Originally Posted by
Smallwheels
Spending $50 per week for skate wheels sounds very expensive. How many miles does it take to wear out a wheel set?
Worst case - playing hockey on the paved parking lots in Santa Monica, CA. The games were high speed affairs with lots of sharp turns and stops, accelerations, etc. A set of wheels would stand up to about one hour of skating like that. Luckily back then I had a source selling wheel for $1 each. I would by them $200 at a time and haul several sets to the games every day.
Best case - my city inline skates with heel brakes. Brake pads are way cheaper and longer lasting than dragging wheels to stop, or hockey stops. And like trying to save fuel in a car, not jackrabbit starts that also grind wheels down a bit faster. Good form helps preserver inline skate wheels too.
As for conventional quad skates with toe or heel brakes - one set of wheels will last a decade. But inlines are faster and more forgiving in the real world outdoors.
Longboard wheels last forever too so long as you are not into sliding on the board (a sport in itself where kids have hills to play on). And you only need 4 wheels instead of 8 or 10 for quads or inline speed skates.