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Salomon TR Vitesse 02 Skate Reviewby Ilan Vardi, May 2002
This is a review of the 2002 Salomon Vitesse 2, a five wheel fitness skate. This skate is slightly different from the 2001 Salomon TR Vitesse (review here), which was also reviewed by Dan Kibler on the Get Rolling Orbit web site. I found those reviews were very helpful in learning about this skate. Another useful reference is Mike van Erp's review of the Salomon TR Magnesium Elite 2, since this skate is virtually identical to my previous set of skates and I will be comparing my old skates to the Vitesse II in this review (the TR Mag Elite is very similar to the Vitesse skate, except for the frame). Table of Contents
BackgroundBefore beginning the review, I should talk a little about my skating experience. In fact, there is little to talk about, since I only took up skating for the first 8 months ago. I have been racing bicycles for about 20 years, and cycling was my main form of exercise. When I finally moved to Paris permanently in August of 2001, I found Parisian cycling so disheartening that I decided that I needed to take up another sport. Since Paris is one of the best places in the world to skate, I decided to try this sport out. I was well aware of the historical connection between these two disciplines, and I was hoping that my cycling experience would serve me well. Moreover, I was a little burnt out on cycling, and learning something new for a change was an exciting prospect. My goal was to transfer my cycling workouts, long rides, group training rides, etc. to skating. Clearly, a good choice for such skating is a five wheel fitness skate. My first pair of skates were hard shell Rollerblades. I bought these mostly because I hate laces -- I learned how to ski in the days when ski boots still had them and never got over it -- and so that I could sneakily tell people that I was "Rollerblading." After the first month of practicing and reading whatever I could find out about skating and speedskating in particular, I ventured back to the store where I bought my skates and asked to try their only pair of 5 wheel race skates. This was my first encounter with the Salomon Vitesse skate. The moment the salesman tightened the speed laces, I knew that these were exactly the skates that I needed. I am convinced that it is very important for me to maintain a steady progression towards my speedskating goal and not skip any steps. A description of my technical progression can be found here. Three months after learning how to skate, I felt that I was ready for a pair of high end fitness skates and bought the Salomon TR Magnesium Elite. After four and a half months on the TR Mag Elite, I felt that I was prepared to tackle my first pair of five wheel skates, and I decided to get the Salomon TR Vitesse 2. I definitely wanted to get a five wheel fitness skate, since getting real speedskates would violate my steady progression. The alternatives were the Rollerblade Lightning 07 or Lightning 09:
These fit me well, but the low frame on these skates were unsuitable to the difficult pavement conditions in Paris. The K2 Mod 10 was also a good alternative but didn't fit me at all, and anyway was hard to find in the five wheel version. The cheapest and easiest solution was to buy a five wheel frame and install it on my TR Mag Elite, but I wanted to keep those intact, since they are very versatile skates, and would be handy in case I wanted to do other types of skating. I prepared for the Vitesse 2 skates by skating two weeks without using my heel brake. This was not because I was planning on not installing a heel brake on the Vitesse, but in case the heel brake on these skates was ineffective. I also prepared by taking off the Energyzer on my TR Mag Elite. This is a
screw which limits the forward movement on the skate, see Mike van Erp's
review of the Salomon TR9 skate. I had initially taken off the Energyzer from these
skates, but I decided that I needed the extra support in order to learn skating
technique more easily.
I decided to buy these skates at the Paris store Au Vieux Campeur. Unlike other stores, this one sold the skate for exactly the same price as the 2001 Vitesse, 380 Euros, which is about 350 US dollars, everywhere else in Paris the skates were selling for 400 Euros. I believe that the skates sell for about 400 dollars in the United States. I got a US size 9 (= 42 2/3, = 27.0), the same size as my Mag Elite, something that would prove very useful, see below. A more important issue was the brake, which is not currently being supplied with the Vitesse 2, at least in the US, as was announced by Salomon (thanks to Kathie Fry of inlineskating.about.com for pointing this out) but was supplied with last year's Vitesse. Having a workable brake on my five wheel fitness skates was essential, so there was no way I was going to buy the skates without having a brake. I had checked out the store beforehand and noted that there were 6 boxes of 2001 Vitesse skates lying underneath the display, so I was fairly sure that I would be able to get a brake that way. I was also prepared to pay for the brake, which didn't bother me too much, since inline skating is ridiculously cheap compared to cycling -- the Vitesse 2 skates are among the most expensive fitness skates around, yet they cost me less than upgrading from 8 to 9 speed on my road bike, and I didn't even get top of the line equipment. Just in case this plan failed, I had brought my TR Mag Elite brake assembly in the hopes that they would be able to mount it on the Vitesse 2. Anyway, I tried the skate on, and it fit almost exactly like my TR Mag Elite, which was fine. I told the salesman that I would not get the skates without a brake, and, as I conjectured the guy made a bee line for the old skates without any prompting on my part and found a brake in the 3rd box. He installed this, with me carefully observing his every move, which was useful later on when I had to reinstall the brake (I had read on the Salomon inline forum that people were having trouble installing the brake). Next up was the implementation of my plan to move the frame backwards so that the boot would be more centered with respect to the frame. I had long ago noticed that the Salomon Vitesse frame is relatively forward, and every speedskating reference that I found stated that the boot should be centered with respect to the frame. Moreover, every other five wheel skate that I have seen has been centered. I had also noted that the Salomon frame used on this skate, the had three slots to permit up and