Made an account to post a review as there are only a few on YouTube and they're pretty limited.
First off some dimensions and specs:
Weight for 150 standard: 357
Height: 55.5-56. Harder for me to get this one accurately as they never sit level.
WB extension: +3.1875. On my 14.38 wb these extend it out to 17.625. I was really surprised at this. I think +3.2 is more accurate.
TL;DR: I was hoping for a more stable Indy that pinched better. So far I really dislike the trucks. They have a lot of the same negatives of the other trucks I ride without a clear added benefit over any of them. If you tally up the pros and cons the list of cons is far longer (for me). This doesn’t mean they’re inherently a bad product, but I found many of the limited reviews lacking.
Detailed Conclusion:
The pop feel is oddly heavy and not at all aligned with Ben D's experience. This makes sense since they're as tall as a Thunder with risers and have a slightly longer WB. Or as tall as a Venture with 3-4mm bigger wheels.
The baseplate doesn't actually lock onto ledges very well and the KP catches on chunkier surfaces even doing simple 50-50s. These are not deal breakers, but I don’t notice this on Indys, which are the same height, and I like Thunders more enough to where I live with the baseplate slide. The manual point is horrible for me and I don't really need the turn.
Pinch is on par with an Ace, but Ace pop is a bit lighter and the plates lock onto slides. I have to run ~52mm wheels to get a decent pop feel, but I don't want to run wheels that small at the moment and it seems kinda dumb to not take advantage of the wheel clearance.
I really don't see the value these trucks bring to the market. I guess they're a lighter Stage 4, but with a longer WB. If you like Indy and Ace and want more stability, try harder bushings in those first as these will absolutely not pop the same. If someone loves skating pools and wants extra clearance and doesn't need super loose trucks these make sense if you don't mind the bad KP clearance. The finish and quality are great and there's no novel tech that will break this time. If you're adverse to risers for whatever reason then they also might be cool.
The hollows weigh 20g less per truck, which frankly is not going to matter a ton. This is a small fraction of board weight. I'll maybe try those, but cannot see it changing much considering the issues with pop timing for me come entirely from the WB and height. I think you need fairly long kicks for these to shine so maybe that and a 14.25wb made Ben have a different experience. Unfortunately I don't want a truck that limits my board selection and I tend to like slightly longer decks lately.
Background:
I was pretty excited for these as several friends loved their V1 before they fell apart. The one thing I dislike about Indy is the lack of stability and the pinch and they remembered both being great on V1. I ordered these the day they came out in Canada and eagerly awaited. I ordered the 150 hollows, but the shop sent me standards on accident. I was offered a very steep discount so I kept these. I tend to mostly skate ledges, Manny pads, curbs, and fuck around a little bit on transition but suck at it. My flip trick game is OK and something I am focusing on expanding. I’ve skated on and off for the last 25 years and have ridden just about everything at one point in time. I usually skate the BBS generic 8.38, the DLX Manderson shape, and I’ve had a few mellower, fuller decks from PS I like. Before the end of May I was on Venture V-Cast hollow for 9 months, Thunder 148 Team for another 9 before that, and Indys for a few years before that and I often have bouts of madness where I revert back to Indys.
Due to gear madness I've skated this exact same deck with Indy forged, Indy Standard, Thunder cast, and Venture V-Cast hollows. I tend to always be torn between Indy and Thunder cast for their pop feel and grind, but always long for the stability of a Venture. I usually skate 8.25 trucks but have also skated 8.5 versions of all of these so I don't think I can blame anything on the extra width. If anything they have me considering moving back up in hanger size. I normally skate 52-53 Classics, but recently moved up to 54 Radials and Classic Full and really like it for the asphalt spots I skate at.
I've skated the trucks for 4.5-5hrs so far at a skatepark, on flat in front of my house, on some manny pads, at a chunkier ledge spot, and at a slappy curb spot. The first session was just flat ground and a lot of skating around to break in the bushings. I had 54 Classic Fulls on and the board felt comically tall. I ride these same wheels on Thunder and Indys, but even on Indys never felt this awkward. The pop feel was quite weird as I was expecting it to be light due to Ben D’s review, but it was the complete opposite. My street has a lot of manual pads and I am really used to the timing and speed I need for things and it was a strugglebus to hold a nice manual or nose manual.
Next sesh was really long. I put on some wheels that measured 52.5 to see if it helped with the pop timing and it did feel ever so slightly better. I skated flat for a while and it wasn't my best, but I acclimated a little bit and did 1 of everything I can do it just took longer than usual or my pop was kinda diminished. I headed to a local curb spot and was surprised that I got used to the pinch extremely quick. No real complaints for slappy and curb tricks where timing doesn't matter. Once I actually got into a manual or nose manual holding it was really easy, but the tipping point felt like a chore. I noticed the KP had grind marks on it, which is weird because I didn’t do any feebles or smiths.
I then skated a skatepark I've skated at hundreds of time and went through my normal flat/ledge routine. There is cement noping all around and some flatter angle iron and this is where I started to really feel the KP catching a bit. I have been trying to back feeble a small round rail as I’ve always been terrible at that trick and it was catching a lot, but wasn’t on Thunders recently. As for the basic ledges and box I found my actual pop diminished and the timing even heavier and more delayed than on the Venture/worn 53 classics I've skated recently. They did feel great doing simple Ollie's and manuals into/out of banks and transition, but most of the stuff I actually like skating felt kind of like a chore. Just really sluggish.
