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That pivot cup looks like shit. Also, seems like there isn’t nearly as much material above the axle compared to other brands from a quick Google Image comparison. Casting looks pretty rough.
I don’t get why you’d switch to a flat washer without riding them as they came since the washer is almost flat anyways.
One big question is about the kingpin nut. If it’s floating in the hanger like that and the bushings compress under impact then it has the potential to move and create stress. It makes sense to always have it pressed, glued, cast, or held in in some manner.
Yeah, questionable pivot cup for sure, the other one is fine, we'll see if they blow out after skating. I've shit stock thunder, indy and ventures too, but this 'hand poured' shit is leading to slome sloppy work regardless of brand.
Don't give a shit about casting, I won't be looking at them. However, they are 'rougher', I am not sure what it all entails but looking at other truck finishes, they just don't looked 'polished' or smoothed out (like Thunders or ventures are). Again, not concerned about it since they're for grinding...as long as the rough casting doesn't mean weaker material.
Plenty of clearance. Less hanger meat than Indy TI hangers but not by much, maybe 1/2mm, more than my ventures 5.6s (never ridden) and about the same as my thunder 147s (never grinded) and skated tensors (least ridden pair) - all new hangers except the indys/tensors mind you but they are my least used indy hangers. I can assure you as I am not looking at shitty angled google images, but the actual trucks. The stock inverted pin, flush nut sits below the visible axle through the slot on the hanger (meaning there is a tiny bit more axle, just like every truck out there, above the hanger metal). But they are in no way less metal than everything out there.
Venture 5.6 | Royal (royal clearly has more meat)
Much like you prefer to constantly shit on these trucks (coming from a what appears to be a typical Indy rider - mid rider at that - that's expected tho), and thread, without even trying them, I always prefer a flat washer; I ride very loose and prefer to not have my bushings bind/get chewed into the stock cup washers, happens every time. It's like running without washers but a tad more stable and without the mush factor. Also, I always try things stock before I switch shit out, nowhere did I say I was swapping anything before riding them. You know what they say about when you assume.
As for the nut floating in the plate, it isn't, it's glued/attached, fucking welded for all I know, to the nutshaft...it doesn't fall out if you remove the kingpin, it stays in the plate just like the indy IKP.
Setting them up now, skating later; here's hoping they don't suck and turn better than Ventures (which is what I get a gut fleeing they're going to feel like).
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Its 2021 and the royal thread is popping on SLAP. What timeline is this?
Also, pretty cool for all you ikp guys that the baseplate fits a nut nice and snug.
one could blame the lateness of the lurpiv deliveries
Not for those that don't want a 55mm truck.
I'm looking at Ventures sitting here and they have way more meat than your pics so maybe it's angle.
My pic comparison clearly shows more meat on the royal. Casting tolerances who knows. I'm going off what I see.
I've ridden Venture and Thunder for long periods as well, both are great trucks and have a market need even if they don't fill my current preferences. Even the trucks I currently like have issues, but these 3 brands at least have design and QC under control, which Royal historically has not.
I've ridden: Indy (since Stage III), Thunder since Stage I, Venture since Stage 1 (do they have stages?), Gullwing, Tracker, GK, Tensor (both sliders and ATG), Mini Logo, ACE (all stages), Theeve, Krux, blah, blah... but never the old royals because of the issues people had or cited and the rep was they were trash.
But these days, each one fills a need for someone (carve/stability/pinch/grind), and as someone who likes ML trucks because they work as intended, and have good QC (but too low for me and fuck risers), I am willing to give Royal a shot; you on the other hand, come across like you want them to fail 'just because'.
I'm guessing you dismissed Mids because of the weight much like I did, but then I actually rode them and ate my words and really like them. I don't think my preference has anything to do with the flaws about these trucks that I am raising.
Weight and crappy IKP clearance. I didn't feel they offered enough for me to accept the weight (I'm a bitch that way) over say, a forged hollow or ti (1.5mm isn't going to make or break anything for me).
It's not your preference, but your overall attitude, dude. You're casting judgement without first hand experience/judging a book by it's cover and making assumptions to find a flaw: they're probably brittle/rough casting, the nut is going to fall out, not enough meat on the hanger (proved you dead wrong with my pic). I'm not saying anything you brought up isn't true or couldn't be true, but it hasn't been proven and you come across like a forum troll, plain and simple.
Literally
one person on this board has skated them, that being
@144p (I have rolled around on mine but have not put them through their paces yet so I am refraining from making any knee-jerk reaction posts, but I will say it's trending positive based on how they feel out of the gate); and as far as I know there is nothing on the web from any early reviews.
Also, there are some worries looking at how they are made: the rough casting implies a cheaper alloy that uses a lot of more brittle materials as well as poor molds. Not every opinion of something new has to be positive. Let's be real- these are discount Thunders primarily used by Crail guys as part of a sponsor package deal, but if they work great then it's good for everyone.
I'm not a metallurgist, but if they are weak, then they are, they break are shit and we move on, right? Now looking at 'polished' trucks, like Thunder, clearly they polish them (or powdercoat them), to get rid of the raw casting/flaws right? I've got thunders on hand that have some pitted spots but that's only where the polishing isn't; sure they are nice and shiny but so what? Either crail said fuck it to keep costs down, or they are shit, to keep costs down.
If they are part of a sponsor package, the IKP seem like a lot of hassle to go through, to me anyway. Why even bother with a 'redesign'? Who are they selling too? Did they just have some extra metal around? They needed something to sell with crail completes? Perhaps it's a real effort to make a decent truck? I look forward to your Lurpiv opinions.
Using ML as a reference, if Royal managed to make something good, with [TBD] good quality control, great. You're bashing them before even trying them first hand...picking shit apart based on pictures...and again, you said yourself it's your opinion: an uneducated armchair one at that. Because you haven't skated them. I'm also not discrediting your comments on casting because it checks out but yet to be proven here.
The same can be said about the old tensor vs new, they are night and day, and arguably on par (regs, not mags that some people bend axles with) with the QC of all the rest, if not
better. Fuck, ACE can't even get their shit together...after 10+ years. People won't skate ML because 'ML' yet they have never failed me, nor do you see any QC issues outhere there (which could be because no one skates them
but they can hold their own against any of the big boys. Like Royal, they are low wide and light, something missing in the Indy/Ace camp (Thunder/venture being the other).
If the nut isn't pressed or fixed and is relying on tension from the KP thread that is quite a poor design. Hopefully it doesn't lead to baseplate and kingpin issues. It seems like something that could easily wear away the metal and come loose over time.
No idea, I was hoping for a fixed hex hole like the Indy or film plates, that's piece of mind to me. As it is, I have no idea (and we never will unless someone cuts this fucker open) how they have it attached, but from just looking at them, I can't visibly see a 'seam' to where a standalone nut would meet the plug in the plate, it actually looks like a solid milled piece, this is the best I can get right now:
I honestly can't see a seam (pics don't do it justice), it just looks like one straight piece right up to the nylock.
I'm curious of the extra threading and if it might cause snappage, even tho it's threaded all the way/deep unlike Indy or Krux pins...what I do like about this amount of threading is I know it's still 'in there' even if I were to back out of the nylon of the nut, sure it would come way loose and probably snap off, but I don't feel like it would just fall out (I always have this fear since I ride loose, and have had it happen once with krux pins)...part of the IKP-life I guess.
To be clear, I am not saying they are best fucking thing out there, or better than XXX brand, or anything, because I haven't put them through the ringer yet. They could suck/break in the first week, baseplates could snap on the first slappy (tho they lasted through a few under 144p) I have no idea, and neither do you.