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Inline speed skating is a lot more intense than regular skating. Most speed skaters have a fairly good grasp of both basic and advanced skating techniques. Unlike leisure skating, speed skating puts a lot more demand on skate shoes. There are a ton of skates on the market, so you might find it troublesome to pick the right one.
Rollerblade Endurace Elite 110 is one example of a great pair of skates for inline speed skating. It’s durable build and high-quality design make it an excellent choice if you choose to buy a pair.
But it doesn’t mean it’s the only noteworthy skate in the market. Not at all. There are plenty of others. And in this article, I’ve made a list of 6 of the best inline speed skates on the market to help you choose the right one. I’ve also added a buyer’s guide to help you choose the right one for yourself instead of just relying on my opinions.
[wptb id="5448" not found ]What Is Inline Speed Skating?
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Inline Speed skating is an advanced form of skating. It takes a substantial amount of inspiration from ice skating. Inline speed skating is a fast-paced sport that requires the skater to be intimately familiar with various speed control and balancing techniques.
The upper limit of inline speed skating largely depends on the terrain. Currently, most inline speed skaters choose to skate from uphill to downhill on sloping roads. It puts a heavy demand on both the skater and the skate shoes. As an average inline speed skater can easily reach 30 mph.
Reviews of the Best Inline Speed Skates on The Market in 2022?
To make it easy for you, I’m listing 6 of my top favorite best speed inline skates. They all offer high performance, while also being in the affordable range.
1. Rollerblade Endurace Elite 110 Inline Speed Skates
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RollerBlade Endurace Elite 110 is one of the best 3 wheel inline speed skates on the market. The materials used for this skate are all top quality. They can handle high-speed activity very well. These skates have the perfect balance between maneuverability and speed. It is a tri-skate with larger than average wheels, which improves its speed by a significant margin.
My most favorite part about this pair of skates is its comfortable design. Usually, speed skates are rigid and uncomfortable. They purposefully make it that way to ensure tightness to increase safety.
But Endurace Elite has been made with state-of-the-art technology and top-tier material. As a result, it can maintain safety standards while also being comfortable. Overall, it is the best inline skates for speed.
Efficient Energy Transfer:
Carbon composite material has been used to outfit the boots. The snug fit allows more efficient energy transfer, which increases the upper-speed limit significantly.
Airflow Channels:
The boot has a lot of breathing capability. The airflow channels efficiently transfer the air throughout the boot. This reduces sweating and cools in the interior while you skate.
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Check out some top rated off road skates.
2. Epic Skates 125mm Engage 3-wheel Inline Speed Skates
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Epic Skates is known for being a reliable supplier of affordable skates. The Engage ll 3-Wheel model is one of the fastest skates you will ever see. These skates have massive 125mm wheels that offer extremely high speeds while skating downhill.
The boots of this is a hardline made of plastic. The inner side is comfortable and durable. It feels a bit stiff at first, but It feels amazing once you break into it properly. These 3 wheeled skates are one of the best rollerblades for speed. The huge wheels give these skates a significant speed boost compared to smaller wheeled skates.
The mounted frame is sturdy and secure, so the power transfer efficiency is quite high. However, Epic Engage is not among the inline speed skates for beginners. It doesn’t come with a brake, and the frame doesn’t support brakes at all.
ABEC- 7 bearings:
Epic Engage has a powerful set of bearings. On an ordinary pair of skates, these bearings would allow extremely precise control and maneuverability. However, on Epic Engage, these bearings barely offset the stiffness of 125mm large wheels.
Aircraft Grade aluminum frames:
Epic Engage comes with a powerful pair of frames. The aluminum alloy frames are both light and durable. They also have shock-absorbing properties.
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Read: Difference between short and long track speed skating
3. Luigino Atom Pro Inline Speed Skate
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Luigino Atom is one of the more affordable competitive inline speed skates you can get. It is a great skate with high speed, mobility, maneuverability. It also has a lot of functions that you won’t see on skates at this price range.
You have the flexibility of ordering two different setups for these skates. You can choose between getting a 3-wheel setup with 110mm wheels, or a 4-wheel setup with 100mm wheels.
The frames are well-made. They hold up well against pressure, a feature you would be hard-pressed to find on a pair of budget skates.
The best thing about these skates is that you can heat-mold them. Heat-molding is usually only doable on more expensive skates. But even this entry-level skate comes with the feature. It should help new skaters get used to inline speed skating much faster.
Professional-level power transfer:
The Atom Pro inline skates have a sturdy frame design. The mounted frame barely loses any energy from strides. Its energy transfer efficiency is top-notch.
High-quality boots:
The stiff boots are made from a mix of plastic and composite material. While it is not top-tier, it holds up pretty well for enthusiasts.
