Your opinion on these inline skates

[Easton]

Since there's no such thing as "hockey" down here in NC where I'm staying for the summer, I'm left with looking for new inline skates on the internet. InlineWarehouse.com seems to be the best in terms of prices, plus shipping is free for anything over 80 bucks or so (it's only four bucks but I'm a cheap *******). HockeyMonkey.com and HockeyOne are also similar in prices too.

I've never heard of the Tour brand before, any thoughts on them? Their wheels look bigger than the ones on other brands.

Mission
Wicked 7: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=MWK7S
He3500: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=HE35
He1500: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=HE15

Reebok
5k: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=RH5K
4k: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=RH4K

CCM
6.0: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=RHV6
4.0: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=RHV4

Nike Bauer
Supreme Accel Lite: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=1028136
Vapor Xr Lite: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=1028115
Flexlite 9r: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=1028117

Tour
Code Red: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=67TA
Omni 800: http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/descpage.html?pcode=47TA

Most of the skates are between $130-200 range. I'm not looking to go much higher than that since I'll only be using these over the summer while in the winter I'll be playing on ice.

Thanks for your help.

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[Backstrom #19]

Personally i like the CCM 6.0 it's what i use when i play roller hockey.

 

[We'reGonnaWin*]

Tours fit a bit wider than Mission generally. Although if they fit you, I think Tours are better than Missions imo.

 

[Easton]

I've always been a bit hesitant purchasing hockey equipment from big sports companies like Nike and Reebok. I get the feeling like I'm paying more for their brand than I'm actually getting.

Nike bought Bauer, who did Reebok buy out, CCM?

 

[bleedgreen]

ive got the mission he9500's and theyre awesome. ive seen people happy in the 7500's - but i wouldnt go any lower - but i play a lot more than you will be. i think youre probably best off with the wicked 7's, if youre not going to play seriously or for a long time.

tour skates have a frame that lets you go old school with all the same wheel size, and they adjusted the boot so you can fit 80 mill wheels on them. most of the others use a basic hi-lo system (72-72-80-80), or a variation since mission won their hi-lo patent. i liked the tour frame, but i hated the boot. at some point ill probably put that frame on a boot i like.

 

[nni]

i like tours.

nike = bauer
reebok = jofa

 

[TBLfan]

NBH = nike/bauer + cooper

THC = RBK/CCM + Jofa

Mission/itech

A few older brands are also thrown in there somewhere, there were too many buy-outs for me to actually keep track.

and we can't forget:

Innovative => Warrior = New Balance

 

[MikeD]

The mission wicked 7's are a good skate. I would take those over any of the others you list.

 

[TBLfan]

The mission wicked 7's are a good skate. I would take those over any of the others you list.

I wonder if they fixed the durability issues from past line of skates. Although the high end skates were the ones suffering the most issues, although I believe across the board they had eyelet issues.

 

[SabreToof]

i use the rbk 4k's and to be honest, they aren't bad for the money, pretty comfortable and felt pretty good after a couple games.

 

[MacBeatsPang]

I wonder if they fixed the durability issues from past line of skates. Although the high end skates were the ones suffering the most issues, although I believe across the board they had eyelet issues.

The eyelet issues were on the He series skates from 2005, I believe. The 2006 Helium skates (10000, 9500, 7500 and so on...) went back to the normal metal eyelets that lie flat on the boot, not the plastic loops that the 2005 skates had. I've been skating on the 7500s for about a year now and love them, though I've heard some people have problems with the chassis cracking -- especially heavier players/extremely hard skaters. I believe the new Wicked line also uses the conventional eyelets.

As to the OP's question, I've only skated on Missions since starting organized inline hockey about 6 years ago (eons ago I played on the street with the original Rollerblades!) and I really like them. Before I bought my previous pair I tried Tours and didn't like the feel at all. This could be because I was so used to the Mission hi-lo setup, though. A lot of guys in my league swear by Tours. I'd stay away from Nike/Bauer, but I've heard that CCM/Rbk are solid inline skates.

One final piece of advice: don't buy more skate than you need. If you're only going to be playing once a week in a house league, or if you're still learning the game, you don't need the stiffest, lightest skate out there. If you stick around the $170-199 range you should do fine. And if you wait until next year's models are about to come out, or slightly after, you can usually pick up some good deals on the older skates.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[TBLfan]

The eyelet issues were on the He series skates from 2005, I believe. The 2006 Helium skates (10000, 9500, 7500 and so on...) went back to the normal metal eyelets that lie flat on the boot, not the plastic loops that the 2005 skates had. I've been skating on the 7500s for about a year now and love them, though I've heard some people have problems with the chassis cracking -- especially heavier players/extremely hard skaters. I believe the new Wicked line also uses the conventional eyelets.

As to the OP's question, I've only skated on Missions since starting organized inline hockey about 6 years ago (eons ago I played on the street with the original Rollerblades!) and I really like them. Before I bought my previous pair I tried Tours and didn't like the feel at all. This could be because I was so used to the Mission hi-lo setup, though. A lot of guys in my league swear by Tours. I'd stay away from Nike/Bauer, but I've heard that CCM/Rbk are solid inline skates.

One final piece of advice: don't buy more skate than you need. If you're only going to be playing once a week in a house league, or if you're still learning the game, you don't need the stiffest, lightest skate out there. If you stick around the $170-199 range you should do fine. And if you wait until next year's models are about to come out, or slightly after, you can usually pick up some good deals on the older skates.

Good luck and have fun!

Good to know, thanks for clearing that up. I play ice and occasionally play roller, but mostly I play ice so I don't know a TON about roller hockey skates.

Maybe I'll play more roller when I get around to buying a sprung chassis... doubt I'll actually go through with it because it's soo darn hot down here and I'm not going to play indoor roller when for the same price I can play ice hockey.

 

[wolfgaze]

Has anyone noticed that most new skates now use 3 different sized wheels??? Now to me this would create problems with skate maintainence...

1st Wheel: 72 mm
2nd & 3rd Wheel: 76 mm
4th Wheel: 80 mm

Now normally you rotate your wheels because they wear unevenly... I have CCM 452 Tacks w/ Hi-Lo chasis... 72 mm front 2 wheels, 80 mm back 2 wheels. When I rotate my wheels, I swap 1st and 2nd, and 3rd and 4th...

I'm nervous about buying new skates because of the 3 different sized wheels.... Now 2nd and 3rd you can rotate but the front wheel is a loner....

Does anyone w/ skates utilizing 3 different wheel sizes find this to be a problem???

And personally, I love the Reebok 6K, mostly for cosmetic reasons =]

Rbk 6K

 

[TBLfan]

CCM/RBK and I think Bauer use 3 different wheel setups. Just flip the wheel around or swap front wheels(if the graphics are on the outside of the left skate wheel when you swap; the graphics will be on the inside of your right skate).

 

[wolfgaze]

CCM/RBK and I think Bauer use 3 different wheel setups. Just flip the wheel around or swap front wheels(if the graphics are on the outside of the left skate wheel when you swap; the graphics will be on the inside of your right skate).

I'm not talking about the wheels wearing left & right on each skate... I'm talking about the fact that the very front wheel wears down more than the 2nd wheel and the 4th wheel wears down more than the 3rd wheel....

Previously, with hi-lo chasis utilizing only 2 different wheel sizes, you could swap the wheels back and forth everytime you rotated them... With these skates, you can't...

I'm worried about the wear of the front wheel... You can't rotate it anywhere....

 

[TBLfan]

yeah i know, but that is your only option with that setup. Mission still uses 80/80/72/72