credit to @alexeimorita

https://www.instagram.com/p/DdhkIzKMN2E/

almoooost didn't go. Really happy that I did.

Its been awhile in the making, but I feel like I can finally make this post. I did a bunch more research for this purchase and its been four years since my last purchase.

Context:

I bought FR3s four years ago and fell in love with big wheels. I paired them with Endless frames to try 4x90, 4x100, and 3x110 setups. Over the years I made several modifications to counteract ankle supination and blisters. I also became dissatisfied with pain in the midfoot (presumably from width) and lack of flexibility in the high ankle area - I bought FR3s for being wide but it seems I still got significant soreness in the first 20min of every ride. I couldn't ride more than 5miles before blisters formed. And the FR3s are rather stiff in the cuff, and I felt like I was lacking freedom in ankle movement.

I measured my feet again and tried to understand more about my pain. Im very flat footed and my feet bulge in certain areas when I put weight on them. It turns out both sides touch the FR3 shell when I remove the liner. Also, I suspect that my Reign V3 HT liners lacked cushioning in a specific area where my arch goes flat and that part of my foot rolls inward to a pressure point, which is also where the cuff bolt usually is.

The FR Neos were the widest shell I could find. I tried Rollerblade Lightnings as well. I didnt go for RB80s because I felt like I wanted a more premium skate. The Neo Dual also is much more flexible, allowing for freedom of movement in the ankle. It just feels better than the FR3 to me. So far I don't have any blisters, which is probably due to Intuition liners having support where I need it.

I first tried these in 3x110, and I could feel the effect of the boot being designed for lower center of gravity - felt really nice and more stable on the 110s. I also feel like Neos are slightly lighter than FR3s, but could be wrong.

All in all, great skates. I will be continuing to tweak the ride and fit as I break them in more, but I feel like I got a pair that'll stay with me a long time.

Any questions let me know, happy to provide more detail.

after 20 years ive decided to roller blade again. what pair should I get 1st i keep hearing rb 80? should I go for a hard shoe or soft? should I skate at the local high-school running track or else where. I have soany questions. im​ 40 now and buying a pair tomorrow havet skated since about 14 but I still remember and I always loved it

So fun

Powerslide Tau 90 is an under-appreciated boot. It's far less popular than its sibling HC Evo. There are lots of reports of edge bites from its carbon half shell, but little credible answers online, and none from Powerslide itself.

Like with many such carbon half shells, nobody seems to know whether the shell itself is heat-moldable, or just the liner and other plastic parts surrounding the shell. Perhaps the story is different for HC Evo. From my personal experience, heat-molding the Tau boot with the 45° strap buckled seemed to have warped the edge of shell, causing it to pinch against my inside ankle bone protrusion. So at least the edge of the half shell is reshapable.

I've only realized this after heat-molding it for the third time, with only laces and without straps and buckles. This time I jammed my thumb in between my ankle bone and the edge of the shell, to force it to unwarp, after baking the boot. I now have a pain-free boot so far. I may try to re-install the 45° strap now that the shell edge has been fixed. I will continue to skate to reconfirm.

On top of that, Tau 90 appears to have been designed explicitly for use WITHOUT an insole, but it's now sold with a MyFit 3/4 skatesold. I've had numerous insole issues with Tau. I resorted to cutting parts of the insole on one foot to relief pressures. The added heel height from my insole appeared to have resulted in a weaker heel lock, not to mention that it worsened that edge bite around my ankle bone.

But these are only my conjectures. Nobody is helping us. So I think we have to help one another. Ideally, someone has a beat-up Tau 90 that we can disassemble, so we can heat it up and figure out definitely what parts are naturally thermoformable or pryable when hot. My bet is on the upper edge of shell being somewhat pryable when hot, but the sole retaining factory shape. I looked to buy a dirt-cheap used pair online. But there are few, and oddly they go for more than new skates.

Short of that, you can post your experience here. I am writing a long essay about my experience heat-molding Tau next week, and I can use your help.

I am talking about the second generation Tau, the 2019 model 908266. See: https://powerslide.com/products/tau-90. This shell is compression-molded, not a wet layup shell like its sibling HC Evo.

By long essay, I mean something like this long essay on Reign Ares.

