londonrockinrollers

I want to get some new wheels and am a bit unsure about the best ones to get. I think this is very much a personal preference issue, but I would value anyone's opinion on this.

I have 265 Wicked skates with Radar speed ray wheels/abec 9 bearings. I'm a newb, so am still very much learning how to skate, and I think I need something with more grip so that I can handle corners at speed with a bit more confidence (and maybe even get above 3mph when snake skating). I know it's currently the in thing to have softer 'pusher' wheels on the left of each boot, but is it OK or even sensible to have all wheels as the softer pusher wheels? Radar do some called 'flat out' which are 88A, and supposedly designed for use in sports halls. I think Sure-grip do an equivalent - in fact their 4-packs of pusher wheels are this rating.

Once I've got the skills down a bit more, I can swap back (or at least, swap half my wheels back) to the harder speed rays.

Any thoughts? I know it's probably a bit early to start messing about with kit, but I think I'm trying to learn on wheels which are not all that forgiving to learners!

You've got go-fast everything there in that combo! The pink Speed Rays are medium grip, the same as my pink fugitives. For beginner skaters we usually recommend learning on the cheap wheels that come with the skates then upgrading when you've mastered those - our theory is that it makes you a better skater because if you learn to skate on crappy wheels (eg that all the R3s come with!), once you can master balance on those you can skate on anything. The SVRG recommended this school of thought to us in our early days and it has served those of us who've done it really well.

Wheels are such a personal choice and depend on what you're looking for. But as you are looking for more grip than the Speed Rays, the grippiest combination are indeed the Fugitives pusher wheels with either black or blue Fugitives. I wouldn't recommend getting 8 pusher wheels at all - this will totally compromise your speed and you'll have to work twice as hard to get from A to B! You will be knackered!

Oh, also, American Sport Court flooring is totally nothing like our Sports Hall flooring! Hooli pointed this out to me - apparently Sport Court is similar to the stuff Von Bitch has on the floor in Skate Attack ie. super slippy! Our training floor is much stickier!

Man, skating on polished concrete here is sooo grippy now it's insane. I think it's cause I'm so used to those slippery wood floors, I can barely stop sometimes cause I stop too fast and you know what happens when that happens...

I would personally recommend the hardest wheels you can handle if you are planning on jamming. For more grip maybe you could try the pusher wheels with your existing wheels. It might give you the perfect speed/grip combo.

You reckon our floors are slippy? I dunno, after Stuttgart I think they are pretty dreamy myself! haha

Death, if I were you I'd follow Hooli's suggestion and try just the pushers first with what you already have. Then if you find you still want more grip, get some blue or black Fugis for the right side of your skates.

Cool - will give the pusher wheels a try with my speed-rays and see how they go! Thanks :)

yea theyre slippery. My shitty wheels that came with my skates are super grippy here lol

Just to update - having replaced my left wheels with Sure-grip pusher wheels, I can report that my skates are now sticky as glue but still very quick. I can now snake skate at speed and take corners without going " "

Yay! Glad you've found the right wheels for yourself! x

Ok, my turn.....I've been thinking of getting some new wheels, but the more I try and research whats what the more confused I'm getting.
I've got the RW Warrior skates, and though they're beginner skates I'm happy to keep them cause they're quite comfy for my wide feet, but I do think I need to upgrade the wheels, it's more speed I'm after but I don't want to be flying all over the place. Is this where having different wheels on the right and left side comes in??
Am I right in thinking that the harder the wheel the faster, and the softer the wheel the grippier?? My wheels at the moment are 95A....I know this is the hardness rating and, well, thats pretty much all I know lol. Can anyone break it down for me simply as googling Derby Wheels for Dummies is not getting me anywhere!!

Try this blog from Sin City - it might help you!:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuse ... 5634323833

but also the most important thing to do is perfect skating on your factory wheels coz anyone at practise who's been skating for a while will tell you that if you can skate on the crappy wheels and bearings the skates come with then when you get the new ones you absolutely fly!!!

Yes, totally spot on advice!