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Squaring off roller ski wheels
Stop me if you've heard this one before... This is not
about selling handbags or shoes. Someone has a set of classical roller skis. Maybe they skate on them, who knows. But at some point the wheels start to wear unevenly. As the wear progresses things get worse more quickly. Pretty soon they don't track worth anything. The person looks up the cost of new wheels. Then they decide that their skate roller skis will do just fine, and they gift the ones with the wheels that won't track straight. I've got roller skis like that. One is a pair of very old Swenors. Very unevenly worn wheels, no hope of tracking straight. Soft rubber, 60mm wide. Haven't been sold for years, no way of getting new wheels for those. So I took them to the bench grinder. Yes, you heard that right. The bench grinder. I turned it on and spun up the roller ski wheel on it. Then I rotated the shaft a little. This caused the grinding wheel to begin shaving rubber from an evenly rotating wheel. I did this for a while, accumulating quite a mound of rubber shavings. Eventually I had two sets of wheels, both pretty much squared off. If you do this, pay attention to the bearings. They are spinning pretty fast, and they'll heat up on you if you are not careful. I only have cheap-o spare bindings in the basement so I haven't taken them out to verify anything yet. But the pro of doing this is that I have a free pair of roller skis that track like new. But nothing is free. I've lost some wheel diameter and the result is going to be roller skis that ride more harshly and hang up easier on stones and sticks. I've never heard of anyone sculpting worn roller ski wheels like that. Maybe I'm the trend setter. Maybe some of you have old roller skis with unevenly worn wheels that you are willing to experiment on. At least I haven't tried to sell you a watch. Bob Schwartz |
Squaring off roller ski wheels
On Aug 29, 9:25*pm, Bob Schwartz
wrote: Stop me if you've heard this one before... This is not about selling handbags or shoes. Someone has a set of classical roller skis. Maybe they skate on them, who knows. But at some point the wheels start to wear unevenly. As the wear progresses things get worse more quickly. Pretty soon they don't track worth anything. The person looks up the cost of new wheels. Then they decide that their skate roller skis will do just fine, and they gift the ones with the wheels that won't track straight. I've got roller skis like that. One is a pair of very old Swenors. Very unevenly worn wheels, no hope of tracking straight. Soft rubber, 60mm wide. Haven't been sold for years, no way of getting new wheels for those. So I took them to the bench grinder. Yes, you heard that right. The bench grinder. I turned it on and spun up the roller ski wheel on it. Then I rotated the shaft a little. This caused the grinding wheel to begin shaving rubber from an evenly rotating wheel. I did this for a while, accumulating quite a mound of rubber shavings. Eventually I had two sets of wheels, both pretty much squared off. If you do this, pay attention to the bearings. They are spinning pretty fast, and they'll heat up on you if you are not careful. I only have cheap-o spare bindings in the basement so I haven't taken them out to verify anything yet. But the pro of doing this is that I have a free pair of roller skis that track like new. But nothing is free. I've lost some wheel diameter and the result is going to be roller skis that ride more harshly and hang up easier on stones and sticks. I've never heard of anyone sculpting worn roller ski wheels like that. Maybe I'm the trend setter. Maybe some of you have old roller skis with unevenly worn wheels that you are willing to experiment on. At least I haven't tried to sell you a watch. Bob Schwartz Hey Bob, back when I first started roller skiing with the classic V2's, that was my normal procedure when wheels got uneven. I used that grinder on all wheels until I switched to skate skis with narrow wheels. I had forgotten about it until now.... Burgess |
Squaring off roller ski wheels
Why didn't you just swap sides or wheels between rollerskis before this