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4. VNLA X1 carbon speed inline skates
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VNLA X1 is one of the best skates to choose from if you are thinking of upgrading to a faster pair of skates. VNLA is a reliable name in the skating industry, and they are known for making high-quality affordable skates.
X1 is a versatile pair of skates that you can take anywhere. It is perfect for downhill speed skating. You can even use it for indoor skating competitions as it does very well on inline speed skating tracks.
X1 comes with a leather boot fortified with carbon fiber. It has a 45-degree adjustable buckle and adjustable straps for secure fitting. The frame is lightweight and designed with speed in mind.
The VNLA X1 does not feel too stiff even with a snug fit. This has a lot to do with the fact they used leather as the primary material for boots. Usually, speed skates have harder material. The shoes fit well and feel comfortable. However, the efficiency of energy transfer is slightly lower compared to pure carbon-fiber boots.
Heat-Moldable:
The boot is mostly leather with carbon-fiber reinforcement. The materials are perfectly suited for heat-molding. However, you should remove the wheels before exposing the boots to high temperatures.
Double adjustable buckles:
Most speed skates in this price range either have buckle or velcro straps. X1 comes with both of them. This mitigates its lack of stiffness and increases energy transfer efficiency.
7000 series aluminum racing frame:
7000 series aluminum racing frame is known for its hardness and stability. It is also one of the lightest budget frames you can get on the market. Combined with the other features of the VNLA X1, it boosts speed by a large margin.
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5. Bont Inline Speed Skates
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Bont is an old name in the skating industry. They have been making top-of-the-line carbon fiber and fiberglass skates for a long time now. This particular model comes with quite a few of Bont’s signature components.
The boots of these skates are from the popular Luna series. Luna racing boots are one of the best racing inline skate boots. Luna has been especially famous among long-track speed skaters. It is a single-piece boot with no fragmented parts, which is a rare sight outside professional skate boots.
Advanced boot design:
Luna boots are a mid-level boot design. It is slightly less heat-moldable but it offers excellent mobility and power transfer efficiency. The base is made of carbon composite, and the outer shell is reinforced with microfiber.
Adjustable Frame:
The Bont luna comes with a 2PT 6061 t6 aluminum frame. It is not as great as an aircraft-grade frame, but it is more lightweight. It offers more speed at the cost of stability. You can adjust the position of the frame based on your skating habit.
All-terrain wheels:
Bont Luna comes with a standard 100mm wheel with an 85a Duro rating. It is an elemental-grade wheel, so it is suitable for every terrain. It also has ABEC 5 bearings for smoothness.
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There is another 4-wheel option to choose from Bont. The only difference is it got GT4 skate boots instead of Luna skate boots.
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6. Atom Pro Fitness 4×110 Outdoor Inline Skate
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Atom Pro Fitness skate is one of the more underrated skates out there. It has great quality and builds, but the skates just aren’t popular enough. Atom spent a long time developing its other skates, as a result, the Atom pro fitness stayed in the backburner for a while.
This pair of skate boots are perfect for adventurous people. The wheel size is large enough to compare to regular Tri-wheel skates. But Atom Pro is a quad-skate with a large frame. It is exceedingly energy-efficient, and you will hardly feel tired while using it.
The frames are high-quality Atom Mark 2 frames. They boast amazing durability, stability, and shock-absorbing properties. You can easily use these pairs of skates for tricks. However, its energy transfer is not as good as it should be for a speed skate.
Atom Pro Fitness boot:
Atom Pro fitness boots are Atoms’ unique boot design. It is a single-body boot made of pure carbon fiber. It is further reinforced with a carbon fiber shell. There are ratchet buckles on the cuffs for increased security.
Striker Mark 2 Frames:
Mark 2 striker frame is a light-weight aircraft-grade frame. It is made from reinforced aluminum. The frame is extremely large and offers peerless stability. Unfortunately, Atom Pro does not come with a frame-adjusting feature.
Matrix Wheels:
These wheels are from Atoms’ signature wheel series. They have a glass infused core for added durability. These wheels can be used on any terrain. The wheels are supported by a set of Bionic ABEC 7 bearings.
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Buying the Best Speed Inline Skates: Complete Buyer’s Guide
It is almost impossible to pick a good pair of skates without knowing a bit about inline skates. It is especially true for picking inline speed skates. Here’s a list of things you need to know before choosing your skates.
Check the Wheel Count
The number of wheels on an inline speed skate has a significant impact on its overall performance. When you go out to buy your first speed skates, you have two options to choose from. There’s the four-wheel variant and the three-wheel variant.
