The Indy Thread

[Ok]

149 is the best - I really think they're noticeably better feeling riding/grinding/whatever. It feels like Indy is designed to be at that size and the other ones feel like weird modifications of that model.

I ditched 139 and started skating 149 in 2012, with DLX 8.25s. At the time I remember there being two camps: 1) those who made the switch too. 2) Those who said I'd never be able to flip my board again.

Day one I had no issues with flip tricks and never looked back haha. Other than brief attempts at other truck brands I've pretty faithfully stuck to them, mostly on FA 8.38 (now shape2) or 8.5. IMO it works perfect 8.25-8.5.

Admittedly I've only ever had two sets of 144's - once when they first came out, and once recently when the shop didn't have any 149 and I thought I'd just be Mr. Chill-don't care guy. Both times I kinda didn't like them. Stuck with them for a bit the first time but this recent time I gave up after a month and ponied up for the 149s.

I half write this off as me being a psycho, but I will say - if you're a crooked grinder you won't know how you dealt with anything other than the 149's width.

I've currently got an amazing set going minus the squeakiest pivot cup on planet earth on the front truck.. I want to tinker and fix it but history tells me this will send me back to truck purgatory so I will chill 

interesting thought in the 149s being the size they are built around. i feel like there is some truth to this theory, trucks being optimized at a specific size.
for me, with indy’s, 159s felt the best. noticeably. i haven’t had a set of 149s that i loved. cannot figure that out. that was the size i really wanted to work, and i just haven’t been able to feel it.
one day

[JM]

Apologies if this has already been asked but, I recently got a pair of 144 forged hollows for a second setup and started to notice the sound of the truck when the wheels smack the ground was pretty gross. As well as the sound and feel even of grinding, rolling over cracks, and just in general felt nowhere near as good coming from solid axel AF1s.

I heard Ben Degros say something about the forged plate being responsible for the "tinny" sound which makes  sense. So my madness and curiosity made me try out the indy hollow hanger with an Ace classic baseplate. Sounds better than the forged plate but still has a kinda bunk sound & feel IMO. Sorry if this is blasphemy to anyone lol

So my question is basically will a solid axle indy standard have a more (no pun intended) solid feel and sound? Because riding the hollows coming off my AF1s makes the indys feel almost like a toy or something. I skated indy standards for years when I was younger and never paid attention and remember them feeling a lot nicer. What do you guys think bc Im itching to pull the trigger on a pair of standards and sell my lightly skated 144 forged hollows

I run hollows (normal baseplate) and I put liquid nail/epoxy in the bottom (board side) side of the kingpin to fill the hole and reduce the sound coming from that opening.

It helped, and I’m sure filling the axle will reduce the sound even more. (But… would really need to make sure the axle doesn’t get “stripped” from misplaced epoxy glue/liquid nails)

I had titaniums before and when I switched to standard cast baseplate from the forged, it sounded so much more like a solid deep satisfying indy grind. My chunky ledge grinding went from “crrrriiiiiiiichhhiichchchhh” to “crrruuuunnnchhchchcchhchch”

[Mbrimson88]

Apologies if this has already been asked but, I recently got a pair of 144 forged hollows for a second setup and started to notice the sound of the truck when the wheels smack the ground was pretty gross. As well as the sound and feel even of grinding, rolling over cracks, and just in general felt nowhere near as good coming from solid axel AF1s.

I heard Ben Degros say something about the forged plate being responsible for the "tinny" sound which makes  sense. So my madness and curiosity made me try out the indy hollow hanger with an Ace classic baseplate. Sounds better than the forged plate but still has a kinda bunk sound & feel IMO. Sorry if this is blasphemy to anyone lol

So my question is basically will a solid axle indy standard have a more (no pun intended) solid feel and sound? Because riding the hollows coming off my AF1s makes the indys feel almost like a toy or something. I skated indy standards for years when I was younger and never paid attention and remember them feeling a lot nicer. What do you guys think bc Im itching to pull the trigger on a pair of standards and sell my lightly skated 144 forged hollows

One thing that quite a few people have found with new Indy trucks is the pivot cup is very hard and often makes the board sound like it has a blown pivot cup, that little bit more metal on metal noise when it drops or truck hits the ground, so just check to see if there is movement in the pivot cup area and swap them out for some other basic / generic pivot cups or put a little something else in there to soften the pivot point from the hanger and more often than not, suddenly you don't have that weird noise any more.

