Feb 21, 2008

Should I skate on 110mm wheels?

110mm wheels - legalized by the CIC from 2008. There was always going to be, and there has been, a lot of skaters jumping on 4x110mm skates as soon as that announcement came through.

From 76- to 80mm

When speed skating was done on 76mm wheels and 80mm wheels were available, some tried them and found situation-specific benefits from them, some did not. Some of the World's best time-trialists at the time skated on 80mm wheels but would switch back to 76mm wheels for some 300-meter events - believing their acceleration to be more rapid and their stroke rate to be faster on the smaller wheels. This went on even as late as 1995.

Soon after 5x80mm wheels became the dominant platform in speed skating, 82mm wheels were available. A handful of athletes tried these and believed in them, but the majority felt that having moved up to 80mm wheels that speed skating had found its 'ideal' wheel size. Racing changed during that time also, but with an increase 76-80mm of little over 5%, the changes perhaps weren't so noticeable.

From 80- to 84mm

Fast-forward to 2002 when one World Inline Cup team covertly employed 5x84mm as their race platform in the expanding Marathon World Cup. Just a 5% increase in wheel diameter from 80-84mm, but the long, high-speed straightline finishes of the World Cup where skaters were holding top speeds were just the situations to dramatically demonstrate the roll advantage that 5% translated into. When the 84mm secret was out, speed skaters of all shapes and sizes who had 5-wheel skates clambered to get on 5x84s. In the following 2+ years, as National and World Records tumbled, many respected voices in speed skating noted that skaters had 'done them on 84s.'

90- & 100mm wheels, and the 4-wheel platform

But the swing that occurred 2004-2006 toward 100mm wheels was a different one. Where the 76-80-84mm diameter growth had always involved 5-wheel skates and necessarily resulted in frames becoming longer to accommodate it, 100mm wheels provided a roll advantage that could be used in a 4-wheel skate - and the frame length that was 13.3-inches on 5x84 could be 11.9-inches on 4x100 (with the new 195mm mount-separation).

The advantage was twofold: increased roll at top speeds compared with 84mm wheels, and shorter, more maneuverable frames that could be accelerated more readily than their 5x84mm predecessors. With industry-thinking turned on to larger wheel diameters, 90mm wheels were also marketed, and found popular use in the 4-wheel platforms of junior skaters and some senior women - as well as some interest in 5x90mm experimentation.

...on to Part 2 of 'Should I skate on 110mm wheels?'

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should try the new wheels and then decide.

Leonardo Grein said...

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Unknown said...

Thank you for information about i will try it

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