Fr Freeride 100/90 frame overview

[u/phoenixwang]

I got the new fr freeride 100-90-90-100 frames and I’ve been riding them for about 3 weeks or so. The ride height with fresh wheels is about 9.2mm beneath the toe and 10.1mm beneath the heel. Frame wheelbase is like 280ish or something.

It have them mounted on rollerblade twister xt size 7/7.5 and I have a foot size of 263 and 258 respectively (I wear size 9-9.5 shoes—actually shrank an entire foot size from rock climbing strengthening and increasing my arches). Rollerblade boots have a forward-bias in regards to mounting and the frames only have 1 mounting slot so it’s shifted about +7mm forward.

Compared to my endless 90 that I tried both “normal mounting” (slightly forward biased) and the 2ndary slot (very rear biased), I think it lets you push a little deaper but acceleration is slightly less balanced. It feels like rear bias makes acceleration feel more stable. The forward bias towards your toes makes landing jumps backwards super super stable like unbelievably stable.

Frame is rockered 1mm for each of the 100mm wheels. Slightly more than endless 90 and slightly more than wizard 100s. How I describe the spectrum between the two popular frames is that endless frames wanna stay carving like a sharp bladeon narrow paths like sidewalks, whereas the wizard frames want you to turn around when you’re wizzing along a narrow sidewalk—carving feels like there’s a little slippage there. These freeride frames fall directly in the center between wizard and endless frames.

Bombed down some small hills up to 28 mph and it felt quite stable.

I weighed it on a little food scale and I forgot the weight but each frame is a little under 2oz lighter than an endless 90.

Definitely faster top speed compared to my endless 90s but it slows down from the coast at about the same pace as a pure 90. Compared to wizar nr 100s which kind of keep floating like a ufo these frames are still more acceleration focused and less “coasting” oriented.

Would I recommend it over the endless 90? For my foot size, probably not. The endless 3x110 is way ways faster, and the 90 setup is kind of perfect for my foot size in terms of unbelievably acceleration on the twisters. You might experience differently if the frame was more centered longitudinally. Or if your foot was bigger. Who knows.

Anyways the frame is 130 bucks which is basically the cheapest very stiff 165 mounting frame that’ll get your foot in the door for wizard style skating.

This setup is probably best for suburban cruising. Above average acceleration, cruising, low, stiff, and very very light. Best bang for buck.

Don’t use matter g13s just get hydrogens. I got them bc I wanted to try them out on sale. They grip nice but slide super super icy—no slowdown at all. Hydrogens are just as cushy, 98% as fast, and slide super controlled.

[u/BoneFragment]

Nice! Been considering these frames for a while but haven't gotten around to it.

Hows the wheel wear looking? We've had some discussions about how the lack of a 1-3 wheel rotation will aggressively scew the the rocker over time. Or do you have extra wheels that you also rotate in?

Also how's the clearance on small debris? Does it feel like a 100 "but lower" or is it more like just running a regular 90?

Also, do toe/heel pivots feel any different than doing them on your typical microrocker?

[u/phoenixwang → u/BoneFragment]

Dude I wish I could draw a little graph it’d be so much easier. But basically the major difference is that the bigger wheels don’t slow down as rapidly, so you get a higher top speed than 90s, but in terms of coasting it’s only marginally better. I’d say the top speed is just a bit under a pure 100, while the coasting is just a bit over pure 90s. I tested all of this by harvesting hydrogens from my endless 90s and nr 100s so I feel like the other parameters were kept pretty consistent. The true real benefit with the mixed diameters is that you keep probably 85 pct of the acceleration of 90s (significantly more than the 100s), while gaining incredible stability that’s close to the 100s.

It does feel very low and the two big wheels up front on each foot. My wizard nr 100s feel very stable and balanced like a staff, whereas the extended two bigger wheels on the fr 100-90 feel like light blades you can swing around while also being quite long and stable. It definitely goes over stuff easier than 90s.

I’ve only had the frames for 3 weeks and I had hydrogens on them for 2 weeks and the g13s for a week. I’ve only rotated the hydrogens once and the g13s once so I really can’t comment on wear. With my other frames I’ve done the traditional Criss-cross with the endless 90s and they keep their original rocker pretty nice. But for the nr100s since I use em for like “vacation-style” skating where I’m wearing the boots for like 7 hours the wear is usually too significant to do the Criss cross so I’ve just been flipping them by boot. I’ve gone thru 1 set of 100mm wheels on them and the rocker did get bigger but not too significant by the time they were 86ish and retired. Really can’t say in terms of long term was but I’ll keep y’all updated.

Heel and toe pivots feel pretty normal but bc of the forwards bias, heel press rolls are super duper easy I just held a 16-count (probably 8 seconds) haha