The board of the skateboard is often considered the most important part as people choose cool art on the bottom of their boards and constantly look to change their style. However, without wheels, the skateboard would simply not be a skateboard. Wheels are important as they need to be safe, precise, and keep you steady when you ride. Let’s look into: how to measure skateboard wheels?
Measuring your wheels can be daunting as you need to be precise at which ones you need. However, different wheels do different things, depending on what you use your skateboard for. If you measure your wheels correctly, this will make it easier to find wheels in the store for you to put on your skateboard.
How do you measure skateboard wheels properly? Find out everything you need to know about skateboard wheels here so you can make sure that your skateboard rides exactly how you want it to.
What Can I Use to Measure Skateboard Wheels?
There are quite a few tools that you can use when looking at how to measure skateboard wheels so that you can make sure that you have the precise measurements of the wheel before you look to get new ones.
Caliper
A caliper has 2 spikes that you can move apart to measure the size of the skateboard wheels. You need to make sure that the spikes are moved far enough apart to fit the wheel in between them, and then you are able to see how big the wheel is.
As the caliper spikes can be sharp, make sure that you don’t injure yourself when using them and you use them in a safe environment. The caliper measurement is the msot accurate measurement.
Ruler
You can use a ruler to measure the skateboard wheels by simply finding the center of the wheel and reading the millimeter measurement. If your ruler doesn’t have millimeters on it, you can convert centimeters to millimeters to determine the size.
What Sizes are Skateboard Wheels?
Small Wheels: 48mm-51mm
Small skateboard wheels are popular for riding on flat surfaces. These size wheels were popular in the 1990s and are enjoyed by people who use retro skateboards.
Although these wheels are great for flat surfaces, they can become trapped in pavement cracks and affect your balance. However, the distance between the wheel and the board is larger, so there is less of a risk of stones becoming stuck and halting your ride.
Medium Wheels: 52mm-54mm
Medium skateboard wheels are most popular for street and transition skateboarders as they can adapt to different surfaces.
They are small enough to smoothly ride on flat ground but also large enough to support the board when riding ramps or bowls. The medium wheels come in different designs so you can choose a set that complements your board.
Large Wheels: 55mm-60mm
Large skateboard wheels give vert skateboarders more balance when riding steep ramps as they generate a lot of speed and help to keep the board steady.
Unlike smaller wheels, larger wheels are less likely to get stuck in pavement cracks, but the distance between the wheels and the board will be smaller which could result in small stones becoming stuck.
How to Choose the Hardness of the Wheels
When choosing your skateboard wheels, it is important to think about what you will be primarily using your skateboard for.
Small, medium, and large wheels are all used for different things, so you need to consider this before buying. However, size is not the only thing that needs to be measured when choosing skateboard wheels.
Durometer
A durometer is a key part of this guide for ‘how to measure skateboard wheels?’ This is because it measures the hardness of the wheel and measures in an A or B scale. Most stores measure on an A scale which is out of 100, and the higher the number, the harder the wheel is.
High durometers, usually 80A and over, are used for street skating as they are durable for performing tricks, and 75A and lower, is usually used for skating on flat surfaces.
Measuring the hardness is important because you want to be sure that your skateboard is safe and stable to use for the purpose that you have it. If the wheels are too soft when you are performing tricks, it can impact your performance and put you at risk of injury.
Having wheels that are too hard when cruising may result in a ride that is less smooth. Having softer wheels for cruising allows your board to glide over the surfaces and generate more speed as the wheels are lighter.
This is why it is important to not only measure the size of your wheels, but the hardness as well as the hardness greatly impacts your performance if not chosen correctly.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, measuring your skateboard wheels is important when choosing your wheels a you want to be sure that you have the correct wheels for what the board will be used for.
As you have the choice between small, medium, or large wheels, this can make it difficult to choose what size will be best. However, with this guide, you will be able to choose what wheels you.
There are a couple of ways that you can measure your wheels that aren’t hard to come by. Using calipers may be more difficult as not many people already have them, but they are easy to use when you want to measure your skateboard wheels.
Using a ruler is effective and is a piece of equipment that lots of people already have in their home.
Soft and hard wheels do different things, depending on what you use your skateboard for. Softer wheels are perfect for cruising and hard wheels are great for performing tricks.
Companies that supply skateboard wheels measure the hardness of the wheel with a durometer.
Finally, it is important to know about the wheels of your skateboard so that you can be aware of the level of safety of your skateboard and change the size or hardness of the wheels if necessary.
There you have it – a complete guide on ‘How To Measure Skateboard Wheels’!
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