down adjustment of the skate. I decided to do this in the store in case any problem came up. So I started unbolting the frame. The rear screw was fine, but I soon discovered that the front screw had the usual Salomon problem, i.e., that the inside screw retainer was a plate that would turn as soon as the screw was loose. To my surprise, this problem could be resolved when removing the frame in its default position due to a combination of three factors: (a) There is a small hole in the plate, (b) there is a hole in the boot, (c) the front most slot in the frame is aligned with (a) and (b). You just jam the other Salomon tool in there (the one intended to remove the rear strap) and stop the inside screw retainer from turning. Once when I went to the Hawaii Surf skate store in Paris, the salesman told me that they nail the screw retainer into the boot, so maybe I'll ask them to do it for me. In fact, I later spoke to the manager of the Paris skate shop Glisse Attitude (formerly called Roller Attitude), and he told me that he simply takes a small screw and uses an electric screwdriver to screw it directly into the plastic sole, the undersole and insole masking the bolt head from the foot. The rear frame screw retainer is fine and is held in by a little plastic section as in the Salomon Crossmax, as shown here:
So, I finally go the frame off, and started installing it in the rearmost position, i.e., by using the front most slot in the frame. This led to an immediate problem, because the hole in the retainer was no longer visible, so it was impossible for me to tighten the front screw. I therefore started removing all of the liners, that is: insole, 2nd insole, boot, rear of boot (which requires removing strap and its screw), shock absorber. Mike van Erp's decomposed TR Mag Elite 2 gives an idea of the mess I had made.
At this point, the salesman, who is a really mellow guy, comes over and asks me if I know what I'm doing, given that I've taken the skate completely apart. I state that I heard that it is desirable to have the boot centered, and he tells me to do whatever I want... Anyway, I manage to get the frame attached in this position, and the frame is not too well centered, it's slightly backwards with respect to the boot. In any case, I start putting the wheels back on and it turns out that it is impossible to put the second wheel on in this position, as the frame screw is in the way. In fact, the salesman made the correct remark that the three slots in the frame are not designed for minor up and down adjustment of the frame, but intended for adjustments to various boot sizes. So, I had a misconception of the adjustment possibilities of this frame on this skate, and in fact, no front to back adjustment possible on this skate. However, I took comfort in the fact that this more forward position would make the heel brake more effective. So, I undo everything and put the frame back in its original position, except that the alignment is no longer in the default position, but I was planning to readjust that later anyway. Finally, the salesman used the Salomon heater to heat mold the boot. Unfortunately, he forgot about me when the heater stopped, and the boots were lukewarm by the time I put my feet in them. They end up fitting pretty much like my old Mag Elite. I don't see the point of heating up these skates, since it mostly consists of a soft boot which will rapidly mold itself to the shape of the foot, i.e., there is very little hard surface area that can be moulded, and it's unclear how these can be moulded using this process. I did this because I thought it would speed up the loosening process. In fact, I hoped that the skates wouldn't loosen up too much more after the
heat moulding, since I would then be forced to get some more insoles. The first thing I did when I got home was to switch brake pads with the one on my TR Mg Elite, since I would get more leverage with a slightly worn pad than with a brand new one which was only slightly off the ground. I then went for a 45 minute ride and the skates felt fairly similar to my Mg Elite, but with slightly less ankle support. The skates also felt slightly lighter than my TR Mag Elite, even with the brake on. On this ride, I took the bicycle lane of the Boulevard St. Germain, and was challenged by a cyclist to keep up with him, which I did easily, but I was most pleased to discover that I could come to a very comfortable stop in the middle of busy traffic by using my heel brake. My fears of an ineffective brake were unfounded. Later that night, I started trying to adjust the frame position. Unfortunately for me, I had removed the frame from the right skate, and my right foot is my "weak foot," that is, the one in which I have most trouble gliding on. As usual, I became somewhat obsessed with the adjustment, and ended up going on a midnight skate to try to do this under real skating conditions. In fact, this was a mistake. The Salomon wrench provided with the skate is not optimal for such adjustments since it doesn't allow you to press down with much force, and I started realizing that I was stripping the screw. So instead of doing a final disastrous retightening, I left the frame slightly loose, then had to limp home with my right frame pointing way right. I finally managed to overcome the frame problem see
below. As their name implies, these skates are intended for speed, so after the safety issue of the brake this is what I was most interested in. Subjectively, the skates didn't feel any faster than my TR Mag Elite skates. I'm not sure why this is, perhaps it is because going fast on these skates requires slower more powerful strokes from a lower sitting position, and I was already used to doing this on my four wheel skates. More likely, it is because my cycling background has made going 15mph on my Vitesse skates feel normal, while I previously felt like I was crawling on my four wheel skates. An objective test was much more informative. For the last four months I had been skating regularly on the Longchamp bike course in the Bois de Boulogne. This is a 3.6 kilometer loop with no cars, lights, cross street or any other impediments, and one of the two favorite training site for Parisian cyclists. The pavement is granular and there is a small hill. My best lap times were 10:17 alone, and 9:02 drafting a cyclist for the whole course. I also had a record of my average and maximum heart rates for these efforts, so I could compare intensity to some extent. On the second day that I had these skates, I went out and did two laps of this course. The first was a warm up lap done