Rotation Station inline skate maintenance stand review RotationStation

It's a maintenance stand that is designed to ease in-line skate wheel rotation. The stand is made from black injection moulded plastic, and has a swing section that forms both the stand to lift the station up at an easy angle to work with, and the arms/pegs to hold your skates while you're working on them.

Some skaters might ask why would you want to rotate your wheels? Well, the answer is because most skaters' wheels wear unevenly from wheel to wheel, and in most cases the inside edge of your wheels become sharply worn away when compared with the outside. That's normal, and is simply part and parcel of skating. Rotating your wheels will help to keep the wheel wear a little more even, and as a results your skates will handle more consistently, and you will probably get quite a bit more life out of your wheels.

In use

I've used the Rotation Station to work on several pairs of skates now, and I feel that it makes the effort of rotating wheels quite a bit easier. It's pretty good at keeping most of the inevitable crud from your skates off the lounge carpet as well, which is a bonus from my wife's point of view. There's two handy little trays at the bottom of the station where you can put the bolts, tools, and Loctite while you're working on your skates.

The pictures from the Rotation Station website show the station with a set of 5 wheel skates. The station has 10 wheel slots, but of course it works equally well with 4 wheelers. One minor issue I noticed was that the "arms" that fit into your skate to hold it upside down are perhaps a little on the thin side. They're more than strong enough for the job, but if these arms were a little thicker, they would hold skates more firmly by filling more of the ankle cuff.

The great thing about the RotationStation is that the wheel wells make it really easy to get your wheel rotation right. You can go with the suggested wheel rotation strategies as shown below, although the manufacturers have also provided some advanced Rotation Station advice, and some additional maintenance tips, recognising that some skaters pay attention to individual wheel wear.

I don't always stick to a pre-defined rotation order because, although I generally follow strategies such as the ones below, I also check actual wheel wear and make adjustments to where I put wheels based on that. That's real easy to do with this station because the wheel wells hold your wheels vertically, making it simple to see all your wheel profiles at once and compare the amount and location of wear on each.

One tip I'd offer is to use blue Loctite (blue fluid in a red bottle) on your axle threads at least every couple of rotations. This is a thread locking compound and will help prevent your axles coming loose due to vibration and perhaps falling out. Be sure to use the blue Loctite (no. 242/243) and use only just enough to go on the axle threads. There is a red Loctite that gives permanent bonds, and if you use that, you won't be able to remove your axles again. Check out this thread on our forums for more discussion of Loctite.

Overall Conclusion

This makes skate maintenance and wheel rotation easier. At an RRP of US $40, it's not as cheap as I might have expected, but given the number of skates my family owns I think this is an acceptable price. The station folds away flat after use and so takes up very little room. Sure, it's by no means an essential piece of equipment, but it's a useful item to have around.

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Suggested wheel rotations

Disclaimer

As usual, this review is only my opinion, and your mileage may vary. You should always carefully judge whether the product you intend buying are best suited for you and for the purpose you intend using.

RotationStation (tm) Review

August 2002

What is the Rotation Station?

In use

Overall Conclusion

Comment on this review?

Suggested wheel rotations

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