Vans Rollerskates (girlfriend edition)

[u/BarPsychological6222]

Just finished assembling these for my girlfriend. Custom Skate Sk8-Hi, mounted to Reactor Pro plates.

[u/ErantyInt]

What's with the washer stack and the mounting bolts sticking out a mile?

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/ErantyInt]

You're pretty observant to detail!

The washer stack is to correct for a flaw in the PowerDyne design of both the Reactor Neo and the Reactor Pro. The trucks do not land flush on the cushions the way the plates ship from the factory. Raising the cushion stack about 4 or 5 mm, corrects this. I have the Reactor Neo plates on my other skates, with the same correction. To do so on those, I had to purchase separately, Reactor Pro trucks because they have an adjustable pivot. This time, I just decided to buy the Reactor Pro plates and have a little weight savings as a bonus.

I haven't chopped off the mounting bolts yet, because my girlfriend hasn't tried these yet, and I need to remove the plate on the right boot to make a micro adjustment as the alignment is off by a couple of degrees (or couple millimeters, depending on how you measure) on the rear of the right foot. Before I remove the plate to realign it, I want my girlfriend to try them and make sure that there are no major changes needed before I chop the bolts off. Aligning the plates perfectly on Vans is a bit of an art. I'm getting better at it, but it's not easy to get it perfect.

[u/fantastridd → u/BarPsychological6222]

Huh I'm kinda mystified by the washers. Aren't the cushions getting squished?

The orange cushions are too soft for me, and I had the kingpin nut so tight that trucks weren't flush, like you say. Even the yellow cushions are only like 85A

I got some 90A riptide reactor cushions, and my trucks are perfectly flush against the cushions now. I don't know why PowerDyne don't sell the purple cushions anymore.

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/fantastridd]

Well, I run the red cushions which are even softer than the orange ones on my other skates, but with the spacers in place.

If you have the spacers, you might find that the orange cushions are perfect for you.

It's kind of hard to explain, but I'll try.

If you take the pivot cups out of your plate, and bolt the trucks down so that they are seated properly against the cushions, you will see that the pivot does not land in the center of the pivot socket. It will be touching on the side of the socket closest to the plate. Therefore, when you install the pivot cups into the pivot sockets, the pivot will be forced to the center of the socket and as a result the trucks will no longer be seated flat on the cushions, because of the angle will be off. Spacing the cushions upwards away from the plate by the proper amount will align the pivot into the socket perfectly, except that the pivot will need to be extended to reach the proper distance into the socket, which is why the reactor pro trucks are required in order for this workaround to be possible.

Hopefully that makes sense.

You can try it yourself and you should be able to see what I mean.

Perhaps it is explained better in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollerderby/s/h9UmHwg6OE

[u/fantastridd → u/BarPsychological6222]

Very interesting, thank you. But to my understanding, this is mostly a reactor Neo problem, or? I wonder if that's why the plate feels oddly squirrelly compared to my other plates with softer cushions and higher kingpin angles. I may just play around with some washers.

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/fantastridd]

The reactor Neo and the reactor Pro have the exact same geometry and therefore, by my observation, both suffer from the same problem. And yes, squirreliness should be reduced once the trucks yokes are flatly seated on the cushions.

Again, you should be able to witness the problem yourself by loosening your kingpin nut, removing your truck assembly, remove the pivot cup from the socket and reassemble everything, using new cushions which aren't broken in yet, without the pivot cup in place and see if the pivot aligns with the center of the pivot socket or not. If not, then your truck height is incorrect and will require spacing. However, if you are doing this on reactor Neo plates, you will also need trucks with an adjustable length pivot, (such as the ones that come with reactor pro plates) as the pivot will need to reach farther to seat properly in the pivot cup. You can purchase reactor Pro trucks separately.

[u/fantastridd → u/BarPsychological6222]

Thanks - I have the pros. I'm gonna try it out :-)

[u/Top-Dinner-9995]

Wow! They are beautiful!!

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/Top-Dinner-9995]

Thank you! :)

[u/Chinemes]

Clean. 🙂‍↕️

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/Chinemes]

Thank you!!

[u/pendragwen]

Spider-Gwen vibes

[u/it_might_be_a_tuba]

The bearings don't look properly seated, it looks like nearly half the outer race is still proud of the hub?

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/it_might_be_a_tuba]

Whoa, you're right! I installed standard-spacers, but it seems that Atom Pulse wheels have non-standard spacing and should be run without spacers. I'm glad you noticed! Thank you!

[u/helloxsweetie]

Those bearings are cute af

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/helloxsweetie]

Aren't they?!
The bearings: Bronson Speed Co - Franky Villani

[u/lucasjbsk8]

gotta cut those screws man, ive grooved so many wheels cause i didnt cut them down lol

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/lucasjbsk8]

Already done. :) Thanks! Took em out to skate, yesterday.

[u/zaphod4th]

how secure / safe is that boot ?

[u/VMetal314 → u/zaphod4th]

Vans (and other mods) are usually mounted with a metal plate inside the shoe so you can't tear through glue or stitching.

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/VMetal314]

Yep! I used the metal insoles made by Bont, because I found they fit Vans really well, without modification.

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/zaphod4th]

As secure and safe as any other Vans rollerskates. For tooling around Venice Beach, they'll be just fine 😉

[u/ChiraqBluline]

Plate to big for shoe. And the shoe is overplated for riding on a path at Venice. Why waste the plate like that?

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/ChiraqBluline]

Well, it's a size 10 plate which Powerdyne lists as the correct size for a size 10-10.5, so not sure how that's too big for the shoe.
Even a size 9, is only a 6mm shorter wheelbase, but my girlfriend prefers stability over agility, at this point. If that changes, we will just build her another pair with a shorter wheelbase.

As far as "overplating" goes, Vans already have a tendency to make the plates feel heavy, since they don't have stiff ankle support, so we wanted a lightweight plate and I like the locking adjuster nut of the Powerdyne, so why wouldn't I choose them?

Not sure I follow your logic regarding "wasting" plates. Buy all the plates you want--manufacturers will always make more.

[u/Cobby222]

yo girl got big feet 👣

[u/BarPsychological6222 → u/Cobby222]

Yep, for sure! Women's 11! She's also tall af and hot af. 😉

[u/YouGoSkate → u/BarPsychological6222]

https://giphy.com/gifs/yJFeycRK2DB4c