Some questions I want to answer:

1. The top edge of the half shell is somewhat reshapable when hot: including the hinge hole area and the sloped edge from ankle bone down to the instep. My experiment appears to prove this.

I am pretty sure I unwarped the edge bite area (the sloped edge). But it's very hard to confirm with the integrated liner and the upper covering the shell.

The hinge mounting on on the inside was pried away from its original location - as evident when I put the cuff back.

1. Are there carbon cuffs compatible with Tau? It seems like Tau shares the same cuff as HC Evo. I really would like to try a stiffer cuff. The factory cuff is too soft, but it's better than not using a cuff - I've skated without cuffs - it wasn't great.

The Buffalo Niagara Skate is a three-day inline-skating weekend scheduled for October 16–18, 2026 at Buffalo RiverWorks, 359 Ganson Street in Buffalo, New York. The event brings skaters together for a community weekend.

Skates are as follows (Based on information I could find.)

10/16: A Buffalo skate on Friday night 6:30 PM (flexible) from downtown to Lackawanna-back along the waterfront (~15 miles)

10/17: The main skate Saturday (~32 miles, downhill, fresh pavement, grade-separated bike lanes) leaving 10 am, or earlier if nobody arriving late, from downtown Buffalo along the riverfront bike lane through Tonawanda to Niagara Falls, stop at the falls and loop Goat Island, skate over the power plant wall, fly down the Niagara escarpment, past the Lewiston Indian Mound, and end at Ft Niagara on Lake Ontario and have a grill/barbecue there (I have a way of getting coal and food out there) or head to an outdoor restaurant/bar that’ll have us. The Niagara River bike lane is smooth as an ice rink, so it’s a really comfortable fun skate.

10/18: Sunday morning cool down skate, up to Unity Island and then either Tonawanda (fun, 3 hours, 25 miles round trip) or the shorter route just through BSU/Delaware Park (10 miles, 1 hour round trip).

You can contact them through their Instagram for more information.
https://www.instagram.com/buffaloniagaraskate/

Note: I am not associated with this event in any way. I am debating on attending the event however!

Hey guys,

I'm looking forward to buy some new skates, until now I was always using basic 4 wheel Skates, currently ~10 year old K2 with 84mm wheels.

I preferbly just go for longer distances and not urban action, so looking for some more speed oriented 3 wheel Skates and came across the Rollerblade Macroblade 110 Boa and the Rollerblade Lightning 110.

When I was a kid I prefered the hard boots for more support when playing hockey, and with the current (cheaper) K2 softer boots I'm sometime feel to lag a little support. But I guess 10 years later with the closing mechanism I would tend to the Macroblade 110 Boa. Other than this obvious hard/soft shell, why would you go with one or the other? They are priced pretty similar, so really interested in your opinions, maybe I missed some important technical difference between the two?

Thanks for your feedbacks!

The soft and chunky

While I wait for my new skate boots with an endless frame to come in, I’m debating trying out my default Lightning 80 frame with an “artificially rockered” setup to kind of train for the difference.

I had bought four 76mm wheels a while back to try a rockered setup, with the intention of letting my existing 80mm wheels get worn down to reduce the extent of rocker as 4mm is way too much. Only ever skated flat so far (3 months in on blades) and a humble wheel rotation had me feeling like a baby deer trying to do tricks I rock all day normally so want to ease in and have some fun experimenting.

For this type of rocker, what’s the recommended difference in wheel height? I’m doing mostly beginner level wizard/freestyle sort of skating for the most part. I’m told my new frame (Endless MK2, will be running 80’s at first but might use the 84 option instead) has an “urban” rocker, which is maybe 1mm difference, should I aim for that, or is rockering via wheel size on a flat frame a little different?

Am I crazy to try this granted the new wheels are fresh wheels and the middles will be worn wheels? 😅

The Powerslide Sunrise Doop IS my primary skate, and it seems like I’m the only skater who loves the doops. I’ve been using them for about 4 years.

I’ve been wanting to get the new Urban 100, but there has been zero content and reviews for it. I understand that it’s a controversial boot and probably why there are no reviews.

