Skate Anatomy

Anatomy of a Pure Skating Experience

The ideas and technologies behind CadoMotus products have been developed to bring you a pure skating experience - where materials work together with you, giving you every freedom to get in motion. Performance, comfort, quality and reliability from CadoMotus so you can enjoy Pure Skating.

Compatibility & Consistency

Frame mounts on all CadoMotus frames are centered over the wheelbase. When you upgrade length or wheel size and get your new CadoMotus frame, you can be sure your boot will mount just where it did on the frame before.

No surprises, no all-forward or all-backward mounts, just full compatibility.

There's more. All CadoMotus frames are built on an even-spacing wheelbase. Tested and proven by elite skaters in controlled and race conditions, even wheel spacing optimizes skate performance on all surfaces. You can be sure that throughout our frame and frame package range, we will bring you performance solutions in a range of sizes without compromising even spacing.

We put a lot into creating skates that we know will perform - and we won't be mounting your boot way out back and manipulating your wheel spacing just to drop your deck height 1mm.

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4-wheel skate format

As fitness, recreational, aggressive and hockey skates refined a 4-wheel format, speed skates looked to 5-wheels as many as 15 years ago as a means to increase roll and replicate the feel and movement patterns of ice skating. As inline speed skating developed rapidly through its infancy, it developed its own movement patterns (such as the "Double Push" ) and configurations soon placed the wheels as close as possible to each other⤓shortening the wheelbase and improving maneuverability and acceleration. Beginners and smaller skaters often struggled with the length of the 5-wheel format and found that although it improved their rolling speed, their ability to master technique was impeded.

With the introduction of 5-wheel HiLo frames in 1999, 84mm wheels were produced. The 5-wheel skate would have 3x80mm wheels at the front, and 2x84mm wheels at the rear for added roll. The HiLo in this format remained on few skaters, and in 2002 a World Inline Cup team raced unannounced on a 5-wheel, all-84mm skate and went straight to the top of the competition with improved top-end finishing speeds. When the skating world caught on, the 5x84mm became the new standard overnight⤓and the technical price of a longer frame was soon offset by practice and higher overall race speeds.

With the benefits of increased wheel size realized, manufacturers were soon testing ever-larger wheel sizes. In 2003, 100mm skates were introduced⤓with the added length- and weight-per-wheel meaning these skates were initially in 4-wheel formats. Ride height was soon optimized using longer mount spacings, and many skaters felt the immediate benefits of the high roll on a shorter wheelbase than they had been using in the 5x84mm format. Control and maneuverability were increased, and 4-wheel skates in 4x and HiLo formats could be made in a range of sizes to better suit a variety of skaters.

Cado Motus skate range is based on the versatility of the 4-wheel configuration⤓supporting 90-110mm wheels in a wide range of sizes for skaters to find the perfect fit for speed, control and technical mastery of inline skating movements. One size does not fit all. Our 4-wheel frames and frame packages bring you your skate.

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HiLo Frame Design

HiLo (or High-Low) Frames combine multiple wheel sizes together in the one frame/chassis - resulting in high and low-set axles along the frame. They were first used on inline speed skates to combine the characteristics of 76mm wheels with 80mm wheels together in a 5-wheel frame (76-76-76-80-80mm). Later, the HiLo concept emerged again when 80mm wheels were paired with 84mm wheels in a 5-wheel frame (80-80-80-84-84mm). Not long afterward, an 84mm revolution began in the World Inline Cup and has seen the continual increase in wheel diameters to date.

HiLo frames were used as a market solution during the emergence of 100mm wheels, allowing 100mm wheels to be used on a 4-wheel skate with a 165mm (standard mount-separation) boot by placing a 84 or 90mm wheel on a lower axle in the second wheel position - beneath the front mounting point. Without the HiLo, frames allowing for clearance of 4x100mm wheels on a standard boot would have been very high. The development of 195mm (long-mount) separations allowed for 4x100mm and as skaters have upgraded their boots with time use of the HiLo reduced.

