You Just Had To Have Bauer Turbo Quad Roller Skates With 2 Tone Sims Wheels
76Ahhhhhh the fun days of endless summer skating. If you were in your teens in the 90's and liked to skate the words Bauer Turbo would be very familiar to you. These were the skates to have, you just wasn't considered a serious skater unless you had a pair of these. There were Roces Athens but these were just considered as a pair of skates you owned untill you can afford a pair of Turbo's. Roces just didn't look as good as Bauers. Bauer Turbo's Boot just look right, and then you had the white tongues that curved over. How many people do you remember that put keyrings through their Roces tongues to replicate Bauers?Hahaha. There were many modifications you could make to your skates, Lairy laces, Cheese blocks, remember them? Bearings, mushroom bearings rings a bell??? Hockey Socks, Player maker trucks, some nutters even put skateboards trucks on their skates and last but not least, Wheels. Wheels were an extension of your coolness, Krypto Impulse , Hyper Rollo's, Variflex and of course Sims more importantly Sims Street snakes. If you had a pair of 2 tone Sims (especially) the blue and white variety combined with a pair of Bauer Turbo's you most definitely attracted the opposite sex at the skate park. It was like owning a Porsche or Ferrari just the teen equivalent.
Bauers where about from the late 80's until Nike bought them out in late 90's. Bauer Turbo's were not going to be made anymore which meant you had to dig around for secondand pairs, thats up untill recently as you can now get Supreme Turbo's which are virtually identical to Bauers. Inline skating came in and quad skates became old hat, They were lighter and were more agile, Inline skates could let you grind rails, jump ramps, go down stairs and just be alot more faster. Bauer did make inline skates for a while but it just wasn't the same. Sims wheel were also discontinued too. Now did they become distant memories and the obsolite items of a time gone by. No way they became extremely collectible. Now 10 years on from being discontinued Bauer Turbo's have become extremely rare pushing prices very high. It doesn't matter of their secondhand condition too much, they still demand a premium. Expect to pay close to £100 for a pair of Bauer Turbo's in the large sizes and expect to pay more if they have a pair of 2 tones attached.
So what were the Bauer Turbo Models?
Bauer Turbo White Malibu's
Your regular Bauer Turbo: The Iconic shape that you usually see and the best. Differences were different colour stickers to differentiate the years, Flourescent green was a popular colour. They also revised the socks to purple tongues and trucks to white that were iron trucks incased in white plastic but these tended to bend and could not be changed to aftermarket trucks due to Bauer rivising the truck plate.
Bauer Turbo 33's: Looked more like a ice skate boot, also had different Bauer stickers with 33 on the back. Not to my taste but were very popular.
Multi Coloured Bauer's - Cruisers: Bauer Cruisers are extremely rare. Blue Boot wit red ankle and heel plate. I've only ever seen one pair of these in the flesh and that was back in 95, these have come up on ebay a couple of times and were priced at £300 due to the rarity.
Blue And Grey Bauer Bravo : Very similar to the bravo's also very rare probably not one of the most sought after bauers but if you find some, grab them.
White Bauer's - Malibu's: Extremely, Extremely Rare Bauer Skates! These were pearlescent White with pink bauer stickers. A completly smooth boot with no accents. I first see a pair of these when I used to skate as a kid and wanted a pair ever since. I've only ever seen 1 pair of theres turn up on ebay and they were NOS and had a price tag £300 with 2 tone sims even though in a smallish size.
Promotional Coca Cola "Coke" Bauer's: Thanks to a comment left below I was made aware of a very special, very rare pair of Bauer's. Coca Cola teamed up with Bauer to make a promotional pair of skates. Completely red on what looks like a Turbo 33 Boot. After the comment below I went hunting for a pair and I managed to find them! Thanks to Carol the seller of the pair I found, she let me use her Pics!