Tri-skates are harder to control and take more skill to stabilize. The Quad-skates are more stable compared to their three-wheeled cousins. Tri-skates are usually capable of reaching higher speed limits.
You should be careful while choosing, as only a few extremely high-end skates let you swap the wheel frame.
Pick the Right Wheel Size
Wheel size is equally as important as wheel count. Wheel size impacts a skate’s speed more than the number of wheels. Standard recreational skates often use 80-100mm wheels. The baseline standard for speed skates is larger, around 90-110mm. There are a few speed skates with outrageously large wheels at 120mm.
The bigger the wheels are the more speed you will get on your skates. Getting too big of a wheel is not ideal either, because speed comes at the cost of maneuverability and stability. Tri-skates would generally use larger wheels than quad-skates to fill up the frame.
A 4x84mm setup is roughly comparable to a 3x100mm. You need to find a sweet spot by combining wheel size and count. Sometimes quad-skates with larger wheel sizes can reach a faster speed than tri-skates with smaller wheels. This is something you need to experiment with to figure out what suits your style.
The Perfect Material for the Boot
Inline skates generally have three main material types for boots. There are soft leather boots, plastic boots, and carbon fiber or other composite material boots. The soft leather and soft plastic boots are fine for recreational inline skates, but they are obsolete for speed skates.
Composite or carbon fiber boots are the best material for speed skates. These boots will be lightweight, as well as durable. The light-weight material helps with the weight distribution of the other parts of a speed skate.
Get Heat-moldable Skates If You Can
Baking is another term for heat-molding. It allows you to mold a new pair of skates to fit better. This process is much better than the conventional breaking-in process. Heat molding goes a step beyond the traditional breaking-in process and improves the fit permanently.
Why did I include this in the buyer’s guide? That’s because you can’t heat mold every skate. Generally, high-end skates are the only ones that can be heat-molded. You need to check if it can be heat-molded before you buy a pair of skates.
Get Good Frames
Pay attention to the frame’s mounting position and its detachment system. The frames play a significant role in determining the performance of a skate. There are frames of all shapes and sizes. Cheaper skates come with mounted frames that cannot be repositioned or detached. Higher-end skates usually come with a frame adjustment feature.
A good speed skate should have removable frames that can be repositioned. Repositioning a frame allows you to customize it to fit your needs. Once you get one, you’ll know how important this function is.
Aside from that, you should also pay attention to the material of the frame. Aluminum alloy and high-performance composite frames are best for speed skates.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the differences between a fitness skate and a speed skate?
Fitness skates are more geared towards maneuverability and physical exertion. Speed skates are for pure speed and nothing else. Fitness skating is more casual and comfortable, speed skating is much more intense.
What is the basic inline speed skating technique?
Balancing, Strides, and stopping are the basic skating techniques you need to get going.
What is the best brand of speed skates?
Seba is among the best brands for inline skates. It is a French brand with a long history in the skating world. They are well known for producing industry leading high-quality skates.
How fast do inline speed skaters go?
Inline skaters go around 8 to 15 miles per hour on average. However, most people can go up to 30 miles an hour if they try. Top-tier skaters can reach maximum speed exceeding 40 miles per hour.
How do you speed skate inline?
You follow the safety rules and dive downhill on a pair of speed skates. That is usually how it works. The inline refers to the single line of the wheel on skates, it is not a form of skating.
What are the inline speed skating rules?
There are no specific rules for outdoor speed skating. Sometimes there are regional skating rules set by the authority, and they can vary depending on the region.
What is the best inline speed skating world record?
The best inline speed skating world record is held by an Indian skater named Abhishek Navale. Homemade the record by crossing 100 meters in 12.97 sec.
They are individual races, relay races, and pursuit races.
Read More: Different types of skates
How dangerous is speed skating?
Speed skating is plenty dangerous. You are essentially going as fast as a car with no emergency brake. Ironically, speed skaters suffer from less injury than popular common sports like football and basketball. The key is proper safety precautions. With enough safety precautions, speed skating is safer than riding a car.
Where is speed skating most popular?
San Francisco and NYC are places where skating is immensely popular. The golden gate bridge in San Francisco sees large traffic of speed skaters. Inline skating is also popular near mountainous regions. Downhill speed skating is the most popular form of casual speed skating.
Read: Short track speed skating facts
Final Verdict…
Every skater wants to get a high-quality skate. Transitioning from beginner-level to mid and advanced level can take a while. As a result, a skater usually goes through quite a few pairs of skates. These transitions become much easier if you get your hands on good quality inline skates.
Inline speed skaters will do everything they can to get the best inline speed skates on the market. That’s because good quality skates add safety and make learning skills much easier. I hope you have a better understanding of what to buy after going through this inline speed skates reviews.
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