Rollerblade Blank Team Skate Review - Have I found the perfect skate? Inline skate review.
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- Опубліковано 26 гру 2022
- Rollerblade Blank Team skate review
Today I’m going to review something that I’ve been waiting a very long time to review. Something that I’ve been waiting for, for over 30 years!
I give you, Rollerblade’s brand new edition to their line up, the Blank team skate. In pidgin blue! Now I must mention that their aggressive range only consists of 1 skate but Rollerblade is all about quality not quantity.
I need to emphasise the importance of this skate, it has inline skating heritage pumping through its veins, the original Rollerblade Lightning TRS was the skate that started aggressive inline skating and because of that skate the brand name Rollerblade is now synonymous with the word Rollerblade. Rollerblade haven't just built a new skate here, they have built a new yard stick.
There has been some major upgrades from the original and we will start with Soul plate. It isn’t one of those massive dinner plates that you find but a well engineered masterpiece. Let me explain.
The soul plate is built around the frame and is bolted into the boot directly. This allows for a lower ride height and we all know that being lower to the ground, just like a sports car, it makes the boot handle better and you can feel the nuances of the surface much better.
The lower frame height also helps with topside grinds and makes it easier to touch the boot on shiftys and nuggs (that’s royales and farfenugens for the rest of you).
Also the soul plate isn’t flat it is tapered on both ends, and this help you when doing souls and alleyoop souls, it stops the heel from gripping up.
The boot is solid and allows for plenty of forward flex (some may say too much forward flex) but it is still supportive enough for airs and gaps in my opinion. The Buckle Clip is alloy and is of high quality with chunky buckle protection built into the cuff.
One thing that Rollerblade do really well is the liners, the liner is made from a firm foam and is on the thicker side. To get the most out of the boot support, you will need to do up all the laces, this also helps with heel lift. They come with a great inner sole too, that really makes the skate fit like no other skate. The other reason for the great fit is because they now have a different boot mould for each size. This means that the liner won’t be flapping around inside the boot.
I’m working my way down the boot, onto the wheels and bearings. I like to ride flat and unlike the Sean Keene skate, this one dosen’t come with 8 wheels, it only comes as an Anti rocker set up. The 4 wheels that you do get however are amazing. They are Hydrogen wheels, 60mm 92a. But they don’t feel like a 92a, they are smooth and I would say that they skate like an 88a wheel. The twin cam bearings are also really smooth and fast and look like high quality construction. The anti-rocker wheels are just plastic and without bearings so that will reduce some weight if you skate with antis. The frame is amazing and h block tricks slide really fast and smooth, they barely make a noise. Here is a noise comparison with another skate and the blank skate. As you can hear, they are stealthy and it is just a testament to the quality.
I however need to get these frames off because they aren’t a very good frame when you skate flat, the middle wheels are too close together. If the wheels were spaced from the center more, you would need to take out the middle wheels to remove the frames but that is a sacrifice that I would be willing to make. Let’s be honest, if there was more room in the middle, then I probably wouldn’t need to remove the frames anyway.
But because of this I removed the frames and as I went to install my 50/50 prime frames - with the alloy core, I noticed that they didn’t line up. After some wrestling (and some advice from Brad and Paul) I tightened them bit by bit, alternating between the two UFS bolts.
Now that I have this setup, I believe that I have the perfect skate. I can’t find anything wrong with them. Every skate is a personal preference so keep that in mind but I really enjoy these skates and I hope that you have enjoyed this video.
Thanks for watching and thanks Rollerblade for developing the next skate of a generation. - Розваги
THIS is how you review a skate!
Thanks 🙏
Hey mate I just purchased these. I'm 43 turning 44 this year and the last time I skated rails was back in 1998 with my K2 fatty pro's. Your review was great so I'd thought I would catch the train into Highett and purchase a pair from Bayside blades. The closest skate park to me is east Keilor but if I cross the Maribyrnong river I am only a few minutes from sunshine skatepark. If I ever see you out and about I would make sure to say g'day 👍
Here is to skating in our 40's it feels like a lifetime ago I was hitting rails and ledges but I'm sure with a bit of practice I will be back it at in no time Cheers..
