Thias' Blog

For its new 2010 freeride skates, the NRK and the NRK Road, Fila reused a whole bunch of features from existing skates, but introduced one never seen before on freeride skates : Low Profile frames which fit 80mm wheels but have a height of 35mm vs. the usual 40mm. This is a feature Fila is [...]

» Review : Fila Low Profile Frames

Here is the result from the Hyb-Ride Custom dont vous êtes le héros topic : a Rossignol Descender with Seba Downhill frames. Definitely more than one downhill skater’s dream skate, but nearly impossible to assemble nowadays since Rossignol stopped producing the Descender around 2002.

No modifications were necessary to achieve the frame centring seen on the [...]

» Custom : Descender Downhill

I just love customizing skates, and I’m always thrilled when new high-end after-market parts get released. So when I saw the upcoming Seba Balance liners in the Seba catalogue earlier this year, my reaction was unsurprisingly “I want those!“. They just got released, I just got a pair, so I’ll share my impressions.

First off, I [...]

» Review : Seba Balance liners

Fila has officially entered the freeride skates segment this year with its NRK line. As a side note, I’m curious as to what NRK stands for, as I have no idea, unlike FSK which is an abbreviation of Freeskate. Maybe just brands wanting to sound hype. We’ll know once people are no longer able to [...]

» Dismantling : Fila NRK Road

This is my first custom skate based on a Tecnica Crosstech. The only original parts I’ve kept are the shells and its buckles. The changes were straightforward, with the most tricky part being the frame mount spacing change from 188mm to the more standard 165mm.

The photos detail all of the important tricks used during the [...]

» Custom : CT 1.1 Freeride

When fixing or customizing skates, a very common problem is having to deal with riveted parts. Rivets are cheaper than screws, and are a lot less likely to loosen up with vibrations, which is probably why most skates have some (most) parts riveted. If I had anything to say, everything would be only bolts and [...]

» DIY : Replacing Rollerblade TRS buckles

This is a hard shell skate from 1997 (guessing from the 1996 manufacturing year of the plastic shell), which is known to be a very good base for customisation. Here are some useful pictures of the skate’s parts, taken while disassembling this pair of Tecnica CT-1 size 10/29.0 (which should be 10 UK and 29.0 [...]

» Dismantling : Tecnica CT-1

Custom Seba FR1 Downhill

Downhill is a niche segment in the inline skate industry, making it often hard to find good equipment, so it’s with great pleasure that we’ve welcomed the new Seba 995 aka Downhill frames. Here’s a slightly customised Seba FR1 skate with these frames.

Detail :

• Seba FR1 shells size [...]

  » Custom : Seba FR1 Downhill

The Rollerblade Twister Plus is still by far my favourite skate, especially when it comes to customization. Yes, I already wrote that in my last entry… it’s just not likely to change any time soon. Here’s a couple of simple variations on the same base.

The common part is a Rollerblade Twister Plus (2004) size 28.0 [...]

» Custom : Twister Plus Mod and Metro

The Rollerblade Twister Plus is still by far my favourite skate, especially when it comes to customization. Here is a simple variation I’ve made, where the accent is on both aesthetics and details.

The base is one of my Rollerblade Twister Plus (2004) in size 28.0 MP (43 EU, 10 US). At this size, the front [...]

» Custom : Rollerblade Twister Plus Red Touch

I’m proud to introduce www.wikinline.net : Worldwide Information and Knowledge of Inline skates. A collaborative reference of inline skates focused on technical details.

Something I had in mind for a very long time.

It breaks my heart to see great old skates being thrown away. This is what was about to happen to these Roces LAX (Los Angeles) skates when their owner decided to buy new ones in September 2009. Because of their above-average potential, and also because they were my size, I just couldn’t let that happen [...]

» Retro Custom : Roces Los Angeles

We’ve waited years (literally) for this skate to come out. Here are my impressions.

First, I have to admit that like everyone who has seen this skate, my very first impression was a bit disappointing : It’s not feather light like one would expect from a Carbon skate. But when you think of it, a lot [...]

» Universkate Seba High Carbon

Here are my Seba (Universkate) FR1 skates from the very first batch (end of 2006, I think) with their current customisations. Only the outer shell and a few screws are still from the original skates!

• Seba 1 2007 liners (the very first original FR1 liners were crap)
• Black heel buckle (with grey logo, current ones have it [...]

  » Universkate Seba FR1 Deluxe 84mm Custom

The new Rollerblade Twister for this 2008 season will be improved at last. No real major changes, in fact the entire outer shell is identical, and the overall skate looks very much the same, but some details have been changed.