Category archives: Articles

Aggressive Inline Skating-related articles.

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Lots of folks are making stuff, but few are sharing recipes.

STLs or it didn't exist?

Open Element 2.0



A model akin to the Kizer Element 2.
Direct Link
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3964175
Method(s) Frame: CNC aluminum alloy; Grind Block: CNC UHMW; FDM ABS/PLA/Nylon/etc or SLS Nylon, Alumide.
License CC-BY-NC-SA

Salomon Souls



By Starscream/Claudio A. Sizes for 265/75/85mm boots: scale up or down manually for other sizes. Protects the original boot surfaces with minimal added ride height.
Direct Link https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4025289
Method(s) SLS Nylon ...

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How easy [or difficult] is it to backslide/royale/farf/torque in a Mook frame? What about a 72mm Bake? A classic Lightning TRS without a groove?

Enter Backslide Height

It seems like it'd make sense to measure the actual angle of tweak required to make frame-boot contact, but soul plates are, fortunately, many different widths.

What's that? Create an average of all soul plate widths on the market to make backslide angle a generalize-able measurement? Welp, soul plates have been widening (and are currently narrowing?) throughout hardware history, which would create a semi-meaningless relativistic measurement requiring maintenance ...

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Of course UFS's big brother0 quit in 2005/6, and the "inventor" works on footwear now.

Apparently a commercial spec sheet was never released1 for what the Universal Frame System would consist of, and parts labeled UFS often require modification to be compatible with other "UFS" parts:

GC BIG Frame Insert

 

K2 Trio lacks UFS mounting cavities


Interested parties generally always refer back to Salomon's UFS patent filed in 2001, we'll call this Borel's Law:
UFS patent doc cover



And shucks, nobody really cares about any of this except for the distance between mounting bolts and those nub-pin-"cavity" thingies [which inconveniently, aren't explicitly defined in ...

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Forget everything you know about liners, wheel setups, soul plates, grind plates, frame mounting, bearings, wheel profiles and sizes, bearing spacers, laces, H blocks, color ways and power straps.

What performance characteristics would the ideal trick-oriented inline skate for expert rollerbladers exhibit?

Wish list

Durability: nothing on the skate should break [unintentionally]

Solution(s): Strong, wear-resistant materials: UHMW, aluminum, carbon fiber applied with intention and minimalism. As few mechanical/hinged componenents as necessary.

Replaceability/Configurability: any part that wears out or needs to be another color or material should be replaced with ease. Skates should be customized trivially.

Solution(s ...

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Or, Mounting Standards Are Nuclear Fallout

What? UFS is great. I can put any frame design on any boot...sort of-just kidding-not really-not at all.

Aggressive inline skate mounting "standards" have only ever existed to empower customization impose proprietary limitations by baiting sales integration traps.

Not to optimize:

  • ride height
  • groove location and angle
  • frame bias
  • or to enable customization

Only to optimize sales.
Otherwise, nearly every boot-frame application would be crafted with slight differences based on individual preference, in much the same way wheel size, cuff height, footbeds, skin design or buckle/strap closures can be selected. There's ...

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