When was the last time any of you rode a prebuilt complete. For a while I’ve been thinking of grabbing one and putting it through it’s passes, just to have a better idea of what they’re like.
We had a few completes from various brands we had a skate on not too long ago, all were fairly reasonable for mid quality and price completes. They all held up well enough and worked as they should, but nothing amazing and I was glad I got back on my normal board after that.
I think the most recent full complete was pre covid with a DLX "pro setup" complete which is not too far off what could be a normal pro setup anyway, 8.5 DLX pricepoint deck, 149 Thunder team trucks, generic bolts, grip, bearings, Spitfire 54mm Cheapshots wheels, so really a decent pro board in my size, that skated great.
There are quite a few pro / other brands that are putting out reasonable completes, but I don't think anything in the complete market now actually comes with pro brand parts, almost all being a more generic version of everything completely made in and assembled in China, including deck, trucks, wheels that might be of the certain brand name but are definitely not the same as the standard parts if you bought the deck separately. They still hold up fine for beginners and kids, but they didn't really last too well for anyone further along than that.
Some distributors are maybe building completes or having them pre-built and sent over with Ace trucks on them and fairly generic everything else, which are decent enough here in AU, but I don't think those same brand boards are anywhere else in the world. Given the trucks last the longest of any skateboard part, that is actually a good thing, as they have board sizes from 8 through 8.25 up to 8.5 and Ace classic 33s and 44s on them.