Falling in Love With Skating as a Child

When living in England during the 4th grade I put on my brother’s inline skates and fell in love with skating. I received my own first pair of skates when I turned 10-years-old. During my adolescence, I spent most of my free time either skating outside or at roller rinks. My brother and I played a lot of street hockey in our neighborhood when we lived in North Dakota and Wisconsin.

After graduating from high school in Portland, Oregon, I felt like I had outgrown skating and didn’t touch a pair of skates again until after I moved to Austin, Texas. I was out shopping for a new bicycle and noticed some inline skates while walking down the isle that caught my eye.

Rediscovering My Youth

Remembering how much I loved skating in my youth, I ended up ordering some Rollerblade Tempest skates. As soon as I put them on my feet and started skating around I knew I had rediscovered a part of me that had been missing for a long time. I started commuting to work on them, exploring my city and using them for exercise. Since then I have run into many people in the Austin area who share my passion for skating and I now look for any opportunity to skate that I can.

Getting Back on Blades

A little over a year ago my Rollerblade 4x90mm Tempest skates bit the dust and I needed to find a new pair of skates to replace them with. The more I researched online for what to buy next, the more intrigued I became with the idea of the tri-skate movement. I was at the point in my life where I was skating more and more and wanted a skate to meet my daily demands. I finally settled on ordering the Flying Eagle F7 Optimums online.

How The Felt on My Feet

The first time I laced up the Flying Eagle F7 Optimums I realized how different they were from my Tempests. I was not used to a hard boot design and they felt very rigid. A major concern I had about ordering skates online was getting the right fit. Before I placed my order I did a lot of careful measuring of my feet, making sure to accurately follow the instructions on how to get the sizing right. The first time I put my feet in them, I thought they felt a little bit too tight, especially on my left foot (which may be my bigger foot). I took them outside to skate around the block a few times to break them in. After skating on them for a little bit my feet settled in and they felt a lot better however my left foot was still a bit tight.

The Break In Period

I did a lot of reading about break-in periods and the different issues people were having breaking in their new skates. The tightness in my left foot was substantially less after my first couple of distance skates. I was also happy that I didn’t get any blisters, rub marks or sores while breaking in the skates. The only issue I had during the break-in period was when I tried to overdo it and skate 15-miles, my ankle ended up getting pretty swollen and painful. I couldn’t skate for another week until my ankle healed, but after that I never had another problem with pain in my feet. Also, full disclosure, on that trip when my ankle swelled I fell down pretty hard, so it could have been related to that. Either way, within a couple of weeks the Flying Eagle F7 skates felt great, with absolutely no discomfort at all.

The Flying Eagle Super Sonic 3×4 Frames

I bought the skates with the Supersonic Flying Eagle 3-wheel setup with 110 MM wheels. There’s a lot of information on the Internet about 3-wheel versus 4-wheel setups. I must say that after skating these Flying Eagles I am a big fan of the 3-wheel setup. I love them for their agility, the ability to travel distance and the smoothness your experience on poor road conditions compared to skating on smaller wheels.

Putting In the Miles

Since I purchased these skates I went from skating an average of 5 miles per day to skating 10 to 15 miles a day. Most days I use them to skate to work unless it’s below 30 degrees or if it’s raining. In the past year they have held up surprisingly well, and I really like that almost every part is replaceable if it wears out. I’ve gone through lots of wheels, lots of bearings, a couple different straps, a couple different cuffs and most recently I bought new stock liners.

I have no idea how many miles I skated on them last year, but I do know how many miles I’ve skated on them so far in 2018. As of this review on April 25th, I’ve skated just over 1,400 miles so far. I have them on my feet a lot. I got involved with the Big Wheel Blading 2018 challenge for most miles throughout the year, and my competitive side kicked in. It pushed me to skate a lot more than I normally would have. My goal for 2018 is to hit 5,000 miles.

My Thoughts on the Flying Eagle F7

I have nothing but good things to say about these skates. I like that they are compatible with any 165mm frames, that they are comfortable and are an overall solid skate. If I had to find anything I’m critical of, it would be the ventilation. I can’t really see any way around it, but my feet do get really sweaty in this boot, so I always have a ready supply of Lysol or Febreze to make sure they don’t get too funky. Maybe I just have really sweaty feet? I’ve also had an issue with the frame coming loose.

Or it could have been due to me not tightening the bolts enough. A couple of times a screw came loose and the frame would slide a little bit in the adjustment slot. I always carry a skate tool on me so it is a quick fix, but it could be a potential issue. The reason it could be an issue with the skate is that it only happened the last couple of months. And it happened a few times in a short period. To remedy this, any time I rotate my wheels, I adjust the tightness of the frame as well.

Looking for an overall solid skate on a budget? Then you can’t go wrong with the Flying Eagle F7. They now have the newer color scheme that they sell that comes standard with the 3×110 setup.

Links

For more information on Flying Eagle Skates visit their website.

You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube.

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