Scooters have come a long way from fold up kick scooters with adjustable handle bars and the wheels are no exception to this. Over

Wheel ridden to the core
the years, the polyurethane (PU) has been perfected to a point where wheel cracking/splitting/dehubbing is now very rare and most wheels are able to be ridden right down to the core without needing replacements. The cores of the wheels are also almost exclusively aluminium cores now with only children’s and lower range completes opting for plastic core wheels.
With these advancements, comes a variety of different scooter wheel widths and diameters, as well as two different sizes of bearings. This raises the question: How many different sizes are there? Well, the answer to that question is currently 8, but this number varies all the time based on what wheels are on the market. The sizes currently used are as follows: 100 x 24, 110 x 24, 120 x 24, 120 x 26, 120 x 28, 120 x 30, 115 x 30, 125 x 30. Some scooter manufacturers now make larger 12mm axles, wheels and bearings instead of the standard 8mm.
There is different polyurethane hardness, with most wheels falling between 84a and 94a. The most common hardness levels are 86a and 88a. A lower urethane hardness will ride smoother and have more grip but has a slower speed and does not slide as well whereas a higher urethane hardness slides better and has a higher speed but does not grip as well and rides less smoothly.
Scooter wheels come with a variety of different core designs, but they all fall into one of four main styles: full core, spoked core, hollow core and honey core.
Full cores aren’t used very often in scooter
wheels anymore because they were the heaviest due to the core being one solid piece of aluminium, but they were the strongest. Spoked cores and hollow cores are in the middle in terms of both strengh and weight, depending on their design.
A spoked core is a full core with a design cut
or milled out of it and a hollow core is two pieces of aluminium (one for each side) joined together. Honey cores are a hollowcore with a design cut out of both sides which makes them the lightest core and the weakest core.
The general rule with scooter wheel compatibility is that most companies will put the largest compatible wheels on their completes so you can use the same size wheels that came on the scooter or smaller. When changing bearing size or core width, you will require new spacers or adapters. The size of the wheels, urethane hardness, core design and colour are all rider preference so the best way to choose is to ride a few different types of wheels and see which ones ride the best for you.
If you want to upgrade your wheels and are unsure if the wheels you want are compatible with your current setup, email(sales@myscooterlab.com.au) or call us at 07 5599 3946. Or better yet, come see us at the store (My Scooter Lab, Shop 44a The Strand Shopping Centre, Coolangatta QLD)!