Rollerblade Aero 9

Inline Skate Review

by Fritz Blaw

The Rollerblade Aero 9 is RB's new 2003 offering.

Preamble

I am sponsored by Rollerblade, meaning I get my own skates, and those for my skate school (Motorblade.com) free or wholesale, and I represent Rollerblade brand when people ask me for skate advice. I am however, also a I.I.S.A. certified teacher so I strive to present a balanced (to the best of my abilities) and "brand blind" assessment of skates as well. I think I would clearly reveal problems and criticisms and positive attributes of all brands. My hope is that my review presents a objective opinion from a relatively experienced skater.

Rollerblade Boot & Liner

The men's boot comes in basic black with silver ribbing and red accents. From my observations, a somewhat new combination of materials is used in the Aero 9 boot liner. This PFS Specialized Liner, as its called, seems lighter and cooler than past RB boots (both common problems with previous RB soft-boots). A loop of nylon stretches from ankle to ankle for easy insertion of feet.   I like this more than the stiff piece of plastic on the Evo series. It also has that section of slicker nylon fabric right where your heel slips in at the top of the boot liner which facilitates easy entry. Its lighter cooler feel made for a super light feel I wasn't used to.

Each skate weighs a hair over 3.5 pounds without the brake. The weight of my older skates is something I had become used to, but I was easily swayed to this new feel. As long as these materials don't over compress or degrade with use they seem to be a real improvement. The extruded plastic ribbing (silver splines on surface) adds stiffness to the soft-boots topside and securely anchors the lace loops.

The outer boot/boot frame is made of a material called Tri Force Lite. It appears slimmer and more minimal than previous designs yet provides plenty of support. It does not flex back, there is a piece of frame material at the ankle hinge that prevents backwards flexing of the hinge (the way the old ABT brake was activated). Side to side ankle support has a bit of give to it depending on how tight you cinch the top buckle. The shock eraser in the footbed dampened vibration adequately. The footbed itself was REALLY nice with good arch support. Reflective material in the rear of the boot lit up at night quite impressively when hit with ambient light. Ten holes in the base of the boot near the instep, two scoops near the ball of the foot, and silver mesh air vents at the toe and several on the top of the foot (these top holes seemed more superficial) gave a flow to the air in the boot that was refreshing and improved.

Laces & Buckles

The possible areas of  weakness are involved in the TFS Dyneema lace system (other than the frame, this is perhaps the newest aspect of the skate). After slipping on the skates an active buckle that appears to be identical to the new Lightning buckle cinched up easily, and feels sturdy despite its compact shape and size. Then with a simple pull of the yo-yo like lace scroller on the outside ankle of each boot tightened the laces.

The single Kevlar laces snakes through a sturdy tube to the top of the boot just under the top buckle (power strap position) and then snakes through a zigzag pattern of thick, sturdy eyelets toward the toe where the last eyelet is closed and the lace is knotted at the end and anchored with a washer below the surface of the soft boot. The slick, strong, thin string is pulled by the scrolling yo-yo with little resistance and evenly distributes the tightening from top to bottom of the foot with one or two pulls of the scroller. There is a flap of tongue material which needs a little adjustment to get it in optimum position for tightening. Loosening is achieved by indenting a recessed button near the "yo-yo" and pulling on a tab of nylon that slips along the top section of lace.

I do not think this recessed button could be accidentally pressed like the ABT Lite release button was on occasion. This system worked well but would be the area I see as most likely to fail after heavy use. If one were to have a high speed fall and manage to rub the loops that the lace goes through it could be possible to cripple the lacing system . I don't see an easy way to replace the actual loops that are riveted into the boots, though they are made thick and with strong plastic. The lacing system and lace can be replaced (I have seen the replacement part that is available). It appears that the actual Dyneema/Kevlar lace would be hard to break unless you took a lighter to it.

The yo-yo lace pull clicks as it is extended  and did not get in the way of my crossovers and other slalom/cone manoeuvres. Long term rough use will determine whether this system is a durable improvement or a short term novelty. So far, after a dozen kids hockey games, adult classes and 5-10 hours of rough use I have had no problems with the system. It has the advantage of making tightening of the lace something you can do as you roll by reaching down and pulling. You let go of the yoyo and it retracts into place on its own.

