Replacement Wheels for SRB Rollerskis

In a previous post I extolled the virtues of SRB rollerskis. My opinion of them nearly changed some time ago when I needed to buy some replacement wheels and I was slightly taken aback to find that they started at 25€ apiece and went up from there. Four replacement wheels shouldn’t really be half the cost of a new pair of roller skis IMHO 😦

Fortunately I came across an article on replacement wheels on the Rollerski Directory site which started me on the path of some cheaper replacements.

Wheels

As per the Rollerski Directory article I got my wheels from The Skate Hut. I bought:

• JD Bug Original 100mm Wheels (x4)
• Blazer Pro Wheel Spacers (x2)
• Enuff Abec 9 Waterproof Bearings ( the wheels came with ABEC 5 bearings which in hindsight would probably have been OK )

Total cost, including delivery, was about £26.

Mounting Hardware

The first issue that I came across was that the holes in the centre of the bearings was different for the new wheels. The original SRB wheels use a 10mm hole for the short axle whereas the new wheels have an 8mm hole suitable for an M8 bolt. The simplest solution was to swap the wheel mounting method to a bolt so I duly purchased some suitable hardware:

• A2 Stainless M8 50mm Hex Head Bolt ( x4 )
• A2 Stainless M8 Thick Nyloc Nut ( x4 )
• A2 Stainless M8 Form A Flat Washer ( x20 )

I got these online from Westfield Fasteners for a total cost of about £12. I bought more washers than necessary because I wasn’t sure of the new wheel spacing ( see below ). I used Nyloc nuts for security but you could possibly use a normal nut and a spring washer instead.

You can probably get this stuff from a DIY store but stock control at my local B&Q is appalling  Buying online in this way I got exactly what I wanted delivered through my door in a couple of days.

Assembly

Assembly was relatively easy except for one small problem. For the new wheel the inner part of the bearing casing rotated while the outer didn’t. A normal M8 washer was too large in diameter and interfered with the black plastic part causing unnecessary friction. The solution was to use one of the small washers that were used under the head of the bolt fixing the original wheel to the short axle as an extra spacer. This was a stroke of luck, otherwise I would have had to source or make a smaller washer.

In the end I needed one extra M8 washer on the mounting bolt to make the wheel fit snugly on the two mounting forks. The final hardware layout is shown in the two images below.

I mounted the wheels with the head of the bolt on the right hand side as viewed when standing on the skis looking forward. In this way the action of the wheels when rolling forward would try to tighten the bolt rather than loosen it. I have seen a case on other modified skis where the bolt was mounted the other way and did manage to work its way loose.

General Notes

Overall the new wheels work well. I’ve done a few hundred km on them and they’re not wearing excessively. The ABEC 9 bearings are certainly faster than the the original SRB ones which is probably to be expected because the originals were designed to be slightly more resistive for training purposes. From my limited observations the new bearings are about the equivalent of fast, well waxed ( but not race ) skis. They’re borderline too fast for endurance training or on paths that have reasonably fast downhill sections but are also shared with cyclists / walkers etc.

The current setup is not suitable for serious rollerski racing but I have used them in a race with expected improvements in time over the normal medium speed training wheels. However Skate Hut do a range of bearings including some ceramic ones that would undoubtedly be faster ( at a price ) should you wish to go down that route.

There are undoubtedly other suppliers for the parts that I used but the two I dealt with delivered the items quickly, at reasonable cost and with no fuss. I have no affiliation with either but I would happily use them both again.

 

Changing SRB Rollerski Wheels

Background

Being a cross country ski enthusiast and living in the UK can be a frustrating experience. Outside of a few areas of the country there’s rarely enough snow in the Winter to get the skis out and even then it’s a bit hit or miss. During the warmer months most serious skiers turn to roller skis which are the equivalent to the downhill skier’s dry slope.

You can get rollerskis for both classic and skate styles and, for skating, I’ve found the skis made by Ski-Roller-Barthelmes ( SRB ) give a ride and feel that’s very similar to snow skis.

One problem of course is that if you use your skis a lot then the wheels eventually wear down and need to be replaced. However the method of mounting the wheels on the SRBs make it very difficult to remove them. I thought that I was alone in having this problem but I’ve spoken to a couple of people in the past few years that have had similar issues hence the motivation for writing this post 🙂

( I’ve also added some useful rollerskiing links at the bottom of the post. )

Changing Wheels

The problem with changing the wheels on SRB rollerskis is that they don’t secure the wheels with a bolt all the way through. Instead, as shown here, there’s a short threaded axle piece with screws that fix from each side. The upshot is that when you try and unscrew the wheels then one screw will come out easily but the other will then just turn the axle as well and not unscrew at all. It found it impossible to grip any part of the axle to hold it without damaging it.

Needless to say this is rather irritating but I have managed to come up with a reasonably foolproof method of removing these wheels. As shown on the right you will need:

• Two Torx wrenches to fit the screws
• An M8 nut and bolt ( the bolt doesn’t need to be as long as this )
• Two 13mm spanners

First, using the two Torx wrenches, try to remove both of the screws.

One screw will come out easily and the other one will then just rotate with the axle.

Screw the nut a short way onto the bolt then screw the bolt in place of the screw that’s just been removed. Hold the end of the bolt steady with one spanner and tighten the nut up against the wheel mounting bracket.

The other screw should now come out fairly easily as the nut and bolt are holding the axle. If the nut comes loose and the axle turns then tighten the nut a bit more. The spanners should give plenty of leverage.

Using the two spanners again unscrew the nut slightly to loosen it and the bolt can be removed quite easily.

Links

• I bought my SRBs ( and the rest of my rollerskiing gear ) at http://www.rollerski.co.uk. I have no affiliation with them but Iain and his team are extremely knowledgeable and very helpful and friendly.
• The Rollerski Directory site is a great resource for all things rollerskiing in the UK.