at a moderately hard pace and I did 10:15. The second lap was done as hard as I could and I did 8:49. These were both done alone, under similar wind conditions, and with approximately the same level of intensity as my previous best effort accomplished three weeks earlier. Thus, on second day on the TR Vitesse 2, I was able to get a 15% improvement in my speed. I still hadn't adjusted my frames correctly and I was definitely not yet used to the skates. More importantly, when I did 9:02 drafting a cyclist, I felt that there was almost no way that I could physically skate any faster. In other words, I felt that a 25kph average was an absolute limit in my speed on that course. I should note that my previous best had been done with moderately worn 80mm wheels and less than perfect bearings. The brand new wheels and bearings on my skates may have been a significant factor in the faster time. For example, I improved my time by almost 10% when I went from moderately worn 78mm 78A fitness wheels to new 80mm 83A racing wheels. After 4 weeks on these skates, I decided to do a second crucial test of these skates (as well as a test of my fitness and technique). That is, I planned to try to work out with the speedskaters who congregate on the banks of the Seine on Sunday mornings. The skaters mostly belong to the Paris University Club, here is a picture from their site which shows what the training sessions are like
These speedskaters do pacelines on smooth pavement over an out and back course which appears to be about 2km in length (4km out and back), and which takes about 5 minutes per length with about 15-30 seconds rest on the turnarounds. This was to be my first time skating in a paceline, so I was a little anxious about whether I would be able to hang on, and whether other skaters would be upset at my possible disruption of the paceline. I tried starting out with the bunch, but the beginning of the course has some bothersome rubberised grates which I coasted over, thus opening a gap which I then had to sprint back up to close. After about 3 minutes of this, I got blown off the back. I decided to try again when they came back, and by that time, the group had split into two, so I rode with the slower group and had much less difficulty staying on. In fact, I managed to do four lengths (about 23 minutes) before dropping out. I then waited for the skaters to return and did a further three lengths (about 17 minutes) before dropping out. By the end, I was starting to feel more comfortable synchronising my stride with the skater in front and even managed to get fairly comfortable with the grates, which meant that I was no longer getting gapped. The other skaters were very patient and after the ride, they told me that we were going about 28kph, which seems fairly fast, and I even took a pull at one point. The fact that I could last over 20 minutes was a good indication that I would be capable of staying on for much longer periods with more practice. The skates did not pose any disadvantage whatsoever in this 20 minute workout, and I was very pleased that these skates perfectly fulfilled the job of providing an introduction to speedskating. I did get the feeling that the extra weight might become more of a disadvantage in less regular conditions, where fast acceleration was an issue, that is, in actual races... The general impression is that these skates appear to be well suited for long races. For example, Liz Miller used an earlier version of these skates, the TR Racing , in the 1999 Duluth North Shore Marathon and finished in a time of 1:42, thus averaging slightly over 15mph, and this without drafting. However, the Vitesse 2 skates are significantly heavier than real speed skates, so this should be most noticeable in maximum speed efforts, that is, sprinting, responding to an acceleration in the pack, or bridging up to a pack. Therefore, the Vitesse 2 may not be the ideal skate for short or tactical races. To get an idea of how this skate compares to real speedskates, see the skating.com article
which compares various speed skates with the earlier Salomon TR Racing. There is a continuing debate as to the need for a heel brake. See Mike van Erp's article on whether to use a heel brake for a good presentation of the issues. This debate is continually raging on the Usenet newsgroup rec.sport.skating.inline, though after a while one gets the feeling that one is essentially reading a heated discussion as to the relative merits of chopsticks versus knife and fork. More to the point, many people are interested in the Vitesse skates because of their heel brakes, for example, the numerous messages on the Salomon forum. I am definitely a fan of the heel brake. First of all, it took me forever to learn how to do a T-stop, so I spent the first 7 months of my skating career using the heel brake exclusively and liking it. By the time I bought the Vitesse skates, I had learned how to T-stop to the point that I was able to stop using it about as well as with the heel brake after two months of skating, but I was still not up to the level where I was completely confident in all situations. Secondly, I am physically quite dense and coast downhill faster than most people -- I was already outcoasting speedskaters on downhills with my entry level Rollerblades -- so I pick up momentum fast and need secure braking. Years of experience motorcycling and bicycling have taught me that if you don't feel good, then you don't do the descent, you crawl down and live to do it another day. In this spirit, I have been going down hills that are steeper than 5% with the heel brake applied continuously. The addition of a brake on this skate makes it quite long, so the skate can be somewhat ponderous, e.g., when walking over obstacles (this is an issue if you are planning a skate tour, as construction sites appear to be inevitable on such trips). Moreover, there is good reason to remove the brake if you are planning to use this primarily for racing, since you will need to lose all reliance on the heel brake. Indeed, after a month with these skates, I have decided to take the brake off for most rides, and now put the brake on only for rides which have steep downhills, or rides that I have not yet tried using alternate stopping methods. My experience is that removal of the brake slows down my average speed on all but traffic-free areas, e.g., bike paths in which I do my training, see the last item in this subsection for an explanation. I have decided to present some of the specific reasons why a heel brake should be furnished with the Salomon TR Vitesse 2 skate.