Hey 👋 contact me on instagram @westofoxley and I will add you to our Westside chat where we organize skates and speak crap.
Done mate 👍
I probably hung up my skates around then too, and now I have a son that enjoys skating and blading. I want to get a pair to start riding again. Would you recommend these for someone who hasn’t skated in 20 years and isn’t trying to hit huge pipes maybe just some benches and curbs. I really like the roces, which were the last pair I owned, and I also like the look of the k2s which was the first brand I ever owned. Any info will help! 🤙🏻
@@chrissurawski8907well.. how’s the skating going?
Super good review man. And I love that you put transcription in the description, made it easy to find all the details and specific points in the review 👌👏
Thanks man, appreciate it🤜
Sick! Nice review Joe. That’s rad that you’re enjoying them. So good when you find a skate that works for you 💪 Super keen to see more skate clips come out from you this year!
Thanks SK, I know, I see lots of people chasing their favorite skates and every time they try a new skate they have to spend time learning how to grind again because it takes time to get used to a pair of skates. So if you have found the one ☝️ then you don’t have to worry about that anymore and you can concentrate on the important stuff (skating and having fun! And making fun videos of course 😜)
That liner squeak is going to drive me absoltuely bonkers
I don’t notice it when I’m skating only when I’m filming and watching the footage back “what’s that bloody noise?” 😆
awesome review. excellent production quality such an awesome review.
Thank you 😀
Solid review 👌🏽 👏🏽
Thank you 😀
I have these. First skates since the 90s. They are really, really comfy and skate nice, but they seem HEAVY. Like... 10lbs heavy with flat setup. I think I'll be happier with USD carbons or something lighter and less bulky.
They are heavy for sure. USD AEONS are also a good choice in my opinion, very light. Haven’t tried Carbons unfortunately.
I can finally stop being Aggressive Inline Skater and become a Blader again :) My childhood dreams are coming true, I can now afford to buy a Rollerblade Skates. Now if I could only Buy a Home :( I thought growing up is going to be RAD....
I finally got a chance to try these on. Man what a great feeling skate. Super comfortable!
Did you buy some? Great skate!!
@@JoeStuartAU not yet! I'm travelling right now, but planning on getting some when I get home. Tried on the Fifth Elements as well, huge difference in comfortability for me.
@@rich8019 it’s always good when you get a chance to try on a pair of skates. Now with all the online purchasing it’s a rare luxury.
Hopefully the next black boot will have the 11-11.5 option. Would have loved to pick up the Keane skate when I needed new boots
You would think so, once they have the mold they can easily make that size in any colour when they do the run. But the question is, will the next run be black? I feel a white skate coming…..
Great review. I skated rollerblade boots in the past but they were heavy and too roomy in the toe box for my feet. I heard that this model is the same weight and fit. They use extra soul to make up the half size but I don't think that this is really a solution. Somethin to consider if you haven't got a tall feet and if you look for a light skate
Definitely not a light skate but I was using 5ths before and they were around the same weight. I have wide feet so they fit me perfectly.
@@JoeStuartAU good to know they fit wide feet. I heard otherwise but I'll have to give size 8-8.5 a try
@@anawkwardlifemedia can confirm that my feet are wide 👍🏻
@@anawkwardlifemedia100% they fit wide feet. In fact I think they are more suitable for wider feet then narrow feet. For the latter you would need to add an insole or put a foamier in-shell to make up for the space . If the Blank team skates are narrow how would you rate M12?
I feel like the liners are great, but I had to change mine, specifically, because it gives me a bruise on the top bump on my foot, due to how the liner happens to meet the boot.
