About 2 weeks ago I was out on our beach with my Leap skates. It was an awsome ride, but I kept getting bogged down & had to pump my kite back
& forth tons just to get minimal movement whenever I hit soft sand. This led me to building a new set of wheels for those long soft sand rides.
I found 13 inch hand truck wheels that are 4 inches wide on ebay (toolamerica is the seller for anyone interested). They were only $36 for a set of
four - score!! They arrived yesterday, so off to building I went. Finished them last night & tried them out today, they definitely move much
better in the soft sand. They don't edge as well as the Leaps do, & the extra weight makes it much harder to launch in the air (a light wind day
may have had something to do with the second part - at least a little). They sure were fun though. The bearings that came with the wheels are
completely worthless. They seized up after the first session, so I'm ordering some real bearings. I'm sure a therell be lots of other minor
adjustments here & there but overall I think they'll do the trick. I opted for a single rail, with downhill ski boots instead of rollerblade
boots, so they're a real simple build. Here's some photos:
Tomasz - 29-4-2009 at 11:41 PM
I just posted some footage from my first run on these on Youtube, says it's still processing, so it might take a bit to show up. The wind was
somewhat light, so I couldn't launch myself as high as I've done in the past, but I did get a few good hops in nonetheless. The weight of these sure
makes it a lot more work to get off the ground though.
Here's the vid:
Kamikuza - 30-4-2009 at 12:38 AM
Cool! I was looking at the Leap skates etc the other day too ... gonna be real tough trying to decide on skates - might be easier to make some :DPHREERIDER - 30-4-2009 at 04:55 AM
super cool, those are TRUE all terrrain I need those wheels on my ATB.
10"or 12"?Bladerunner - 30-4-2009 at 09:59 AM
Ride On doomwheels - 30-4-2009 at 10:25 AM
Awesome! Bigger is better!
Nice job on the single rail. Tomasz - 30-4-2009 at 11:52 AM
PHREERIDER - they're 13". they're 4" wide as well. Would work great on an ATB I imagine.Looking_Up - 1-5-2009 at 02:43 PM
how did you mount the boot to the plateTomasz - 2-5-2009 at 12:06 AM
so far all of the downhill boots I've aquired have a plastic insert inside the boot on the bottom. They're usally ribbed, with enough clearance for a
bolt head (that's how I bolted my last set to my Leapskates). This particular set of boots also has 2 plastic pieces on the bottom of the boot that
are screwed on with 4 screws. I took those off, drilled some holes, put 4 bolts sticking out & screwed them back on. Then I just cut a 4x4 piece
of angle iron to the desired size & mounted the whole thing to the rail. I'll take some closeups of the mount next time I have the skates & a
camera in hand & post them here. I think I'm also going to replace the steel rail with an aluminum one to see if I can reduce some of the weight.
I just bought the aluminum, which is 1x1/2 & seems stout enough to hold up. The steel rail that's on these is 1x3/8, so the aluminum will be
slightly thicker, but substantially lighter. When I go to redo them I'll take the boots apart & take some snapshots. I've yet to come across a
pair of downhill boots that don't have space somewhere on the bottom for putting bolts through....Tomasz - 6-5-2009 at 11:04 PM
I just finished the mods on these, so as promised here's some photos. I replaced the steel rails with slightly thicker aluminum & the difference
in weight is very noticable - much lighter. I nixed the cheap bearings & got some decent sealed bearings in their place, hopefully these will
last. I also cut all excess steel off the angle iron, which lightened the load a little bit. The other major mod was to use a tap & die set to
put thread into the mounting points for the axle bolt. It feels much sturdier now.
Anyways, heres a few pics of the boots & the way I mounted them to the angle iron:
And some pics of the new final rig:
Can't wait to take 'em out again - maybe Friday if the wind is blowing. Will post more footage to youtube as I aquire it & post links...
