The profile of a wheel affects speed, wear, stability, grip, and the edge transition experience. In other words it plays a big role in what your skate will feel like and how it will perform. The choice between bullet and round profile wheels should be made based on the kind of skating you intend to do and personal preference. Here’s some technical insight and our recommendations to help you choose the right wheel profile for your skating.
Bullet Profile
This profile is elliptical in shape–the side edges have a larger radius than the center edge. This gives minimal contact area with the ground, which results in less rolling resistance and allows the wheel to roll efficiently. It has good speed. The larger radii on the sides provide good grip when on an edge (i.e. when carving or turning). Edge transitions tend to feel snappy and precise. Bullet profile wheels are excellent for most styles of skating and provide a good balance of various performance parameters.
Round Profile
This profile is semi-circular in shape. The side and center edge radii dimensions are typically very close in value and so it appears like half of a circle. There is more contact area on the ground than bullet profile, which results in more rolling resistance and slower speeds. While its speed is less than that of bullet profile it does provide more stability. The near constant radius of the profile means edges feel wide and edge transitions feel continuous. The extra stability can be helpful when skating bowls/transitions at skate part, when doing a lot of jumping while urban skating, or when executing single wheel tricks like wheelings and presses. The wide edge sweet spot can be very forgiving for skating styles like wizard skating and slalom where there are lots of edge transitions happening during maneuvers and tricks. This is also great profile for beginners who are still trying to gain confidence on skates.
Recommendations
We recommend bullet profile wheels for recreational, fitness, distance, and urban skating.
We recommend round profile wheels for wizard skating, slalom skating, park skating, and for beginners.
Endless Wheels
We make bullet profile wheels in 68, 76, 80, 84, 90, 100, and 110 mm.
We make round profile wheels in 76 and 84 mm. Our round profile wheels are called “Endless Round”.