Okay lads first impressions from someone thats skates mostly ledges and flat, has been on ventures for the past 2.5 years and has never skated standard height indys (I am clearly not the target demographic).
Current setup: 8.5 14.25 DLX board, 52mm classic fulls (probably about 50 now), 5.8 ventures with flat top washer, titanium hangers. Only swapped out trucks, no adjustments whatsoever on the lurpivs.
They feel tall, and tippy. They're not even any looser than my ventures but the turn is crazy, I'm scared to max out the turn because I feel like I'm going to fall off my board before I hit wheelbite. Its wild being able go actually carve, as opposed to only go in a straight line and lean. Not that I ever felt limited by the turn on ventures, but its very fun and liberating to not have to tic-tac when making a u-turn.
Grind was smoother than ventures, felt very nice. Pinch on crooked grinds a bit worse, but maybe I just haven't found the optimal position to hold them yet since the truck articulates so differently. I was sitting on them a bit longer by the end of the session. By no means a dealbreaker even if worse than ventures.
They're a lot heavier and higher than my ventures, but due to the recessed wheelbase the pop felt noticeably lighter. I could still do all my tricks, but not quite as well or confidently as I just didn't feel as stable on my board. This was probably due to a combination of a) the trucks being taller, b) me expecting my trucks to stay very straight and linear when setting up and rolling away, c) the recessed wheelbase. Definitely struggled a little bit with pop, ollieing up this three stair I always do required some intention where it used to feel like nothing, and I was also a bit less confident kickflipping up it although it was still very doable.
A few tricks worked very well, nollie frontside flips, kickflip noseslides off the top of my head for whatever reason.
I'll probably tighten them a little once they break in and set them up with a longer board, 14.5 wheelbase or something and it will probably feel a lot more comfortable. Being 6ft5, 14.25 was the bare minimum I could do even with ventures.
If I wanted to objectively maximize my performance I'd probably go straight back to my old setup. But I could definitely see myself figuring these out and having a lot of fun on them. Will definitely skate them until at least the end of the year and see how I'm feeling. I skated aces a long time ago and I feel like they're definitely more controllable than aces.
They're very good trucks, and the fact that I'm coming from the opposite side of the truck spectrum and was still able to land most of my usual routine on my first session means that they'll probably be just fine even for me if I stick with them in the long run.