Rollerblade Core Carbon inline skate review 2001

I had just purchased a pair of 2000 K2 Kinetics in the spring of 2001. While there were many features of the K2 skates that I liked, and this was my 2nd pair of K2s in a row, I did experience ankle discomfort on both my K2 Kinetics and my K2 VO2 Max skates, after several hours of skating. I was thinking that my all time , most comfortable skates that I have ever owned, were a pair of Rollerblade Aeroblades, that I finally wore out some years back. I therefore, decided to see what Rollerblade had in their lineup for 2001 for a top of the line Fitness Skate. The Core Carbon, seemed to be the skate that headed up their Fitness line.

I was intrigued by some of the features of the Core Carbon, one of those features being the 100% Carbon Fiber Frame. The Frame is supposed to be very light, lighter than Aluminum and yet shock absorbing, better than nylon. I went to my Favorite Dealer and tried on a pair , and they seemed to fit like a glove. Without even tightening the laces, the skate seemed to hold my foot securely and the support seemed to be firm and comfortable. I buckled the skate tightly, with the top buckle and tightened the laces and it felt very comfortable. I decided to buy them.

My first skate was about 10 miles that afternoon and they seemed very comfortable. The frame seemed stable, it is a long frame, about the same length as my K2 Kinetics. I installed the Brake that came with the skate. It is a standard heel brake and uses the brake block from the ABT Lite. Much better stopping power than my K2 brakes. You bear down on this brake and you stop. Quick, albeit with much noise coming from the rubber stopper. I like that, it lets people know you are coming.

Core Carbon Boot

The Boot on the Core Carbon is not vented as well as any other Inline skate that I have purchased in many years. There is some toe ventilation, and a bit of venting in the back, on the inside of the foot, but no bottom vents or outside boot vents at all. The outside of the skate is mainly made out of some non-vented material that provides no airflow to speak of. They use something in the liner called “Outlast”, which is supposed to regulate temperature inside the skate by keeping the temperature from rising or falling. It seems to me that this is a good feature, possibly in colder climates, where a vented skate might not keep your feet warm enough. As far as hot climate skating, I would prefer more Vents. The breeze that I feel in other vented skates I own, is not present in these Core Carbons, with the exception of the toe area. The top Buckle is a micro-ratchet type and works very well. You can really tighten it . The bottom of the boot sits in a material Rollerblade calls Shock Eraser. It is supposed to absorb shock that would be transmitted to your foot. The heel area also has the Exotherm type of foam that can be heat molded to your foot. The small Owners manual that came with the skates, did not explain how this “heat molding” was to be accomplished. I called Rollerblade, and they said you could just wear the skate, if you didn’t have a heat “oven” and eventually the ankle area would shape to your foot.

There is a sort of Quick Lace system on the skate, but it doesn’t work like the K2 or Salomon type of system. I do find I like the Rollerblade lacing system however, because I can tighten the top part of the lacing and yet, leave the lower part of the laces looser. On the K2, if you tighten the top, all of the lacing gets tighter. There is a “Lycra” slide inside the boot to make getting your foot in and out of the skate, easier. A powerstrap on the skate snugs the foot back into the skate and works very well.

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Rollerblade Footbed

The footbed in the Core Carbon Skate is supposed to be a quality Anatomic footbed composed of a base of some hard white looking material and a very thin blue terry cloth material glued on top of the white material. The footbeds in my skates lasted about 2-3 weeks. The glue that laminated the terry material to the base, started coming loose, and the terry material would bunch up under your foot. It was extremely uncomfortable. It was like skating with a pencil under your foot, inside the skate. I removed both footbeds and purchased some Superfeet “Green Footbeds”, and the difference was amazing. Now I had some cushion on the bottom of the skate instead of a hard , inflexible material. I had 2 other people email with similar stories about the footbed.

Bearings

The Core Carbons come quipped with the Ninja Mini Miser ABEC 5 bearings. I soon discovered that removing these bearings from the wheels for cleaning was not very easy, with any tools that I had for my other skates. In addition, the very poor owners manual that came with the skates, mentioned nothing about the bearings other than “ They never needed to be cleaned”. I finally found the new bearing tool made by Salomon works great for popping the bearings out of the wheels. The outside surface of the bearing which is metal, is not removable. ( Another call to Rollerblade, to find this out). In order to remove the bearing cover, you have to pry the inside retainer off the bearing . It is a light brownish looking bearing cage, and combination cover. When you pry this off, all the tiny balls are now free to spin around the race, and after cleaning and reassembling, you must place all the balls evenly around before popping this cage-cover back on. I decided that this was probably going to damage this cover, with repeated removals and cleanings. I since have learned that the Mini Bearings can be cleaned without removing this cover. There is enough room between the inside cover and bearing to allow cleaning fluid and lube in , and dirt out. The bearings seem fast, a bit nosier than 608s, but I have a feeling they are going to be more fragile than 608s would be. Keep in mind that if you decide to switch to 608s, you must also replace your wheels. By the same token, if you stick with Mini Bearings, your wheel choices are limited to wheels that work with the Mini Bearings.

