A two page spread from the Uniroyal corporation bragging about the wheels they make for everyone else and trying to weasel in on Frank Nasworthy for developing the polyurethane skateboard wheel. They made formulas for a lot of wheels you’ve definitely heard of, as well as some you definitely haven’t.
How to talk your dad into parting with around £20 for a set of wheels.
The cheap wheel con.
Cheap wheels can’t perform well. They wear out quickIy. And they can throw vou.
So maybe they don’t work out so cheap.
In fact, there’s nothing good that can be said about them.
But we’d better tell you the bad things. Otherwise your Dad could be throwing good money away.
Words of warning
Don’t be tooled by looks. It takes more than pretty colours to make a good wheel.
So watch it. Chear soft wheels are liable to crack and split.
Cheap hard wheels are no better, because they are brittle and liable to craze and break up.
The are also dangerous
Being hard, they don’t flex.
So if you hit a stone or uneven ground you could be in for a bad fall.
They can only give you a good performance on the really even surface of a brand new skateboard park.
And there aren’t too manw of them around.
Such wheels make lite very difficult for beginners. As well as very expensive-becanse cheap wheels don’t last.
How wheels became g00d.
The breakthrough come five and a half years ago in America when a company called Creative Urethanes worked closely with Uniroyal, one of the world’s largest chemicals and plastics manufacturers
Together they evolved a new concept in wheels, employing Vibrathane, a technological world first in castable polyurethane.
Suddenly the limits were removed and skateboarding took off-becoming the serious and exciting sport it is today.
Currently, many of the urethanes used in the world’s most highly rated wheels are available only from Uniroyal. who hold the patents.
The science of balance.
Pitting the precise balance between the need for high speed and good grip is a fine art.
For, in order to be fast, a wheel must remain round at speed. If it flexes out of shape, it wastes energy which slows it down.
The obvious answer might seem to be wheels which are simply very hard.
But the solution is not nearly that easy, because the wheel must also be capable of absorbing vibration and shock. Otherwise it cannot provide sufficient orin when manoeuvring and performing stunts.
Eves a tiny niece of gravel or asphalt could cause the wheel to lock and crash.
Therefore a wheel must have the flexibility to roll over these small obstructions and at the same time provide a good grip and stability.
The resilience factor.
To achieve this crucial balance between speed and grip, the urethane used in these wheels has to be manufactured to a very complex specification.
For example. Vibrathane has a resilience of 28-40″ or 50-70″ for the very top quality.
This means that wheels made of Vibrathane fulfil important criteria. They must have a degree of softness and, therefore, provide good grip; they must be resilient, so they flex back into shape in a matter of thousandths of a second.
In other words they must grip the surface efficiently without wasting energy, thus maintaining their speed.
Regrettably, there are many wheels on the market which have a resilience factor as low as 10 – 15″” Such wheels will not enable you to achieve both speed and manoeuvrability. And they are prone to cracking and splitting. So it’s a short, unhappy life.
At best, these wheels significantly increase the risk element and detract from your enjoyment. At worst, they could put you out of the sport for a long time.
Vibrathane’s specification.
The balance vou require between speed and grip depends on your personal taste, your skill and of course whichever form of the sport you are into.
For these reasons we make Vibrathane in six different grades and two qualities.
Tensile strength 2,500-6,000 psi. Resilience Туре 1 50-70″ Туре 2 28-40″ Hardness range 75-95 Shore A. Colours: virtuall limitless.
All the wheels shown here are made from Vibrathane which is your guarantee of quality and performance.
Beadle, Octoplus, Skuffers, Eazirider, Pro-Cess Pegasus, Statum, Flexello Flames, Python, Tak-trak, Jacko, Reflex GB9o, Tenbar, Ridgeroller, Bolts, Bones, Roller Sports Stoker, Solar Pro Radiali
Technical Service.
Uniroyal Chemical, Division of Uniroyal Limited, PO Box 12, Stoke Works, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire B60 4A V. Tel: Bromsgrove 31551.
Sales.
Uniroyal Chemical, Division of Uniroyal Limited, First Avenue, Trafford Park, Manchester. Tel: 061-872 1424.
Vibrathane – UNIROYAL
0 comments.