With the legalization of 110mm wheels for competition in 2008, CadoMotus releases the PRO HiLo frame - combining the speed of 110mm wheels with the maneuverability and versatile performance of 12.4 and 12.8-inch low-profile frames. 4x110mm wheels require a minimum frame length of 13.1-inches, too long for many skaters. The PRO HiLo 1-2-1 uses the unique layout of 110-100-100-110mm, allowing the boot of a smaller skater to sit low over the wheels - achieving the same ride height as a 4x100 skate without changing the pitch. The result is a fast, stable, well-behaved skate at just 12.4-inches. The PRO HiLo 1-1-2 uses a traditional 110-100-110-110mm configuration to pack 110mm performance into 12.8-inches with a ride height equal to that of 4x100mm skates.

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DualBox extrusion

DualBox3 (what you find on our PRO and PRO+ Frames) is the latest evolution of the innovative and patented DualBox design for inline speed frames. Optimizing the elastic properties of inline skate frames (which the skater interprets as stiffness and feel, and contribute greatly to ride quality and power transmission) via the mechanical properties of the tubular sidewalls to enhance rigidity.

DualBox sidewalls allow more freedom in frame design - especially when it comes to cross-bracing. DualBox frames are designed to allow mid-frame flexion in the corner - improving the alignment of the skate in turns and optimizing the amount of wheel in contact with the surface, giving you more grip and more control. At the same time the DualBox maintains stiffness at the toe and tail like no other frame.

The DualBox design provides progressive flexural feel for the skater rather than isolated areas of varying stiffness which are inherent to many, more traditional double-void extrusion frames. Meaning: They feel better, they behave better, you skate better.

CadoMotus frames for advanced racers, the PRO and PRO+ are based on DualBox3 technology.

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SemiSolid extrusion

It's the shape we start making our NEO and COMP Frames from. CadoMotus SemiSolid extrusion of inline skate frames allows non-traditional geometries to be used in frame design. The result is superlight, stiff frames that are particularly suited to developing and intermediate skaters and the demands of larger-diameter wheels.

It means we can go about things differently, and give you a high-performance frame at a realistic price.

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OneMount

Carbon fiber composites have given performance skating boots a lightweight, formable, high-strength material for the boot's shell . However carbon fiber in this role is not suited to the demands of point fixation to another material. The "mounting block" of a skating boot is a critical component to overall skate function⤓tying the carbon fiber shell, and your foot, securely to the skate frame.

OneMount angular alloy mounting blocks in CadoMotus boots provide structural integration between the block and the composite shell, securing the block in the shell against repetitive stresses. Exposed alloy mounting surfaces ensure a true mounting surface with the frame and limit uneven pressure points on the composite shell.

You'll find OneMount integrated into all CadoMotus PRO Series Boots.

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Nordic HiLo Frames

Nordic Blading ⤓ the addition of Nordic poles to inline skates for a new movement pattern eliciting a total-body workout. As a Nordic Blader, you are equipped to skate up, over and down anything the trail puts in front of you. Climbing is a key component of Nordic Blading, and the employment of upper-body power transferred through the ski poles makes it an impressively fast means of going uphill. Clap frames represent the next logical, and biomechanically efficient step. As the clap action allows for plantar flexion (movement of the foot that flexes the foot or toes downward), muscle groups and joint articulations are employed in a more natural and efficient manner⤓similar to the benefits realised by ice Speedskaters.

CadoMotus Nordic HiLo frames are specifically designed for Nordic Blading and feature a front-end clap mechanism operating two 90mm wheels, with two 100mm wheels on the fixed rear of the frame for optimum roll. The Nordic HiLo brings the best of clap and HiLo configurations together in one skate⤓optimized for Nordic Blading. The front-end clap mechanism allows a more free-flowing skating movement and enhanced climbing performance, and the HiLo 4-wheel design keeps the clap action light and fast, and maintains the foot in a position low over the wheels for control and stability.

Translated, this means that as a Nordic Blader, you just got your first real frame.