Update: Currently a pair of these for sale on eBay now! See Here
Check them out on ebay and have a dig arounf in your loft to see if you still have your old pairs. I own a pair of bauer turbo's now, buying many over the years to sell on. Ive also owned many 2 tones and even a set of 3 tones Sims. With the more 80's rollerdiscos popping up skating will always be popular. But if you want to be the centre of attetntion you have to have bauer turbos.
Sims are hard to find, especially ones that haven't been used outdoors but if you want the same look as the street snakes then sfr wheels are producing something very close.
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- Bauer Turbo 33's Quad Skates: Love em or Hate Them?
One of Bauer's models was the Bauer Turbo 33'S check my new pair out here.
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Serious skaters wore Panther, Malibu or even Turbo 33's, any kid with parents willing to buy them a pair of £100+ skates could get their hands on a pair of the later Bauer Turbo and so many did as they were so readily available. I'm not disputing that they were awesome skates, I had a pair for a while and they were nice but I soon reverted back to my old Panthers and once I'd out grown them I managed to get my Malibu (I got bored of having the same skates as all the kids that came to my local rink!) If you want really special skates get Malibu if you can, If not Panther. Failing that go for Turbo, they ARE top notch skates and although they aren't made anymore there's always plenty of pairs on ebay. If you dont want to wear a pair of someone elses old smellies then go for Supreme turbo 33 which are almost identical to the later Bauer turbo. The Trucks you refer to above are called playmaker not "player maker" and the company who are producing the new version of Sims street snakes is SFR not "SFS" by the way.
There are companies over here in the UK that have brand new old stock bauer turbos. The secondhand pairs still hold a good price on ebay.
I've only seen 1 pair of NOS Bauer Turbo on ebay recently and they were a uk size 6. I haven't come across any companies offering NOS items whilst browsing the net in general though. Got any links to such companies?
@gadgyt. I'd never heard of Bauer street but after a bit of research I came up with this:
Bauer -INLINE ZS5 RC- STITCHED STREET- SR- Roller Hockey - Inline Skates
"HOCKEY" Series. Suggested retail: $240.00
Shatterproof CAPPED TOE/ / stitched BALLISTIC NYLON Skate Boot upper
Lace front closure for heel placement , energy transfer and support
Dual density built-in absorptive memory foam liner / Removable Bauer "Super Fit" foam footbed (orthotic) inside
Hockey profile "Super-light" CHASSIS with serviceable hardware.
They are inliners (not my thing at all) but as far as inliners go they look nice.
(Hope this helps)
Yes I do, its a UK company called BARDY BARDY. When I also searched for Bauer streets ( as I had never heard of them either ) I only got inline skates turn up too I dont think you can compare them to quads. I did see on a forum someone mention them responding to a thread that was about a pair of quads but no pictures were put up of the Bauer streets. Im trying find a site that i found a little while ago that did have some good info on bauers and there may be some info on there about bauer streets. Was wondering if bauer streets were only in the US market.
I know of Bardy Bardy (quad-skates.co.uk) They offer refurbed Bauer skates and converted ice skates but dont have any NOS items that I know of. The good thing about converted ice skates is that they've never been worn outside so are usually in good nick and you can pick them up quite cheap. They will convert them to quads for you for £50 including playmaker plates and hangers.
Old school Skaters wore Panther and Malibu but when Turbos came out they were better skates! :P
Yeah you would say that "Terry" lol
Much luv
i had bauer panther - 2 tone black and red sims, bones swiss bearings.... sheeeebang! 20 years ago mind....
Just brought some brand new 3 tone sims and bauers from conflict skates Leicester uk and a pair of new still boxed blue bauers size 3 for my son with brand new 2 tones couldn't believe it wish they had my size !!!
Top notch buy, I've had 3 tones. I'm still waiting for a pair Malibu's to turn up. One day,One day.
Great little nostalgic look back on those good old skating days, I used to head to the rink. I went to allsports one day, heading for a pair of Bauer Turbo's but I (somehow) opted for a pair of Bauer FX3 QUADS, I cant find any reference to them on the internet anywhere. I must stress that they are factory built, not converted. I can send some pictures if you want to see them. I pulled them out of the loft the other week, but no wheels. Can you shed light any on these?
