{"id":6938,"date":"2025-07-17T19:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websterart.com\/wordpress\/?p=6938"},"modified":"2025-07-17T19:41:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:41:19","slug":"seventy-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websterart.com\/wordpress\/2025\/07\/seventy-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventy one"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now that’s a brake! I just need to strap a bike on my back.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> for $200 but they don’t get great reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting bicycle brakes on rollerblades. DIY rollerblade brakes.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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making a pattern out of wood and cardboard <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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brake mount bracket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another Frankenstein creation from Unkle Mark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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