So I turned my aggressive skates into FSK skates

[Hellbore]

OK my Salomon FSK frames off Ebay came in the mail today, and I got my Salomon UFS soul plates and some stuff from the hardware store, and got to work!

Just a little background info, these skates are not UFS compatible but they are close enough that you can MAKE them UFS compatible just by adding 2 T-nuts to the bottom plate of each boot. The soul plates I bought were for a newer Salomon skate that IS UFS compatible, but uses the same shape of soul plate, so I was able to bolt on the new soul plate and use that as a template for where to drill the holes to install the T-nuts to make these skates UFS compatible.

The frames said 80mm wheels was the max size but I wanted to run some 84mm wheels. These wheels rubbed on the soul plate above so I did some cutting of the soul plates above each wheel to give it room. I used the UFS soul plates as a template for where to drill the hole and put the T-nut to make these non-UFS boots be UFS compatible. It was fun to be able to mod them like this. I also put in new Senate Sinister 2 liners which look pretty cool.

The 84mm wheels I originally bought for my fitness skates but I used them a couple times and decided to get another set that was harder rubber, thus faster, so these wheels got handed down to my FSK skates.

Here's the finished product, they look pretty sick IMO:



Here you can see where I installed the T-nut at the heel, there is another like it up in the toe:



Here you can see that the 84mm wheels BARELY fit, they are pretty close together there but they don't rub:



Anyway what do you guys think? In case you were gonna ask, no I'm not gonna use these for grinding LOL...

[skate2Bfit]

Whew! those wheels are packed in there TIGHT! Hope you don't get any rocks jammed in between them!

I wouldn't mind trying out some freestyle skates, let me know how they ride.

[Hellbore]

Well my first impression was, not much flex! I have been getting used to my k2 fitness skates, the soft boot and cuff design allow me to get a lot lower and allow a lot more flex. These skates have a lot of ankle support. That is OK I guess because I want to do tricks in them.

Next thing I noticed was, these frames are quite short! I felt very maneuverable but not as fast. I guess that is what happens with short frames. They turn on a dime but I can't get going at as high of a speed, but that is also partly because of having less flex so I can't get as efficient of a stroke.

All in all, I think they are a worthwhile compromise because I want to be able to do TRICKS. Sadly, trying to do tricks on my fitness skates tends to destroy them These skates are not as fast or flexy but for that sacrifice, in return you get a virtually bulletproof skate...

By the way, I think these extruded aluminum Salomon frames are pretty darn sexy hehe... The only thing I think is a little worrisme is that the axle screws directly into the frame. I can imagine the threads in the frame could get buggered up over time. I guess if that happened I could easily just ream the hole out to the size of the axle and use the axles that were on my aggressive frames. Those axles are the same diameter but they have a hex head on each end instead of just on one end.

[skate2Bfit]

Don't cross-thread them and you'll never have a problem with the threads in the frames.

[Hellbore]

That is good to hear, I think the frames look pretty!

Any suggestions what bearings I could get a good deal on? The bearings I have on there now are closed up in some manner where I can't figure out how to get them apart... The Twincam bearings on my k2 fitness skates just have a snap ring you can remove to take them apart but these suckers seem impossible to open up. Plus, these have got quite a bit of use on them and aren't as smooth as my twincams... So I can see maybe some new bearings in my future...

[Robert]

I don't know if this was intentional, Hellborne, but your skates resemble K2's new Front Man model without the fancy detailing:


They might work well for freestyle.

[Hellbore]

Hey cool! Those use the same length frame, they use an all-out aggressive boot... You're right those are very similar!

I hadn't seen those before but I like them. Mine have bigger wheels though! Slightly bigger anyway, 84mm vs. 80mm.

I would love to add a pair of those k2 front man skates to my collection, maybe I could use this year's tax return for that hehe... You can't have too many pair of skates!

As for the skates, I wore them to a full day of college today, and all I can say is... Wow they are a lot of fun!!! They feel so solid and stable with so much support, I feel like I can do any kind of slalom, tight turns, go up and down stairs, jump things... While at the same time, they have big enough wheels that you can ZOOM around! The frames feel so short and maneuverable!

I had a super fun day for skating today anyway, after having so much fun on my newly-built FSK skates, my brand new set of 84mm 88A wheels came in the mail! Before I put them on my fitness skates (k2 exo 6.1)

I thought I would try rebuilding the twincam ILQ7 bearings. They had some kind of white jelly-like lube in them. I cleaned it all out thoroughly and lubed them with SAE 80w90 synthetic gear oil, just to see how it would work. Hope that wasn't a bad idea. Anyway, with the new, harder wheels and the rebuilt bearings, I took my fitness skates out for a test run and WOW they felt fast! I felt faster and tighter than ever. It's probably because I'm so heavy (240 lbs) but it seems like the harder the wheels, the better!

Anyway, after having so much fun on skates today, my interest in inline skating is definitely rekindled!

[earthreach]

Boy you sure got those wheels so tight. Hope their won't be any mishaps happening to your wheels.