Madrigle

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evening skate
Wednesday, Mar. 01, 2006 @ 5:58 p.m.

I just went rollerblading. My first attempt, of any sort, at working out since I moved to Albuquerque. Once upon a time I was able to skate down stairs, jump curbs, slolam down steep hills, in short, navigate just about any urban situation that got thrown at me. Now, don't get me wrong, I've never been a graceful skater my point only being that I was confidant in a pair of skates. 3 years ago, I bought a pair of great skates, to replace my very old and very wornout pair of great skates. Now, the new skates were supposed to be upgrades, you know, newer technology and all, but I've NEVER been even remotely satisfied with them. Sure their boot is more ergonomic, and the laces and ratchet belst sinch my foot in better but the sticking point for me has been the 'upgraded' ABT brake, basically a break pad attatched to a prosthetic achilles tendon that literally allows the skater to raise and lower the brakepad while skating. It's a wonderous, wonderous thing. I've had skates that didn't have this mechinism as well, and am a HUGE fan of the little brake pad in a big way. Now that being said, the old pair of skates, that I've still hung onto, their break was hand adjustable, yep your out on a brilliant skate, but that break is catching every now and again so you could just reach down, give a little twist and your ready to go. It's also a threaded adjustment which allows for VERY fine adjustment. The new skates, the supposed improved design, require the use of a tool to adjust them, the skate has to be removed from your foot to do it, AND the adjustment is a clicking action which doesn't allow for NEARLY as fine of an adjustment. So you take the skate off, adjust it, doh now it's too low causing you to trip over yourself while making a turn, for example. so you have to stop, hopefully you have the tool with you, adjust the break pad again, and cross your fingers that yes THIS time it will be just right. It's a huge, HUGE pain in the ass for someone who just wants to get in a good skate. I mean really, what the fuck were their engineers thinking? Lets take a really great break design, one that works wonderfully, is easily to adjust, doesn't require a special tool, or the skater to take the skate off to adjust it, yeah, lets take THAT break design and blow it all to hell! Lets make it as complicated to use as we can, AND just to really screw with them, lets make it work not quiet as well as the old one.

Um, yeah, I don't understand that.

I bought the new skates cause I couldn't replace the very worn break pad on the old skates anylonger. You know, it's old technology so lets not support it anylonger, even though it works so much better then our 'new' technolgy. So this skate I just went on in the newer skates was so unsatisfying that I came home and hopped on the net hopping THIS time I'd find some relacement parts, this time, they would magically be here, and yes, there they were! YAY! Thanks to a california skate shop I'll now have new breaks on my pair of very old, but oh so much better then the new fangled skates. I'm a very happy camper finding that part.

Hugs.

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