questions that don't deserve their own thread

[SlapMcKracken]

Bought an alien 8.25 deck and have to say it looks so damn long compared to what I’m used to.

14.25 WB and 32.25 long
I was never skating a deck longer than 32.


What’s the advantage of longer boards and what do you like more about shorter decks ?

[Wizard0f0dds]

Bought an alien 8.25 deck and have to say it looks so damn long compared to what I’m used to.

14.25 WB and 32.25 long
I was never skating a deck longer than 32.


What’s the advantage of longer boards and what do you like more about shorter decks ?

I think it's mostly just preference. I'm no expert on the subject, but I like decks that are 32" to 32.25, wheelbase anywhere between 14.25 and 14.5, I always skate either 8.38 or 8.5. For me the 1/4" length doesn't do that big of a difference, but wheelbase does a little more. I usually have an easier time with manuals and nosegrinds on a longer wheelbase, as a longer lever is easier to balance with (think dude walking on a rope with a long stick) while tre flips and rotations like cabs or 180s feel a tiny bit easier on shorter wheelbase, as it requires less force to spin a shorter object. Also, longer wheelbase feel more stable on tranny tricks. I'm no rocket scientist by any stretch, but that's how it feels to me.

[LebowskisRug]

I feel 180s and cabs are way easier on a longer deck for some reason. They just float around super nice.

[Mbrimson88]

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Aftermarket Indy and Thunder bushings... are they really any different from stock?

I have a hard time believing that the aftermarket orange Indy bushings, for example, are any different than what comes stock.

Why would they bother making both?

[close]

I just assume they make them so you can replace blown out bushings.

[close]

But why are they making stock 90a ones, that are different from after market 90a ones? Which are supposedly better than stock ones.

[close]

Who says they're better or different? I don't recall ever seeing that in their marketing.

[close]

Yup, they never have. It’s just gear weirdos like us that replace brand new bushings with the same bushing to get a micro effect. I posted elsewhere that I actually used the stock ones recently on accident and couldn’t tell a difference whereas I could in the past. They’re holding up fine as well and in the past they would crumble and blow out. My hypothesis is they did because they were probably similar to the other bushings that come in Ermico trucks like the Ventures that often crumble for people.

I can confirm that the aftermarket reds feel like 96A and suck.

Agreed with the older stock bushings, which is why they had something a while back to say they had changed the formula and upgraded the stock ones, which now skate really well, or at least so much better than the older ones.

Also, an interesting point on the red 88 bushings, which definitely used to feel a lot harder than half the others that were supposed to be harder, but were not, but the new set of 88 red are a slightly different colour that I just tried from the diamond logo packet, (used to be the cross logo packet) and they are most definitely softer, so they might have fixed that somewhere along the way too.

[realbasedgod112]

Bought an alien 8.25 deck and have to say it looks so damn long compared to what I’m used to.

14.25 WB and 32.25 long
I was never skating a deck longer than 32.


What’s the advantage of longer boards and what do you like more about shorter decks ?

its all just preference, but i've found shorter boards to be lighter (duh) and my tricks will be much higher than with the former.

[somethingmustbreaknow]

fellow, slappers, i wanna set up a cruiser, and was wondering about the wheels.
what would you suggest? i am eyeing OJ super juice 78a or OJ plain jane keyframes 87a.
i am not sure about the hardness/softness - is 78a too soft or is 87a too hard? thanks fam

[Mean salto]

fellow, slappers, i wanna set up a cruiser, and was wondering about the wheels.
what would you suggest? i am eyeing OJ super juice 78a or OJ plain jane keyframes 87a.
i am not sure about the hardness/softness - is 78a too soft or is 87a too hard? thanks fam

I prefer the softer but I'm not doing tricks while a to b'ing on my cruiser. Sliding is possible if necessary but not ideal and wheelbite will be a bummer tho.

[SlapMcKracken]

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Bought an alien 8.25 deck and have to say it looks so damn long compared to what I’m used to.