I think that certain types of feet 🦶 fit certain types of liners and I was lucky with this one. Was like Cinderella, fit perfectly!
i just started skating the SK with my prime cores 60 flat and wow, i think it might be my perfect skate too
It’s a great combo! Did your UFS bolts line up without problems?
@@JoeStuartAU I didn’t have any issues, but Ive kinda adopted that back and forth screw in method for setups for a while now so probably just eased them in.
I haven’t skated in 20 years, give or take a few years. I used to live at skate parks and even had a 6’ pipe in my backyard that my father built me and my brother as teens. I’m now at the age where I have 7 year old twins and want to get back into it. I used to use k2 minis, and before I gave up completely my buddy gave me a pair of roces (this was probably around the year 2002-2004. I don’t remember the model but they were heavy as hell and bright red)
I was shopping online and I’m not sure which skates are good anymore. I liked the way these blanks looked, I kinda like the roces m12s and the K2s I looked at were nice too. I’m not trying to spend 400$ though, being that I’m beyond my prime and it’s just to have fun. Any recommendations on where to start looking? Also since when do blades have those two small wheels in between the front and back wheel and what’s the purpose? Nice review though.
I would check out the USD Aeon Basics. Good skate for getting back into it.
The skates you had probably were the 5th elements.
Here is a video that I made that explains the wheel question ua-cam.com/video/gpx4OrciGfk/v-deo.html
Bright red and heavy? K2 Fatty Bing Air's perhaps. Senate wheels.
The pigeon haha
There's always a pigeon around to film.
Just waiting for my delivery of a pair of the blank SKs in a size 9 and I hope to god my primes don't have to be put on like that, surely having the bolts in wonky will cause damage over time.
I am still skating my blanks and I switched up the frames and it was ok. It’s a bit of hard work getting them in but it didn’t damage the boot at all. I’m still loving mine by the way!
How did you get on with them? Was there a problem with the spacing ? This is the only thing stopping me from buying the Blanks, looking for some reassurance.
@@TheMadHatter1330 all good. I just had to push it hard and make it fit. The 50/50 prime frames have zero tolerance but other frames generally do and it isn’t an issue with my other frames. Still loving my Blanks.
Jumping back into this after 20 years. What's he mean when he's saying "skate flat"?
Welcome back, flat is all 8 wheels being the same size. Vs antirocker where the middle wheels are smaller. Here’s a video where I explain the benefits of both ua-cam.com/video/gpx4OrciGfk/v-deo.htmlsi=aUX-s6QjNGg7m6H9
@@JoeStuartAU
Dude! Thank you very much! Vaya con Dios brotha!
They intentionally played fast and loose with the UFS spacing standard, that's why a lot of premium frames like your Primes don't fit properly. Really big error on their part.
I have noticed on my other frames that the holes are oval shape to allow for larger tolerances. But this also allows for movement.
Ye the Aussie rollers let's unite
Let’s Unity!
Fan boy alert 😂 glad you’ve found your boot.
It’s a Cinderella story!!
Lol rollerblade has not always been good. They had money to make durable stuff but I wouldn’t say they always skated the best. The trs series had zero flex and super stiff liners. The soul plates were flow as shi and chunky. The frames would make u eat shi if you tried to frontside/or any h block trick. They did look pretty cool tho. Good news is they took all the money they made from selling at sports authority/dicks and started improving massively. The point 8 generation improved every thing basically and now they seem they got them perfect with the blank series. I still haven’t blanks yet tho
I’ve now had 5 pairs of Rollerblade skates, first ones were Zetra, they were what they were. Next was TRS, they were amazing at the time. Few broken buckles and spacers etc, but the rest held up. Next were Tarmac CE, great skate at the time. Next was the Downtown 4, the buckles were the weak point and I went through a few but I was still using the liner up until a few weeks ago. But all in all I have had a positive experience with Rollerblade skates. The Blank are amazing and hopefully you get to try a pair on.