Many thanks
Sam
Great Post Sam, message me through this site and send the pics over, i'd love to take a look at them. I've done a little google search for FX3's and the blades show up, which I remember well but no quads, I'd like to see what you have and i'll write a hub on them for you they're a bit special.
Thanks for replying, check out this post- I posted some pics on this forum to hopefully gather anty info- http://skatelogforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5
I'm awaiting some wheels and bearings so if you do want some decent pics, I'll post them to you when they are 'complete' again.
Many thanks
Sam
I've had a pair of those Bauer's (I've had quite a few pairs). When I saw the FX3 blades I noticed the socks and wondered if thats why your pair were called FX3's as they don't have the usual white socks. The other thing I noticed is that you have white trucks, this was a revision by Bauer which wasn't a good one. I had a pair of Bauer Turbos with those white trucks, I went down once at the skate rink and bent one of the trucks, when I went to change them for playmakers they don't fit. I found out that you cant replace them for any aftermarket pair of trucks, so I tried to find some original bauer ones and you cant get them anywhere. I had to buy a pair of small sized secondhand bauers with the white trucks on them and use them and keep them as spares. I bent another truck after some hard skating, so i replaced it and sold them on.
Well ... if any of you wana get back into skating, theres a crew of about 20 of us who skate all over the place, we originally started skating at Rollers in Milton keynes back in the day. When that closed down we were gutted and decided to get our own skating disco off the ground, so now me and my partner own Scrags roller disco in berkhamstead on a saturday 5pm - 7pm and Hemel hempstead on a sunday 5pm - 7pm. This wk end we just attended an all night skate 10pm - 6am at Rollerworld in derby, we also skate at rollerworld in colechester, nottingham and roller city in welwyn garden city! get those skates back out guys and come join us! xxxxx
I just got a pair of 33's CJ Penning, so I might see you at some of those venues!
I had a pair of Bauer street once, probably 93-96(not mentioned above) they were like navy blue colour all over(not like bravo's), i haven't seen another pair since. i am now on the hunt for another pair of size 9-10 bauer turbo's and struggling especially seeing as now i am in Australia and most on ebay don't do international shipping.
Correction* i see Bauer street have been mentioned above by "gadgyt"! ..I have searched for a pic of some too, can't find them, obviously extremely rare..Damn!! I wish i kept them :-/
(I just created an account, I am "Shane" from above comment.
Thanks for your comment shane. I have sold many pairs of bauer turbos on ebay and a few of those have gone world wide. if you ask any of the UK ebay sellers, many will send worldwide even if they dont list worldwide shipping. It would be around £40 postage to be sent worldwide form the UK.
i just purchased a pair of bright red bauer skates from canada and they have been logo'd up for a promotion for coca cola - i have contacted bauer in Canada and sent pictures they have confirmed that they are indeed bauers and they were produced as a promo in the early 80's for coca cola... they are in pristine condition and are currently in transit from canada and are a us size 4!!!! So my question is has anyone ever seen such a rare and wonderful set of bauers like this cola version?? i own size 11 panthers with 2 tone sims, my boy has panthers size 4 with 2 tone sims and another pair of turbos with grey back off panthers converted from ice skates brand new never worn with 2 tone sims..... i just cant get enough lol... when the cola skates arrive i'm gonna set them up with pure white sims and bones red bearings to set them up to look wicked.... anyone have any idea if 1) they have seen such skates before 2) how much would you reckon they would be worth.... thanks all... keep on rollin
I absolutely love the above comment!!!! I do remember a lot of Coca Cola livered up stuff, but Coca Cola Bauer's I don't think I have.
They are going to look the nuts I would love to see them!
Further to opronie's comment I have found, The coca cola bauers in question. The seller had 2 pairs of them. size 12 and size 11!!!!!!!!!! And theyre sold!!!!!
