How are you liking Ace's? I remember you were on thunders before, and I just made the reverse switch from af1 55's to thunder 149s. So far my pop/flip trick game is 50% better and they feel a lot more stable - I also have some nerve damage/spasticity stuff going on.
I was on the board madness trip for about 2 years and tried a bunch of different stuff before I ended up on this setup. No BS, a bunch of tricks I had chalked up to being lost came back and I feel exponentially more stable and comfortable on this thing and have every intention of staying on this equation (9.81" / 56mm F4 Classics / AF1's) until I'm unable to buy any of the stuff to keep it going at which point I'll probably go down the madness rabbit hole again lol.
That said, the 2 years of madness allowed me to try a bunch of different stuff and understand geometry a lot better. With Thunders I could never get them to feel right loose, however, when I had them set up tighter on my vert board (before I fully gave up on the idea of skating vert somewhat regularly) they felt great. When skating in a more linear situation (vert, mini ramps, pushing at my quarter) they worked well, but they left a lot to be desired when skating bowls regardless of what bushing/pivot cup combo I tried on them. I would not say they felt "bad", but it was not the feeling I was chasing after.
I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about how the duel tops on the AF1's give my trucks surfy/carvy with a good grind pinch and no real speed wobble issues since they're snug but they still maintain a ton of "give" with very little effort. I tried Classics and wound up passing them on to another friend after one session because I felt
WAY less in control with them and was experiencing speed wobbles even while skating my local that I'm super familiar with. I also found that my grind lock-in, with smiths in particular, and my timing drastically improved with the AF1's especially after I ditched running the 1/8" risers I had on. It's wild how much of a world of difference a few mm makes lol.