Reposted from the less popular truck brands thread
I got a set of the K5’s and skated them today. I threw some bones soft bushings in and greased the pivot cups because I didn’t want to wait until they break in to get a sense of if the new geometry turns better or not.
First impressions:
They do turn waaaay better than the K4. These still have a slight delay in turn when compared to Ace/Indy/Thunder, but are closer to Ventures turn imo, or maybe like if Thunder had a couple beers and it’s reaction time was slightly impaired, but still much improved from the comatose reaction time of the K4.
I generally prefer super responsive turns, so I would not ride the K5 tightened at all (I tried and hated it), but unexpectedly I found that I love them when they are wobbly loose. For some reason, wobbly loose the K5 turn nice enough to give a surfy feel, but are still stable enough on center to do flip tricks and to trust my ollies in traffic. When I ride Aces or Indy’s wobbly loose I love the feel but cannot trust the stability enough to do any tricks at speed. So the K5’s are actually a great wobbly loose truck.
The grind feels great. The metal feels like Thunders to me. I can’t tell if it’s because the metal is similar hardness, or because the grinding surface is smaller, but the grind is smooth.
Pop-wise, I set them up on a medium steep Baker (bbs) deck and they match it very well. They are significantly taller than the Thunder 147’s I had on it previously and the wb is similar I think (I measured these at +3.1) so they pop in a way I like but also feel nice for manuals. Actually, in this aspect they kind of remind me of Tensor mag lites (the tall ones).
Weight wise, they feel very light. I haven’t weighed them but they feel much lighter than Indy standards or Aces. Maybe closer to Thunder hollows but I might be full of shit trying to get that precise with it.
Anyway, to sum, they grind nice, turn well enough and when loosened to wobbly level, have all the nice characteristics of wobbly trucks but are still stable enough to do stuff on.