Roller Derby Upgrades!!!

They're addictive.

I used to chuckle at people who would spend a lot of money on upgrades for their cars, I didn't get it. Now I have a different type of wheels and I find myself getting excited over the thought of buying new toe stops and bearings.

My latest purchase is for custom toe covers. Poison Ivy (Batman) inspired toe covers. A couple of weeks ago we were covering knee taps in training and I was worried about the amount of scuffs my skates were getting. I mentioned to my skate friends that I was worried about wearing through my boots and they told me to go and look at a page on Facebook called 'Strawberrys and Scream'. I looked her up and saw some really amazing, well made designs. I dropped RedRage a message and asked if custom Poison Ivy toe covers were something she could do. Luckily for me she told me it would be no problem and the rest is history. 

They arrived late last week and I couldn't wait to get them on my skates. They're beautiful, dark purple base and green ivy leaves.

I was not expecting them to be as fiddly to fit as they were. I had to borrow a wrench from my mum in order to get the toe stops off. I unscrewed the nut and hand twisted it until the toe stop came free. I point to remember is to notice how the washer is sitting. Mine are conical so they had a right way and a wrong way to go back together.

Then I had to unlace my boots. It sounds minor but I have them laced a certain way so I don't get cramp. I did it one at a time so I had the other one to look at when lacing them back up and it takes me forever. On top of that I had to work out where the covers would sit on the lacing.

That was the was easy bit though! My new toe covers have three sections at the toe which wrap around the end and I was having a right faff working out which way round they should overlap. I couldn't remember how my friends have theirs either. I ended up layering them the way I thought they looked the most correct, the outside edges underneath and then the front over the top.

The next bit was getting the toe stops back on. The washer needed to be between the plate and the covers and then I had to get the toe stop through the three layers of the cover. Once I had the toe stop stem through the layers I had to make sure I had the washer attached. The amount of times I dropped it... After I had it altogether I had to push hard to get the threads of the short stem to meet the plate. After several minutes of swearing and sadly marking the toe covers because I had to screw the toe stops in quite tightly, I managed to get everything secured.

I only had to repeat it on the other side, I'm pleased to say it went a lot smoother.

I think they look great though! If you're looking for new toe covers look up RedRage on Instagram, she also has an Etsy shop which is where I bought mine.

This is only a short post. Just me working out how to do more things, this time upgrades for my Derby skates... Now I'm scared about scuffing them up 😂.

L xx



P.s you can also find me on Twitter @LaurenAilie0 or on Instagram with Kelly @chonker-plonker where we're documenting our fitness journey.