Different Types of Roller Skates
First, let’s do a quick overview of each type of roller skate.
Roller Skates
Quad roller skates are the traditional skates that most people have used at a roller rink or when they were a child. Each quad skate has two axles, like a car, with an axle in the front and one in the back. Each axle has two wheels on it – one on the left and one on the right.
Each wheel has two skate bearings inside of it and the wheel is fastened to the skate with an axle nut. Quad skates come in either a high-top or low-top skate boot.
Rollerblades
First, Rollerblades are technically a type of inline skate. Therefore, you will see the term rollerblades and inline skates used synonymously. For this article, I am classifying inline skates as inline speed skates, which are very different from rollerblades or quad skates. More about that below.
Roller blades are a roller skate with a single axle running down the length of the boot. The 3-5 wheels then slide into the skate plate and are secured in place with a long axle nut. Most rollerblades have a high-top firm boot and a brake on the back of the right skate.
Rollerblade is a company that was started in the 1980s by two Minnesotan brothers – Scott and Brennan Olsen. The two brothers saw an old pair of inline skates in a sporting goods store and thought it would be perfect for off-season hockey players. Over the course of the past few decades, rollerblades and inline skates became synonymous with the public.
Inline Speed Skates
Inline speed skates are a special skate used by competitive speed skaters. Like rollerblades and other inline skates, inline speed skates have a single axle with 3-4 wheels that slide into the axle and are secured with a long axle nut. These skates have a very short low-cut boot to make it easier for the speed skater to dig into their turns.
The wheels on these skates start at 75mm and go all the way up to 130mm. Most inline-speed skate wheels have a diameter of 100mm-130mm range. The larger diameter, thinner wheels allow the speed skater to keep their speed for a longer period of time.
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