Sunday Skate - wheels

This afternoon was slightly overcast and dry with temp's in the high teens.  Could have gone ice skating but, as the kids are away and I'm making good ground recently with my shooting, I went down the primary school instead.  Was gone about two hours.

Before I left I turned my wheels over on both skates.  Yesterday I noticed how much relative wear was being experienced by my back wheels on both feet, so much so that the wheel was markedly less diameter than any other on the skate.  In fact, the front two wheels on each skate were bigger than the rear pair (opposite of what it's meant to be).  so I changed them all over, reversing them on each skate by front to back, and turning them over so that what had been the outside 'edge' now became the inside.

As always when turning wheels over so that the wear camber faces the 'wrong' way, for the first few minutes I had to remind myself to not take it too quick or too tight in the corners for fear of having a skate gain a mind of its own and follow the 'natural' track of the wheels (ie, the opposite way to what I want at that moment) with usually unfortunate results.  Had a couple of falls in first half hour and one slide out in the following period.  On the second fall I noticed as I did it that I twisted in the air on the way down to turn a bum landing into one where could use the armour and joint of my knees to turn a painfull contact into a harmless one.  On the first fall I wasn't so alert and ended up giving myself a Grade I (minor) wrist sprain on the right.  Could have been worse on both falls.  Not blaming the wheels or the skates, but the fact that I tried to do too much and knew it at the time.

Once I got the hang of the small wheels in front and the increased 'rocker' effect on the skate as a whole, I was able to use it to my advantage.  Especially in powerskating strokes, where the small front wheel makes it easier to 'snap' out the foot at the end of each stroke, pushing off from toe tip  with the ankle/leg.  Maneuverability increased in tight changes of direction, but overall speed was less than when wheels were full diameter (or, close to).  Skating up my homeward hill, used over 90 strong power strokes when it usually takes between 79 and 83 to do so - an entirely expected loss of distance efficiency of having smaller wheels.

When looking at the wheels, it has become the case that even the least worn of them is significantly reduced compared to its original diameter.  In turning over the wheels this morning from front to back for the first time I changed their relative positions on the skate in a major way.  What were my front 78mm wheels were both larger than the rearmost wheels (originally, 82mm) before the change, as I grasp to the last few hours of use from them all.

Time to get some new wheels.

This post continues in Part Two, when I get into my shooting.