though, should never have gotten rid.
I have an old set of long framed Salomons that get used for cruising up and down the front at Weymouth. Used to be fun on a summer evening, especially on the way back after a beer or two at the far end.
Miss my Bauer Turbo’s though, should never have gotten rid.
You should see what they're going for on ebay.
I treated myself to a set of Bauer Nexus, with Sims Street Snakes and ACS 651's from Oli's Skate Shop
I was out skating the empty car parks in the first lockdown, but I'm really missing taking my daughters to our brilliant local rink which has been shut since March. I'm just hoping its not gone forever 🙁
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49922673117_de36585c81_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49922673117_de36585c81_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j4uKrp ]Early morning quads[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/14162682@N00/ ]bin lid[/url], on Flickr
Have fun skating again @sanername. I've been absolutely loving it since starting again a few years ago
They are some proper wide trucks! I would trip myself up on them
On the embankment a couple of years ago :
Roll on spring when I can skate again
@sanername what skates did you get? I'm just curious what they recommended. I've bought loads over the last 6 years since I got into skating but have slimmed down to just the 3 pairs now. At least they are cheaper than bikes!
@binners I too am worried about local rinks. Here's hoping they can come through this OK. Our local, Rollerstop is ace. During the summer we were looking for somewhere to skate so went to the Glasgow transport museum as it has a large paved area, only to find that everyone else had done the same thing. Some people would take sound systems down there and I think there were a few street hockey games that took place too. It felt like a bit of a roller party 'scene'. It was one of the better things to come out of lockdown.
Yeah, can't wait to get out myself again. I'm missing it.
The wide trucks are force of habit from my yoof when I used to skate the ramps and play street hockey. I had Bauer Turbo's with Tracker mid-track and Santa Cruz OJ's back then
@lucasshmucas - we're lucky to have a great rink in Bury. Its even got a bar so you can have a couple of beers. Beer and skates? what could possibly go wrong? 🙂
We started taking our kids at weekends and then found that if we went on midweek evenings there was a surprisingly large amount of us old school skaters there. We got to know quite a lot of people including one marvelous old bloke who's still skating in his 80's, pootling round with his headphones on listening to classical music. Hoping to be skating with him again soon
Heres the rink
https://twitter.com/BuryRollerRink/status/948130393462575104?s=20
And my skating mate Necla
rollerblades = shoes of shame
Here's me hoping to see some skatepark action haha.
I've had many a good time getting hurt trying stupid stuff. Haven't touched my skates for a couple years now, MTB has taken over the adrenaline factor.
Though the MTB skills haven't taken over the skating stuff yet, it does help with processing scary and risky rides though.
I bought a set of Rollerblade Cruisers, should arrive today. Pity about the weather for the next week or so, but I'll get out as soon as it stops being slippy.
All the videos are great, I started skating in the late 80s and had a great set of Bauers... Turbo 33s I think, with miss matched pink and green wheels. They were awesome. Then I had a variety of rollerblades through the 90s, ending with a set of Roces Majestic 13s (I think that's right or are they Majestic 12s) then didn't skate until the late 00s when I picked up the Rollerblade Twister.
Roces majestic 12s are what I have and are still in production now!
I pretty much lived in Bauer Turbos in my mid-teens.
i've got a set of aging but hardly used Bauer blades in the shed but never got on with them.
I'd love another set of Bauer 'quads' but not sure its really the thing for overweight 48 year olds?
Man I loved Rollerblading when I was very early teens. Played Roller hockey etc....had some Bauer F2's that I basically killed!
Posted on here about 10 years ago about getting some new Rollerblades....it seemed like it just didn't exist in this country at all!
So, living just outside Congleton on a farm currently.....would I really use a pair? I'd love to get back into it, but where is there to go around here?
They've arrived! This is going to be brilliant!
rollerblades = shoes of shame
The insult back in the day was Fruit Boots.
We used to have an inline mag and a SK8 mag. Not a lot of love between the groups of readers.
I’d love another set of Bauer ‘quads’ but not sure its really the thing for overweight 48 year olds?
@freeagent - as an overweight 50 year old I’d recommend you do. I’ve been loving getting out on mine at the local rink and you’ll be surprised how many of us portly old school skaters there are
Dug my old Bauer turbos out a good few years ago. Time hadn't been kind to them, first outing resulted in a split truck second time the cuffs split. If yours are still intact treat them as a museum piece.
I played around with inline speed skating for a couple of years - did a few inline marathons as well as some 100km events. Highlight was the Inline111 in St Gallen, Switzerland - properly mad with a few thousand skaters, pace lines of 50+ skaters going at 40kph+ on traffic free roads - downhills were epic - they'd nail pieces of industrial carpet to the road to help with braking on the downhills.
That sounds absolutely mental!!! 😳
@binners are there any decent places South Manchester that you know of? Bury would be a bit of a trek
Tom - The only place I can think of was Stretford, where they used to use the sports centre at weekends
When we’re back to real life though, give us a shout if you fancy coming over to Bury. It’s a great rink.
Maybe combine it with Arcade Club too 😃
Another returning to skating here, bought a pair of SEBAs after lockdown v1 as since moving house local cycling is not possible/worth it.
Last skated 25 years ago and am considerably heavier than then - in my mind it would be just like riding a bike, but it has been a slow struggle to regain balance, turning and stopping ability. Really struggled to grow a pair to increase speed beyond a fast walk.
I’ve been availing myself of the local school car park which is sort of smooth and sort of flat. I’m getting ready to venture out on the roads of my estate but wanted to be sure of my speed control first.
Makes the feet ache but I’m loving it!
Besides a few Facebook groups which cover quad skating and are mainly full of teenage girls or middle age mums dancing on the spot, there isn’t much of an online community that I’ve found.
Nice one @binners, I'll let you know! I'm often in the area delivering food currently!
Well, its official. Our brilliant local rink is no more. They've announced that they won't be reopening 🙁
Gutted!
😔
That's so sad. I enjoyed watching those videos you posted and was planning on making a trip down when all this is over. Gutted.
I've heard a rumour that the amazing rink in Cumbernauld has permanently closed too. I don't know if there's any truth to it but it wouldn't surprise. Such a shame as that was as good a rink as any in the world.
Went to the transport museum in Glasgow on Saturday and there were a couple of brave souls rolling around. I think I'll wait for it to get a wee bit warmer before I head out, but seeing them made me realise how much I'm missing skating.
I got a pair of Seba a fair few years ago that I used when I lived in London (does the friday night skate still happen?) These then got shelved until the kids were old enough but they still run smoothly. Now I take them to the local roller rink and they love it. It's a long way from the aggressive skating I used to do as a teenager. Even looking at a set of stairs to jump or rails to grind makes me cringe at the thought of crashing.
@lucasshmucas - Thats bad news if the Cumbernauld rink has closed too. I suspect there's going to many more casualties
Its not all bad though. What started as a post on a local Facebook page asking about the rink has led to a group of us old local skaters getting in touch with each other.
There are more of us than I thought. We're playing with ideas for outdoor skating once the weather improves and also looking at potential venues with decent floors that we could all chip in and hire to put our own skating sessions on once we're out of lockdown and back to some kind of normality. Hopefully we'll be able to get something sorted that will make it worthwhile having a trip down
I took an old pair of my hockey skates and got them converted to inline with the Mars blade chassis. I had a pair of ccms converted a while a ago but didn’t get on with them even with a high low set up. These feel a lot more like ice. So much so I have to keep reminding myself not to try and hockey stop.