I have a set of 144 standards that are pretty ground down and I was thinking of getting a set of mids to replace them. I've been preferring more of a mid truck height (thunder / Ace height) lately and it seems like Indy mids are on sale everywhere. The only thing holding me back are the various kingpin and baseplate issues I've seen here. How have these lasted for people that skate them? Are they on sale for a reason? I was thinking of just going with forged hollows but they're like double the price lol.
The small vocal community [on slap] certainly isn't the reason they're on sale; if I had to guess, they're just a niche segment in the truck market and I don't think the IKP sways a lot of 'indy' people...a 'mid' without the IKP would probably sell better (looking at you royal standard/ultra/ACE/Thunder)...and with indy, you already have so many plate/material options with 55mm and 53.5mm height trucks...do you really need a 52mm option?
Plus out of the gate they got bagged on for the heavyweight design of adding more meat to the hanger to maintain IKP clearance...weird design choice...standard [cast] indy mids are heavier than standard indys...,the reynolds hollows come closer to regs indy and the forged hollows mids come pretty close to the regular forged hollows.
A few folks have had the kingpin loosen over time (I have not, on any truck with the IKP...), and ever fewer have reported the shaft nut loosening in the plate issue (I'd argue ACE sees more loose pins by comparison), but that might be relative to the amount of people skating them? I usually see the Tiagos on sale, never the reynolds (hollows).
Personally, the 50.5mm forged hollow mid is where it's at...zero complaints and they've become my [current] favorite truck.