14.25 WB and 32.25 long
I was never skating a deck longer than 32.


What’s the advantage of longer boards and what do you like more about shorter decks ?

[close]

its all just preference, but i've found shorter boards to be lighter (duh) and my tricks will be much higher than with the former.

Ok, I’ll see how I like it. I got pretty long legs and 10.5 -11 feet, so maybe going up in everything is a good idea

[LebowskisRug]

I’m 6’3” with size 10 feet and it’s been hard to find a good compromise, but I skate best on decks that are 32” (tip to tip not with the concave) and lately only longer wheelbases like 14.38-14.5. My tricks pop higher and I’m more stable and don’t ever feel cramped.

[ToshiroTownune]

Best method for fixing seized bearings? And do slappies mess up bearings? Keep getting seized bearings on my back right wheels.

[manysnakes]

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Aftermarket Indy and Thunder bushings... are they really any different from stock?

I have a hard time believing that the aftermarket orange Indy bushings, for example, are any different than what comes stock.

Why would they bother making both?

[close]

I just assume they make them so you can replace blown out bushings.

[close]

But why are they making stock 90a ones, that are different from after market 90a ones? Which are supposedly better than stock ones.

[close]

Who says they're better or different? I don't recall ever seeing that in their marketing.

[close]

Yup, they never have. It’s just gear weirdos like us that replace brand new bushings with the same bushing to get a micro effect. I posted elsewhere that I actually used the stock ones recently on accident and couldn’t tell a difference whereas I could in the past. They’re holding up fine as well and in the past they would crumble and blow out. My hypothesis is they did because they were probably similar to the other bushings that come in Ermico trucks like the Ventures that often crumble for people.

I can confirm that the aftermarket reds feel like 96A and suck.

Yeah, I guess that a lot of stuff people talk about here is speculation that gets repeated until people assume it's fact. And it might be that there are different bushings installed in factory-assembled trucks than are available aftermarket. It's entirely possible that the other bushings are made far, far away, and Independent sources something which can be made close by in order to get finished trucks out the door. That kind of stuff is normal in manufacturing.

But indeed, the stock bushings seem to me to be the same as the aftermarket bushings, and both are actually great now, after sucking for a long time. And the "soft" red bushings are absolutely unskateable.

[gsosa]

fellow, slappers, i wanna set up a cruiser, and was wondering about the wheels.
what would you suggest? i am eyeing OJ super juice 78a or OJ plain jane keyframes 87a.
i am not sure about the hardness/softness - is 78a too soft or is 87a too hard? thanks fam

Get the Keyframes! I fucking love those wheels, I rock em on my filmer/cruiser board. It all depends on what the other guy said, if you want to do tricks on your cruiser get the Keyframes since they are closer to a "normal" wheel while still feeling like riding on a cloud. If you really just want to move around and barely pop tricks then get the 78as which will have you flying around for sure but not much help for anything else.

[ToshiroTownune]

If you’re going to go with 78a and just want to cruise, I recommend sizing up to the 66mm slimeballs. Def faster than the 60s and you can use the same risers as the 60s and be fine. There’s also the 75mm thunder juice which are super fun in their own right, but you’ll probably need to go up to 1/2” risers and it’s def a different feel.

[Roisto]

I had 54mm 87A Keyframes and 60mm 78A Ricta Clouds. Rictas went faster but they’re much wider and bigger. Couldn’t really find any difference in how soft they felt. Both are very soft and grippy and roll over a ton of crust.tricks are entirely possible with both. Can’t go wrong with either IMO. It’s more of what exactly you want from your cruiser wheels.

[Fooj]

Best method for fixing seized bearings? And do slappies mess up bearings? Keep getting seized bearings on my back right wheels.

Do you use spacers?

[ToshiroTownune]

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Best method for fixing seized bearings? And do slappies mess up bearings? Keep getting seized bearings on my back right wheels.

[close]

Do you use spacers?

I don’t. Is that the issue?