AssemblyIn fact, the brake assembly is exactly the same as on the TR Mag Elite (I installed the brake assembly from my old skates) and so the same as on Salomon's Trainer Range. However, there is one important difference: Correct installation of the brake requires a special axle which has threads on the inside of the axle so that the brake screws can be threaded into it. This axle is supplied with the 2001 Vitesse brake assembly. Installation of the brake works as follows: You must install the brake on the frame that has the black rubber bumper at the back (this is on the right skate, by default). You first install the rear wheel on the frame by tightening it with the special axle. Then you take the brake and force it in between the rear wheel and the rubber bumper. This take a very moderate effort and you have to provide a little twist to get it in. It is important to note that unlike the rest of the Salomon trainer range, only half of the usual brake assembly goes into the frame, that is, the straight plastic line going across the brake a few centimeters from its front end (just behind the braces) should be outside of the frame and flush with the rubber bumper. The two holes on the brakes where the screws go into will be close, but not perfectly aligned with the axle. Since stripping the special axle would be bad, it makes sense to first thread the screw that goes into the head of the axle (the hexagonal hole that the wrench goes into to tighten the axle), since the threads start deeper inside the screw, so the screw will be lodged in the axle, and therefore better aligned, before it starts to thread. You then finish off the installation by tightening the remaining screw on the other side of the special axle. The good news is that I went to the Vertical Line skate store and not only
did they have the special axles, but they only cost 1.52 Euros. Not only was I
was expecting to have trouble finding this part, but I was also sure that it
would cost five times as much. As I noted on my first ride, the brake works well enough to give a sense of total security in city traffic. Apart from my initial test of the brake, I had decided to try to use other methods exclusively, except for steep downhills. In fact, except for such downhills, I ended up using the brake twice in one week. The first time was going down a fairly gentle grade on a sidewalk whose surface looked like it as if city workers had decided to deal with tree roots and lost golf balls by simply paving them over. A quick stop was necessitated by a jumpable construction ditch, but which was only a few feet from a busy street. The uneven terrain was a challenge to my T-stopping ability and I decided that breaking my braking vow was better than starting a fall in the ditch and landing in the street. Interestingly, the heel brake was the cause of a fall on this very spot a couple of days later: This time I was going up the hill and city worker were now busy doing some work which required them to lay a big cable right above the ditch. I walked across the ditch, but when I stepped over the cable, the brake caught, and I fell over. In fact, the brake does become a nuisance at very slow speeds. The second time I used the heel brake was at the bottom of a long hill in which a busy cross street was once again immediately preceded by a cable which I had to jump. The combination of speed for the jump followed by an immediate T-stop to prevent going into a busy street was evaluated as too much of a challenge at this point in my skating career. The other times I used the brake was on two 500 meter downhills at about a 7% grade. As I mentioned, I prefer to do these under continuous braking. Apart from the safety factor, I suspect that such continuous braking action with a T-stop would have completely destroyed my wheels. Though the brake allowed me to descend these steep hills safely, it definitely did not feel as effective as braking on my four wheel skates. I think that it is clear that I need to learn to slalom down steep hills if I
am to progress in skating. However, the point is that the brake on the Vitesse
skates allows me to get away with using five wheel skates while I learn how to
do this. Every review I read and salesman I talked to mentioned that five wheel skates do not handle as well as four wheel skates. While this is obviously true, these skates will never handle as well as hockey skates, I suspect that good technique can make up for a lot, for example, as was noted by Dan Kibler in his review . Moreover, I've observed one of the slalomers at the Palais Royal on Bont speedskates and doing quite well. My initial impression of the skates is that they handle remarkably like skis: I can slalom by putting my weight further back than I would on my four wheel skates, just like I used to do when I was skiing. Now I understand why Liz Miller and Dan Kibler of GetRolling.com do their ski training on these skates. After two weeks on these skates, I can now do slaloms as well, if not better, than on my TR Mag Elite four wheel skates. In fact, I find that the slower handling of the five wheel skates is better suited to my style, since it is less twitchy and more predictable. The skates do feel noticeably more stable at high speed, and though I didn't
have any problems going fast on my previous skates, I feel even more relaxed at