The do look the biz though.
I used to roll a pair on 3tone sim and nmb's, the good old days. Thinking of getting another pair to keep fit (im pushing 30 now) but cant remember if i have to roll one size higher? im size 9 in shoe all help welcome cheers and great post.
Thanks
Thank you Jon,
Yeh, 1 size higher is what you need, I have size 11, 33's and I'm a 10.
Wait till January to get a pair, they'll be cheaper on sites like eBay around that time.
I have some supreme turbos exacley like bauers I had some bauers but had to get bigger size so got supremes
..:: Go hard or go Home ::..
I have just got my Bauer Turbo 33's out of the loft and cleaned them up as I am going to roller city in Southend. Blast from the past :) I have a selection of two tone and three tone sims on them and they're in pretty good nick. Loving this site, hearing people still love the old skates
That's great Chris. Keep hold of them. Bauer's have shot up in price recently on eBay. Yours are worth £100+.
oops, i just gave away my size 11 turbos with pink sticker when i converted ice skates
Skating seems to have made a comeback over the last couple years. All good. Back in the day I had mint Bauer 33's , variflex plates and 3 tone sims with SW bearings. I sold them for £30. Biggest mistake i ever made.
I started skating again about 3 years ago and bought some Bauer panthers from quad-skates.co.uk. I hated them. Totally annilated my ankles. Sold them recently for £80 minus wheels in very good condition.
I am now an ice hockey boot convert. I own some nike flexlites and Bauer supreme one60s. Both converted by quadskates.co.uk. I would definitely recommend them to do the conversion. I also have some OG sims in pink and purple 2tone. I prefer Belairs. Blazers in particular.
Not a fan of Rollacity in Southend. Rink is tiny- nice surface though. Maldon is pretty good to skate on.
Colchester RW is my favourite hence the reason we make a 120 round mile skate every week to skate there!
I love Colchester Roller World
I did have a pair or Bauer Turbos with the blue and white two tone wheels but they were Hub Wheels not sims and with yellow hockey sock along with medium trucks . loved them to death ,use to rock them at the roller disco at ashdown lol .tried to dig them out from mums loft but she chucked them a while ago :( so off to poole skate shop this weekend to get some Supreme Turbos and u can get the two tone sims on ebay and i cant wait .
Hey Keef, I completely agree with you on the Rollacity front, it is tint and does'nt compare to Colchester. I have'nt been to Maldon yet!
Glad to find this page whilst googling, i've been skating quads for around 15 years now, been through a few pairs though. Started on a pair of Roces Athens and then went through two pairs of Bauer Turbo's before 'Growing up', sadly I got rid of them, I wish I hadn't. All is not lost though, I have two pairs of Bauer Turbo's now, one pair for rink and the other pair, I'm scared to use as they are mint condition size 11's... Would love to meet up with other skaters in the Essex area though, if theres anyone out there let me know.
Cheers.
I have a pair of Bauer Turbo 33s size 9 and I've never been clear about what UK size they are? In womens shoe size (not mens) (I'm a UK size 7.5, or a 41, it's so hard to tell these days as sizes so variable). They were mine and I used them as a kid, but always felt they were a bit big - perhaps my parents thought I'd 'grow in to them' :-) - not so much in fit, just in look, but that's cos I was vain about my foot size...
See, they've done up my local park in London and it's looking so smooth and tempting and I was thinking about getting them out again - but wondering if I decide I wanna keep skating whether I should trade them in for smaller ones...
Ooh, also, if I've not skated in them for years will my wheels still be okay?? Do the bearings go etc? I never really understood about bearings (I have variflex wheels, in four different colours - teenage girl central)...
Just wondering if I should get new wheels or clean them up or something. Definately need a new backstop, it's nearly worn to the bolt.
Hello Jacky,
With Bauer's you want the skate size 1 bigger than your shoe size so in your case an 8 but If you have a pair of 9's i'd say keep hold of them.