[SlapMcKracken]

I’m 6’3” with size 10 feet and it’s been hard to find a good compromise, but I skate best on decks that are 32” (tip to tip not with the concave) and lately only longer wheelbases like 14.38-14.5. My tricks pop higher and I’m more stable and don’t ever feel cramped.

That’s interesting. Really exited to skate my new decks and to see how I like different sizes.

Like already said in another thread: real logo 8.12 next and 8.25 alien after. Also still have an 8.18 hockey deck here.

[Space Cowboy]

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Best method for fixing seized bearings? And do slappies mess up bearings? Keep getting seized bearings on my back right wheels.

[close]

Do you use spacers?

[close]

I don’t. Is that the issue?

I started using spacers a last year and i found it makes a huge difference in the length of bearing lifetime, it makes sense to me because when you slam your wheels against a ledge or powerslide etc. it keeps your bearing straight rather than allowing them to shift at all. I think that those small shifts in bearing positions can cause them to seize up much quicker.

The only real "fix"I have found for seized bearings was to rip around a skate park or street really fast and doing that gets the shit out of your bearings and I believe it kind of re-aligns your bearings due to the high speed in a straight direction.

Also, a small thing could be that nylon cages are much better at not bending when debris gets into the bearing as they can flex to clean themselves, while steel bearing cages just bend/dent and stay that way.

Im no expert with this but i hope i could provide some insight from my experiences!

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

I ride the built in spacers and have things set up perfectly but I still get seized bearings sometime.  I have two sets going, I swap out the seized ones and then clean them.  I can run the two sets for awhile.

Skate bearings suffer so much abuse, I can’t say any of it makes a difference…..

[Space Cowboy]

I ride the built in spacers and have things set up perfectly but I still get seized bearings sometime.  I have two sets going, I swap out the seized ones and then clean them.  I can run the two sets for awhile.

Skate bearings suffer so much abuse, I can’t say any of it makes a difference…..

there is truth to this as well, for bearings in skateboarding its hard to tell what works and what wont work cause there are so many factors to it.

[Mbrimson88]

Best method for fixing seized bearings? And do slappies mess up bearings? Keep getting seized bearings on my back right wheels.

Might be asking too many questions, but what are you skating for bearings?

Shields on or off?

When you take them apart, are they clean, dirty, rusty, still lubed or dry, etc?


I like fixing a lot of things, including bearings, but only if they have removable rubber shields and non metal ball retainers, which are usually just given a quick spray of degreaser and put on one of the loan boards / free kids setups at the indoor park I skate at.

Might be as said the pressure on a certain wheel is causing more issues, which I have definitely seen before with some bearings, from cheapies right up to swiss - all end up with the same issues from certain ways people skate, but it can be really frustrating if it is something else, eg bent axle or badly poured wheel that is also causing extra problems.

[Fooj]

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Best method for fixing seized bearings? And do slappies mess up bearings? Keep getting seized bearings on my back right wheels.

[close]

Do you use spacers?

[close]

I don’t. Is that the issue?

It can only help. A lot of people don’t like using them since the bearings don’t sit as deep in the wheel, but if you think about how the wheel supports the bearings outer ring, while the nut presses on the center ring, it’s bound to cause lateral stress on the bearing when tightening or just skating. The bearing seat in the wheel will never be perfect since it’s made of urethane so without them there will always be a certain degree of wobble.

Using a spacer creates a connected metal support where the bearing gets the most stress, the center ring.

[LebowskisRug]

I actually noticed spacers make it work and I believe that Quantum doesn't even recommend them. I measured 4 pairs of Spitfire wheels and found that the spacers that come with Swiss actually do not let the bearings completely seat at the center of the wheel. This contributes to bearings seizing as the bearing is technically never properly installed. The inner side of the outer race needs to touch the side of the wheel so that it is laterally aligned. If the spacer prevents this then there is nothing solid for the bearing to push against as it is torqued on a bad landing.

