gear
what wheels are best?
I VA N N A S . PA N K I N ’ , S A N D I E G O D E R B Y D O L L S
There are a lot of factors that determine how a wheel will
perform and it can be hard to figure out what they all mean
and how they relate to each other. I’m pretty sure most people
determine what wheels they want by figuring out what their
hero wears, then buying those. But I have some bad news:
you’re not her (or him). Maybe you have a different stride,
body type, practice floor or skating experience; those things
make a difference. The biggest factor in how a wheel will
perform for you is – well, you! Your taste, your expectations,
how receptive you are to marketing, and everything about you
physically and how and where you skate – all affect how well
a wheel works for you. Unfortunately, it’s hard to quantify all that
stuff – but the good news is that you can analyze physical wheel
features to help you decide.
durometer
Durometer is a term you hear a lot about wheels. Pretty much
everyone has an idea of what it means, right? Durometer is
a measure of the hardness and rebound of urethane.
That’s a number (usually) painted on the side of the wheel that
many skaters use to guess (often incorrectly) how grippy a wheel
will be. But if durometer is so important, why aren’t all derby
skaters that want more grip using soft outdoor wheels? Well,
because the softness of the urethane is only ONE factor that
determines how your wheel performs. What about all the others?
Important factors in addition to durometer include:
• the weight of the wheels (which can vary by as much
as a pound for a whole set of wheels!)
• shape of the wheel, including the diameter and width,
or contact patch
• the lip or edge s hape
• the hub material, size and shape
• the tread
Not surprisingly, all these factors are related. Hubs can determine
how heavy a wheel is and so can the shape. The lip bevel can
make a wide wheel feel and perform like a slim. A soft urethane
durometer can make a not-grippy shape grab just fine, and
a harder urethane can make a shape with more contact
patch feel slidey. It’s all related, but each feature does have
a particular performance-related property, so that’s what we’re
aiming to nail down.
24 | Winter 2010 | fiveonfivemag.com
weight
That’s the easy one. Heavy wheels offer traction but can
fatigue legs. Lighter ones make fast moves easier but can
make skaters feel less grounded and stable. I weighed a few
of ours on a postal scale and found the Heartless and slim
Jukes were the lightest, which makes sense because they’re
also the smallest. I didn’t bother to weigh for heaviest, but it’s
probably a 62x44 wheel with a big aluminum hub, which
isn’t commonly used for derby anymore, anyway.
wheel size
By size, I mean: diameter and width – or, actually, contact patch.
When modern derby got rolling in 2001, most indoor speed
wheels were similarly sized: 62mm diameter and 44mm wide
with a small bevel on the edge for the widest contact patch.
But now wheels with a narrower width and/or smaller diameter
are as common as (formerly) standard width and diameter
speed wheels. Most have a similar bevel at the contact patch
side, but there is a lot of variety in the shape of the lips, or edge.
diameter
Diameter is how tall your wheels are from the ground up,
basically. Generally, smaller diameter (shorter) shapes (like
Jukes or Tuner Jrs) are capable of faster acceleration because
it takes less effort to get going; that means more “quickness”
for faster 0 to 60 snap speeds. Smaller diameter wheels
are the quarter mile drag racers of derby.
Larger diameter (taller; usually 62mm) wheels (pretty much
all the rest) typically offer comparatively better “roll” – slower
initial acceleration because they take more effort to get going,
but less effort to keep going fast. Tall wheels are the
endless lap Nascars of derby. Outdoor wheels like Krypto
70mm wheels are super tall because when you’re cruising
the boardwalk, you want to coast. Speed skaters also tend
to favor “taller” wheels because once they get going they
want to keep going fast for all those long laps. Rookie players
usually have 62mm wheels, as well, because they’re offered
stock on most skate packages. That works because beginning
players usually play mostly moving forward at relatively
constant speeds.