I'm a 10 and my skates are a 12, I like some room in my skates.
Your wheels will be fine. Variflex wheels were a hard wheel so can take an outdoor beating. When bearings are shot they will break up and all the ball bearings will fall out, so if they haven't done this then just buy some "3 in 1" oil, which you can get out of Tesco's and squirt a few drops in the bearings, that will free them up and get them spinning. Once you get confident skating again you can then upgrade all this. GET SKATING!
Hey, thanks! :-) That's helpful... Already got some oil so can get on to the wheels. Planning to take them out for a spin tomorrow. Woop woop. Can feel the teen within coming out to play!
I'm just reading through the comments and wondering how old people are? Cos been thinking I'm a bit old to be seen out on skates again... I see a number of you are out in Essex (I'm from Essex) but am in East London now - any adults skating around this way??? :-)
Get Skating Jacky,
I'm the wrong side of 25 now and I still skate. Get yourself down to Colchester Rollerworld, it's a great clean rink with many older people busting out the Bauer Turbo's. I also go to Renaissance Rooms in Vauxhall London, now and agian, you get to really dress up there.
I've just purchased a pair of Roces, I couldn't afford the second hand Bauer turbos and also the Supremes, well I just don't want an immitation so I got the Roces Athens, went to the park yesterday and within about 20 minutes it just all came back to me so naturally, spinning around to stop, going backwards haha my missus was asking "How do you know how to do that!", I'm 29 and don't feel it's too old or anything! No way! There's a lot of big groups in London who do weekly skates so I'm going to join them next weekend! :)
I grew up on an estate and it was all about what trainers or skates you had. Unfortunately my mum had no cash so I had Rollerski! So lame! But I was a good skater and I would be up for any challenge to see who could go the fastest off the rubbish ramps we made at the back of our flats!
I'm 32 now. I went to Roller Disco in Newham last night. It was wicked. I hired some skates - but hey..I'm 32 now I can afford to get my own, so now its time to get the skates I always wanted. Ever since I was young I wanted these White Bauer's or Roces??! Back in the day I saw one kid wearing them and I was like 'those are the skates'! After looking at the pics above I think it might have been the Bauer's. Not positive tho. Did Roces do white ones as well? I can't wait to get my own good skates and go skating again!
Love it Lissipan,
My first pair of skates were a pair of fabric quads then I got a pair new roller blades from argos and I wore those things so much that I wore the wheels out at a 45 degree angle. I bought a pair of Roces Athens off a freind and although they are 100 times comfier than Bauer's, Roces just don't cut it. It was by chance that when I was in my local chip shop an older kid heard me talking about Bauer's and he said he had a pair and I could by them off him. He even let me try them on and skate home to get the money for them, I couldn't believe it. I skated home so fast. Got them for £15!!!!! They were so battered though. I didn't care I had bauer turbos!!!
I don't remember white Roces but I have had a turquoise pair of Roces in the past. Get a pair of Bauer's.
Hi all,Rollerworld colchester is my favorite rink,been going for many years on a wednesday night(adult night).I think a few people that have posted on here i know and lots of us are in our late 30`s and beyond....lol
I own a few pairs of bauers ranging from turbo 33`s to my own current bauer street. I know many people with different bauers ranging from malibus to the ultra rare coca cola red bauers.Lots of us are on facebook in the bauer turbo apprecation society if anyone fancies a look.
Don't forget the white and black leather Bauer figure skates - comes with blades but can be converted. Also quite rare - especially the white ones ;)
Hey i fondly remember skating in the 90s at a local rink, a question which has been bugging me for months is, does anyone else remember the large foam cuffs you could get to go over your skates, what where they called, anyone know?
I've had a look RaptorRed but nothing is coming up so far. Some people call them boot covers but I remember them being called Tubes or Tube socks.
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gadgyt 16 months ago
What do you know bout 'Bauer Street' roller skates?