I liken skateboard wheels' bearing system to a bicycle bottom bracket, which is the thing that your crankshaft goes through. In both cases there is a seat for the bearing and the axle assembly takes up the lateral torque. Bike cranks do not ever have internal spacers of any sort, any play is taken up outboard of the two bearings.

So why does a skateboard wheel have to have spacers if it is more or less the same system? I noticed that most of my bearing seizures happen when landing primo or a lot on one side of the wheel. With a spacer the bearing twists in the wheel and applies the same twist to the other bearing, which causes the jam since it moves the bearing assembly at an angle in a way that is not perfectly in line with the direction of spin. If you have no spacer the force is taken up by the single bearing moving slightly, but the other bearing has more leeway in how much it twists. What I noticed is that my wheels might change slightly in how fast they spin due to small movements in the wheel, but I never jam.

[LebowskisRug]

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Best method for fixing seized bearings? And do slappies mess up bearings? Keep getting seized bearings on my back right wheels.

[close]

Do you use spacers?

[close]

I don’t. Is that the issue?

[close]

It can only help. A lot of people don’t like using them since the bearings don’t sit as deep in the wheel, but if you think about how the wheel supports the bearings outer ring, while the nut presses on the center ring, it’s bound to cause lateral stress on the bearing when tightening or just skating. The bearing seat in the wheel will never be perfect since it’s made of urethane so without them there will always be a certain degree of wobble.

Using a spacer creates a connected metal support where the bearing gets the most stress, the center ring.

Incorrect. You do not want the spacer to make force on the inner race. The outer race has more contact area with a supporting surface even if it is urethane and there is more total surface area where the balls contact the race. The inner race will more likely throw out cage alignment/stress the cages. This is why bearing presses always press the outer race and you should never install bearings by putting them on the axle as it puts all the strain on the inner race when the bearing meets resistance.

Using the bicycle analogy above, which is a similar axle system, the forces are always applied to the outer race and bottom bracket shell and never the inner race. Forces applied or localized to the inner races destroy the bearing. A spacer between the inner race will often put a lot of lateral stress on the inner race from forcing the bearings to be in constant lateral alignment.

Despite being urethane, being pressed against a solid firm surface that doesn't distort is better than putting all of the stress on an inner surface where there can still be distortion on the outer. Plus if you have any lateral play on your preload, then when the bearing moves side to side it will basically be prying the bearings in and out of the wheel in the weakest area.

[lamfordie]

How do the Tensor Aluminum trucks skate. I see that theyre on sale and Im tempted to buy.

[biaherl]

How do the Tensor Aluminum trucks skate. I see that theyre on sale and Im tempted to buy.

Unfortunately no one knows the answer to that question. You would be the first

[hobochimp]

Does anybody have any screenshots or videos where Bobby de Keyzer was skating aces? I know there was a short period of time where people were seeing him skate them. Weird request I know but I want to see those clips for some reason

[LebowskisRug]

Search the Ace thread but I think it was an IG story.

[manysnakes]

Best method for fixing seized bearings? And do slappies mess up bearings? Keep getting seized bearings on my back right wheels.

I don't know about seized bearings. My guess would be disassemble them entirely and check the race for fretting (scoring in the metal). If there's a lot, I'd say it's a loss. Otherwise, clean everything in some basic cleaner (WD40 would probably work well here), and reassemble with some regular bearing oil like Bones or generic sewing machine oil.

As for slappies, I absolutely believe that the wreck bearings quicker. I have backside slappies and the bearings on my backside always get wrecked quickest, especially the ceramic Quantums (otherwise good and *very* fast bearings). It makes total sense, especially if you're skating 45° curbs and not the smooth, banked kind. That's a lot of sideways force.

[manysnakes]

WRT bearing spacers, it has always seemed to me that the only company who does this right is Ricta. A properly manufactured plastic or aluminum spacer in the center of the wheel would ensure a uniform seating of the bearings. The problem is, of course, is that then you're riding Ricta.