Wheel Durometer Testing

ESK8 Mechanics
1

So today I visited a business near me that deals with polyurethanes, poli-mix. The owner was really friendly and I arranged to test durometer/hardness of few wheels I borrowed or had lying around.

The test device was PCE Instrments PCE-DX-A, Shore A durometer.

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The wheels tested:

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From top left: Unknown, 76mm, ??a SoFlow Lou Board Wheel, 80mm, 78a TorqueBoards EPOWER Flywheel Clone, 83mm, 76a AOB Alpha Wheel, 74mm, 83a ABEC 11 Flywheel, 83mm, 75a (classic) Slick Revolution Rough Stuff Wheel, 110mm, 85a Evolve ABEC 11 F1 Wheel, 107mm, 74a (reflex)

Wheels were at room temperature (around 20°C) and each was tested 3 times. Here are the results

Wheel Specified duro. Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Avg. Delta
Unknown, 76mm ??a 77a 77a 77a 77a -
SoFlow Lou Board Wheel, 80mm 78a 80a 79a 79a 79a+ +1
TorqueBoards EPOWER Flywheel Clone, 83mm 76a 77a 75a 76a 76a 0
AOB Alpha Wheel, 74mm 83a 81a 81a 81a 81a -2
ABEC 11 Flywheel, 83mm 75a (classic) 75a 75a 75a 75a 0
Slick Revolution Rough Stuff Wheel, 110mm 85a 83a 83a 83a 83a -2
Evolve ABEC 11 F1 Wheel, 107mm 74a (reflex) 74a 74a 74a 74a 0

Not sure how to interpret the results but there you go. I was pretty surprised by some of the results. I need to try for myself (now that I have genuine 83mm wheels) but many have said that the ride is (much) better on the genuine ABEC 11 83mm than EPOWER or other clones but the difference seen is only 1a. Perhaps the formula has the bigger influence on the ride feel than the hardness number only. Perhaps it’s just placebo, who knows. I’m just sharing the results :slight_smile: If I get more wheels (3+) I can go for another round of testing…

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I can. Aside from the usual higher durometer giving a less grippy wheel and less wearing one versus more grip. It’s just a hardness test. A big question is if these results are consistent with different batches and different time period?

Definitely could be the placebo effect. No one has really bothered to do scientific testing like this. Everyone goes by how it “feels” to them. It’s very subjective.

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I actually asked about that and the owner said that once the formula and process is set and finalized, the end result hardness number wouldn’t change with batches, it might maybe differ by few% only.

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I think the hardest part is most people are comparing one wheel vs another… by duro only or not thinking about

-width -hubsize -contact patch width -urethane thickness (wheel size - hub size) -overall weight -lip profile

With some aspects of that weighing more into it then others…as well as truck width… For example 107s feel to bouncy for me on 180mm trucks. But fine on 200+mm trucks.

Best to probably make charts of same size wheels to compare duros… And leave the interpretation upto the rider picking x size wheel…

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