You're absolutely right when it comes to impacting man hole covers and bike path bridges .The worst I felt were the 105 dadbod wheels ,a little half-inch thick metal bridge ramp almost threw me off my board .
Nah i think youre right on the thinner contact having more comfort. I think its cause hitting the whole surface of the wheel will have more resistance. Hitting a smaller point in the urethane will have more squish.
Size matters depending on rider. Wider makes sense in grass, gravel, and just more terrain than street. This is why Esk8 is awesome is that you do not have to be committed to one area or the same predictable place. You can go ahead and prove me wrong by getting some roller blade wheels and seeing how well you can AT.
It kinda makes it sketchy at fast speed though. My roads are pretty bad and the contact on 120 clouds made it feel like the wheels were hunting side to side.
The point about the contact patch is true. Smaller contact patch means there's less material to compress, and it's gonna feel softer. Force = pressure * surface_area Pressure is like tyre pressure - basically material hardness. So if the wheels are made out of the same material : less surface area = less force to compress
Interesting point about the non flat contact point going over manhole covers. I actually though the flat wheels would be better for that since the same amount of force is transmitted in a larger section of the wheel allowing more of the PU to dampen the force. But I only have the non flat wheels so that's just my theory. In fact I've only had my cloud wheels for about a 2 weeks lol.
I'm not entirely sure about the accuracy regarding the transfer and contact patch. The same amount of energy is transferred upon impact, but with a larger contact patch, the energy is distributed over a greater surface area. This means that while more of the surface you hit is in contact, the impact is spread out more. With a smaller contact patch, the force is still the same, but it is concentrated on a smaller area, resulting in a sharper impact that might feel more intense because less of the surface came into contact with what you hit. I guess it all depends on what you hit and how you hit it too.
Hi Fred, I like your reviews because, like me, you're an urethane lover and you like pushing the wheels to the limits. Here again, great review! Two questions: did you try to slide them (I like the way Galaxy wheels do) ? Are they as dangerous as the Galaxy on wet ground ?
