NEXUS

While I was commuting on a bike path today, a guy on roller blades burned past me like i was standing still even though I was going about 14 or 15 MPH and within seconds he was way ahead of me! I then put her in a higher gear and tried to catch up to him while stand pedaling but he was still distancing himself. At one point he slowed down to fiddle with his ipod or something and I caught up a little bit but then he started to go again boom he was gone.

The guy was using those racing type blades with 5 or 6 wheels and was about 6'5" and built like a locomotive and is probably a pro racer but still, I had no idea that roller blades could be so fast.

frankenmike 

For shame... Next time hammer like your life depends on it- because it does.

JoeyBike

My wife and I would regularly catch up to pace lines on the MUP, draft them for a bit, then drop 'em - "weekend warrior" types on road bikes - not seriously fit looking riders. 15 mph is our cruising/chatting speed. 18-19 is tailwind cruising.

Once, I had this huge tailwind on the path south of Marina Del Rey near Manhattan Beach in Cali and this super-fit looking roadie finally catches up and claimed I was doing 27mph. He then told me to grab his seat post so we could "tandem" up to 30mph (he pedaled hard while I pushed hard).

There have been all sorts of races between talented speed skaters and cyclists. Pretty close to dead even - acceleration from stop and top end.

Here is a link to inline road speed records: https://inlineskating.about.com/od/co...d_records1.htm

NEXUS

That is amazing! I bet inline skating gives you a much better build than biking since a lot of it must be upper body and arms too.

miket.

i saw a skater like that on the bike trail once, same type of race skates. i'd say he was going about 18 mph. i couldve passed him if i wanted to work hard, but i had been riding all day and didnt want to pass him just to have him pass me to prove himself. anyway, i was seriously impressed with his speed, then as he was going through an intersection he hit a rock or something and crashed right in the middle of the crosswalk. i couldnt help but laugh a little but composed myself to help him out, i didnt need to though cause he was up and off to the races before i got to him. he had this weird kinda uneven kick stride. i tried it later myself and it didnt seem to make me go faster. i only rollerblade to give my dog extra exercise though and my skates cost me a dollar at a rummage sale, still it'd be nice to go as fast as that dude.

NEXUS

I am a pretty good bike rider but terrible on roller blades. I learned how to ride a bike when I was like 7 on a generic BMX (All Pro) bought at K-Mart. Within a few weeks of learning how to ride I was popping wheelies, doing power skids, going off ramps and riding with no hands. I didn't try roller skating/blading untill I was like 22 and I could never get any good at it and was never able to learn how to make quick stops or skate backwards. Even though 22 is young the learning curve is still way slower than when your 7.

lil brown bat

Aren't inline skates what speed-skaters train on when they don't have ice?

Barrettscv 

I'm faster on my bike than on Rollerblades, 18 mph vs 13. I can't see doing any real distance greater than 30 miles on Rollerblades however.

jely1990

And I thought I was cool being able to skate backwards Haha. Anyways, that's amazing, it's weird to think that inline skates can be just as fast as bikes. At least it sounds weird to me...

knobster

when I lived in NC, I use to see big groups off them on organized rides. These were century rides and they would do the entire ride and take about the same time as I did on a bike. I would do centuries in about 5.5 hours. Very impressive to me. Not to mention the hills and chip seal roads... That had to be bone jarring.

JeffS

Yea, I used to work with a guy who did organized routes on skates all over the state. He used to show me video of it, but I never could get a sense of how fast they were traveling.

agarose2000

Man - I never thought about doing organized blading rides, but if I knew of one locally, that sounds like da bomb - I'd totally be in on that.

And don't feel bad about being passed by bladers. I run a lot, and today, on my warmup during rush hour, I passed 3 commute bikers on a long gentle uphill. Happens all the time.

jimblairo

I caught up to an inline skater on the mup in Montreal and what I found interesting was that he had a gas driven fan strapped onto his back. Really noisy though as it sounded like a leaf blower.

cradduck

Some of those inline racers are no joke. If their vastis lateralis is bigger than your head they are going to be tough to beat.

I would love to get back into inline skating, but over the last ten years I have become a lot more top-heavy and would look rather ridiculous on racing skates.

MNBiker

Here's a youtube of a 100m race between a biker and an inline skater:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaXdKZPUm-E

Guess who wins!

pathdoc

I never really thought about it before but I'm surprised to hear how fast skaters can travel.

d2create

That is not uncommon. I've been passed like that during charity rides when I was moving at around 17-20mph. Some of those guys do rides like the MS150 too.

paulwwalters

Aren't they slower on hills? At least somewhat?

And here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNmgNyDQbww

JusticeZero

I wanted to learn how to skate, but my feet stopped me - they don't make them in my size, just like I can never ski, bowl, or ride clipless.

NEXUS

Perhaps if you didn't mind you could try women's or children size shoes?

JR97

So much about skating is about technique. There are a lot of little nuances that can have a drastic effect on speed and balance. Speed skater dude probably has it all dialed in pretty well. 95% of the skaters I see on the MUP can barely even stand up. Bend those knees deeper! Get some extension in the stride!

JusticeZero

That wouldn't help. I wear men's size 12 Extra-Extra-Extra-Extra-Extra-Extra-Wide. (6E) I can squeeze into a size 13 Extra-Extra-Extra-Extra-Wide, but the fit is far from ideal and I wouldn't want to do anything very active in one - any specialized footwear would not likely be available in even a 2E.

Hot Potato

Any skates come with disk brakes? Oh I can skate fast. Its the stopping that always hurts me, literally.

vtjim

I was pacing a guy on blades once, at 15MPH. When he realized I was behind him he got all apologetic for holding me up, and moved right. I told him he wasn't holding me up, gave him a speed report, which he seemed impressed about, and then I passed him and went on my way.

Little Darwin

It really depressed me once when I thought I was maintaining a pretty good cycling average and realized something, 15 miles per hour is only a 4 minute mile...

At 3:43.13 the world record for the mile run is an average of over 16 mph.

So, I decided not to compare myself to other people.

Plus, we keep going for more than a mile.