developed, or even after? You sure some other brand wheels wouldn't fit? Maybe Nordic Skater has some ideas - http://www.nordicskater.com/rolski.html. Gene On Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:25:14 -0500 Bob Schwartz wrote: Stop me if you've heard this one before... This is not about selling handbags or shoes. Someone has a set of classical roller skis. Maybe they skate on them, who knows. But at some point the wheels start to wear unevenly. As the wear progresses things get worse more quickly. Pretty soon they don't track worth anything. The person looks up the cost of new wheels. Then they decide that their skate roller skis will do just fine, and they gift the ones with the wheels that won't track straight. I've got roller skis like that. One is a pair of very old Swenors. Very unevenly worn wheels, no hope of tracking straight. Soft rubber, 60mm wide. Haven't been sold for years, no way of getting new wheels for those. So I took them to the bench grinder. Yes, you heard that right. The bench grinder. I turned it on and spun up the roller ski wheel on it. Then I rotated the shaft a little. This caused the grinding wheel to begin shaving rubber from an evenly rotating wheel. I did this for a while, accumulating quite a mound of rubber shavings. Eventually I had two sets of wheels, both pretty much squared off. If you do this, pay attention to the bearings. They are spinning pretty fast, and they'll heat up on you if you are not careful. I only have cheap-o spare bindings in the basement so I haven't taken them out to verify anything yet. But the pro of doing this is that I have a free pair of roller skis that track like new. But nothing is free. I've lost some wheel diameter and the result is going to be roller skis that ride more harshly and hang up easier on stones and sticks. I've never heard of anyone sculpting worn roller ski wheels like that. Maybe I'm the trend setter. Maybe some of you have old roller skis with unevenly worn wheels that you are willing to experiment on. At least I haven't tried to sell you a watch. Bob Schwartz |
Squaring off roller ski wheels
On Aug 30, 3:05*pm, Bob Schwartz
wrote: On 8/30/2010 11:40 AM, wrote: Why didn't you just swap sides or wheels between rollerskis before this developed, or even after? You sure some other brand wheels wouldn't fit? *Maybe Nordic Skater has some ideas -http://www.nordicskater.com/rolski.html. Gene The wheels were already too far gone when I got them. So yeah, someone should have done something before that happened. I like free, free is the right price for classic roller skis as far as I'm concerned. 60mm wheels are not common, Nordic Skater lists them at $44, $54 with ratchet. The ratcheted wheels were the ones that were really toast. All I've got invested in these things is a little time. When I take them out it is quite possible that I'll discover that there is more to dislike about classic roller skiing than just worn wheels that won't track straight. I guess I wasn't willing to spend over $100 + shipping to find that out. Or even a fraction of that. Bob Schwartz I would also ask around, e.g. on this group if anyone has 60 mm wheels lying around. I like the bench grinder idea, but just how many more miles do you expect to get from these wheels until you have no more wheel to grind? |
Squaring off roller ski wheels
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Squaring off roller ski wheels
On 8/29/2010 9:25 PM, Bob Schwartz wrote:
Stop me if you've heard this one before... This is not about selling handbags or shoes. Someone has a set of classical roller skis. Maybe they skate on them, who knows. But at some point the wheels start to wear unevenly. As the wear progresses things get worse more quickly. Pretty soon they don't track worth anything. The person looks up the cost of new wheels. Then they decide that their skate roller skis will do just fine, and they gift the ones with the wheels that won't track straight. I've got roller skis like that. One is a pair of very old Swenors. Very unevenly worn wheels, no hope of tracking straight. Soft rubber, 60mm wide. Haven't been sold for years, no way of getting new wheels for those. So I took them to the bench grinder. Yes, you heard that right. The bench grinder. I turned it on and spun up the roller ski wheel on it. Then I rotated the shaft a little. This caused the grinding wheel to begin shaving rubber from an evenly rotating wheel. I did this for a while, accumulating quite a mound of rubber shavings. Eventually I had two sets of wheels, both pretty much squared off. If you do this, pay attention to the bearings. They are spinning pretty fast, and they'll heat up on you if you are not careful. I only have cheap-o spare bindings in the basement so I haven't taken them out to verify anything yet. But the pro of doing this is that I have a free pair of roller skis that track like new. But nothing is free. I've lost some wheel diameter and the result is going to be roller skis that ride more harshly and hang up easier on stones and sticks. I've never heard of anyone sculpting worn roller ski wheels like that. Maybe I'm the trend setter. Maybe some of you have old roller skis with unevenly worn wheels that you are willing to experiment on. At least I haven't tried to sell you a watch. Bob Schwartz OK, I've had some time on these. Initially the tracking was much improved, but still not stellar. The wheels were symmetrical, but still more rounded than square. I guess I was a little too tentative about removing rubber. Well, I got over that. I went back to the grinder and flattened things