K2 Mod GT inline skate review

Due to an unexpected surprise from a friend that I did a favor for, I was rewarded with a new pair of skates of my choice. I had been looking at the K2 MOD GT since the 2002 K2 brochure was released and I immediately chose this skate. I know several people that own the 2001 K2 MOD 8 skate, and they are all excellent skaters and love their skates, so I felt I couldn't go wrong, since the MOD GT is supposed to be the improved 2002 version of the MOD 8. . Since I wear a size 13 in my 2001 K2 Catalyst, I took a chance and had the size 13 MOD GT ordered by the person buying the skates for me. The fit was perfect.

Mod GT First Impressions:

When I got the skates the first thing I noticed was the Exotech Cuff on the skate, compared to my 2001 Catalyst. The one complaint that a few K2 owners have had in the past, is ankle discomfort caused by the K2 Cuff being to snug in the ankle area. I had that problem with my 2000 K2 Kinetics, if I tightened the top buckle or ankle strap too much, it caused some ankle discomfort. . K2 made some changes in the design of the Cuff in the ankle area on the 2001 skate by widening it a bit and my 2001 Catalysts do not bother my ankles at all. Well for the 2002 K2 skates that I have seen so far this year, they have widened this Cuff area even further, so no matter how tight I cinch up the top buckle and ankle strap on the Mod GT, there is no pressure on the ankle joint at all. You can see this extra room, just by looking at the cuff above the hinge area. There is enough space between the Cuff and the boot material to fit your finger in.

The next thing I noticed about the MOD GT is that it is one really slick looking skate. It has breathable mesh all over it which makes the ventilation excellent. If you don't like sweaty feet, you will love this skate. You can actually feel a breeze thought the skate when skating at any speed. The men's version has red accent trim around the top of the boot and on the sides and rear with plenty of material that is reflective for night skating. A ratchet buckle on the top, a well constructed ankle strap for snugging your heel back into the heel pocket and speed lacing makes it easy to get a great fit when you are getting ready to hit the road. The Women’s version has a differently shaped boot designed for a women’s specific foot shape. The one thing I have missed with my Catalyst skates is the ankle strap, which does a great job on the Mod GT of snugging your heel into the skate’s heel pocket and holding it there. This is a heavy duty ankle strap, that you can really tighten as much as you want. The Mod GT has the “rope loop” type of Heel Pull this year, at the top rear of the boot so you can pull the skate on easily. This loop will not break or tear and it also makes a great way to carry your skates in one hand. It is much easier to grab and grip than a thin strap.

Placing your feet in these skates, you will notice that there is a different textured material in the inside of the boot, near the ankle area. It makes it easy for your foot to slide right into the skate, plus it feels really good on the ankle area. The comfort and fit on these skates is really impressive. I have had these skates for about five days and have skated well over 100 miles in them and I spent almost all day in them today. No blisters, no hot spots, no pressure points, just pure comfort. In fact, they are the most comfortable skates I have ever skate in. Snug around the ankle, plenty of room in the toe box, and the Cuff in this model is lower than my Catalyst Skates which makes it feel like it's a combination Fitness Boot and Racing boot. They call the Cuff design in this model the Freedom Cuff and it is designed for maximum forward movement of the cuff so that you can take a "low powerful stroke". What I noticed about the skates is that they feel much more manoeuvrable than the fitness skates that I have been skating on the last few years. I even played a little Roller Hockey in them this afternoon and was able to get around quite well. There are two excellent skaters in the Atlanta area that use last years Mod 8 with the same basic frame, to do some “Skate Dancing” which is something that you wouldn’t’ expect to see on an extended 4 wheel frame.

The K2 Mod GT Frame:

The first thing I noticed about the Frame on this skate is that it was Laterally Adjustable. I was delighted. There is no mention of this in the 2002 K2 Brochure or on their web site, so I assumed, when I read the brochure, that the frame was just bolted on in one position in case you wanted to change it to a 5 wheel frame. When I looked at the frame attachment I realized that both the front and the back of the frame were laterally adjustable. I don't care for a skate that has only lateral adjustment of the front part of the frame, since making any kind of substantial change in the front without being able to change the mounting position of the rear of the frame, will cause the frame to be canted to one side. In other words the frame and boot are not aligned in the same direction. I had this experience with one pair of skates I owned and I never liked skating on them because of that reason.