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Rollerblade Carbon Fiber Frame

The Carbon Fiber Frame was stated to be 30% lighter than a Aluminum Frame. This may be, but that doesn’t explain why the Core Carbons are the heaviest Inline Skates I own .. It must be due to the boot design. The Frame is bolted to the bottom of the Boot by 2 Torx bolts that are accessible from inside the skate. A special Torx Wrench is included with the skate, so that you can periodically check the tightness of these bolts. The Front bolt is very difficult to reach, even after removing the laces. The screw is under the toe box piece of the boot, and the tool must be angled and forced into place. Not impossible, but not the best design either.

On my Core Carbons’, I noticed within a week or two that one of the wheels started to bind on the left skate. Trying to troubleshoot the problem, I switched wheel assemblies from another wheel position, and the 3rd wheel from the front on the left skate was still binding. If I tightened the axle bolt really tight, I could almost stop the wheel dead. Upon close examination, I found that the hole in the frame at that wheel position apparently had been incorrectly drilled at the factory and that was causing the binding problem. A call to Rollerblade and my dealer had a new frame installed on the skate within a few days.

There is no lateral adjustment in the frame position, even with this bolt setup. This is what I feel is the biggest problem with this skate. I have been buying and skating on skates both Roller and Ice, for decades. I have never had a Pronation problem with any skate I have owned, except these Core Carbons. It appears that the frame is not centered properly on the Boot, but is angled very slightly in the front of the skate to the outside of the foot. On adjustable blade skates, one normally adjusts the lateral position of the blade for a good balance of the foot. Now I realize that flat feet and fallen arches and a bad Footbed can cause Pronation, but in my case, this has never been a problem. To skate on the “center Edge” of this skate, is very difficult. I always wind up on the inside edge, especially with my left foot. I had one other person that has these skates Email me and they stated that they had the same problem with theirs. I called Rollerblade about this, and they told me that if I loosened the Torx bolts I had some minimal shift of the frame, but I find that amount of shift available to be almost microscopic. I hate looking like a “beginner skater” with my feet pronating, but I am afraid that there is no solution that I can figure out that will solve this problem. This of course, requires very frequent wheel rotations, as the inside edge of the front wheel wears very rapidly.

The axle that goes though the wheel and the frame, has to be held into the Carbon Frame by a Blue End Washer, on either end of the axle. These end washers are not fastened to the frame at all. Therefore, if you unscrew the axle bolt, or it comes loose while skating, this end washer can fall off. If you lose it, there is no way to reassemble the axle-wheel-assembly back onto the skate, without damaging the frame. To make matters worse, if you use the Brake supplied with the skate, you have a total of 4 of these washers on the brake axle alone. Two on the brake assembly, and two on the axle. If you are changing your brake or rotating your wheels outside and loosen the bolt holding the brake foot axle, all 4 of these blue washers can fall out. As soon as I saw this, I called Rollerblade and asked them if I could buy some spare Blue Spacers. They did not have them as replacement parts at the time. Since then, they have added that part as a replacement. I travel around the country quite a bit, and I now have 2 spare Spacers in case I need them. You also have to be very careful, when removing a wheel assemble and reinstalling it, that the long part of the axle which has metal splines is installed on the Blue Spacer correctly.. The splines in the axle must fit snugly into tiny slots cut into the Blue Spacer. If this is not done, and you tighten the nut on the other side, your will bend and distort the shape of the blue spacer and it will not sit snugly in the frame anymore. The dealer suggested that I assemble the axle to the spacer, make sure the fit is correct, and while holding it together , insert the axle though the frame and wheel and then tighten the nut. It sounds complicated, but it is easy once you see how it is constructed.

Overall Conclusion - Rollerblade Core Carbon

Comfortable Boot
No Ankle Discomfort
Fast Skate
Lacing System
Ratchet Buckle
Very Stable Skate, long frame 80mm wheels
Great Brake

Pronation Problem
Lack of Ventilation
Unusable Footbed
Blue End Spacers not attached to frame, and possibility of damaging them when reinstalling wheel
Owners Manual not very well written
No tool for Mini Bearing removal.

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.

2001 Rollerblade Core Carbon Skate Review