Originally Posted by
IAmCosmo
I used to do a lot of skating. I played hockey from age 5 to 33 and speed skated for maybe 10 years or so. The workout I get from riding feels to me exactly like the same workout I get from skating. Many of the same muscles are used.
The one thing I would caution about skating your cycling routes is this - be sure you can stop. There aren't any brakes on most skates (and the ones that have them don't work well). So, if you skate a route with a lot of downhill, about halfway down that hill you are going to have yourself one of those "oh, crap!" moments when you realize you are going faster than you want to go and don't have a way to stop.
With experience, you'll know how to regulate your speed, but I've seen a lot of beginners have a hard time coming to a stop from too high of a speed.
This is 100 % true! NO BRAKES !!!
I do mostly ice speedskating and ice skates stop right now.
(Well the short track skates do, never tried a hard stop with the clap skates)
But the inline's don't have any stopping in them.
The brake pads on recreational skates, don't stop you, they just make large noises to let people know that you can't stop!
The older inline skates had (5) 80mm wheels, the newer road skates have 4 (now 3) larger and larger wheels.
What seems like a great road surface on my bike , may feel like a gravel path on the skates.