down quite a bit. When I got them the wheels were very unevenly worn, so by this time I've removed a fair amount of wheel diameter. And I was concerned about that. But the rubber on these things is very soft and pretty effective at dampening road buzz. The remaining problem was that one of the skis has a tendency to drift from the rear. I swapped them back and forth and played around with weight distribution and eventually discovered that I could minimize the drift by keeping my weight forward and using a high tempo with less gliding. Which are both things I ought to be doing anyway. But it was limited to one ski and sure enough, the rear wheel in that ski is canted just slightly in the mounting. I should be able to fix that. So I think the end result is I get an acceptable if not great pair of classical roller skis at the cost of some time and thought. Bob Schwartz |
Squaring off roller ski wheels
On 10/14/2010 10:32 AM, Bob Schwartz wrote:
On 8/29/2010 9:25 PM, Bob Schwartz wrote: Stop me if you've heard this one before... This is not about selling handbags or shoes. Someone has a set of classical roller skis. Maybe they skate on them, who knows. But at some point the wheels start to wear unevenly. As the wear progresses things get worse more quickly. Pretty soon they don't track worth anything. The person looks up the cost of new wheels. Then they decide that their skate roller skis will do just fine, and they gift the ones with the wheels that won't track straight. I've got roller skis like that. One is a pair of very old Swenors. Very unevenly worn wheels, no hope of tracking straight. Soft rubber, 60mm wide. Haven't been sold for years, no way of getting new wheels for those. So I took them to the bench grinder. Yes, you heard that right. The bench grinder. I turned it on and spun up the roller ski wheel on it. Then I rotated the shaft a little. This caused the grinding wheel to begin shaving rubber from an evenly rotating wheel. I did this for a while, accumulating quite a mound of rubber shavings. Eventually I had two sets of wheels, both pretty much squared off. If you do this, pay attention to the bearings. They are spinning pretty fast, and they'll heat up on you if you are not careful. I only have cheap-o spare bindings in the basement so I haven't taken them out to verify anything yet. But the pro of doing this is that I have a free pair of roller skis that track like new. But nothing is free. I've lost some wheel diameter and the result is going to be roller skis that ride more harshly and hang up easier on stones and sticks. I've never heard of anyone sculpting worn roller ski wheels like that. Maybe I'm the trend setter. Maybe some of you have old roller skis with unevenly worn wheels that you are willing to experiment on. At least I haven't tried to sell you a watch. Bob Schwartz OK, I've had some time on these. Initially the tracking was much improved, but still not stellar. The wheels were symmetrical, but still more rounded than square. I guess I was a little too tentative about removing rubber. Well, I got over that. I went back to the grinder and flattened things down quite a bit. When I got them the wheels were very unevenly worn, so by this time I've removed a fair amount of wheel diameter. And I was concerned about that. But the rubber on these things is very soft and pretty effective at dampening road buzz. The remaining problem was that one of the skis has a tendency to drift from the rear. I swapped them back and forth and played around with weight distribution and eventually discovered that I could minimize the drift by keeping my weight forward and using a high tempo with less gliding. Which are both things I ought to be doing anyway. But it was limited to one ski and sure enough, the rear wheel in that ski is canted just slightly in the mounting. I should be able to fix that. So I think the end result is I get an acceptable if not great pair of classical roller skis at the cost of some time and thought. Bob Schwartz Is anyone still out there? Just an update for those of you with older classic roller skis. I took these monsters to a clinic and got some opinions on them, the consensus was that there is a reason that no one makes roller skis as long as was common back in the day. I'm kind of a plodder on these things, if you pick up the speed you have handling problems due to the length. I measured them at 90cm, no that is not a typo, they are 90cm long. I am guessing that the date of manufacture is sometime in the 1980s but that is just a guess. Well, they're 20cm shorter now. Simple enough to do if you've got a carbide tipped blade. That makes them comparable in length to more recent classic roller skis. It also means the ride will be a little less plush. I'm intrigued by the idea presented he http://forums.fasterskier.com/topic/...lerkski-wheels 60mm wide wheels carry a lot of rubber and weigh a ton. I am thinking that some roller hockey wheels might extend the life of these things even more. If they don't it's a cheap experiment. If I get to it I'll report back. Bob Schwartz |
