
Hey look, I’m not making this stuff up. This is a system for skateboard wheels that consists of an aluminum hub with interchangeable urethane treads. It dates back to around 2003 or so, possibly a little bit earlier. I believe they were made by Dragonetti, although I could be wrong. If not, I think it was some similar sounding name with an Italian sounding suffix. These pictures are from a used set, and I neglected to clean out the skatepark grime that accumulated on them, but you get the idea. The aluminum hub was actually a two piece fabrication. Pressure from the axle nut was supposed to compress the hub against the inner lip of the urethane wheel to keep it stable, but the reality was that normal use would cause the wheels to slip on the center hub. It seemed like a difficult but not insurmountable deficiency to overcome. This might have been a case where the product was rushed to market too soon. They don’t seem to be available anymore. In fact, this set belonged to Grover, and he was in contact with the manufacturer for a while about the performance issues. They said they had a solution figured out and were supposed to send him a replacement set under warranty but nothing ever came of it. The costs of the initial wheel and hub combo was moderately more expensive than a traditional wheel, but the replacement treads were priced to make them cheaper than buying a new set of standard wheels. There are some more pictures after the jump.
(more…)