Anyone interested?

[nicholasmith]

Hello its me again

I am designing some skates for my degree (not sure if in-line or what yet) and was thinking of designing some for mainstream people as i feel skating is really good for fitness and also a quick way to get around. One thing i think might be preventing the travel side at the mo is the size and weight of regular skates. They are not something you wish to carry around everywhere. So i am proposing some smaller, lighter skates (possibly wear with own shoes on for convenience) which you can easily carry with you when not needed.

Would this interest any of you?

Thanks for help

Nichola

[John]

If you are designing skates, then the thing that would be really cool is ones that you can walk in, (ie detachable frames) that are not total pap for skating in.

All the previous attempts seem to have not quite hit the mark. Frames and wheels that are detached are significantly less bulky than ones with boots attached.

I always felt that quads would be the best wheel layout as they require less ankle support (so you can use lower cut shoes) and provide more area for the linking mechanism (to provide greater stiffness and responsiveness).

[tomkitten]

already exist:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 37093&rd=1

[John]

lol

[BigSteev]

I think you'll find the problem with trying to make something like that for inline skates is that most people will need a reasonable amount of ankle support as the skates are much less laterally stable that quads.
The Xsjado aggressive boot can (in theory) be used with regular shoes (It's like a soft snowboard binding) but it's still just as bulky and almost as heavy as a regular skate.

[BigSteev]

already exist:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 37093&rd=1

Is Gumbie selling his quads?

[Binky]

Hello nichola

I don't really get what new improvement you may suggest (no offence meant), could you
be a bit more precise about your work?
If you want to design a lighter skate it will no doubt be more fragile, unless you intend to use
some new material carbon-fiberish, or something.
Or do you want to design a skate that requires less skill to use (is it what you call 'skates
for mainstream people'?)

[Gerbil]

not that I want to discourage you but for most discipline's of skating there are specialised skate for them, what type of skating do you do ? since I would say that only through your own experience of skating could you figure out where your equipment are lacking features or have features that get in the way.

the idea you have described about having detachable frames like hypno's which are ok skate and ok shoes the main problem people have with them is that the frame can detach when you dont want it to. so a posiblity of improving there. another type of skate you may like to have a look at is the Dustin Latimer Xsjado

since he has based them on trainers on the inside and the skate sort of straps over the top some how. I havent looked closely at them tho.

Hope this helps (probally not) and in closing I'm sure mike will be along shortly so say "its not the skates that will make you better its practice and technique"

[nicholasmith]

thanks for replies so far

i cant be too precise at the moment cos im in the initial stages of design - just gathering ideas. The people i have spoken to who dont skate seem pretty keen on the idea as alternative transport is always a good idea. I am only a beginner at skating so I dont have much knowledge, but all the skates i see dont really appeal to me on the appearance side. I have also notice that many serious skaters have a few pairs of skates, so they may also be interested in my design if it adds something new to the market, especially if they are more transportable.

I would class myself as a mainstream skater, i do it for a bit of fun and fitness but i dont have the skating lifestyle.

it is a good sport and i feel it should be enjoyed by more.

cheers

nichola

[Joniquai]

The people i have spoken to who dont skate seem pretty keen on the idea as alternative transport is always a good idea.

are they more interested in your design than existing pair of skates? Because whatever the skates, it is going to be just as difficult to learn to skate well enough to use them as transport!

[Caz]

one idea, which isn't relevant for what you're thinking about exactly would be a skate with an adjustable frame length.

as you increase the length of a frame (the metal bit that holds the wheels) the top speed of the skate increases, but the manouverability decreases. speed skaters will have very long frames, slalomers will have short frames. if you could make some that a user can change the length of for different applications you might be onto a marketable product.

I imagine you'd do this by either having many axel holes in a longish frame or by having axelholes that can slide a limited amount and be fixed in place by tightening bolts etc.

as for the portable skates there are loads with detatcheable frames (the boots lack the support to be skates and are a little to stiff to walk in.. plus frames can detatch every so often in use, despite what the manufacturers claim)

Detacheable quads, where the frame fixes to the bottom of a shoe temporarily seem a really good way to go, because they are more stable and have less stresses where the frames meet the shoe. there is one on these in existance made by k2 and the use of rollerskates is less than that of inlines, so the marketting potential is less.

obviously you're not making them for a proffit, but if you're anything like I was at uni you'll have the plan of patenting the idea at the back of your mind.

[Bry]

whatever the skates, it is going to be just as difficult to learn to skate well enough to use them as transport!

Yeah, that's what I was going to say ...

It takes quite a long time to get to a standard where you can travel any distance at all to work unless it's all flat smooth pavement ....
You need quite a lot of ability and confidence to skate in traffic, but skating on pavements is a lot slower and a pain if the pavements are nasty or crowded. And if you have to travel any decent distance or up hills or anything, you just need to build up good general fitness and technique.
And then even if you have all of this, you are still a fair amount slower that a bike unless you're a very good skater at top speed.

Unfortunately, even forgetting all the support v weight issues, at the moment few people skate as transport, because in the majority of cases it's just not appropriate, even not for ppl already good.

The people who do probably don't mind carrying round their slightly heavier skates!

[Caz]

there are some places that they are amazing tho. like getting around airports.

[tomkitten]

Mate sent me this joke today:

What’s the hardest part of learning to rollerblade?

Coming out as gay to your parents.

Which ain’t bad but, frankly I think it should be ‘having to tell your mates you work as an IT consultant’.

[GumbieBEN]

Which ain’t bad but, frankly I think it should be ‘having to tell your mates you work as an IT consultant’.

LMAO!!!!

[Gerbil]

Mate sent me this joke today:

What’s the hardest part of learning to rollerblade?

Coming out as gay to your parents.

Which ain’t bad but, frankly I think it should be ‘having to tell your mates you work as an IT consultant’.

pop bitch apparently I've had it too.

[Evil Alan]

Nichola,

What is your background? Engineering or something arty like industrial design? Skates that convert to shoes have been around for ages. Just as steve said, they all have the same problem. You need ankle support for skates but not for shoes.

In terms of making skates that are easy to use, I don't really have a lot of suggestions.

In terms of transport for the masses, bare in mind that skating for transport isn't necessarily something beginner skaters should be trying. Particularily in big cities like London.

TTFN

Evil Alan

[tomkitten]

Evil Alan

and *pop* goes that lil bubble, and I don't mean Steph

[Harald]

There's always a lot of innovation around skates! Beside this sophisticated devices they also offer detachable inliners and quads.

http://www.yuhjou.com.tw/htm/i.htm

[GumbieBEN]

There's always a lot of innovation around skates! Beside this sophisticated devices they also offer detachable inliners and quads.

http://www.yuhjou.com.tw/htm/i.htm

Quads with a heel brake. Only a German could post that! LOL