I got a lot of pivot cups in just for this purpose, with quite a few sets of new Indy trucks just sounding a bit off, then switch out pivot cups and they sound like every other normal truck.

You don't need any super fancy expensive pivot cups either - I just got the generic ones from DLX (Thunder) or even the other couple of generic ones on the market from other suppliers and they do the job.


Of course there could be other things, as others have mentioned too, but this is the most common single issue I have found with any Indy truck since they changed and this started happening from around 2020 or 2021, so I have swapped out a lot of pivot cups since then for people, including on my own boards with the newer trucks.

[JM]

my new 144 hollows on my new DLX have been turning to the side like the holes on the deck are crooked, or the truck is crooked.

is there any chance the holes are slightly off, or would it be something with the truck? (I've got a few days riding on them, so they're a little broken in).

It's not like the hangar is stuck to one side either.

it's driving me bonkers.  any thing to try?

[Sedition]

Per question a few posts back, I religiously ride the DLX 8.25/14.38. Prior to 8.25 trucks being a thing, I rode it with 149s. Once 144s came out, I have ridden those. However, I have dabbled with 149s on several occasions. Here are my experiences with both (w/53mm Spitfire Classics):

Magic Carpet v. Hot Rod
144s: Slight magic carpet on wheels. Axles flush to deck.
149s: Axle nuts slightly hot-rod. Wheels are flush to deck.

Turn
149s absolutely have a better feeling, and more stable turn, IMHO. The lateral wheelbase of 144s just doesn't seem to have the same "magic" as 149s, and the 144 turn feels more...cramped, tight, and less fluid/fun.

Grinds
I do not like the feeling of "cross locked" grinds on mini ramps or street. Also, when doing any type of 1-truck grind, I want a good lock-in. With 149s, I notice more of "lateral slop" with grinds. Cross-Lock feel more exaggerated when I end up in one (which I do not like). 5-0, nose grinds, hurricanes, etc. seem to "float" a tad before finding their groove. I don't like my trucks to have lots of lateral movement getting-into/during grinds, and I feel that 144s have less of that than 149s, which is a good thing for me (whereas 139s feels way too tight-rope). 144s are the perfect medium. With crooks, like someone else said, I like my weight a little more inside than outside. So, here, too, I like 144s better. Oh, I can Smith grind better on single-sided ledges/ramps with 149s, however.

Weight Distribution / Center of Gravity
Here, also, I feel like 144s cause me to keep my center of gravity more over the center of the deck. I do a ton of feeble to fakie, pivot to fakie, axle to fakie, nose pick to fwd, etc. type tricks on mini ramps. Here, 144s also seem to keep me more centered over the middle of the deck during the balance point and reentry.

Flip Tricks
They seem easier to flip on 144s, but the landing on 149s feel more stable/solid (which makes sense, because overall 149s feel more solid/stable).

Weight
My board def feels heavier with 149s.

Overall, I stick with 144s. Are these differences real, and substantive enough to create any actual differences, or are they just reality because perception can become reality? That's for you to find out (and post about in the Madness thread. Lol.)


 

[Vintagebody]

my new 144 hollows on my new DLX have been turning to the side like the holes on the deck are crooked, or the truck is crooked.

is there any chance the holes are slightly off, or would it be something with the truck? (I've got a few days riding on them, so they're a little broken in).

It's not like the hangar is stuck to one side either.

it's driving me bonkers.  any thing to try?

Gotta break them in yo

[JimmyFive]

Expand Quote

Apologies if this has already been asked but, I recently got a pair of 144 forged hollows for a second setup and started to notice the sound of the truck when the wheels smack the ground was pretty gross. As well as the sound and feel even of grinding, rolling over cracks, and just in general felt nowhere near as good coming from solid axel AF1s.

