Thias' Blog» Skates

Custom : Colour Twister 243 Frames

Thias — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 11:27:09 +0000

Here are some pictures of colourful Twister 243 frames, which are the final result following my experiments detailed in the DIY : Anodizing skate frames post. The turquoise and dark red are the two most original colours which were available. The Twister frames look absolutely amazing, as you can see on the photos. An original [...]

» Custom : Colour Twister 243 Frames

Dismantling : Salomon Deemax 3

Thias — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 11:24:37 +0000

Salomon has stopped producing inline skates in 2006, which is a shame since they had some really good models. Nothing amazing, but good engineering and good materials. The FSK line was no exception.

Today, I’ve dismantled a Salomon Deemax 3 skate (also known as Deemax³), which was sold during both the 2004 and 2005 seasons, replaced [...]

» Dismantling : Salomon Deemax 3

DIY : Anodizing skate frames

Thias — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 06:45:01 +0000

Anodizing skate frames is something I wanted to do for a while now, to get some colours in which original frames aren’t available. After finally getting in touch with a company specializing in anodization, here are the results.

The first test involved a pair of Powerslide Metro frames and the most flashy colour I could pick [...]

» DIY : Anodizing skate frames

Custom : Descender Matter Freeride and Downhill

Thias — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:31:13 +0000

The Matter Juice wheels are the perfect match for the original yellow details of the Rossignol Descender. Here is the result of a photo session with the skate I previously presented with 5x90mm Hyper +Grip wheels.

The combination is so perfect, no one who sees this skate believes it’s actually 13 years old.

Note that since the [...]

» Custom : Descender Matter Freeride and Downhill

Custom : Seba FR1 Bumble Bee Freeride and Downhill

Thias — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:11:16 +0000

Since August 2010, new colour custom kits are available for the Seba FR skates, in addition to the existing red and black ones : Green, purple and… yellow!

I had always regretted the absence of a yellow colour kit, and I think I wasn’t the only one. Here are pictures of my FR1 skates changed to [...]

» Custom : Seba FR1 Bumble Bee Freeride and Downhill

Review : Fila Low Profile Frames

Thias — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:07:54 +0000

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

Custom : Descender Downhill

Thias — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:58:53 +0000

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

Review : Seba Balance liners

Thias — Sat, 15 May 2010 22:06:41 +0000

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

Dismantling : Fila NRK Road

Thias — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:50:57 +0000

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

Custom : CT 1.1 Freeride

Thias — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 15:10:22 +0000

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

DIY : Replacing Rollerblade TRS buckles

Thias — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:26:05 +0000

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

Dismantling : Tecnica CT-1

Thias — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 22:30:42 +0000

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

Thias — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:34:57 +0000

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 42 EU
Seba High liners size 43 EU
Seba FR [...]
» Custom : Seba FR1 Downhill

Custom : Twister Plus Mod and Metro

Thias — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:30:59 +0000

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

Custom : Rollerblade Twister Plus Red Touch

Thias — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:43:46 +0000

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

Inline Skate Wiki : Wikinline

Thias — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:29:40 +0000

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.

Retro Custom : Roces Los Angeles

Thias — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:11:00 +0000

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

Universkate Seba High Carbon

Thias — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:32:10 +0000

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

Universkate Seba FR1 Deluxe 84mm Custom

Thias — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:10:08 +0000

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 Twister III Pro 2008

Thias — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 02:14:39 +0000

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.

Shorter frame, now 245mm vs. 250mm previously. The one I’ve seen also had a better finish, [...]
» The Twister III Pro 2008