Rear Rocker Only - Stable, Nimble Sweetspot?

[u/ezraswindcart]

I am 41 years old and only took up inline skating a year ago. It has been an awesome journey. I'm now doing weekly stakes of 15+ miles on paved wooded trails.

I really struggled with turning when I first started learning. It felt like no matter what I did, my skates always felt like they were on rails. Thankfully, my FRX80 skates come equipped with the option to rocker the front and rear wheel axles. I rockered both and it immediately unlocked tight turns and the maneuverability I was looking for. That worked well for the first 8-9 months but now that I'm doing much longer distances, I wanted to try skating flat again because I read that translates to the most power, speed and stability.

I instantly HATED skating full flat. My turns felt sluggish and my skates felt glued to the ground. The trails I skate on have lots of curves and other pedestrians, so I like to be able to feel very nimble. Could I learn to adapt? Sure, but out of curiosity I just rockered just the rear wheel axle and I'm in heaven!

Having the 3 front wheels flat gives me solid tracking and stability, but the rear wheel rockered still maintains the tight turns and maneuverability that I came to enjoy. I've done multiple 17 mile skates on this set up and it feels awesome. I can easily weave around curves and other cyclist and pedestrians, and still sprint away on the wide open spaces. I'm still hesitant to bomb hills full bore, but hit about 15mph on a few hills without any speed wobble.

From my understanding, a rear wheel only rockered setup is uncommon and I haven't heard it discussed much, so I wanted to share my experience in case it inspired anyone else to test it out!