Went and skated some 52 90a Bones with the hubs. Usually I skate 99a f4s.
They’re definitely a soft cruiser wheel. The simplest way I’d describe it is a slightly harder keyframe that slides much much better. Haven’t had keyframes in a while but it felt kinda similar. They slide muchhhhh better though, in my book keyframes barely slide at all.
Skated one of my usual concrete ledge + curb spots, ground is a mix of semi smooth but grippy, chalky concrete and some weird rough concrete that powerslides well, then bombed an asphalt hill. They slide just fine on ledges, could hold nose/tail and even blunt slides on my usual ledge no problem. I imagine it might grip a bit more on metal coping though as softer wheels are more sensitive to gripping on that than on concrete ledges in my experience but I’m very impressed with how well they slide on this concrete ledge despite how soft it is. Also really easy to initiate power slides bombing hills and the slide feels nice and controlled despite being super quiet. I do think it gripped noticeably more than 99a f4s on crooked grinds etc and also pitch you harder if you wheelbite when landing.
They definitely have the slightly gummy, bouncy feeling and sound of a soft wheel though. So popping and landing does not feel anything like a hard wheel. While you definitely could skate these instead of a hard street wheel if you wanted to since they slide unlike almost every other cruiser wheel, unless the ground you’re skating is seriously fucked, I don’t see why you would because they still have the soft wheel feel that would throw most people off a bit when doing tricks. Though to be fair I don't skate anything rougher than slightly shitty asphalt or bricks, nothing that a 97a f4 couldn't handle with ease.
I definitely couldn't see myself adopting these on any main 'trick' setup despite skating rough ish street spots a fair amount. Basically the decrease in performance from rolling over shitty ground on say 99a f4s is not as significant as the decrease in performance from skating on these because they just feel really unusual to me. Thats definitely partially due to familiarity and conditioning but still...
Hard to judge speed, on really rough ground they’re obviously a lot smoother and hold speed better than really hard wheels but on smooth ish ground they’re probably not as good. I also ended up getting a piece of metal stuck in the wheel bombing a hill and so I guess they lasted a grand total of one session long so not sure about the durability. Willing to say it was just bad luck though
That aside, I think these would be a great cruiser wheel if you got them in a 56mm or so. Basically a much much much more skateable, keyframe style, not super super soft, cruiser wheel. Or if you want a separate setup for really crusty spots. Don’t really have need for it right now but I could definitely see myself getting these as cruiser wheels in the future in a bigger size.
Just set up the 52m 93as with hubs. Won’t be able to skate them properly for a few days, but pushed down the street and back. They’re definitely harder than the 90s and slide louder, but also much softer and quieter than even 97 f4s. Definitely what I imagine a true cruiser/street wheel hybrid would be. Whats weird is it felt more difficult to initiate a slide on these than the 90s. Took a bit more force than the cruisery wheel. I am very confused. Maybe its the hubs? But both my 90 and 93as have hubs. I hope that this doesn’t translate to issues when I next skate but I guess I’ll find out sometime this coming week.
edit:
Another thing these could be really good for is if you're a filmer that doesn't want to carry around two boards. If your main focus is on filming and you want a quieter setup but still don't want to miss out on doing tricks and skating at the spots.