Skate wheel hardness explained - Inline skating

In general, when customers come to our store in Amsterdam asking for advise about what wheels to choose, we will advise them to pick a good compound and wheel size first! There are certain words of wisdom about hardness but they translate very poorly between different brands,
In this article the hard facts about Hardness are layed out!



SHORE HARDNESS SCALE
To measure the hardness a scale was made a hundred years ago by mister Albert Ferdinand Shore, With 0 being the softest and 100 being the hardest. On this scale candy is like a 10A, a rubber band is about 60A and an inline skate wheel is often between 80A and 95A.

You can find this hardness number almost always printed on the wheel itself marked with the A from Albert of course.



WHAT TO USE FOR SPEED
There are different aspects of skating that require different wheel qualities. Lets talk a bit about what you need for stuff like speed, comfort, grip, breaking, sliding and grinding.

So first off, how does hardness relate to speed?
When a wheel is soft, it becomes a bit like an egg. And eggs of course dont really roll that well.

It could very well be though that wheel with soft urethane is faster then one with harder urethane. The scale that mister Albert Shore made only measures the outer layer of the wheel. it does not measure the core! This is why it is very difficult to compare the speed of wheels from between different brands,

If there is a little stone laying on the asphalt, a soft wheel will get a dent and it will absorb the little rock for a second. That absorption takes some energy though! Having a hard wheel will make you fly over the rock and lets you keep your speed!



WHAT TO USE FOR COMFORT
Now we have gotten to comfort! Having a soft wheels is like having multiple shockabsorbers underneath you feet. all the inequities of a bumpy road will be absorbed. Maybe when you are skating bad Dutch roads a soft wheel will be something for you.



WHAT TO USE FOR GRIP
To get grip, you want to have as much contact with the surface as possible. Because soft wheels deform in an bit of an egg, they have a bigger part of the wheel in contact with the ground. This gives you the extra grip you might want.

So the softer the wheel the grippier it gets.

Having some extra grip can be great for skating in the rain!



WHAT TO USE FOR BRAKING AND SLIDING
For braking and sliding you actually dont want grip. This is why rain might even be an advantage because it enables you to practice sliding even better.

Anybody that wants to be the king of the streets should aim on mastering some basic slides to break with. Because hard wheels are less grippy they slide allot easier.
If sliding is what you want to learn then get the hardest wheels that you can find.



WHAT TO USE FOR GRINDING
the worst thing about aggressive inline skating is the compromise you need to make in your hardware to accommodate grinding.

so many aggressive skaters use only the outher two very small wheels to have maximum grind space.
having two wheels cuts your grip in half so it makes a skatepark like the olympiaplein in Amsterdam extra slippery.
you could make an argument that this is why having soft wheels would be beneficial for an aggressive skater.
if one of those wheels touches the top of the curb however during a grind, you might be in for a suprice.
To prevent sticking on your grind we use very, very hard wheels in the middle called grindwheels or antirockers. having those touch the top of the curb first might save you!


TO SUMMARIZE ON SOFT WHEELS
The benefits for soft wheels are:
- They make for a smooth ride.
- They are grippy.

The downside of soft wheels are:
- They are slow.
- They are not good for sliding/grinding and breaking.


TO SUMMARIZE ON HARD WHEELS
The benefits for hard wheels are:
- They are fast.
- They are good for advanced braking techniques like slides and also grinds.

The down sides of hard wheels are:
- They are not so comfortable
- They are not grippy so you can not walk up to a bank in a skatepark.

Buy wheels here:

[noampitlik]

This was very good. But...the big factor you left out was body weight. The wheel durometer rating is offset by lighter/heavier skaters. I weigh 210, therefore when I use 82a, they grip like a 78a under a lighter skater. Thanks.

[fhylo]

9:04 for summary 😉
This whole video is very useful! I have Oxelo fit-3 skates with 76mm 80a wheels with which i skate on asphalt and smooth concrete

[getbogged]

Gave up on getting quad skates during the worldwide quad skate shortage and so I dug out my old inlines to fix up. Def needed this video thanks man

[amyaranow]

Thanks for making this video, I work at K2 and I refer people when they have questions about skates.