Now, why do I like an adjustable frame? Many years ago when I began skating in New York City, I used to get blades custom mounted on my ice skates by the best skate shop in the city. The blade was positioned so that your foot was perfectly balanced on the blade by moving the blade laterally . Once position it was then permanently mounted on the boot. Skaters that had their skates set up this way, (including many world famous skaters at the time) never had ankle problems like pronation or supination ( ankles tilting in or out). This was often attributed to "weak ankles", but once your skates were set up this way, weak ankles were never a problem. It also made skating on these skates so much easier, since your ankle had to make zero effort to keep your foot level, or on the center "edge" of your blade or wheel. Tilting your foot slightly in either direction and you could control your turns very precisely.

The first thing I did, was to adjust the frame on the MOD GT to get my feet perfectly level. It took a total of about 20 minutes of tweaking the frame position and they were perfect. All that was necessary was to remove the 2nd wheel from the skate, and the supplied skate tool was then used to loosen the front frame retaining bolt. Shift the frame a millimetre or two at a time, and try it. I left the wheel off until I got it right and just skated on the three wheels that were remaining, to test the adjustment. After getting the front of the frame positioned correctly, then eyeball the skate and adjust the rear of the frame so that the frame is aligned with the boot in a straight line from front to back. The rear mounting screw can be reached without removing anything at all. After positioning the rear of the frame, try it again to make sure it is still balanced. Skating with your feet relaxed and at shoulder width apart, both feet should be level from side to side. Once I got the frames position correctly I applied some "Blue Loctite" to the bolts and snugged them down. I have heard of a few people having these frame retaining bolts fall out, and this can be a real problem if you are on a long skate, and miles from your starting point. . A couple of drops of Loctite and these bolts will never fall out, yet they can be loosened if you want to readjust them. Do not use Red Loctite. That is permanent and you will never get the bolts off.

The frame itself is good looking, strong, and well designed. Cross bracing inside the frame makes it structurally sound. On my size 13 skate, the frame is 306mm. This makes it only 3mm longer than the frame on my size 13 Catalyst. This skate is more manoeuvrable than my Catalyst skates. Why it is, I have no idea. The frame being slightly longer, should be a bit less agile, but I can carve sharper turns with this frame which really surprised me. I think it is due to the adjustable frame and the ability to center it on the balance point of your boot. The frame has a “ Power Transfer” rating of 5.0. K2 now rates all their frame and frame attachment designs with this Power Transfer rating, which is a measure of the “Power applied to the pavement”. Their Mod X Racing skate has a Power Transfer Rating of 6.0 and their beginner and youth skates measure a 2.0. The Mod GT Frame is a “stiff” frame. It is the most solid 4 wheel Inline Skate frame that I have ever skated on. The hardware is the usual excellent K2 quality. The axle bolts have the Allen socket all the way through the center of the bolt, so there is no easy way to round off or ruin the Allen fitting in the bolt. The brake bolt is longer and has a “cap” nut on the opposite side to the normal Allen bolt. It tells you on a little sticker on the brake assembly to take the little cap nut off first, and then unscrew the long brake axle bolt. They included one extra axle bolt in the packaging in case you want to remove the brake assembly. They also include the brake assembly and a skate tool as standard, with the skates. I always keep the heel brake on for safety reasons. I also noticed on the K2 US Web Site, that they now have some parts available, and one of the parts is the axle hardware, and the mounting screws and block for the adjustable blades.

The frame holds a maximum size of 80mm wheels. This is due to tight clearance from the front wheel to the first frame brace. Rotating the wheels is very simple, because there is only the axle bolt to unscrew from the frame. I placed 2 drops of Blue Loctite on each of the axle bolt threads, to keep them from loosening. I have heard several instances of these type bolts into aluminum frames, falling out on a long skate, and disappearing. The Loctite prevents that from happening. The threading on these axle bolts and the frame itself is heavy duty and I cannot imagine any stripping problems with this hardware.

