Webster Art

For my seventy first birthday Sue and I drove to Seattle where I was astonished to find a pair of modern three wheel 110mm rollerblades that fit my Frankenstein feet right out of the box.

I skated while she bicycled the ship canal bike path for a few miles. I was very tentative. Crosswalks and bumpy pavement was terrifying but there were no falls. When I watch modern YouTube skaters I feel like I’m hopelessly, absurdly trying the wrong sport.

We skated and pedaled around Pt. Defiance. There are long hills and I was hopelessly inept at braking. Finally I realized we had good brakes with us already.

With no roller rink in our town anymore there is no place I’ve found yet where I can safely practice sliding brake tricks. When I ride chair lifts and approach the chair I cruise down at speed and quickly carved to a stop, both ski’s carving in parallel. Snow flies up as I brake to a hard stop. Skaters do that on rollerblades.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of that entire process. But being a total klutz I decided the solution was to add bicycle brakes to my rollerblades. There is one company that makes commercial brakes for $200 but they don’t get great reviews.

Putting bicycle brakes on rollerblades. DIY rollerblade brakes.

I am not going to spend that kind of money when I can make my own for thirty dollars. I bought some used bicycle brakes at second cycle. A day of fabrication out in the shop made these. I do need to refine them. They are currently rubber on rubber, which is bad and a bit grabby. It needs to be metal on rubber.

I enjoyed the invention creation project…working with my hands is relaxing. However, the results are ugly and stupid looking. No holes were drilled in the skates.

The final project, before making metal brake shoes means that I have to strap the brake handle to my hip. It’s supremely stupid looking. I’m so far beyond cool it’s sad. But, I am old, fragile and have no desire to break a hip.

Even better, I finally realized there is smooth painted asphalt on my normal bike path down town. I need to head down there on a shady evening and practice some t stops. They say the secret to all stopping techniques is to learn to skate on one foot. Everything follows that.

Update in June: I took the skate brakes off. As someone pointed out on reddit “Do you really believe those designers at Bauer, K2 and Rollerblade can’t put a better brake on a skate?”

The facts are: The built in heel brake is all you need until you master the various rollerblade hockey stops. Until then, skate responsibly. Like driving a car, never exceed your stopping distance.