Taking a rest on the Flying Eagle F7
Falling in Love With Skating as a Child

When living in England during the 4th grade I put on my brother’s inline skates and fell in love with skating. I received my own first pair of skates when I turned 10-years-old. During my adolescence, I spent most of my free time either skating outside or at roller rinks. My brother and I played a lot of street hockey in our neighborhood when we lived in North Dakota and Wisconsin.

After graduating from high school in Portland, Oregon, I felt like I had outgrown skating and didn’t touch a pair of skates again until after I moved to Austin, Texas. I was out shopping for a new bicycle and noticed some inline skates while walking down the isle that caught my eye.

Rediscovering My Youth

Remembering how much I loved skating in my youth, I ended up ordering some Rollerblade Tempest skates. As soon as I put them on my feet and started skating around I knew I had rediscovered a part of me that had been missing for a long time. I started commuting to work on them, exploring my city and using them for exercise. Since then I have run into many people in the Austin area who share my passion for skating and I now look for any opportunity to skate that I can.

Getting Back on Blades

A little over a year ago my Rollerblade 4x90mm Tempest skates bit the dust and I needed to find a new pair of skates to replace them with. The more I researched online for what to buy next, the more intrigued I became with the idea of the tri-skate movement. I was at the point in my life where I was skating more and more and wanted a skate to meet my daily demands. I finally settled on ordering the Flying Eagle F7 Optimums online.

Flying Eagle F7 Optimum Skates with Super Sonic 3x110 Frames
Flying Eagle F7 Optimum Skates with Super Sonic 3×110 Frames
How The Felt on My Feet

The first time I laced up the Flying Eagle F7 Optimums I realized how different they were from my Tempests. I was not used to a hard boot design and they felt very rigid. A major concern I had about ordering skates online was getting the right fit. Before I placed my order I did a lot of careful measuring of my feet, making sure to accurately follow the instructions on how to get the sizing right. The first time I put my feet in them, I thought they felt a little bit too tight, especially on my left foot (which may be my bigger foot). I took them outside to skate around the block a few times to break them in. After skating on them for a little bit my feet settled in and they felt a lot better however my left foot was still a bit tight.

The Break In Period

I did a lot of reading about break-in periods and the different issues people were having breaking in their new skates. The tightness in my left foot was substantially less after my first couple of distance skates. I was also happy that I didn’t get any blisters, rub marks or sores while breaking in the skates. The only issue I had during the break-in period was when I tried to overdo it and skate 15-miles, my ankle ended up getting pretty swollen and painful. I couldn’t skate for another week until my ankle healed, but after that I never had another problem with pain in my feet. Also, full disclosure, on that trip when my ankle swelled I fell down pretty hard, so it could have been related to that. Either way, within a couple of weeks the Flying Eagle F7 skates felt great, with absolutely no discomfort at all.

Jumping around on the Flying Eagle F7
Jumping around.
The Flying Eagle Super Sonic 3×4 Frames

I bought the skates with the Supersonic Flying Eagle 3-wheel setup with 110 MM wheels. There’s a lot of information on the Internet about 3-wheel versus 4-wheel setups. I must say that after skating these Flying Eagles I am a big fan of the 3-wheel setup. I love them for their agility, the ability to travel distance and the smoothness your experience on poor road conditions compared to skating on smaller wheels.

Putting In the Miles

Since I purchased these skates I went from skating an average of 5 miles per day to skating 10 to 15 miles a day. Most days I use them to skate to work unless it’s below 30 degrees or if it’s raining. In the past year they have held up surprisingly well, and I really like that almost every part is replaceable if it wears out. I’ve gone through lots of wheels, lots of bearings, a couple different straps, a couple different cuffs and most recently I bought new stock liners.

I have no idea how many miles I skated on them last year, but I do know how many miles I’ve skated on them so far in 2018. As of this review on April 25th, I’ve skated just over 1,400 miles so far. I have them on my feet a lot. I got involved with the Big Wheel Blading 2018 challenge for most miles throughout the year, and my competitive side kicked in. It pushed me to skate a lot more than I normally would have. My goal for 2018 is to hit 5,000 miles.

Skating trails in Austin, Texas on the Flying Eagle F7
Skating trails in Austin, Texas.
My Thoughts on the Flying Eagle F7

I have nothing but good things to say about these skates. I like that they are compatible with any 165mm frames, that they are comfortable and are an overall solid skate. If I had to find anything I’m critical of, it would be the ventilation. I can’t really see any way around it, but my feet do get really sweaty in this boot, so I always have a ready supply of Lysol or Febreze to make sure they don’t get too funky. Maybe I just have really sweaty feet? I’ve also had an issue with the frame coming loose.

Or it could have been due to me not tightening the bolts enough. A couple of times a screw came loose and the frame would slide a little bit in the adjustment slot. I always carry a skate tool on me so it is a quick fix, but it could be a potential issue. The reason it could be an issue with the skate is that it only happened the last couple of months. And it happened a few times in a short period. To remedy this, any time I rotate my wheels, I adjust the tightness of the frame as well.

Looking for an overall solid skate on a budget? Then you can’t go wrong with the Flying Eagle F7. They now have the newer color scheme that they sell that comes standard with the 3×110 setup.

Working on parallel slides with the Flying Eagle F7 4x80 Frames.
Working on parallel slides with the Flying Eagle 4×80 Frames.
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3 Comments

  1. How did you buy a pair? I’m looking on their site & pretty much everywhere else & don’t see any way to actually buy a pair.

    1. Are you in North America? Check proskatersplace.com. They have lots of Flying Eagle products in stock.

  2. Yeah, that’s where I got them

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