1. INTRODUCTION TO ROTATION

2. Inspect before rotating       3. Wear patterns       4. Inspecting for wear

• The design of inline skates combined with correct skating technique causes the wheels to wear unevenly in relation to each other and their position on the skates.
  
  
• The goal of rotating your inline skate wheels is to maintain uniform wear throughout your wheelset.
  
  
• More frequent wheel rotation will help maintain a centered side-to-side profile and uniform diameter of the wheels.
  
  
• This requires removing all of the wheels from both skates at the same time to allow an easy and quick rotation.
  
  
• The simplicity of the Rotation Station^tm organizes and speeds the process.
  
  
• If you regularly follow the rotation patterns described in "Suggested Rotation" for either 4 or 5 wheel skates, your wheels should wear evenly.

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2. INSPECT BEFORE ROTATING

• If you skate more than 40 miles between rotations, or you rotate a buddy's skates (with well worn wheels), you might want to perform an Advanced Rotation before placing them back in the skates.
  
  
• For this method of rotation you will be removing the wheels from the skates directly to the wheel tray without changing their positions.
  
  
• You will also be inspecting the wheels as a complete wheelset to find the most apparent wear patterns.
  
  
• Profile wear and diameter wear are used in the Advanced Rotation to determine which wheels are the most worn and which are the least worn.
  
  
• Recognizing the pre-rotation wear patterns enables a proper reversal of those wear patterns.

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3. WEAR PATTERNS

• Everybody skates with different technique so every set of wheels will wear in a unique set of patterns:

PROFILE - The inside of the wheels will wear more than the outside.   

DIAMETER - The front and back wheels will wear more than the center wheels. Both front wheels may wear more quickly than both back wheels (or vice versa).

PROFILE AND DIAMETER - The wheels in the left skate or the wheels in the right skate may wear more quickly than the opposite skate.

• Since wheel wear is almost always a combination of several wear patterns, finding the best new position for a wheel requires a close inspection of the complete wheelset.

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4. INSPECTING FOR WEAR

• Inspect for relative diameter by comparing each wheel to the others with an inexpensive vernier caliper.
  
  
• Inspect for off-center profile by looking at the top of each wheel on edge with a contrasting color as background.