Rodney Mullen's Patents

[Skeleton Pudding]

I was randomly Googling Rodney Mullen and came across this page of patents. There's something he did for trucks, but what stands out are the carbon-shelled skateboard decks. I feel like his wizard brain likely came up with something pretty skateable.

Did these ever go into production?

https://patents.justia.com/inventor/rodney-mullen

[manysnakes]

His truck patents are Tensor Trucks.

[silhouette]

Not sure if the exact same thing but I remember Dwindle releasing decks with a similar construction back in 2010 or so notably via Cliché, I think the technology was called Carbonlight/Keystone with Andrew Brophy being the poster boy for this new way of 'unlocking your pop'. Never tried it, heard a lot of positives and negatives but at the end of the day everyone returned to basic decks real quick after the hype died. 2008 patent date would align.

Just found this commercial for those, quite the time capsule:

[Mean salto]

No one seems to remember so maybe I dreamt it but in the early 00s almost had these completes that were meant to be way better but everything was different so not compatible with regular setups. Like the trucks had thicker axles, bigger bearings and the wheels I think had big aluminium cores. Maybe the baseplates were different size too

[Xen]

Not sure if the exact same thing but I remember Dwindle releasing decks with a similar construction back in 2010 or so notably via Cliché, I think the technology was called Carbonlight/Keystone with Andrew Brophy being the poster boy for this new way of 'unlocking your pop'. Never tried it, heard a lot of positives and negatives but at the end of the day everyone returned to basic decks real quick after the hype died. 2008 patent date would align.

Just found this commercial for those, quite the time capsule:

What's old is new. They just changed the shape of the impact lights to look/act more like the impact supports, which looks very similar to this 'ancient stonemason' keystone boondoggle.

[manysnakes]

No one seems to remember so maybe I dreamt it but in the early 00s almost had these completes that were meant to be way better but everything was different so not compatible with regular setups. Like the trucks had thicker axles, bigger bearings and the wheels I think had big aluminium cores. Maybe the baseplates were different size too

Coming from the bike industry, where the proliferation of "standards" is so pervasive that basically nothing is cross compatible any longer, one of the things that I appreciate about the skate industry is that most everyone agrees that the shit we have now works well enough and no one in the industry is imposing a new standard for truck axles or whatever. I also enjoy that some skate genius reinvents the deck every five years and no one cares and still buys 7-ply maple.

[Sketch Hitchcock]

Rodney Mullen’s Patents would be a good song title.

[Mean salto]

Expand Quote

No one seems to remember so maybe I dreamt it but in the early 00s almost had these completes that were meant to be way better but everything was different so not compatible with regular setups. Like the trucks had thicker axles, bigger bearings and the wheels I think had big aluminium cores. Maybe the baseplates were different size too

[close]

Coming from the bike industry, where the proliferation of "standards" is so pervasive that basically nothing is cross compatible any longer, one of the things that I appreciate about the skate industry is that most everyone agrees that the shit we have now works well enough and no one in the industry is imposing a new standard for truck axles or whatever. I also enjoy that some skate genius reinvents the deck every five years and no one cares and still buys 7-ply maple.

Yeah I agree. I'm kinda obsessed with everything stock/no frills. I do think it's kind of funny tho that all the sizes of bearings etc is just no more thought than what rollerskates happened to have back when.

[manysnakes]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

No one seems to remember so maybe I dreamt it but in the early 00s almost had these completes that were meant to be way better but everything was different so not compatible with regular setups. Like the trucks had thicker axles, bigger bearings and the wheels I think had big aluminium cores. Maybe the baseplates were different size too

[close]

Coming from the bike industry, where the proliferation of "standards" is so pervasive that basically nothing is cross compatible any longer, one of the things that I appreciate about the skate industry is that most everyone agrees that the shit we have now works well enough and no one in the industry is imposing a new standard for truck axles or whatever. I also enjoy that some skate genius reinvents the deck every five years and no one cares and still buys 7-ply maple.

[close]

Yeah I agree. I'm kinda obsessed with everything stock/no frills. I do think it's kind of funny tho that all the sizes of bearings etc is just no more thought than what rollerskates happened to have back when.

It's beautiful.

[256 Ply]

The patent for for the Almost Uber construction. It's a maple deck with an inner carbon fibre foam core...

It's not meant to be super strong like a Flight/VX deck. Instead, it's meant to never lose pop. They're still in production..

[j....soy.....]

The tensor slider is up for grabs….

[rocklobster]

The patent for for the Almost Uber construction. It's a maple deck with an inner carbon fibre foam core...

It's not meant to be super strong like a Flight/VX deck. Instead, it's meant to never lose pop. They're still in production..

Never seen anyone skate these IRL but if the Impact decks are any measure the Uber decks must feel insanely stiff and completely unlike what a board should feel like.