I really started to notice the pop timing on nollie noses and fakie front crooks. Even on Indy standard I've been consistently doing both of these on ledges of various heights as they’re pretty easy for me and I struggled to get the height on taller stuff. I eventually did a few, but the pinch was a bit annoying and I almost always fell into a fakie back tail on accident.
From there I went to a ledge spot I've skated many times. It's pretty chunky and this is where I felt the KP catch on the chunkson a few 50-50 I cross locked on a double sided portion. I noticed the plates had minimal slide marks so far and really tried jam my nose on and lock it in and I left the sesh with almost zero marks and experienced the same wheel stick you can get on Thunders.
Overall it hasn't been a shit ton of skating, but I haven't found a single upside for any type of trick so I'm not too motivated to skate them much further. I'm not really interested in changing decks to accommodate them as they have almost no advantages for me over Thunders (same wheel drag, same diminished KP clearance, better pinch, way better flat and manuals), Indy's (lighter pop, feel just as stable with my blue bushings, better flat, marginally better pinch), or Venture (harsher grind, pretty heavy pop, better baseplate slide, more responsive for me for flip tricks due to height).
Pinch: On curbs it's not a real big deal for basic crook variations, but overall it's not wonderful on ledges either. As someone that likes Indy Standards I can learn the proper angle and attention required to hold pretty solid crooks and it’s one of my go-to tricks on any ledge. For me the pinch is worse than an Indy by a small margin. It's manageable but you can often accidentally fall into a nose slide and on ledges sometimes the hanger will articulate a bit too much and throw you into one right as you get onto the ledge.
Baseplate: Ben D pointed this out a bit but the angle of the baseplate is the most severe of any truck. If I line them up with a Thunder, the top of the plate near the pivot cup is in the same spot, but the plate extends way further near the deck. You’d think this would mean the portion near the deck would lock on better, but somehow my wheels were sticking just as much as a Thunder, which is baffling. I think it might be due to the severe angle with a more upright baseplate contacting more of the ledge. On Indy and Venture you can feel the plate sliding, but on these I never get that feeling. Looking at the plates there's less wear at this point than my Thunder plates. I'd say the performance on slides is similar since both require some wax on the side of the ledge.
Pop: This is where I really disagree with Ben. He’s a way better skater than me, but let’s be real we have all watched him progress just fine, doing the same tricks, skating looking the same, on a billion setups. He’s got his game dialed and it’s really hard for me to tell a difference in any of the skating he does on various setups. I find the pop somehow heftier than Venture. It's really hard to explain but it's like if you had huge wheels on Ventures or Thunders on risers. I get less overall yield tho and it's been the hardest thing to adjust to. I really dislike it for fakie tricks so far. I'm guessing he had a novelty effect during his session but these things are the opposite of snappy and light and the pop is more delayed feeling than I expected, but the height and WB explain it a lot. I put on slightly smaller wheels that measure 52.5 and it was better than my original 54, but it's kinda fucking stupid to run small wheels on such a large truck. Maybe his deck made more sense for the geometry.
Kingpin clearance: It's fucking terrible. I measured brand new Thunders and they had 1-1.5mm more. I was grinding on the KP just skating curbs and noticed it on a chunky ledge I skated too. Granted I don't do a shit ton of smiths so it's not a deal breaker, but I'm really surprised they botched this detail considering it's a truck designed for transition and tall kingpins hang up easier it's a little weird. I know they had issues with the IKP, but it seems Thunder and Slappy have solved the loosening issue and it would be really helpful with these.
Manual point: I hate it. Honestly it feels heavier and more awkward to tip than any of the big 3 I've ridden recently. I was hoping it would be close to Indy and maybe it will take time to find a sweet spot, but I've have yet to find it. Again, given the WB and height it makes total sense. I seem to be the worst at adapting to new trucks for manuals.
Grind: They grind. Venture grind doesn't bother me much and honestly at the ledge and curbs I have skated them at they're on par with the bigger brands but the metal seems to wear away faster. I've got a deeper sw crook spot from 30min at the spot than my new Thunders from ~2hrs. It makes sense since they are made in the Ace factory and people find Ace softer.
Turn: I personally don't need super turny trucks. What I wanted out of these was an Indy that has Venture stability at the top. The turn reminds me a lot of the Royals I briefly rode in that the carve starts mild and gets progressively deeper, but never just dumps you over like a Thunder. I tightened the KP a half turn and found that great. For reference I ride 92 barrel bushings in Indy, stock bushings in both Thunder and Venture a tad past flush and I am 165lbs at 6 foot 3. They definitely have less of a crazy "land off center and do a u turn" effect that Ace has. I find them pretty fun to ride, but I also don't NEED such a turn for my skating. I think a lot of people will find them stiffer than expected. Given so many trucks come with soft bushings lately I’m down with this.
One weird thing is that they stay stuck really easy. If you press on the hanger it will stay there and doesn’t snap back. Maybe they need to wear in more? It doesn't bother me on the board but some people care about that. As for the anti wheelbite tech you can still wheelbite and the truck doesn't completely bind. I don't see any obvious metal wear on the nub. It probably binds right when it hits the deck.
Alright, Shalom everyone
Topic: Oskis New Truck Brand (Read 225003 times)