Hello! I'm going to make a short review of the USD Aeon 80 Team inline skates, aimed at those who are considering buying them but are indecisive, like I was. To give some background, I've set foot in an inline skate one year ago, after last skating 15 year prior as a kid, when I only skated around the streets.
So last year I was searching for a skate which would allow me to cruise around the streets, use them for commuting, and occasionally learning some tricks at the skatepark. The skate that naturally presented itself was this skate, as it has large wheels (80 mm), and a soulplate and H-block for grinding. My biggest concern was about the unibody construction where the frame and the boot are one piece of plastic, i.e. no replaceable frame. Finally I decided to buy them, and here are my thoughts:
They are perfect! And I say that from a standpoint where I rarely go on the streets, but instead I go in the skatepark on average once a week throughout the year, and have been doing that for the last year (I very quickly switched the preferred way of usage). Anyway, for a level of skating where you don't grind 24/7 on everything, the plastic will not wear down, so there is very little concern regarding the unreplaceable frame - it will not wear down as quickly as you may think. I've been practicing grinds in the park for the last year, and very little wear occurred. Granted, the grinds were on metal pipes and not on concrete, but still. If you're not a hardcore grinder, the frame will not need replacement anytime soon
One other concern was if the grinds were even possible for a complete beginner like me, given the small H-block. Absolutely! I've learned the soul, acid, mizue and pornstar which require the H-block, and am in the process of learning the frontside (on which I'm not getting wheelbite in practice). The only problem I've encountered so far regarding grinds is the royale, but the reason for that is the height of the soulplate (and also the fact that I'm a beginner), which makes it hard to bend the foot so much to the required angle such that is touches the rail. Having said all that, for a beginner like me the "small" H-block did not present any issue.
Even though I now ride mostly in parks, I still commute with them and occasionally cruise around the city, and they are absolutely good for that too. No complaints here. You can normally do all the curves and power stops without touching the ground with the soulplate.
Now some additional comments. The main buckle.... it is a good buckle which you need need to cut at the proper length so that it does not get in the way. However, when you skate with you legs too close together, one buckle can attach on the buckle of the other skate, and so one skate gets loose. Luckily, even though I experienced this multiple times during my sessions, I never fell because of that, the skates only get loose so you need to rebuckle. This is the only "complaint" I have for these skates.
The 45° buckle also needs to be shortened to the appropriate length to not get in the way (can also be seen from the above picture how long it is).
Lastly, regarding sizing. My feet are 266 and 268 mm long, and cca. 10 cm wide, and as per official recommendation I got the 41-42 and they fit PER-FECT-LY! Also, I recommend watching this video about new skates, includes fitting and other things.
To recap, the main concerns that I see people have about these skates are:
- non-replaceable frame
- small H-block
Both of these in my situation did not present any problems, even though I too had big concerns about them, but decided to just go for it, and now I'm happily writing this review.
Hope this helps someone clear their doubts and make their decision :)
For the last year I've been logging my sessions with all the tricks I've been learning, so I can share that too if you're interested, and to further strengthen the argument that they are a perfectly good skate for the park!
All in all, I've been using them at least once a week throughout the last year, and these were all the observations I made.
P.S. I've been planning to post this on reddit, but given the circumstances I'm writing it here, in hopes to give a little boost to this community regarding content and visibility.