Squaring off roller ski wheels
On Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:43:35 -0500
Bob Schwartz wrote: On 10/14/2010 10:32 AM, Bob Schwartz wrote: On 8/29/2010 9:25 PM, Bob Schwartz wrote: Stop me if you've heard this one before... This is not about selling handbags or shoes. Someone has a set of classical roller skis. Maybe they skate on them, who knows. But at some point the wheels start to wear unevenly. As the wear progresses things get worse more quickly. Pretty soon they don't track worth anything. The person looks up the cost of new wheels. Then they decide that their skate roller skis will do just fine, and they gift the ones with the wheels that won't track straight. I've got roller skis like that. One is a pair of very old Swenors. Very unevenly worn wheels, no hope of tracking straight. Soft rubber, 60mm wide. Haven't been sold for years, no way of getting new wheels for those. So I took them to the bench grinder. Yes, you heard that right. The bench grinder. I turned it on and spun up the roller ski wheel on it. Then I rotated the shaft a little. This caused the grinding wheel to begin shaving rubber from an evenly rotating wheel. I did this for a while, accumulating quite a mound of rubber shavings. Eventually I had two sets of wheels, both pretty much squared off. If you do this, pay attention to the bearings. They are spinning pretty fast, and they'll heat up on you if you are not careful. I only have cheap-o spare bindings in the basement so I haven't taken them out to verify anything yet. But the pro of doing this is that I have a free pair of roller skis that track like new. But nothing is free. I've lost some wheel diameter and the result is going to be roller skis that ride more harshly and hang up easier on stones and sticks. I've never heard of anyone sculpting worn roller ski wheels like that. Maybe I'm the trend setter. Maybe some of you have old roller skis with unevenly worn wheels that you are willing to experiment on. At least I haven't tried to sell you a watch. Bob Schwartz OK, I've had some time on these. Initially the tracking was much improved, but still not stellar. The wheels were symmetrical, but still more rounded than square. I guess I was a little too tentative about removing rubber. Well, I got over that. I went back to the grinder and flattened things down quite a bit. When I got them the wheels were very unevenly worn, so by this time I've removed a fair amount of wheel diameter. And I was concerned about that. But the rubber on these things is very soft and pretty effective at dampening road buzz. The remaining problem was that one of the skis has a tendency to drift from the rear. I swapped them back and forth and played around with weight distribution and eventually discovered that I could minimize the drift by keeping my weight forward and using a high tempo with less gliding. Which are both things I ought to be doing anyway. But it was limited to one ski and sure enough, the rear wheel in that ski is canted just slightly in the mounting. I should be able to fix that. So I think the end result is I get an acceptable if not great pair of classical roller skis at the cost of some time and thought. Bob Schwartz Is anyone still out there? Just an update for those of you with older classic roller skis. I took these monsters to a clinic and got some opinions on them, the consensus was that there is a reason that no one makes roller skis as long as was common back in the day. I'm kind of a plodder on these things, if you pick up the speed you have handling problems due to the length. I measured them at 90cm, no that is not a typo, they are 90cm long. I am guessing that the date of manufacture is sometime in the 1980s but that is just a guess. Well, they're 20cm shorter now. Simple enough to do if you've got a carbide tipped blade. That makes them comparable in length to more recent classic roller skis. It also means the ride will be a little less plush. I'm intrigued by the idea presented he http://forums.fasterskier.com/topic/...lerkski-wheels 60mm wide wheels carry a lot of rubber and weigh a ton. I am thinking that some roller hockey wheels might extend the life of these things even more. If they don't it's a cheap experiment. If I get to it I'll report back. The Marwe combis with their add-on wire wheels make it to about 830mm as I recall. At 6'2"+ and with relatively long legs, I like that. The Marwe use 40mm wide wheels, which are much easier to handle than the wide ones. I found their 33mm ones too fast on downhills. Rollerblade wheels bolted together might work for classic, but would probably be cumbersome. Gene |
Squaring off roller ski wheels
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