Seba Marathon 325 - Black Inline Skates

Several years ago Seba brand, famous for their freestyle and freeride skates, have created a semi-race skate. It was a time when the brand has hoped for a rapid expansion into skating branches it wasn’t really involved in before, namely: speedskating, aggressive inline and fitness.

This has resulted in range of interesting products. The aggressive CJ skates have met moderate success and the brand still offers them to this day. The fitness-oriented GTX line of skates turned out to be a flop and soon abandoned. Seba has failed to become main player in world of speedskating, but decided to continue Marathon line of skates.

Those who know their way around skating gear will surely spot the striking similarity to Trix freeskate. Marathon, at a first glance, indeed may look like Trix, but with a speedskating frame. As it’s often the case with Seba skates, there’s more to them than what meets the eye. The boot, already lightweigth, rigid and responsive with superb energy transfer, has been tuned for requirements of speedskating.

Skate is based around a shell made out of carbon and glass fibres. It’s not as light as full carbon shell, but still pretty light and the overall rigidity of the skate is high, making for a „snappy” skating experience. The integrated padding gives a great, snug fit, further contributing to excellent amount of control in every push. The heel is locked in place just like one would expect from a skate derived from freestyle slalom model. Premium insole is shaped to provide a solid arch support.

The outer skin is virtually the same as on Trix skates – it’s pretty rigid and of course, durable. Describing these skates as softboots would be doing them a huge disservice. The lacing alone holds the foot firmly in place and you can tighten the skates further using toe strap and two micrometric buckles. It’s worth to note that the boot of the skate is lower than Trix – freeing up the ankle and making it more suitable for speedskating.

A big highlight of the skate is the triangle cuff. This has proven to be an excellent solution in freestyle slalom models like Trix and KSJ, freeing up the ankle movement much more than traditional cuff, and gives the same benefit here. The lateral support is excellent, but you can get really low in these as the boot follows your body movement.

It comes as no surprise that boot is equipped with 195 mm mount spacing, making it compatible with wide range of speedskating frames.

When it comes to stock frames, though, they aren’t exactly what one would describe as “racing” model. In fact, they are what one would consider as “urban” 3x125 frames, seeing that even though they fit biggest wheels out there, their wheelbase is only 266 mm. It is fast and maneuverable setup, but doesn’t offer the same level of speed as proper speedskating frame, due to shorter, less stable base for strong push. The frame is extruded and CNC machined, reasonably rigid. It fits three 125 mm diameter wheels. Even considering a short wheelbase, it still takes some experience and skill to use it to its full potential.

The wheels are Seba Speed model with 85A hardness. They can be considered as solid training wheels, but there’s no denying that no one will be breaking the records on these – to put it simply, competition grade speedskating wheels they aren’t. In fact, it is better to view them as urban skating wheels. The ILQ9 Pro bearings are among one of the best stainless steel made bearings available and will serve well while going fast.

Seba Marathon 325 is a strange breed of a skate, then. Less of a pure speedskate, more of a hybrid between one and urban skate. It isn’t made for “true” speedskaters, but come highly recommended for those who seek pure fun in going fast and would like to have option to navigate tighter urban spaces. Those who don’t need a low-cut boot, but would want to have more ankle freedom than what most semi-race skates offer.

Taken in this context, Seba Marathon 325 shapes up to be a rather unique skate which may win over many people simply because it offers something different than regular semi-race skates. It is a solid pick for urban workout and commuting, too.