I heard Ben Degros say something about the forged plate being responsible for the "tinny" sound which makes  sense. So my madness and curiosity made me try out the indy hollow hanger with an Ace classic baseplate. Sounds better than the forged plate but still has a kinda bunk sound & feel IMO. Sorry if this is blasphemy to anyone lol

So my question is basically will a solid axle indy standard have a more (no pun intended) solid feel and sound? Because riding the hollows coming off my AF1s makes the indys feel almost like a toy or something. I skated indy standards for years when I was younger and never paid attention and remember them feeling a lot nicer. What do you guys think bc Im itching to pull the trigger on a pair of standards and sell my lightly skated 144 forged hollows

[close]

One thing that quite a few people have found with new Indy trucks is the pivot cup is very hard and often makes the board sound like it has a blown pivot cup, that little bit more metal on metal noise when it drops or truck hits the ground, so just check to see if there is movement in the pivot cup area and swap them out for some other basic / generic pivot cups or put a little something else in there to soften the pivot point from the hanger and more often than not, suddenly you don't have that weird noise any more.

I got a lot of pivot cups in just for this purpose, with quite a few sets of new Indy trucks just sounding a bit off, then switch out pivot cups and they sound like every other normal truck.

You don't need any super fancy expensive pivot cups either - I just got the generic ones from DLX (Thunder) or even the other couple of generic ones on the market from other suppliers and they do the job.


Of course there could be other things, as others have mentioned too, but this is the most common single issue I have found with any Indy truck since they changed and this started happening from around 2020 or 2021, so I have swapped out a lot of pivot cups since then for people, including on my own boards with the newer trucks.

Call me a kook but I swap out all my pivot cups for the internally lubricated Riptide cups. Sure they are a bit pricey but they eliminate all slop, provide silky turn and more stability - along with getting rid of any speaks and creaks.
They produce all their cups from exact molds of particular truck types and go through rigorous testing before coming to market. Try them out if you haven't already - just get the right cups for your type of trucks.

[Mbrimson88]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

[close]

[close]

Call me a kook but I swap out all my pivot cups for the internally lubricated Riptide cups. Sure they are a bit pricey but they eliminate all slop, provide silky turn and more stability - along with getting rid of any speaks and creaks.
They produce all their cups from exact molds of particular truck types and go through rigorous testing before coming to market. Try them out if you haven't already - just get the right cups for your type of trucks.

There are others on here who swear by Riptide pivot cups, so you are not alone there.

For the price in USA it might be worth it, but here in AU they are $20+ just for a set of two, whereas the generic decent ones are about $1 each, so that is twenty pivot cups, vs two, for the same price.

I don't doubt that they work really well for whatever truck you put them in, but the high price and minimal access means they are a no go for a fair percentage of skateboarders in some places.


* Rad that they do go above and beyond to make such a good product, as per other people talking about them too, so no worries in that regard.

[curb_cut]

Expand Quote

Apologies if this has already been asked but, I recently got a pair of 144 forged hollows for a second setup and started to notice the sound of the truck when the wheels smack the ground was pretty gross. As well as the sound and feel even of grinding, rolling over cracks, and just in general felt nowhere near as good coming from solid axel AF1s.

I heard Ben Degros say something about the forged plate being responsible for the "tinny" sound which makes  sense. So my madness and curiosity made me try out the indy hollow hanger with an Ace classic baseplate. Sounds better than the forged plate but still has a kinda bunk sound & feel IMO. Sorry if this is blasphemy to anyone lol

So my question is basically will a solid axle indy standard have a more (no pun intended) solid feel and sound? Because riding the hollows coming off my AF1s makes the indys feel almost like a toy or something. I skated indy standards for years when I was younger and never paid attention and remember them feeling a lot nicer. What do you guys think bc Im itching to pull the trigger on a pair of standards and sell my lightly skated 144 forged hollows

[close]

I run hollows (normal baseplate) and I put liquid nail/epoxy in the bottom (board side) side of the kingpin to fill the hole and reduce the sound coming from that opening.

It helped, and I’m sure filling the axle will reduce the sound even more. (But… would really need to make sure the axle doesn’t get “stripped” from misplaced epoxy glue/liquid nails)

I had titaniums before and when I switched to standard cast baseplate from the forged, it sounded so much more like a solid deep satisfying indy grind. My chunky ledge grinding went from “crrrriiiiiiiichhhiichchchhh” to “crrruuuunnnchhchchcchhchch”

daaamn hahah kinda wish I wouldve tried that epoxy idea. Genius, oh well. Sold my FH 144s to a homie yesterday and got some 149 standards today so fuck it. I have plenty of broken in bushings so the break in period will be chill

[JM]

Expand Quote

my new 144 hollows on my new DLX have been turning to the side like the holes on the deck are crooked, or the truck is crooked.

is there any chance the holes are slightly off, or would it be something with the truck? (I've got a few days riding on them, so they're a little broken in).

