Roller Wheel Maintenance: Swapping & Rotating Inline Skate Wheels
March 30, 2022 || Written by Katie Lakusta
Inline hockey and roller skating can be great ways to keep up your training and play in the spring season. But like with all equipment, you are going to have to keep up a bit of maintenance on your skates, particularly in the wheels. After much use, roller skate wheels can start to wear down, effectively slowing your speed, making your stride less efficient, and potentially putting you off balance. Fortunately, there are strategies you can take to prolong the life of your wheels. We’ll also cover how to replace your wheels for when that time does come, or when you are switching between outdoor and indoor play.
Wheel Anatomy
There are five key components to the roller skate wheel that you will need to understand when replacing or rotating your wheels. These components are the following:
• Tire: Most often made of polyurethane (PU), the tire is the outermost part of the wheel. This area will wear down first when you skate. The harder skate tires will be best for outdoor play and will last longer; softer tires will work best indoors, as they have better grip.
• Hub/Core: The wheel core is the section in the middle of your wheels. They come in solid, hollow, and spoked variations.
Spacers: These cylinders go between your wheels and can be made of aluminum or plastic.
Axles: These multi-piece cylinders are what hold everything in place. You will be tightening or loosening the screws when replacing/rotating your skate wheels.
Quality Matters!
We’re not just saying this because we’re a store—higher-quality wheels will last longer than lower-quality wheels. Using the correct type of wheels for your activity and environment can also dictate how long your wheels last. It is important to evaluate your play when picking out skates and wheels.
Changing Your Wheels
When you need new wheels or need to rotate them, you will know. They will look and feel uneven, and the core could even be visible. Changing wheels is a pretty simple process—all you need are your skates, new wheels, and an Allen key.
1. Using the Allen key, unscrew the axle bolt. Start with the front wheel.
2. Pull the wheel out and take out the bearings and spacer. Repeat the process with the rest of the wheels.
3. Wipe the bearings with a clean towel and assess whether they need some additional maintenance. You may need to do some deeper cleaning if they aren’t turning properly, or if you feel some noticeable resistance. If there is a considerable amount of rust on the bearings, it is time to replace them.
4. Transfer the bearings and spacers to the new wheels.
5. Once you have prepped all your new wheels, it’s time to put them back in. Situate the new wheel into the frame.
6. Screw the axle back in using the Allen key. Aluminum spacers can be screwed in normally; for plastic spacers, tighten normally, then loosen slightly.
7. Adjust the tightness of the axle based on how well the wheels spin. If your wheels aren't spinning well enough, your axle may be too tight; similarly, if your wheels wobble, your axle may be too loose.
8. Repeat steps 5 - 7 with the remaining wheels.
Wheel Rotation
One of the best and most reliable ways to prolong the life of your skates is to rotate your wheel. Wheels often wear down mostly on one side, so rotating can help that wear occur more evenly. Rotating will not only involve flipping your wheels, but also moving some wheels between skates. Some people regularly rotate their wheels every two to three sessions, whereas others prefer to evaluate their wheels before deciding to rotate.
Note that not rotating often enough could cause the skates to feel uncomfortable after rotation.
How to Rotate Your Wheels (Flat Setup)
Your wheels will be flipping and switching skates, so you must remember their orientation while rotating. I recommend laying the wheels out on a flat surface so you can visualize exactly how you will be placing them back in. A flat setup refers to when the wheels are the same size all the way across.
Please note that this section will be going over wheel rotation for a flat setup, which is when all the wheels are the same size. The image in the example is of a Bauer Vapor 3X Roller Skate, which has a HI-LO wheel setup. See the rotation for a Rockered setup in the next section if you are rotating Bauer Vapor skate wheels.
1. Take the wheels out the same way you would if you were changing the wheels, except this time, you won’t be transferring the bearings and spacers to new wheels. It is still recommended that you take the bearings out for standard maintenance and cleaning.
2. When you remove the wheels, place them next to each other so you can see how they are oriented. Refer to the following diagram. Think of the wheels in numbered slots from 1 to 4, with the frontmost wheel designated as number 1.
3. In this step, you will be switching wheels between skates. Match up wheels 1 & 3 and 2 & 4 on opposite skates and swap them.
4. Once you have determined where the wheels will be going, it is now time to put the wheels back in. Make sure the axles are in the correct orientation and that you are also flipping the wheels; the worn side should be on the outside.
5. Check that your wheels are rolling properly and adjust the axles as needed.
Direction wheels will be going in. Make sure to rotate wheels to the other skate when you do this.
Position your wheels will be in once the rotation is completed (note the numbers).
Rotating Wheels on a Rockered or Three-Wheel Setup
Many roller skates designed for outdoor freestyle skating or skaters who are just starting out won’t be rockered—namely, set up with different wheel sizes. That said, some of the best skates for inline hockey will come with a rockered wheel set up or frame, including skates with a HI-LO chassis, for example. It goes without saying that the wheels on these skates can’t be rotated the same way as a flat setup.
The most important rule of thumb is to not switch different-sized wheels. As an example, we can take Bauer’s 3X Pro skates, which have a HI-LO setup. For these skates, instead of swapping 1 & 3 (which are different-sized wheels), you would swap 1 & 2 and 3 & 4. Similarly, if your skates only have three wheels, you can swap 1 & 3 and flip 2. There are other rockering orientations, but if you follow that one rule, you can determine the best way to rotate your skates for you.
HI-LO Setup
Final Thoughts
In this article, we’ve gone over how to change the wheels on your inline skates, as well as how to rotate them, so you can get the most life out of them. The rotation sequences in this article are the easiest and most basic ways of rotating your skate wheels. Once you get the hang of it, however, you may realize that there are rotation strategies that work better for you and your skating style.
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