speed in these skates. Comfort is the Salomon trademark in the world of inline skates. After one month in my TR Mag Elite boot, which is virtually identical to the Vitesse 2 boot, I started wondering why my skates were more comfortable than my street shoes. I discovered that there had been big advances in fitness footwear, and I ended up buying a pair of new style fitness shoes, the Puma Mostro, which also has a speed lacing system. The fit of these skates is very similar to my TR Mag Elite. My foot is a little on the wide side and this corresponds to Salomon skate fit. When I tried on the skates, they fit well but were not very tight. My larger left foot could not accept the next lower size, so I had to take this size. From my experience with the TR Mag Elite, I assumed that the fit would be correct, see below for an explanation of the difference in fit. My TR Mag Elite feel slightly mushy when I first put on the skate to got for a ride, sort of like standing a little bit of jello, but this quickly goes away, and the mushy feeling means comfort a couple of hours into the ride. By comparison, my Rollerblade skates feel firmer, and while not truly uncomfortable, I do feel stress on your feet after a few hours. Feedback from the newsgroup rec.sport.skating.inline indicated that these remarks are consistent over the Salomon and Rollerblade line. However, my Vitesse 2 felt firmer than the Mag Elite, and I didn't have any mushy sensations with them making my foot seem much more connected to the skate. In terms of comfort on long rides, on the fourth day, I went for a four hour ride including a very intense two hours in the middle of the ride. I didn't have any foot discomfort or "hot spots" during the ride. However, after the ride I found that my feet and ankles were somewhat strained, possibly because I was getting accustomed to slightly less ankle support. The Salomon skates have a tendency to loosen up, and after buying the TR Mag
Elite, I progressively moved up from very thin socks to medium thick socks. I
also started tightening the laces more and more, and I had to do this the
Vitesse 2 skates as well. However, the skates were getting noticeably loose, and
I was also getting a slight but very annoying heel lift. I had hoped that the
heat moulding would have completed the loosening process, but this is apparently
not the case. By the fifth day, I realised that the boot was definitely too loose and I had to do something about it. The most drastic solution would be to transfer the frame onto my TR Mag Elite boot, but this would obviously have to remain a last resort. I decided to try to figure out why the Vitesse 2 boot felt looser than the Mag Elite boot. Removing the respective Custom Fit insoles provided an immediate answer. The insoles look exactly like the ones in Mike van Erp's TR Mag Elite 2:
However, the insole in the 2001 Mag Elite is 1mm thicker than the Vitesse 2 insole, about 3mm of foam versus 2mm of foam. Putting on the Mag Elite Custom Fit insole in the Vitesse 2 boot, gave almost exactly the same fit as my Mag Elites. At least the problem of looseness was solved, but I didn't want to put the Mag Elite Custom Fit insoles in my Vitesse 2 boots, as the extra millimeter of thickness was also responsible for the mush jello feeling. Since this skate does not have much ankle support, a mushy insole is a source of instability, so I decided that the TR Mag Elite insole would not solve the problem adequately. I therefore took out the 2nd insole, the usual insole found in all shoes, which I shall call "undersole," since I don't know the technical term, from my Mag Elite boot and saw that it was about 1mm thick, so would be able to accomplish the same task as switching Custom Fit insoles, but without adding any mushiness. I did this and the Vitesse 2 fit was much improved as a result. However, I went on a two hours skate with this new configuration and got sore feet, almost exactly like on my old Rollerblades. I didn't like this either, so I decided to go to the Vertical Line skate shop, which is one of the best in Paris, and which stocks a wide range of high quality insoles. I went to the store and told the salesman that I needed insoles for skates that didn't fit quite right, and, much to my surprise, he asked me whether I had the Vitesse 2! He hadn't actually examined the skate very carefully before, but when I took out the stock insole, he immediately noted that it was too thin and hard to provide adequate comfort. In comparison, all the insoles they sold were much thicker, or at least, there was some give when you pinched them, not true of the Vitesse 2 insole. Unfortunately, they didn't have the high end heat mouldable insoles in my size, so the salesman got me a standard Rollerblade "Outlast" insole. This was slightly thinner than the TR Mag Elite insole, but still much thicker than the Vitesse 2 insole. I tried it on, and it gave a good fit in combination with the second undersole. After a week of the new insole setup, I am finding that I am not suffering from too much discomfort. In particular, the skates only start being uncomfortable after two hours. In retrospect, I am not too surprised at this insole problem. I had already read a message on the Salomon forum stating that the comfort was much improved with aftermarket insoles. After 3 weeks, the boots had imploded yet again, and the looseness was making them unstable, due to the relatively modest ankle support. It was clearly time to add some more insoles! I decided to go another small but very good Paris store Glisse Attitude, formerly called Roller Attitude. The salesman sold me a very nice pair of 4mm thick undersoles for 15 Euros. These undersoles are intended for comfort and are quite soft. They did solve the looseness problem, however, they proved to be inadequate for this specific skate, since the skate still felt unstable due to the instability caused by the mushy undersole. I therefore tried another solution, which was to add a third inflexible 2mm undersole. I went to the very good sports store Go Sport . This is a chain which has an outlet in every French shopping center, but unlike many US sports chains whose inventory is centered around cotton clothes, it sells very high quality products. I got a basic set of undersoles for about 6 Euros, and I installed them on my skates. The fit with the three 2mm undersoles and the thicker Rollerblade insole was finally tight! After weeks of looseness and instability, I was very happy to have incredibly sore toes due to lack of room. The skates now felt fairly similar to how my TR Mag Elite first felt, and after a week, they have loosened a tiny bit, so that there is no longer any discomfort. The skates in this configuration feel extremely precise and all stability problems have disappeared. I no longer have to tighten the laces and the strap to their maximum to feel good in the skates. The conclusion is that to get a correct fit, I had to put two extra undersoles each about 2mm thick, and a replacement insole which added about 2mm of thickness. This means that the boot stretched by at least 5mm in a few weeks, that is, about half a size. Such loosening of a boot is not unusual for a skate, but it is more of an