[AceEquality]

This video is incredibly detailed. I was running the original USD Aeons 72mm 88a, which were smooth and fast. Love them! Threw on some cheap 72mm 90a and they are horrible. Like you said no friction, that's exactly what it is, which I couldn't figure out until I watched your vid. Time for some wheel shopping. I wish they sold original Aeons 72's separately, gotta find a different pair. Great vid, man!

[iskyviewdrones]

The best and most complete explanation about wheels and harness so far. That's awesome. Thanks for your efficiency

[andrewdunton]

I love this video and you want to thank you for it. So thanks and I will be making my wheel purchases from your shop.

[supremecinema]

This is the first video that cosigned how I feel about softer wheels. Most websites and diagrams will say the harder wheels are better for rough concrete but I live in Brooklyn NY and the softer wheels are much better for city streets and rough concrete. 58MM x 88A is my go to wheel for aggressive city skating

[Prince_Charming_]

Thank you for the great information on the skate wheels hardness.

[Icanreadgood]

good overview, would have been nice to hear the factors that play into wheel wear, and how to choose based on hardness / riding style.

[ayyonmichaels]

thank you for your expertise... Excellent!

[low.skates]

Love the video! Not only because it’s very informative but it has a unique kind of humour 🤣

[AnimeCabin]

I like riding skates for fun. I would like it to feel more smoother. So this means I need a 80A right?

[SuperLeonieXD]

I didn't realize you were dutch until 0:47. I was SHOOK haha

[hellbehemoth]

for the street it is best to take 92a / 95a, e.g. Dead - Team 58mm / 92a, they also facilitate cess slide
and to the skatepark 88a 89 / 09a (max) :)
The most comfortable ride for me is the Hyper - Shroom 66 mm / 92a - :D Flat

the harder the wheels are, the longer their service life will be. The harder PU compound is more resistant to abrasion and wears much slower when driving or when braking or slides.

the harder the wheels are, the less grip they will hold. Hard wheels, when driving, touch the ground with a smaller surface, which significantly reduces their grip.

harder wheels are faster. Less grip resulting from greater hardness has a positive effect on the speed of the wheels, by reducing the rolling resistance.

harder wheels dampen vibrations much worse. The comfort of driving under uneven and rough surfaces in wheels of lower hardness is much greater, thanks to a much better shock-absorbing property.

:)

[PeRn]

I have 90a's and i skate on a rink, it is impossible to get them to slide but i could do it with the rink skates which i think have a lower hardness. With hard wheels they seem to grip onto the surface more, build up energy and then bounce ur feet up and down rapidly, i would compare it to scraping your nails down a chalk board but more so in how it feels. Lower hardness wheels will slide smoothly though on that surface. My point being that lower hardness is better for sliding, then again it might depend on surface, 90a's are probably better for sliding on street surfaces.

[argusfilch]

Thank you for your graet videos!
Why the number and size of the contact area affects the grip?
What exactly is a grip? what do you meen by thet and how do you measure it? Is it the same as friction?
Friction is just the coefficient of friction times the normal force. The size of the area in contact doesn't affect the friction force, why doe's it affect the grip?
Thanks

[MissSarahXScene]

I have impala inline skates with 70mm 84a durometer wheels (also fits 72mm wheels) and Abec-7 bearings. I find these very difficult to skate on streets or asphalt. What would you recommend swapping them with to have a more comfortable experience with street skating? Hard to find a smooth open space in my city that isn’t restricted.

[陳雪紅-jl]

Hello! This is a roller from China. I just watched your video and it was very good.

[geraldinegomez]

I just wanna skate outside on the driveway for fun, but my wheels (78mm, 78A) feel really slippery, and not as easy or hard as my old childhood skates, basically, I don't want to skate for speed, just for fun.