New Wheels!

As you may recall, I've worn down my inline skates' original Hi-Lo Indoor Outdoor wheels almost to their rims.  It got to the point after the weekend that the front wheels (originally the rearmost) were down to half their original diameter (ie I was skating with 40mm wheels on the front instead of the original 76mm) and the largest wheel on the rear would have only been 75mm diameter instead of the original 80mm.  And the threads were starting to show through the compound on the front wheel.  So, time to change it up with my wheels!

So, I made sure I got to the Ice Arena for Wednesday night's public session with ample time to call into the Powerplay skate shop (where I got my inlines from).  I, perhaps foolishly, thought they'd be carrying Hi-Lo wheels that would fit seeing as they sold the original skate.  Not the case.

So, though I got some satisfaction from the expression of the man when I showed him the worn wheel I'd brought in as an 'example' (his jaw literally dropped at the sight of my tiny wheel, though he also admitted that it was evenly worn (so I wasn't mistreating it)), disappointment loomed large when he offered to 'order them in'.

Hmmmm.  Nah, that'll take to long.  Maybe I'll check in at Gawler on my way through this weekend,

Indicating, I'll stop in and check the hole in the wall skate shop in Gawler Rec Centre on my way through to North of Port Augusta for the Easter longweekend.

He'll probably have something...

Which generated a desired response.  With a flash of creativity he found some cut price blue indoor 76mm Mission wheels for the front, and a set of neon orange Rink Rat 80mm wheels for the rear.  Which was an educated guess as to what size wheels my skates take (it turns out we got it right, but arranged for me to get there a bit after midday today if need be to change over to correct size) and a matching of my skate style / circumstances (ashphalt, concrete and skating rinks) with the wheels (softer on the front, harder on the rear).  Which coincided neatly with the fact that these happened to be the sets of wheels which were available at a reasonable price.

So I got them.

As a postscript, this was an interesting contrast to the time I took in a rollerblade wheel for replacement, and didn't know that I had to take the central bearings and their spacer out of the wheel assembly, let alone have the tool needed to sort the bearings.  At least back then I got an alan key for the axle bolt.  This was most useful for my recent visit.
 
This time, I managed to get all my bearings out and sorted (and was able to examine them to confirm they're all visibly okay) with what is actually a quite fancy tool and my growing 'attitude' with my equipment.  Then, when the store staff saw that I could remove the bearings myself and knew what a 'spacer' is (when I showed them my old wheel they commented that I'd removed the bearings) they answered my enquiries with more information than they would have otherwise.  Which makes me a more educated hockey player.  And now I know what I have to do to maintain my bearings.

Which is good.