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MPC™ Wheels & MTECH® Technology

What is MTECH? MTECH® is the name of a proprietary wheel technology owned and developed by MPC (Mearthane Products Corporation in the USA). MTECH wheels are responsible for setting World-beating times, taming the toughest and fastest tracks, and helping put skaters on countless podiums since 2004. MPC market MTECH technology as the 'Soft Heart, Hard Body' - the essence of the company's patents which keep MPC wheels leading the competition. Soft heart, Hard body is literally how the MTECH tire is constructed. The tire of an MTECH wheel is made up of a soft inner (62A shore hardness in the most resilient material found in any wheel), beneath a durable outer material (80+A shore hardness in a durable, surface hugging urethane)... read more about MTECH

What is Wheel Footprint Modulation? Without a physical interlock, and with a flexible inner material, the wheel's tire actually deforms (changes shape) to improve its performance in corners. As the forces on the wheel increase, the inner material flexes, allowing more of the outer urethane to contact the surface - providing more grip. Effectively, the wheel footprint is one shape for straights, and another, force-dependent shape on corners. This is where Energy Management Technologies and Flex Bands came from... read more about Wheel Footprint

Why is Emulation the ultimate accolade? Because other wheel manufacturers set about revising their wheels to copy the engineered deformation of MTECH. Some even machined their hubs, cutting material away and weakening the structure of the hub in an attempt to replicate the footprint modulation technology that MPC wheels are built on - and calling it names like Energy Management Technology that claimed to 'turn the core of the wheel into a spring'. It's not new, MPC engineered it, World skaters proved it, and now the market demands it. But it's not MTECH... read more about MPC Emulation

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Bones™ Bearings

Bones: since 1983, the name in high-performance Skate Bearings. Not miniature ball bearings for electric motors and industrial applications - but sport-specific bearings. The first Bones, Bones 'Swiss', were designed from the ground up by George A. Powell (of Powell-Peralta corporation) with a Swiss custom bearing manufacturer to be the best possible bearing for roller sports.

The first Bones bearings changed from a standard stamped-metal ball retainer to a high speed precision molded plastic one that could be removed by skaters to allow better cleaning of the bearing. They left one shield off so skaters could get to the inside of the bearing without any tools to clean and re-lubricate it. Next, they adjusted the tolerances and clearances to allow the bearing to take the combination side and vertical loads imposed by skating better than normal bearings do. Finally, the usual lubricant was replaced with a specially-developed one they named Speed Cream™.

Engineering this bearing for skating produced the fastest, most sought after, most successful bearing in the history of skateboarding, and its engineered success quickly translated to pro choice for Speed Skating. In fact, testing from Powell and his teams confirms it is still the fastest bearing you can buy for skating even after all these years and after many other companies have packaged and sold ABEC-1, 3, 5, 7 or 9 'super bearings' under a range of names and marketing campaigns... read more about why Bones® are Better and learn about ABEC-rating versus Skate-Rating

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SPIN Bearings

That's our bearing. We make them in 608 (standard, the big ones) and 688 (micro, the little ones). SPIN7 are ABEC-7 bearings, which means that in the scheme of skate bearings they are at the high-precision end in terms of bore, outer diameter, width and rotating accuracy. With SPIN7 CadoMotus bring you a performance bearing that works. Right out of the box, they spin⤓free and fast. They are reliable, with a long service life, and their removable shields mean they are easily serviceable⤓by you.

Now, we've added the SPIN-C bearing - a Ceramic high-performance bearing, with the reliability and serviceability that we made the standard with SPIN. Not only that, but SPIN-C are some of the most affordable Ceramic bearings on the market!

CadoMotus give you that performance, reliability and serviceability⤓affordably. Try SPIN for yourself.

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XC-C Free Binding System®

The "skating" or "free" technique of cross-country, the fastest and most effective movement pattern, has brought about refinements in design of skis and bindings. Drawing on extensive klapskate, Nordic Blading and Speedskating experience, CadoMotus has developed a new style of boot and binding for XC free skiing - the XC-C Free Binding System®.

Using the system it is possible to: Literally switch your skis in seconds, Significantly increase control and push-off efficiency, and Ski Faster using advanced acceleration techniques like the Double-Push (yes, the Double-Push on skis)... read more about the XC-C Binding's capabilities and Watch a video of the XC-C Binding in action.

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