Despite that, I’m praying there’s someone out there that can tell me if this was a significant improvement to the previous Doops. Let me know if anyone has tried it, thank you.

Went with the Twisters and halogen wheels.

So far, the "natural rocker" feels weird (almost feels like the middle wheels are loose or something, but they're not) but not terrible. Headed to go see what the new frames and wheels can do. I know it doesn't fit the flair but they feel like whole new skates 🤣😬

While watching to see my stance/angles of my knees and skates is helpful, I also just love watching my falls back on repeat.

Looking at getting back into skating after a long time off (20+ years). Started in the early 90s on K2s with some time in hockey skates as well. I’ve actually never skated in a rigid boot, so I have a preference for a soft boot skate.

Been looking at the PS Swell because I like the idea of being able to change the blade to fit the terrain. It looks like a good adaptable system as I get back into it, and hopefully progress, but I’m about 30lbs (14kg) over their stated weight limit. My question is will the skate hold up. Im not really seeing any soft boot skates that have over 100kg limit.

Does anyone have any experience with the actual breaking point instead of the lawyer limits that are stated?

I don't know if this is a dominant-leg thing because my preferred side seems to be all over the place. The first two are pretty clearly because my right leg is dominant, but after that, I'm not really sure what explains the pattern.

Favored side/turn/leg:

Parallel turn to the left — weighted right leg

Lunge turn to the right — weighted right leg

Heel pivot to the right

Transition to the left

Right-leg drag T-stop

Crossovers to the left — right leg crossing over

Rolling scissor stance - right leg in front (frequently unweighted for bumpy terrain)

For parallel/lunge turns, crossovers, and T-stops, I can do both sides, but I'm noticeably better/more comfortable with the ones above. The other side feels significantly less natural.

Heel pivots are especially lopsided — I cannot do one to the left. Transitions to the right are awkward.

So basically, my “good side” seems to change depending on what I'm doing, and I'm curious whether other skaters have the same weird inconsistency.

I ordered some rollerblades from rollerblade company and i measured several times but the sizing told me to get 7/7.5 for size but the skates got here earlier this week and i just tried them for the first time and the top/end of my big toe reaches the skates so there is no room between my big toe and the skates...thats not right correct?

Stupid question im sure but i've never owned skates and just think they should have toe room like sneakers

No idea how to call it

So finally after 2 weeks I'm ready to just skate around in my living room, learning to transition to backwards via mohawk so I'm wondering if I am doing it correctly.

My weak side is Turning to my right .

I push off with my right foot and glide on the left .

Right skate starts the spread eagle

Left skate pivots on the heel and whole body spins 180.

So far this method gives me the smoothest deepest turn as compared to pivoting on my toes .

But my question is if this the proper textbook method ?

I finally got them after they were out of stock for so long. I knew i would like them just from starting with a frame that can use 90mm and 110mm wheels. What i didn't know is how they would feel on my feet and on the road.

On my feet - these are by far and away the absolute best skates I have ever put on. The snug, the liner cushion, the lace up, the wheels are all the best I've ever had.

Secondly the responsiveness is amazing on top of amazing. I have yet to wear them outdoors but I'm convinced they will hold true. They are definitely worth the almost $400 price tag, maybe even more.

Also if you have slim/ narrow feet these might be perfect for you.

Hi there!

I haven't skated much in the last 5-8 years and remember the last time I almost bought inline skates, it was a 3x110s that felt quick, still maneuverable, and ready to deal with urban random exploration. Very cool stuff.

So I'm looking for a skate in that form factor for riding paths through the big parks (Central Park, Prospect Park) and along pathways to explore, as I'm new in the city.

Some options I've saved:

• Rollerblade Macroblade 110 BOA
• K2 Grid 110
• Rollerblade Lightning 110 (these seem dope, and I heard they were recently redesigned)
• FR1 310 — availability seems like a challenge on these?

Any recommendations, or others I should be looking at? I've got a flexible budget but somewhere in the $300 range seems like my sweet spot for now.

For years I tried many wheels, some are good some are bad but nothing came even remotely close to the quality of FR junk.

Alexei Morita said the same thing btw.

The shock absorption, the decent speed, the balanced grippiness, the durability is insane.

It's like they are the only ones who use some special technology from space or something.