I was thinking about this the other day…skateboards are flexible, bike tires are bouncy. Why aren’t there “performance” skates with shocks? Wouldn’t that be better for your knees?
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I used to skate a suspension frame on my aggressive skates. They had no middle wheels and the arms for the outer wheels were attached to the h block in the middle. There was a bushing where the arm connects to the h block to absorb impact. They’re called Kizer Suspension Frames if you want to look for images on google
Former hockey, and roller hockey player. High end rollerblades use two different size wheels. I used to have a pair of missions that had 80mm in the back and I believe 72-76mm in the front.
When you’re skating a high speed the chassis actually flex’s and levels out so you never actually feel the smalls difference. Id say the reason you never see spring shocks is not only because they’re too heavy but the physics of the chassis and wheels allow for the smooth transfer of energy. Let the record show that this really only exists in 500+ rollerblades.
I’m using skateboard scooter from decathlon (elops) with shock absorber. Very easy to skate and very comfortable with poor quality roads here in India.
Going in the way back machine here, Mission used to make a high end pair of skates that had shocks in the heel. All they did was add weight and not work well. Most people ended just taking them off. I have a pair laying around somewhere. Fun anecdote, but not practical
I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but there are a lot of kinds of skates beyond the few basics we all know and love. Including skates with really BIG wheels, like tiny bicycle wheels imagine, and higher off the ground of course as part of that, that you use ski pole type things for moving around with. There are skates made for far rougher terrain than streets. Some are 4-wheel, some are inline 3-wheel, some are more like skating platforms. Blows my mind. I think some of these might have the equivalent of at least flex in them.
Essentially because that could lead to a loss in balance and stability.
As someone that user 4 wheel, aligned wheel as well as blade rollers, having something there thath changes, even a little, the weight distribution can totally make you rabdomize your face against the floor.
And this comes from someone that used to compete in both artistic and high speed competitions with the 3 styles.
If you where not tied up to the roller, then yeah, it can works, but since you are physically tied to them, is like having a shoe that does not preserve your stability while walking.
Some people mentioned the flex in skateboard but in addition there actually are some specially designed axles for skateboards that do have a shock type system built in. Skateboard trucks also tend to have softish bushings which helps as well.. longboarding wheels are also fairly soft which again helps and some people use soft riser pads (adds space between board and truck axles) which can help.. if I had to guess about roller skates I’d imagine shocks might react too violently causing instability or maybe they just assume you’ll take one of those mid ride steps up a big gap and not really need shocks? Or maybe it wears your ankles down fighting the compression? Wouldn’t that also make it harder to do things like accurately add braking pressure? Sorry for long ranty response and that I know more about skateboarding than skating
You have to push off the skateboard or skates to move. A lot of the force would be used to compress the springs so the effort required would be much more.
Also I think that there would be some amount of rebound if you try any tricks and again effort would be required to compensate for it and even then the results would be less than desirable.
Btw skates, rollerblades and skateboards already have shock absorbers and we call them knees.
Usually ice or any other skating is usually done on a smooth surface anyways. Any unevenness will obviously ruin the “skate.”
I just don’t think anybody has ever believed a need for a suspension underneath.
there actually are soft-tired skates. something akin to mountainboards. they only *really* work going down hill. the springiness of the tires makes it incredibly unpleasant to try and “skate”
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