Aero 9 Frame

The extruded aluminum frame has an elliptical design very similar to the lightning series of last year. The two braces, which are NOT separate pieces, run between the first and second wheels and between the third and fourth wheels. The frames accommodate 82mm wheels, but appear to have the clearance to take the 84mm wheels that people are hungering for these days, though I can't guarantee this.

The frame measures about 28 cm from end to end with bolt anchor points about 6 cm from the toe end of the frame and heel end of the frame, about 17 cm between them. The toe wheel reaches about 3.5 cm past the toe of the boot, while the heel wheel extends about 1.5 cm past the heel of the boot.

The problem I had was with the adjustable frame. It has lateral adjustment at both fore and aft positions of the frame. To access the frame, you take off the wheel over the frame bolt, and with the extended hex key provided, you can reach through the frame to the adjusting bolt and two washers that seat the bolt. The front screw/bolt loosened on my right skate during a teaching session. I would suggest a perfunctory tightening of these bolts before heavy use.

I remember a few skates over the years (some from other brands) that needed to have frame bolts tightened after coming out of the box. So this is not a problem solely experienced by these skates. Once retightened I had no problems though i have not tried to do little fine tuning frame adjustments that some skaters like to spend time on. I simply put them in the centered position which seems to suit me fine. There are no hash marks for determining exact position but apparently many skates with adjustable frames have no position marks on them.

RBLite Wheels

The factory wheels are the Rollerblade 80mm82A RBLite wheels. They are definitely showing more durability than the first run of wheels that the Lightnings came with. The open core wheels appear to have been improved (though the price and availability may still be issues for many skaters).

Bearings & Brake

Bearings are ABEC 7 608's, a relief for those who loathed the microbearing trend. The axles are one tool aluminum with aluminum spacers. This mean the main bolt seats into the frame with four spines into the grooves in the frame. Make sure and line these up properly, kiddoes, or you could deform the aluminum. The hex key side with the screw felt and looked like higher tempered aluminum so as long as you didn't mis-thread and strip the softer bolt you should not have the problem of gouging out the hex key slot when tightening. These skates have NO rockering, which is a downside for some.

Hooray, it comes with a standard brake. Finally a fitness skate from RB  that isn't set up for beginners. This simple design feature should keep some skaters from rejecting it straight off.

Skating impressions.

Here is my sort of free verse impressionistic description of a sample skate.

"Hey dad lets go eat at the Omelettry ....can we skate there?"
"Sure kid let me put on my fancy new skates"
....zip zap , slip zip they are on. very lite, quick entry, no rocker makes them a good straight-on GO skate. Flipping to backwards, skating and shredding the pavement no prob. Smooth ride , little vibration from rough road. Crossovers a breeze, quick hockey turns not so easy with the flat setup. As the wheels wear a natural rocker should develop. Glad I tightened those frame bolts. No ABT brake rattle, these are virtually silent skates, I can hear my fat cells screaming. Get to the restaurant, oohs and ahhs when I take them off and put them on - the yoyo lace system is a crowd pleaser.

Back home again, and these skates don't smell and feel moist like most skates after a vigorous skate, definitely a cool ride. They are not as snug as some RB skates so I might need a size 9(shoe size 8.5) instead of this 9.5 . I actually tighten these to there limits so a half size smaller might be just right.

Overall plusses

• Cool/Light
• quick lacing/very theatrical
• standard brake
• very fast bearings/frame

Overall minuses

• price in the 200$ range (not cheap)
• long term durability of lace system still a question
• NO rockering
• no back flex on ankle hinge

Discuss

Come discuss this review in our forums here:

Rollerblade Aero 9 inline skate review

Bio

Fritz Blaw (aka Motorblade) is an experienced inline skater and instructor, and has been a big part of the newsgroup rec.sport.skating.inline for many years.  He runs two successful skating based businesses in Austin, Texas.  One is a large skate school, and the other a postering service serving a large number of locations for local businesses.  See Motorblade.com and this feature in the Austin Chronicle for more details!

Big dang skate truck!

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