Skike
Skike (from English Sk ate and B ike ) is a piece of sports equipment from the cross- skate sector made by Skike Sports International Ltd. They are suitable for moving off paved roads on light to medium-difficult terrain. They are driven exclusively with the use of sticks and thus belong to the Nordic sports, for example Nordic (cross) skating .
construction
Skikes are cross skates that, unlike inline skates, only have two wheels each, which are in front of and behind the foot. Skikes are supplied by the manufacturer with 15 cm air-filled tires. In contrast to some other cross skates, skikes do not have an integrated shoe, but have a shoe holder on which any shoe can be fixed with the help of buckles. The ski models up to Skike V07 and the Skike V07 PLUS use Velcro fasteners to fix the shoes, while the Skike vX Solo and Skike vX Twin models use ratchet straps . Skikes have powerful fallback brakes on both sides that are operated with the calf. With them, a deceleration of up to 6.5 m / s 2 is possible. The Skike vX Twin is currently the only model from the manufacturer that has an additional folding rail on which the shoe is movably fixed to the frame and thus enables movement in classic cross-country skiing techniques.
use
Skikes are used as sports equipment for locomotion on asphalt and non-asphalt roads as well as in easy to moderately difficult terrain. Since the shoe is not integrated into the frame of the skike, the skikes can be easily taken off in impassable terrain. Skikes are usually used together with sticks that support propulsion. This combined use is also known as Nordic Skating . Nordic skating sticks are longer than Nordic walking sticks. The sequence of movements largely corresponds to the skating technique used in cross-country skiing .
history
The Austrian Otto Eder is considered to be the inventor of the skikes. Looking for a way to go inline skating off-road, he developed his first cross skates in 1997. These cross skates already had all of the major components of today's skikes, including pneumatic wheels and a calf brake. They were equipped with large wheels and still weighed over 4 kg.
In 1999 the «Mountainskate» model was changed to smaller wheel diameters. Today, like most cross skates, skikes have pneumatic tires with (6 × 1.25 inches ) 150 mm outer diameter × 30 (32) mm width with previously 7.0 bar and from January 2013 7.5 bar maximum pressure. Depending on the version (without shoes), they weigh 3.9 to 5.6 kg per pair.
Like a few types of cross skates, children's-size skikes have 125 mm tires. The tires are fitted with a separate tube, the car valve of which is in a curved tube, similar to the tires of trucks or wheelbarrows. When installing the wheel, orientate the valve with the valve so that it cannot get stuck when driving forward. Due to the high pressure and small diameter, it is more frequent to refill air around weekly.
The Otto Eders cross skates were ready for series production in 2000 under the name Skike. In the following years the product lines V03, V05, V07 were developed. The skikes of the vX series followed as a new development in 2011. In the late summer of 2012, the range was supplemented by the V07-based Skike V07 PLUS with improved frame geometry. Since May 2014, the model range has been expanded to include the v7 FIX CROSS based on the V07 PLUS and two versions with an extended wheelbase and heel step, the v8 LIFT SPEED and the v8 LIFT CROSS 2R. For the first time, PU wheels with a diameter of 125 mm and 145 mm are also offered. The v8 LIFT SPEED model is factory-fitted with 125 mm PU wheels.
Web links
- Official Skike homepage
- Information page of the skike inventor Otto Eder
- Information portal about skiing
- Information magazine about skiing
- History of the skikes