If you’re worried about booking your skate lessons and having to cancel due to wet weather, don’t worry any longer.  There are a few places to skate in London that are under cover and they are within easy walking distance of the tube.  Now isn’t that better!

Also known as Group Skating or Street Skating, Mass-Participation Skating is probably one of the most exhilarating social skating events in the world. Anywhere from a few friends to hundreds or even thousands of skaters meet up every week and skate together through the City streets.  Are you ready?

Between April and September there is The London Skate aka WNS (londonskate.com) and every Friday we have the London Friday Night Skate (lfns.co.uk), both of these skating events are for intermediate to advanced skaters. For the younger skaters and those of you who want a much slower easier skate there is the Easy Peasy skate on Saturdays (easypeasyskate.com) and finally there’s the Rollerstroll on Sundays (lfns.co.uk).

Or maybe you’d prefer skating in another City altogether. In which case I’d highly recommend the Pari-Roller in Paris (pari-roller.com), the Monday Night Skate in Geneva and Basel (mondaynightskate.ch) and the Friday Night Skate in Amsterdam (fridaynightskate.com).

If you need to hire equipment then for London try Slick Willies (slickwillies.co.uk), for Paris try Nomades (nomadeshop.com) and for Amsterdam try the Vondeltruin.

Skate Sensibly.  Keep Alert. Have Fun.

There are lots of articles on the web showing you how to pull your bearings apart, wash, dry and oil them. In my opinion this isn’t necessary 99% of the time. You should only really consider stripping your bearings down if you’ve had them over a year and/or they feel stiff or sound gritty.

Here are my tips for keeping your bearings in tip-top shape!

Tip 1: Don’t use your skates in the rain or muddy areas. Only skate when it’s dry and stay off the grass and other areas which could clog your bearings with dirt.

Tip 2: Your wheels need rotating every couple of weeks or so (more often if you’re a heavy user), so take the opportunity to remove the bearings and wipe them with a clean dry cloth. Use an old toothbrush for better results if you have one.

Tip 3: When skating in the rain (not advisable) remove the bearings that very same night, use a clean cloth to dry them and put them on a radiator or use a hair dryer to completely dry them out.

Tip 4: Always try and use the proper tools when removing your wheels and bearings. Ask your local skate shop for the correct tool. If you can’t get the correct tools, then a suitably sized screwdriver will suffice for removing bearings.

Tip 5: If your bearings are rusty or stiff.  Don’t waste your time trying to restore them back to new. Just go out and buy some more, chances are that your bearings will be a good year or two old by now anyway and should be replaced for safety reasons.

Tip 6: The lazy skaters solution to stiff and rusty bearings. Visit your local cycling shop and ask them for spray-can chain oil (I recommend Ketten-Fluid). Remove your bearings from the wheels and spray the oil directly onto the bearings, leave for a few minutes then dry with an old cloth before putting them back into the wheels (the oil will have seeped into the bearing casing and lubricated the ball-bearings by then).

In short: Only skate on dry surfaces, stay away from muddy areas and grass! If your bearings are less than seven months old and you don’t skate in the rain or mud, then wiping them down with a clean dry cloth or with an old toothbrush will do the job just fine. For old, stiff or rusty bearings, either buy new ones or use some spray-can oil instead.

The term Rollerblading comes from the trademark Rollerblade® and has always (as far back as I can remember) been incorrectly used to describe using a pair of skates where all four wheels are in a straight line, as opposed to being side by side like quad skates.

Rollerblade® is not a verb, so to say you are Rollerblading is incorrect. Rollerblade®, Salomon and K2 are all examples of company / brand names that manufacture Inline Skates. You wouldn’t say you were K2ing, or Salomoning would you? You might own a pair of Rollerblades® but when you’re wearing them you are Inline Skating, not Rollerblading!

In short: When all four wheels are in a straight line, regardless of which brand you own, you should call them Inline Skates, and when you wear them you should say that you are Inline Skating.

Skate bearings are rated using the ABEC scale (Annular Bearing Engineering Committee). ABEC 1 being the worse and ABEC 9 being the best. The quality of the steel used in the bearings is not covered by the ABEC scale but is an important consideration when buying bearings, so consult your inline skate stockist first and make sure you are paying for the overall quality.

Wheel hardness is measured using the A scale (76A for example). The higher the number the harder the wheel, with lower numbers indicating software wheels. Hard wheels are generally more durable and faster, but software wheels offer better grip and you don’t feel the bumps in the roads so much! Other terms you might hear when choosing wheels are Elliptic and Rounded profiles. Elliptic profiles minimize friction (less stable) and allow for a faster ride, but if you’re looking for better grip and a more stable ride; then rounded profiles are for you.

Wheel sizes differ greatly depending on the type of inline skates you choose. Putting it simply, the bigger the wheels the faster the skates (like recreational and speed skates for example). Smaller wheels on the other hand are better suited for maneuverability and faster acceleration (like aggressive skates).

54-56mm for aggressive skates
68-72mm for artistic inline skates
76-80mm for hockey, freestyle and slalom skates
80-110mm for recreational and speed skates