Wheels and Bearings

The wheels are 80mm, 80a durometer wheels, probably Hyper but that is not stated on the wheel. . The K2 web site says that the skates have 84a hardness wheels, but all the 2002 K2 skates I have seen so far have the 80a wheels. I have always been a big fan of soft wheels even though I am 6'2" and around 210 pounds. I don’t mind having to replace wheels a bit more often, I like the softer ride and the better grip of the softer wheels. My replacement wheels for years have been 78a durometer, so these 80a wheels are perfect for me. Coupled with the stiff frame and the “Anti Vibration Pad”, placed under the heel of the boot, the ride is pretty good. You can still feel that the frame is a bit on the stiff side, on a bumpy surface. The frame is Solid to skate on and cracks and ruts in the pavement and twigs and pebbles are no match for this frame, it goes right over them like they aren’t there.

The bearings are Twincam Brand 608s, ABEC 7, lubed with oil. I am not a big fan of Micro bearings, so I was glad to see this skate went back to the Basics with the 608s. I think that a good selection in replacement wheels will be easier to find with the 608s. The first thing I did was pull one side cover off the bearings and grease them with some good Bicycle bearing grease. I hate cleaning bearings worse than anything, and I find that grease holds up for months and months before I have to clean the bearings again. The grease I use is made by Finish Line and is their Synthetic Bearing grease available in most bicycle shops. It is waterproof and won’t thicken in cold weather or run when it gets hot. Lithium grease works quite well also. I do not reinstall the shields on the bearings, I just put the open side on the inside of the wheel, which makes it much easier to clean the next time. Racer type skaters may still want to go with the oil and the increased maintenance for speed reasons.

Road Test

Skating on these skates is pure pleasure. I have owned these skates almost a week and have well over 100 miles on them. There is a hill on a park in Atlanta that I have skated down for over 10 years and on many different pairs of Inline skates. Coasting down this hill, I know about how fast I should expect to be going and how long and far I will coast. The Mod GT goes much faster and about 400 feet farther than any skates I have skated on. I cannot figure out why, the wheels shouldn’t be that fast at a hardness of 80a and I don’t feel that bearings make that much difference, even though they are ABEC 7s, but these skates really “fly”. I am thinking that maybe it is the frame, but since I am coasting I wouldn’t expect them to be that much faster than some of my other skates with a different frame. Anyway, if you want something fast and comfortable for an all day skate, but want to have the manoeuvrability of 4 wheels, these are the skates for you.

The one issue I have with K2 skates is the brake material that they use. I have complained for years that the K2 brake material is too hard. This produces a lower coefficient of friction ( less stopping power) while providing you with a brake that lasts forever. I prefer the stopping power to the longer lasting brake block. On my 2001 Catalyst, I still have the original brake, and I use the brake all the time. The brake seems like it will never wear out. The brakes on the Rollerblade skates, as a comparison, will stop you on a dime, but need constant replacement. I wish K2 would come out with some softer brake material at least as an option. At first I thought that the 2002 brake was better than the previous version, but that was only the first couple of stops, then it felt like all my other K2 brakes. The other minor concern I have with this skate is the ratchet buckle assembly. The strap has small teeth in it that are gripped by the ratchet buckle. If you aren’t careful when tightening this buckle, you can slightly damage the teeth in the strap. What I do to prevent this is pull the front of the skate together with my hand while I tighten the ratchet rather than using the ratchet buckle to do all the work of pulling the front of the skate cuff together. If the strap did become damaged after awhile, it looks like a pretty simple repair to replace the strap part with a new one.

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Summary

Strong Points:

1 Very Comfortable Skate
2. Very well Ventilated
3. Good Looking
4. Light
5 Adjustable Frame
6. Extended 4 wheel frame, yet Manoeuvrable
7. Frame can be upgrade to 5 wheels
8 ABEC 7 608 bearings
9 Ankle Strap and Ratchet Buckle

Weak Points.

Long term test

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Disclaimer

As usual, this review is only my opinion about these skates, and your mileage may vary. You should always carefully judge whether the skates you intend buying are best suited for you and for the purpose you intend using. Remember that fit and comfort are extremely important, and you may wish to read the inline skating buying guide here on this site.

K2 MOD GT Inline Skate Review 2002

April 2002

by Bob Cardone