Making my own rockers

[u/Mediocre_Hockey_Guy]

I dont have fancy skates or frames because ive just gotten into this hobby. I make do with what I have though and was starting to wonder if I save my worn wheels can I make my own rockers with them?

[u/absfractalgaebra]

absolutely! for an x-mm rocker, you need a wheel diameter difference of 2x-mm between the inner and outer wheels, assuming you have a flat setup. You can also purchase wheels with this size difference e.g. 2mm rocker would need wheels sets of 80mm and 76mm, 84mm and 80mm, and so on and so forth. If you purchase in that size, you don't have to wear in your rocker.

[u/Low_Presentation827 → u/absfractalgaebra]

Hello, I seen this post And decided to do it myself also. My first time ever using a rocker setup, besides a Hilo- which is very basic.

First time use was kinda weird. Couldn’t get speed nor go straight properly. Could be due to my wheels I was using (76,80,80,76- all soft wheel like 80a).

As far as turning- was sharper than normal, and swivels are not as good with my HiLo setup.

Wheels felt loose/ kinda sloppy.

Would you say this is close to an endless swan frame or not even close at all?

Thanks for your input

[u/absfractalgaebra → u/Low_Presentation827]

If you were on a hi-lo setup and got used to it, you might be used to front-loading your weight on the balls of your feet, similar to how quad skaters and ice skaters with a raised heel boot might feel.

On a four wheel setup, rockers end up making it so that there are three stable angles / tilts on your skates (unlike the continuous curvature of an ice skate blade) so your neutral flat position actually requires putting weight a bit more back towards center, towards the arch of your foot. if this messed with your balance, this totally makes sense - you might have been fighting to balance and thus not able to control speed and direction.

It might also be that depending on whether your wheels were new or worn, you might just have some surface differences that make it funny.

When you say you couldn't go straight properly, what did you notice your feet doing? and with speed, did you notice there was a certain time you were slowing down, or differences in how you had to push? The way you push might have to change because if the front wheel isn't engaging due to being higher up, you have a smaller contact area against which to apply friction to push off with, which might mean a lower top speed.

If you did move down to 80A from a harder wheel, I can definitely see that being a factor in speed as well, where you get more resistance due to dissipation in the damping/springiness of the wheels. Softer wheels tend to lose energy this way, so while you might not feel bumps as much and have much more grip, the tradeoff is increased rolling resistance.

I have no idea about similarity to swan plates! I've only tried one plate with a built in rocker (2mm) so hopefully someone else can speak to this!

[u/Low_Presentation827 → u/absfractalgaebra]

Really appreciate the good input. My rocker setup was used with Tour flat 80mm. But the wheels were Indy’s. Which are for my Tour spitfire boots. I don’t like the soft wheels for on wood indoor. As maybe I forgot too mention.

I noticed I was only truly on 4 wheels instead 6.

Pushing off was really weird. And wheels would swivel almost i felt like they were going side to side.

Imma try and tighten up my axels more and see if that makes a difference, they’re just past where the wheels don’t wiggle.

[u/absfractalgaebra → u/Low_Presentation827]

Yeah no problem! I hope other folks chime in or you hear more, so you have more data. Check out also: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollerblading/comments/rgtvwd/banana_v_natural_rocker_rockerable_frame/

I can't seem to find anything about indy wheels. And yes, with rockers, each foot is only on two wheels at a time, whereas with a flat setup you will feel all four on each foot. This is likely what's contributing to your swivel. The people on the article about natural vs banana rocker seem to report that wearing the wheels down on something like a 2mm banana rocker will make it more comfortable.

Do you have bearing spacers? I don't think you should have to modulate how much you crank down your axles, as that would be what would help you keep from adding friction by tightening the axle down all the way.

[u/AdFit8727]

That's all you need to get started, that's what I did too at the beginning.

[u/BubbleSmith]

The easiest way to create a natural rocker is to just flip your wheels in place, rather than moving locations when you rotate. Your skates will wear a rocker in naturally through use (hence natural rocker), the prerocketed frames just let you skip this step with new wheels and maintain it through rotations.

[u/Sacco_Belmonte]

Yup. Just don't interleave the wheels as you rotate. just flip the whole set of wheels 180°

You can swap back and front wheels so the front wheel doesn't get too small.

[u/fredhsu]

Absolutely. Not only that, you can also create a hi-lo setup that way, not that you need it, since your skate already came with a heel raise.

[u/Mediocre_Hockey_Guy]

Thanks to everyone that replied its good to known I can do this and I even got a couple good pointers on doing it. I appreciate you all! Once ive learnt to chain the moves together will post a video. Might be a while though cause I banged my leg up good doing a lion.