It's not like the hangar is stuck to one side either.

it's driving me bonkers.  any thing to try?

[close]

Gotta break them in yo

Thanks Christina.

I took a second look and you could tell the truck was indeed on crooked a little bit. I just loosened the bolts and straightened the truck out. (Are there bolts that don’t wiggle around in the deck holes? I have small head bolts and kind of smoothed out the grip tape with a screwdriver so the grip wouldn’t strip the bolt thread going in or out. I’m thinking that was a mistake and I should push that shit through the grip tape like a real skateboarder next time)

Hopefully it fixed it. Can’t test till tomorrow when it’s dry out.

[LebowskisRug]

@Sedition I gather your Venture experiment didn't go well?

With Indy I can definitely agree that 139s compared to 149 are definitely twitchier/squirrlier feeling. I dunno how, but I'd get less wheelbite on them, but I'd step off of stuff when landing more. Never got to compare 144/149 close together, but I did with Thunder 148/149 and preferred the 148 actually. I got more frequent wheelbite with 149 but agree with everything else you said. It likely was mental, but any trick that scooped didn't feel quite as good.

[Sedition]

@Sedition I gather your Venture experiment didn't go well?

I messed around with them for a week or so. I liked Forged better than Cast (which oddly felt too high for me). The entire week I was like, "These are decent...but, I miss my Indys." I put my Indys back to see how different they felt, intending it to only be a short comparison (e.g. setting up Ventures again in short time), but the Indys just never came off. Not two days ago I was looking at the Ventures again thinking, "I need to either retry these, or donate them to Fresno Skateboard Salvage. https://www.fresnoskateboardsalvage.org/

[JM]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

my new 144 hollows on my new DLX have been turning to the side like the holes on the deck are crooked, or the truck is crooked.

is there any chance the holes are slightly off, or would it be something with the truck? (I've got a few days riding on them, so they're a little broken in).

It's not like the hangar is stuck to one side either.

it's driving me bonkers.  any thing to try?

[close]

Gotta break them in yo

[close]

Thanks Christina.

I took a second look and you could tell the truck was indeed on crooked a little bit. I just loosened the bolts and straightened the truck out. (Are there bolts that don’t wiggle around in the deck holes? I have small head bolts and kind of smoothed out the grip tape with a screwdriver so the grip wouldn’t strip the bolt thread going in or out. I’m thinking that was a mistake and I should push that shit through the grip tape like a real skateboarder next time)

Hopefully it fixed it. Can’t test till tomorrow when it’s dry out.

Okay.... so the truck is not on crooked nor is the bolt holes crooked.... Measured them from the side.....

It's the bushing.  Just had to bend it the other way.   

[DERBY]

anyone else feel like indys work best in the winter?

idk i find myself rotating between indys for the winter and aces for spring-summer

[Mbrimson88]

anyone else feel like indys work best in the winter?

idk i find myself rotating between indys for the winter and aces for spring-summer

I guess quite a few people have bushing issues, same bushings can be too soft / loose in warmer weather and then too hard / tight in colder weather, especially in places of ice / snow part year round.

Might be a pain changing things but sometimes having different duro bushings for different conditions is a solution, if the trucks can easily be changed.


Someone else on here said they just take out the bottom washer during winter and the trucks work the same as in summer for them, which seems like a simple fix, but maybe not one that would work for everyone.


What bushings do you have in your trucks - all stock?

[DERBY]

all stock bushings

occasionally the ace hards on back truck

[Mbrimson88]

all stock bushings

occasionally the ace hards on back truck

Nice.

I feel like a lot of people recommend the Indy 92 duro bushings, which are just a touch more sturdy than the stock bushings, or a touch more stiff, you could say.

They are good for a slightly better option than stock, last longer in some cases too.


Never tried the Ace hard, but I have heard good things about them too.