issue for this skate, since it has less ankle support and no power strap. This skate should prove excellent for cold conditions. This last Winter I was able to skate for hours in sub freezing temperatures, as well as cold rainy conditions without ever getting cold feet in the virtually identical TR Mag Elite boot. I usually have problems with cold feet (unfortunately the double meaning is not entirely invalid) and basically stopped skiing because I couldn't stand freezing them anymore. This resistance to cold might mean that the skate might not be optimal for
very hot conditions. I did do two skates in 28C (82F) temperatures one of which
lasted over three hours, and I did not have any problems. However, the
ventilation on the K2 Mod GT
appears to be superior, as was described by Bob Cardone. People who have problem
with heat should consider this question and examine the skate carefully. I do not believe that I have very strong ankles, and on my previous skates, I have systematically had the ankle strap extremely tight. Thus, I will venture to state that any skate in which I feel comfortable should have sufficient ankle support for most skaters. The Vitesse 2 skates have slightly less ankle support than the TR Mag Elite without the Energyzer and much less support than the TR Mag Elite with the Energyzer. From trying out equivalent skates, I would say that the Vitesse 2 has about the same ankle support as the K2 Mod 10 or Rollerblade Lightning 07-09, but less ankle support than the K2 Mod 8. Due to the reduced ankle support, I have been having some problems with stability unless I tighten the ankle strap very tightly, e.g., T-stopping becomes a problem. I seem to be tightening the skates more each time I go out. In fact, they are so tight that forward ankle motion becomes restricted if I also overtighten the laces. After a week, I was still getting used to the reduced ankle support, and was getting some ankle strain from the adaptation. After a week and a half, I started tightening my laces as much as possible, and this eliminated almost all instability. However, it did reduce comfort somewhat by giving less breathing room for my feet. After 3 weeks, the skate had loosed so much that I was having real stability problems. This problem was completely solved when I put in the third undersole. Since that time, I have had no more ankle support problems. Since there is no Energyzer bolt, the skates have unrestricted forward ankle
motion, which does reduce stability somewhat. After some reflection, I would say
that this skate might be improved with a TR Mag Elite boot, i.e., slightly
higher cuff and with the option of installing the Energyzer. This would give the
skate more versatility, as the TR Mag Elite boot without the Energyzer is very
similar to the Vitesse 2 boot, and the skater could have a choice as to how much
support he might want. The frame on this skate is impressive and it is the first quality frame I have ridden on. The frames on my TR Mag Elite did not have the rivets problem but they did look and feel rather flimsy (I find the use of pressed rivets on this frame a little shocking). The frame is the standard length for a five wheel frame, that is 326mm (= 12.8 inches), which is the smallest length which can accommodate five 80mm wheels. This last fact made me look twice when I read on the frame that the maximum wheel size it can take is 82mm. In fact, on the Salomon website it states that the maximum wheel size is 80mm. Go figure, I bought a frame that lies! The frame is made of "extruded aluminum" and, though I have no idea what that means, I could immediately tell the difference in the frame stiffness when I took off the wheels. On all previous frames, I could easily flex the frame with my hands when the wheels were off. This was just barely possible on this frame. When coasting on one foot on these skates, the frame feels like a freight
train that just keeps going, which does wonders to the feeling of stability. I
don't feel any more vibration on these skates than on my TR Mag Elite skates,
and they are very comfortable. As I discovered at the store and on my first day of skating, the frame attachment on this skate is very poorly designed and uses substandard hardware. Perhaps the single most important thing to know if you own these skates is: Loosen the front frame attachment as little as possible when doing a lateral frame adjustment. You should also be very careful not to strip the screw that holds the frame into the boot. The Salomon tool that comes with the skate is not very well designed for this purpose and I recommend the K2 tool which allows you to apply more downward force on the screw, reducing the possibility of stripping it. I did start to strip the screw on my first day of skating. Lucky for me that Salomon was thoughtful enough to provide a replacement screw, and I installed this the next day. Apart from the turning plate in the boot, adjustment is further complicated by the large washer that is supplied and goes between the screw and the