Zombie wheels.

Did I even mention that I've got a wheel fetish?  I love looking at wheels, buying new wheels, asking people about which wheels they like to use and so on.  For the last three seasons, I've been a staunch consumer of Atom Wheels, specifically the Omega style.  They do so well on so many surfaces, but lately I've seen a lot of "chunking" of the edges of my wheels.  That might be because of manufacturer issues, or it could be how the game and my skating style has changed.  Either way, I've been pretty unhappy about the condition my edges are in.  It's been no secret that I've been keeping my eyes out for a new type of wheel that might work better for me.

Enter Shocker Khan into my derby life.  Shocker Khan owns the 2N1 Skate Shoppe, and she offered to let me try certain products in order to write about them in my blog.  Of course I jumped at the chance to try the new Sure Grip Zombie Wheels that everyone has been drooling about on Facebook.  I was a little leery of switching brands because I was so used to Atom Wheels, but I am trying to broaden my horizons and I tried the wheels.

Oh, who doesn't get excited when new gear comes in the mail?

First of all, the wheels themselves are black, and I know that a lot of you are probably excited about that.  Many skaters seem to object to the various colors of wheels out there, and sometimes even dye their wheels black.  You won't have that issue with the Zombie wheels.  Also, the wheels come with aluminum hubs, which is a lot nicer than having plastic hubs.  The aluminum hubs also make changing out bearings very easy.  I didn't even need a bearing press!

The style of Zombie wheels I tried came in a 92a hardness and the 58 millimeter height; I was concerned about skating on shorter wheels because I do a lot of speed skating in my training, and shorter wheels mean more effort in a speed line.  I adapted to them fairly quickly, but I found them to be less grippy than my Atom Omegas, which supposedly have a comparable hardness to the the 92 Zombies.  I also found them to take a little longer to break in; normally I can break in a set of Omegas in two days, but the Zombie took me about three practices to really get comfortable on them.  One of the bonuses of the Zombie wheels I noticed was that my hockey stops were much crisper than they normally were.  I believe that can be attributed to a combination of the wheel surface and the shorter height.  I've definitely grown fond of them, and I might have found a substitute for my Omegas.

If you read the description of the Zombie wheels, it states that Sure Grip guarantees that all of their wheels will perform the same as any past set you have purchased.  In other words, they promise consistency, which is something I have found lacking in other brands of skate wheels.  Plus, they're on sale right now!

If you are a Facebook fanatic, please "like" Shocker Khan's skate shop page here.  2N1 Skate Shoppe is putting together a goodie bag worth around $100 to give away to one lucky customer once they get 1,000 "Likes" on FaceBook. Tell your friends!