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Ground Control TriSkate Frame on Razors Shift Inline Skate - Review

These are the Ground Control TriSkate frames. They're UFS and come complete with 110mm wheels and ABEC 9 bearings for $140 US. You can also get them with 125mm wheels, or with just the frames. They've been optimized to ride with the Razors Cosmo skate, or with the Cosmo soul plates on the Razors Shifts. 

Why would anyone want such huge wheels? The bigger the wheel, the more cruising speed you get and the smoother the ride. With three 110mm wheels, the length isn't much longer than 4 80mm wheels, so you don't have to adjust your skating. 

With the IFC system on the Razors Shift, these frames are ideal for skating around between grinding sessions. I wanted to see how they worked in real life, so I brought them to the skatepark. 

Changing the frames using the IFC system on my Razors Shifts was pretty effortless. It took only a few minutes to pop off my grinding frames and put on the Ground Control frames.

I skated to the next spot, stopping to play around at the city park.

Over the next few weeks I brought both frames with me, skating from spot to spot, swapping out my frames whenever I found something fun. It was really great having the big wheels to travel longer distances and to smooth out the rough concrete.

Would I recommend everyone gets them? Probably not.

Being UFS is great, but the wheels extend a bit above the frame to the inside of the soul plate recess. This is no problem if you have IFC boots with the Cosmo soul plates, but any other UFS boot will need to be modified to fit them. The Kizer Trimax frames are also 110mm UFS and will fit any UFS boot. (Try them on SL3)

The Razors Shift boot flexes a lot, which is great for topside tricks, but makes riding really tall frames a challenge. I'd bet this is less of a problem with a 45 degree buckle like on the Cosmo boot, but it makes me less stable.

If you're planning to skate long distances without a need for grinding, you might be better off getting a dedicated TriSkate. For $50 more, you can get yourself something like the Powerslide Imperial Supercruisers. They're much lighter, fit better and are designed for big wheel skating.

The Ground Control TriSkate frames are a welcome addition to the Razors IFC lineup of skates. I love the feeling of big wheels and being able to get from spot to spot easier. But if you don't have the IFC, or need to switch between grinding and long distances, you might want to skip them.