Choosing your Artistic Skate wheels

Guillaume Wagner’s Tips

Guillaume, the choice of wheels is essential in order to skate with the best conditions. How can you determine which wheels to choose?

According to me, your choice should be based on 4 main criteria:

• The discipline (dancing, artistic, group skating)
• The skater’s technique
• the floor surface (concrete, granito, wood)
• The skater’s weight

Inline skaters are used to talk about wheel hardness in shores. What about artistic skaters?

It’s the same system in artistic skating but we don’t use those terms. Shore A corresponds to dancing wheels (egg. Roll Line Super Speed Race 92A) and Shore D suits better for artistic skating (egg. Komplex Angel HD43).

What is the difference between thermoplastic elastomer and polyurethane?

These are two very different materials. Thermoplastic elastomer mixes both the elastic features of elastomer and the thermoplastic effect (wheels melt or harden under the action of heat). There is a very large range of available hardnesses for these materials. Hardnesses are measured in Shore D. The material has an extremely rigid aspect.

As for polyurethane, it can be manufactured with a great variety of textures according to brands (Roll Line, Komplex, Axel Création, etc.) and a great variety of hardnesses, measured in Shore A.

Let’s say that thermoplastic elastomer enables to get very hard wheels, while polyurethane will make softer wheels.

What are the pros and cons of hard wheels and soft wheels?

There are no pros and cons, it all depends on the skater’s sensations. Hard wheels enable to skate faster but they lack grip, whereas soft wheels are the other way around.

Can you mix different hardnesses in Artistic Skating and in Dancing?

Yes of course. Nowadays, we have to mix hardnesses, in artistic and in dance skating.

Recap chart

	Artistic Wheels
	Thermoplastic elastomere				Polyurethane
	Star	Roll Line	Komplex		Roll Line	Komplex	Roll Line
	Star	Magnum Giotto	Azzurra	Angel	Professional	Ghibli	Race
Hard wheels	HD84
	HD60	60D	HD60
					Léopard		99/106
	HD75	57D	HD 56	HD56		98A
	HD70	53D	HD52	HD52	Mustang		97/99
			HD50	HD51		96A
	TL60	49D	HD48	HD48
	CS40	47D	HD46	HD45	Panther		95/99
				HD43		93A
				HD40	Fox		92/99
						90A
				HD38
Soft wheels

Dancing Wheels
Polyurethane				Thermoplastic elastomere
	Roll Line	Roll Line	Komplex	Komplex
	Grease	Super Speed Race	Tango	Bolero
Hard wheels
	99A
			98A
	97A
			96A
	95A	95A		HD45
	Olympic		93A	HD43
	92A	92A		HD40
	Forester	90A	90A
	Formula	88A		HD38
Soft wheels		85A

Links

Axel Création Website

By Guillaume Wagner (Axel Création) and Alfathor
Translation: Chloe Seyres
Photos : all rights reserved