Shorter diameter may be better suited to derby, however,
because regulation tracks are short and intermediate and
advanced gameplay styles require a lot more stalls, braking and
quick moves forward, backward and laterally – so snap speed
has more payoff for most players than long, constant lap speed.
lips
Another factor in wheel-to-floor contact and grippiness is the edge
or lip of the wheel. Imagine you’re mid-crossover with all your
weight on your right leg and your left leg extended under you at
the very end of your stride push – that last bit of wheel touching
the floor, mostly likely on the left front wheel of your left skate:
that’s the lip. If you have a speed- or art-trained coach or mentor,
you hear about skating your edges a lot – same thing, but the word
“lips” is funnier to me, so that’s what I call it.
Wheel lips are just about ALWAYS beveled because if they were
square, the lip could bust off in little urethane chunks when you
push. But the shape of the lip, including the size of the bevel, how
wide the hub is and extra urethane hanging out past the hub –
always combined with the softness of the urethane – affects how
much grab you get out of your push for speed strides and powerful
lateral maneuvers, as well.
But there is more to shape than just the diameter, as well.
I mean, who doesn’t know someone that loves narrow
or “slim” wheels?
width – or, really, contact patch
The contact patch is, literally, what contacts the ground when
you skate – not just the width measurement, but the width
minus beveled edges, so really, how much of the urethane
actually touches the ground.
The wider the contact patch, the more grip you have (taking
into account the other factors), which, for muscular-stride
skaters can mean a more powerful stride and deeper digs
for fast laterals – especially helpful when dodging out of
the way of hits or digging in to lay a more powerful block
on an opponent. Detractors say wide wheels also mean more
wheel locking. As a coach, I prefer to fight wheel lock with
training (ask me how in another article), but it’s true – narrower
wheels can be a short cut that helps, as well.
Sin City Skates
Narrow wheels also have better slide, but, especially in
softer compounds, wear down faster and get flat spots
easier because you’re putting the same weight and pressure
over a smaller area of wheel – which leads to faster wear
on the urethane. This is especially true of slim wheels with
softer urethane compounds. The best feature of narrow
wheels is that (with nylon hubs), they’re also the lightest,
and they help skaters with “hoppy” strides feel more agile,
as well. The slimmer shape can help reduce drag for
extra quick hops.
Sin City Skates
This photo demonstrates diameter, lips and hub:
Diameter: Juke and QS are 59mm diameter, Fugi is 62mm.
Lips: Juke has a square lip, QS square-ish, Fugi soft lips.
Hub: Juke has a stiff design (to the lip), but a soft material. QS has a tiny hub, making the
lip feel softer. Fugi has a standard sized, not-stiff hub with spokes to stiffen a little more.
Heartless has the smallest contact patch with sizable bevels on both edges.
Omega in the middle with standard bevel on the front edge and squared off
backside.
Fugitive has the largest contact patch with the widest width, similar bevel to
Omega, and softer lips.
• Square edge – uncommon for modern roller derby wheels, but
found with the smallest bevel on Echo, Pure and Fuel (outdoor
wheels).
• Square-ish beveled edge (Omega, Poison, Dubz, Flat Outs, many
cut-down slim wheels). This is a square front on the usuallypainted side of the wheel and contact patch edge with a very
slight bevel. This bevel offers the smallest amount of lips you
can get on a modern derby wheel in most cases.
• “Soft Lips” beveled edge (very common edge and probably one
of the most grippy; found in Fugitives, Sugars, Tuners, most wide
wheels) – the bevel on top is pretty similar across the board, but
the inside of the wheel face has been cut at a sharper angle to
the core. That edge is what I call “soft lips” because it provides
a lip that grabs at the surface at the end of your stride to provide
fiveonfivemag.com | Winter 2010 | 25
gear
speed; or at the end of your sharp pushes for lateral grab, more
so with softer urethanes than harder ones. These lips are apt to
deteriorate with lots of use, especially on the softer urethanes –
but they are grippy until then and make for very fast lateral
moves. Soft lips can also be achieved with hub size – we’ll talk
about that in a minute.
• Rounded edge (outdoor wheels) – less grip but great for sliding
and cruising. Less chance that the soft edge will deteriorate, as
well. Good for “drift” – skaters that like controlled slide in their
hits, etc. Great on outdoor wheels because it spits out obstacles
like pebbles, but not common on indoor derby wheels.