frame. This washer is usually off center and tends to turn as you tighten the screw. This makes it much harder to judge slight variation in lateral adjustment. The whole frame to boot attachment on this skate is fairly mediocre and not consistent with the quality of the rest of the skate. If I ever decide to spend any more time fine tuning the alignment, then I will go to a hardware store and try to find higher quality screws and washers. Despite the mediocre attachment, it is important for me to note that it does keep the frame in place when tightened. The frames on my TR Mag Elite, which uses the same attachment system, never moved at all in three months of extensive use, including going over rough terrain such as cobblestones. As I also discovered at the store, these frames cannot be adjusted front to back. I am not an expert on frame adjustment, see Barry Publow's website for information, but every reference I have seen states that the boot should be centered longitudinally on the frame. Indeed, the Vitesse skate is the only five wheel skate I have ever seen in which the boot is not centered on the frame. One can only guess why Salomon chose to set up this skate in this way, perhaps because it helps heel braking. I finally resolved the lateral alignment on my third day of skating, when I went to the Palais Royal, which is a large esplanade that is essentially an outdoor skating rink. I had taken off the brake to facilitate crossovers, which I have found to be the best way to get used to skating on my outside edges. Going through the same process as described in my tutorial, I ended by practicing long glides on one foot, and adjusted the frame until I could do this fairly comfortably. I adjusted the frame laterally on my right skate by first centering the front of the frame, that is, with front wheel roughly aligned with the centerline that can be seen on the toe of the boot. Since, in my cycling, my left foot is generally pointing straight while my right foot is slightly toeing out, I decided to try to adjust the back of the frame towards the outside of the boot, so that my foot would be toeing out slightly with respect to the frame. In fact, this corresponded well with my stability when gliding on that foot, and I decided to maintain this adjustment for the time being. It is important to note that the rear lateral adjustment helped my balance to
some extent. This rear lateral adjustment is not available on the TR Magnesium
Elite, and I had always suspected that this lack of adjustment was perhaps a
factor in holding me back in terms of right foot stability. The axles are one piece and bolt directly into the frame. This greatly simplifies wheel replacement, especially compared to the TR Mag Elite, since those not only had axles and bolts, but the axle had to be aligned inside the frame. I am extremely careful when screwing in the axles not to cross-thread, as this would damage the frame itself, and I start screwing them in by hand. I am also making sure to keep the threads clean whenever I take out the axles. As noted above,
the brake assembly requires a special axle for the rear wheel. This system is
not as good as on the TR Mag Elite, which had the advantage that the rear wheel
on which the brake was attached used the same axle as the other wheels. In my opinion, there is not much point in making a big deal about the bearings and wheels that come with a high end fitness skate. I believe that for such skates, one should have two sets of wheels: One for races or fast training rides and one for regular skating or skating in difficult conditions. So, if skates come with high end wheels and bearings, then one should buy cheaper wheels and bearings for regular skating and vice-versa. For example, I thought that the wheels and bearings that come with the TR Mag Elite (same as the Vitesse 2) were too good for the skating I was planning to do, and I immediately put on 78mm fitness wheels with regular sized bearings. I decided to save the stock wheels as replacement wheels for the Vitesse skates that I would eventually get. This said, the bearings on this skate are micro-bearings and these appear to be very fast, at least as can be observed by the long period of time that they keep rolling when you spin them by hand. There is an ongoing discussion about whether micro-bearings are worthwhile. My only contributions to this question are fairly trivial: (a) The smaller size of the bearings means less space when carrying replacement bearings on the ride and (b) the spacers on the micro-bearings do not float as much as on regular sized Salomon bearings, so you don't have to giggle the wheels to get the axle through, this in combination with the one speed axles cuts down wheel replacement time by a factor of at least four. After a month of use, with two short rain rides and a number of long rides
with numerous wet sections, I can report that the micro bearings are holding up
well and I have not serviced any yet, as they still roll much longer than any
other bearings I have ever had. The Vitesse 2 skates come with Hyper Hyperformance 80mm 81A wheels with micro-bearing style hubs. This wheel is Hyper's top of the line general purpose (not just for smooth pavement) race wheel. Last year's Vitesse came with slightly harder 82A wheels, though this doesn't seem to make too much difference, I am presently mixing both types of wheels, since the 82A wheels came with my Mag Elite skates. Since I am somewhat heavy, about 170lbs, I will eventually try out harder wheels. I had some issues with Hyper, since of the eight X-360 fitness wheels I bought, half had wobbles, and this percentage was confirmed when I went to a skate shop and looked at skates which came with this wheel. I suspect that the thin spokes on this wheel might be the problem, the hub definitely felt more flexible than on any other wheel I've had.
