We get lots of questions on how to get speed and grip from wheel configurations. Every skater has a favorite wheel setup. Mo “Quadzilla” discusses his wheel set-ups for speed and grip. The video and transcription is below. Share your comments on your wheel setups and ask questions in the comments!


Transcription of video:

Dan from DevaSkation.com:

Hey guys it’s Dan from DevaSkation.com here. I wanted to answer a couple of questions today. One of the biggest things we get on our Facebook and Email is questions on wheels — switching up your hardnesses, mixing and matching hardnesses. There are a lot of opinions out there. All of them work for different people, but in the end you have to kind of find your own. I figured you guys wanted to hear from an expert on this subject, which is not me! So, we reached out to a good friend of ours, Mr. Mo “Quadzilla” Sanders, and he sent us a little video on his setup. So, check it out! Here’s Mo!

Mo “Quadzilla” Sanders:

Hey skaters, what’s up? This is Quadzilla coming to you from Antik Skate Boots and Reckless Wheels on behalf of Devaskation. I’m here talking to you today about wheel setups. Me, personally, I don’t get too crazy with how my wheels are setup or what I’m using. Typically I get to a venue or place and I use the same wheels I use all the time for as many venues as I possibly can. Any good skater is always going to have a good selection of wheels. Typically they have something in a medium to hard range and then something in a really soft range just in case you get into those sitautions where the floor is in really bad condition. I just came back from RollerCon and we had some really slick surfaces there, so I tend to do the diagonal pusher/soft wheels combo, as some people like to say. And, what I do is the cross combo. So, right now you’re looking at the Morphs. Typically I run the 91/95 Morph all the way across. So on all my wheels on both skates that’s typically what I’m on. Right now, because of the floor surface we had at Rollercon, I added a couple of really soft wheels AKA “pushers”. So, what you’re looking at now is the Morph 88/84 wheel. So, that’s this one here. It’s got the orange. It’s got the pink. It’s got the green hub. But, typically I’m on the 95/91 combo all they way around for sport court, cement, smooth cement, something like that. I set mine up in the fashion of what the speed skaters used to do back in the day because I’m old. But what they would do is — they would always have their grippy wheels on the parts that touch first and leave first. So, if you’re skating pretty technical, as you cross over your heel is the first one that hits the ground and then you get to all four wheels. And the last wheel that touches the ground is this last one here. And you always want to have bite or push so that way you aren’t slipping out on the last little part of your push. So that’s what I tend to like to do. It also gives me nice little balance when I’m doing power stops, plow stops, hockey stops or anything like that. I get a little slide out of these wheels and I get most of the bite out of these two wheels so I put them in this diagonal fashion. A lot of people like to use all soft wheels on the inside which would be softer wheels here and here and harder wheels out here and here. That would be on both skates because you are constantly going to the left and pushing out that way. I like mine setup this way and it works good for me. So, if you have wheels that are soft, try them in a couple different configurations. Put a soft wheel on your toe and then one on your heel back here. Or try it with both soft wheels on the inside line. You’ll find some people just like to do one little wheel on the outside here so when they actually go out and do their plows they get a little bite, little slide, and a little bite. So that’s how I do it! Guys, get a couple sets of wheels or borrow some wheels from friends. Call your guys at Devaskation and say “Hey, I need something to try out for my wheels setup” and they can hook you up! I prefer the Morph Wheels with the Antik Skate boots and the Arius Plate. See you guys later!

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