[Obijuan91]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

my new 144 hollows on my new DLX have been turning to the side like the holes on the deck are crooked, or the truck is crooked.

is there any chance the holes are slightly off, or would it be something with the truck? (I've got a few days riding on them, so they're a little broken in).

It's not like the hangar is stuck to one side either.

it's driving me bonkers.  any thing to try?

[close]

Gotta break them in yo

[close]

Thanks Christina.

I took a second look and you could tell the truck was indeed on crooked a little bit. I just loosened the bolts and straightened the truck out. (Are there bolts that don’t wiggle around in the deck holes? I have small head bolts and kind of smoothed out the grip tape with a screwdriver so the grip wouldn’t strip the bolt thread going in or out. I’m thinking that was a mistake and I should push that shit through the grip tape like a real skateboarder next time)

Hopefully it fixed it. Can’t test till tomorrow when it’s dry out.

Mine did that for about a month hit up Indy at the cut off of the warranty and they sent out new ones

[Sedition]

I feel like a lot of people recommend the Indy 92 duro bushings...

I swear by these.

[Mbrimson88]

Expand Quote

I feel like a lot of people recommend the Indy 92 duro bushings...

[close]

I swear by these.

Funny cause someone else I skated with today is a convert to the 92 duro bushings as well - had tried the the 96, then the 94 and now loving the 92 duro bushings for a bit more turn than what was going on before, but way more stable than the stock bushings that came in the trucks they had, which just didn't work at all for them.

Pretty happy I got so many of them when I could (when I had shop access and they went on a crazy clearance from the previous distributor here in AU), so I jokingly say I have a lifetime supply of Indy 92 duro bushings for all my setups as well as anyone else who needs them.

[Boog]

Expand Quote

I feel like a lot of people recommend the Indy 92 duro bushings...

[close]

I swear by these.

The blue conicals are my favorite. They don't seem to freeze up much at all in the cold weather either which is a plus living in Indiana haha.

[JM]

Expand Quote

I feel like a lot of people recommend the Indy 92 duro bushings...

[close]

I swear by these.

You might have been the one from the bushing thread that sold me on getting the blues. Thanks for that.

 I really want to try the conical ones now, as that’s what I loved way back when I first started skating on the stage 7 or 8.

[Ant]

Just ordered another 3 sets of the conical blues, just in case.

[rikki]

The blues fucking rule. Took a break from skating Ventures today, was on my 8.38 DLX with 144 Indy Titaniums and blue barrels, shit felt so good all around.

[Sedition]

Blues are the ultimate "extra medium" bushing. If you ride them flush, they provide a good stable turn, but not too twitchy. or too loose. A few cranks down, and they will ride quite tight, if you're hitting some big transition, steep hill, etc. No other bushing, IMHO, is as versatile as the Blues. And if you want a little deeper turn, the Blue conicals are your jam.

[Richard Skidder]

MY WAR! But it’s just me swapping trucks until I finally go back to Indys
Grabbed some 149 standards from my local today. No adjustments just bolted them down and they broke in quick. A little squeaky but I couldn’t care less at this point. I’m just happy to have that familiar turn again.

[JM]

I can’t remember where I posted that I had crooked trucks, then I was sure it was new bushings….

But now I know the truth: the damn Indy “pivot point” (thanks Brinson) is wiggly loose in the pivot cup.

That whole nyjah kick the trucks thing he does? That’s what I have to do to get them straight in there again.

What am I supposed to do? Are there pivot cups that are larger somewhere? How do I even get the pivot cups out cause they are in there pretty good.

I feel dumb asking, but this is stuff I just didn’t worry about when I was younger.

[BL0B]

old pivots that are not going to be reused get pried out with an axle end. if you're trying to save them, you'll need things like reverse needle nose pliers or small screwdriver and needle nose pliers. compressed air can blow them out if you do it right.

[JM]

old pivots that are not going to be reused get pried out with an axle end. if you're trying to save them, you'll need things like reverse needle nose pliers or small screwdriver and needle nose pliers. compressed air can blow them out if you do it right.

Thanks appreciate it

[Ok]

could be wrong, but i’m seeing more and more indy (mostly on ig). seems like a fair amount of the younger dudes from japan are using indy, maybe even 139s?
indy never left, but they’ve been less ubiquitous as i glance around the parks