I then got Explore Elite race wheels, of which two out of eight had slight wobbles. The wheels that came with the Vitesse 2 skates have very thick spokes and
only one of the wheels had a barely perceptible wobble. The boot is almost exactly the same as the 2001 model. The most obvious change is the colour scheme, but there is also a slight change in the outside material, which is slightly thinner than last year's, probably in the hopes of making the skate a little cooler. There is an improved attachment for the rear loop used to carry the skate.
This loop is still not as good as the K2 loop, which is much sturdier (maybe
Salomon was afraid of getting sued again). The speed laces are the feature that set this skate and the TR Mag Elite apart from any other inline skate. In fact, it was the speedlaces that won me over and made me decide to buy these skates a month after I started to skate (I hate to tie laces), and which were a major reason for getting the TR Mag Elite first. By the way, Salomon is also using this system on some of their fitness shoes. The speed lace mechanism allows you to tighten the laces in a single movement and the thin kevlar allows the laces to tighten evenly over the whole foot. The retention system works perfectly and does not loosen. A unique advantage of this lacing system is that it allows you to make small adjustments (tightening or loosening) without having to undo the boot at all. When I bought the TR Mag Elite at the Nomades skate shop in Paris, the salesman showed me a neat way to tuck the speedlaces out of the way: After tightening the speed laces, you thread the buckle strap through the loop at the end of the speed laces, and tighten the buckle. I also do this when I am carrying or storing the skate as it prevents any accidental damage to the laces. The speed laces on my TR Mag Elite have held up perfectly, but I am somewhat of a worrier, and before going on a skate trip, I bought a pair of extra speed laces, assuming that they might break in a place where replacements would be impossible to find. That never came up, but at less than 10 dollars a pair, it wasn't an expensive choice. I recommend to anyone going on a tour with these skates to take an extra pair. Finally, the bottom end of the laces have some sharp edges which, on one of
my boots, starting cutting into the small leather loop holding them. This was
resolved by shifting this part of the laces inside the loop. There is no power strap. This may be a good addition to the skates, as in my case, ankle lift was eliminated only by adding insoles and then by tightening the laces as much as possible, thus making other part of the foot somewhat overtightened. On the other hand, this means that there isn't a traffic jam with the laces, power strap, and buckle as there is in the K2 and Rollerblade fitness skates. The ankle strap works well, but is not quite as convenient as a ratchet system of the K2 Mod 10 or K2 Mod GT, since these ratchet systems do not require the buckle to be undone to tighten the strap. However, the Salomon strap/ratchet is superior to the one on the K2 Mod 8. The only problem I can think of with the straps and laces is that forward
ankle movement is restricted when these are extremely tight. When it fits correctly, the Salomon Vitesse 2 can be summarised in one sentence: It is a very fast skate which is comfortable and safe. The question of fit is a real problem on these skates since they appear to grow at least a half size, and the lack of ankle support makes a tight fit indispensable. Anyone wanting to buy these skates should be prepared to spend some extra money on insoles and undersoles. However, this extra investment is well worth the expense, as the skate will then open a whole new world of speedskating possibilities without any further problems. My experience also shows that the are definite problems with the skate that can be qualified as errors on the part of Salomon.
However, these errors can be surmounted, as described in my review, and my opinion (and recommendation) of these skates is based on the assumption that these problems have been resolved. Apart from the obvious (fixable) problems, my experience seems to indicate that this skate is more of a comfortable speedskate than a fast fitness skate. In particular, the lack of ankle support becomes noticeable with less than perfect boot fit. While the skate with proper fit is quite effective, it does seem to discount it as the optimal choice for a multi-day long distance tour. It also makes the skate less than optimal as a simple to use fitness skate. Indeed, I have come to the conclusion that a better setup for a fast fitness
skate would have been to use the TR Mag Elite boot with the five wheel frame and
wheels. Apart from its more comfortable insole and higher cuff, the TR Mag Elite
has a removable Energyzer which makes it much more versatile in terms of support
options. As to the recommendation I would make about buying this skate, I should first note that I am not a great fan of specialization, and I believe that pretty much any skate can do well for most applications. This skate is appropriate for almost any skater, though I would not advise it as a first skate. My recommendation will be based on what makes this skate special, and the applications for which it may very well be an optimal choice.
I will end with a point by point summary of the positive and negative aspects
of this skate, roughly listed in decreasing order of importance.
Negative points
You can contact Ilan Vardi here. Comments on this reviewIf you'd like to comment on this review, please visit this thread on the TR Vitesse 02 on our forums. More Salomon ReviewsCheck out this summary page, listing all Salomon skate reviews on this site. DisclaimerAs 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.
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