Sin City Skates
hubs
The hub or core of the wheel is the hard part in the middle where
the bearings are seated and it can really affect the performance, but
mainly in ways we already discussed; by how far out it protrudes,
giving the wheels softer lips – or by being significantly heavier, like
aluminum hubs. Hub size can also change the softness of the lip,
like on the Quickie Stickies, where the extra small hubs make the
lips extra squishy even though the lip bevel is really squared off.
So they’re super grippy, but without the worry of lip deterioration.
An example of hub
and wheels styles.
The “give” of a hub material or design also affects the roll in a
way that is similar to the diameter. Stiffer engineering or materials in
the hub (like aluminum, which has no give) have longer roll because
they stay perfectly round when you push (and slip easier), while
nylon hubs with less-stiff designs squish more to offer more traction
(and rob you of speed) when you’re pushing. Of course, aluminum is
also heavier (which can be slower), while nylon hubs are universally
lighter and cheaper and usually traction is more important in derby
than long lap speed. But we want them grippy and fast, so
manufacturers are working to combine materials and engineer new
designs with hybrid cores that are mostly nylon (to keep them light
and inexpensive to make) with aluminum caps (to make them stiff),
like the Juke 2.0 alloy or the Dubz. That technology is in its infancy
and it remains to be seen if players will like it.
26 | Winter 2010 | fiveonfivemag.com
tread
Tread is another misunderstood feature. Everyone assumes you
must have tread and that bald wheels won’t be grippy. But urethane
gets grippier from the heat of friction with the floor, and softer
urethanes heat up faster. So just like your muscles warm up – so do
your wheels, and the friction of skating can make even a bald wheel
grippy. However, tread is especially helpful while you’re warming up,
and – let’s face it, actually paying attention. Once you start playing,
you’ve got a lot more to worry about, so you might not notice your
wheels are getting grippier. But when you’re cold and your wheels
are, too, those little lines of tread spread and create more surface
area, making it easier to hang on to the ground. On the other hand,
skaters with really smooth floors tend not to wear off the tread as
fast. But the heat of skating will eventually harden the urethane
and make it less grippy, as well. So they can have all the tread in
the world and still have no grip at all.
SO WHAT IS THE BEST?
People always ask me what my favorite shape combination is. Well,
it depends! Generally, I like small diameter wide wheels with a soft
lip bevel in every range of urethane firmness. I switch around a lot
so I won’t be dependent on any particular wheels, but I prefer grippy
urethane almost all the time, especially when I’m blocking more,
working on endurance, or in winter. I go firmer when I’m jamming
a lot or feel like I want to slip around a bit to help me work on my
stride. So – depending on how much grip I want, my favorite wheels
(from grippiest to fastest) are Sugars that have been cut down to
56mm (try Ghosts if that sounds good to you), Jukes, Tuner Jrs,
Fugitives and Lowboys. I’m not a “hoppy” skater – I am a power
strider. So that’s what works for me – how do you figure out what
works for you?
Nothing substitutes for trying wheels out. As always, I encourage
you to trade wheels with friends whenever you can! Even trying out
someone’s dead bald-ass old wheels will give you a better handle
on that type of wheel than judging based on your hero’s tastes. But
hopefully some of that info helped you figure out where to start.
Now go read this stuff:
More information about grippiness and wheels from a 2009 article in
fiveonfive issue 6:
sincityskates.com/images/PDFs/wheels-Grippiness-Durometer.pdf
REFERENCES:
All About (Skateboarding) Wheels at lushlongboards.com:
tiny.cc/2o9rx
This guy introduced me to the concept of contact patch, especially. Good stuff here
from a longboarder perspective.
Experimentation ideas for testing how wheel shapes, sizes and hardness affect
speed, grip and maneuverability at sciencebuddies.org:
tiny.cc/mvlva
Hey, Junior skaters! Do these experiments with derby wheels for high school credit.
Send me the results!