Gear madness support thread

[Ok]

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

i am awful, and i buy boards to see if that helps things. it doesn’t.

[Frank and Fred]

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

Sometimes when you are skating well and at the top of your game the madness calls also.

"If I'm skating this well with this ______ then surely with _____, Il'be skate even better."

[rocklobster]

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

Madness is a fickle mistress - one day you've found your Goldilocks setup, the next day that same setup is ass and the reason why your kickflips are doo doo

[Ok]

Expand Quote

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

[close]

Sometimes when you are skating well and at the top of your game the madness calls also.

"If I'm skating this well with this ______ then surely with _____, Il'be skate even better."

it is difficult for me to remember a time when i was feeling really good on board, but i do agree with this as well (the skating well, but lusting for the greener grass).

for me the ‘gear madness’, lines up with mental health issues i’ve been diagnosed with, consumerism, limited time to skate, an aging body, etc etc

the last 10 years have been more about experimentation with equipment, than ‘progressing’ with skating.

[Sedition]

Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

Madness can be caused by many things. But, I think it’s a lot like skating itself. You do 50/50 on a curb. Then you want to try it on a bench. Then see if you can go further. Then maybe rail. Etc. Etc. We are constantly trying to tweak and improve things, or try new twists on old tricks. I am under no illusions that switching equipment is going to substantively make me skate better; it won’t (some equipment makes me skate worse, though). However, sometimes toying with equipment just makes things feel better. Sometimes. There is merit in that.

[rocklobster]

It's aligned to the very nature of learning a trick - you tweak aspects of your pop / drag / weight distribution / body posture / feet position to get the trick 2nd nature. Some adjustments are fine, but you can skew too hard 1 direction or the other and your game is completely off. Same goes for gear.

Pros are athletically gifted with refined proprioception to make adjustments on the fly to the minute differences in their setup, and the tricks their trying carries significant risk of bodily harm if they bail or slam. In that case the madness is justified.

For regular joes like us it's just a bit of messing around, consumerism and delusional thinking.

[JM]

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Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

[close]

i am awful, and i buy boards to see if that helps things. it doesn’t.

Me too, broski. I ain’t and never was talented at skating compared to others.

Now I just ride a bigger board and enjoy how it hugs my feet, and whenever I can’t do that fakie back tail I just believe it’s me.

It’s always been me.

[JM]

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Unpopular opinion but….

Can the madness be attributed to being awful at skateboarding for X# of years and blaming it on your setup components? Just skate what you have.

[close]

Sometimes when you are skating well and at the top of your game the madness calls also.

"If I'm skating this well with this ______ then surely with _____, Il'be skate even better."

[close]

it is difficult for me to remember a time when i was feeling really good on board, but i do agree with this as well (the skating well, but lusting for the greener grass).

for me the ‘gear madness’, lines up with mental health issues i’ve been diagnosed with, consumerism, limited time to skate, an aging body, etc etc

the last 10 years have been more about experimentation with equipment, than ‘progressing’ with skating.

I think maybe the madness is the extra spending money we have as we’re older (hopefully more, apologies if not), and the madness is a way to still be involved with skating at a high level when we can’t do it at as high a level trick or physcially wise.

Since our bodies don’t cooperate, we seek out what we can control: the setup.

This is for old people, though. If you young people, then it could just be you like to Tinker with things, and tinkering gives your mechanically/engineering slanted mind something fun to do

[rikki]

I'm old, and my madness is probably mostly about finding a setup that gives me the feeling of having to put the least amount of physical effort for pop in my personal universe that suffers from ever-increasing pop enthropy.

Combining that with the fact that I still want to ride bigger transition and go as fast as possible as comfortably as possible – and do that on the same setup – doesn't make the madness much easier.

I'm glad I've all but quit snowboarding so I can have more money to spend on this madness.

[Frank and Fred]

I think maybe the madness is the extra spending money we have as we’re older (hopefully more, apologies if not)

For sure that is a factor. I remember having to sell other belongings, to be able to afford a new deck. Basically any change I had went into funds for decks and shoes. I'd sometimes panic about not having the readies for a new board but it always worked out.

Then, I wouldn't surrender a deck until it was in two pieces. I still have a hang up about using equipment until the bitter end but I am a lot better at passing stuff on until its completely dead. A good reminder that its nearly spring. Think I'll pass some shit on soon and crack into my pile.

In other areas of my life I am not materialistic at all but skateboards... damn I love them...

[Ok]

this thread could contain most of the posts i’ve made. it is appreciated.

i have never settled on a setup, or even a size. the closest i’ve come to getting a baseline, was when i tried to only ride setups with 8” trucks, and that didn’t last.

for me, there is a lot of crossover, in some of the thoughtful feedback some of the regulars have made in the ‘old dudes post up here’ thread, and then gear madness, for me. some similar themes of chasing past ghosts of glory.

even during my youth (i started skating again, around 16 ish), i liked to switch things up. i believe i’ve
mentioned before that im not sure if i ever bought the same truck brand, twice in a row. 30 years later im still on my bullshit. i did have a period of time where i identified, culturally, as a 7.5er, but even then i was obsessing about riding something even smaller, an andy stone found in the back of a bin in an ‘above the belt’ (pre-zumiez zumiez) that went more like 7.25, or wanting the menace ams smith/nunez deck (i remember it was short, maybe less than 31”). anyways, what im trying to say, is i don’t remember ever feeling like ‘yup this is it, i skate thunders now. forever’.

the excitement of trying something new, even if what i have is working, is a problem that has manifested in some troubling times, not only in skating (kinda difficult to be a rad partner when your head is always turning, jobs, vehicles, bikes).

having an erratic personality, and struggling with some issues, has created this rhythm in my life, where i skate, stop for a bit, and comeback to it. it used to be how i learned new tricks: not skate for awhile, comeback to it, set something different up, boom nollie heels, or whatever. now that does not work. ha.

i can recognize the patterns of having external pressures (aging, family dramas, financial worries, etc etc) and my spiraling into more madness. also if im skating less. knowing that, doesn’t make it any less true in the moment, unfortunately.
i am also HIGHLY influenced. if wade drops a part i want a wade complete. if i read on here that nick matthews skates 5.2 lo’s im screenshotting ig and zooming in trying to see what deck he’s on.

all of it creates too many moving targets to feel totally comfortable and settled.
and that is ok. i’ve tried to have some kindness for myself, knowing that on some days i might be on here talking about how i’ve loved indy 159s, and also have a deep connection to venture 5.0 lo’s.

i’ve typed a lot and said little.
i do very much enjoy reading others thoughts about gear tho. it seemed to hit a peak 2020-22 ish, with a few ig accounts showing pro setups and that. it is interesting for me to read the ideas and experiences of folks on gear.

[fakiefs180]

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Aight so, my homie told me about his madness.

There is a tiny quarter in our local park. I ride Indys and Thunders (both for 8.25 decks) and can lock in on that coping with my trucks. Things like feeble, axle stall, pivot etc. He rides Venture 5.2 and for some reason he can't lock into that coping, he always rolls on top. So he ordered Venture 5.6 and hopes for the best. Yesterday we sat there, two grown men wondering what's up with his trucks and we can't lock in. ^^ His theory is, that the Venture 5.2 hanger is a bit too small for that specific quarter. My theory is, that he has to lean more into the quarter instead of standing on top. Which doesn't make that much sense because I can lock in there fine, no matter which way I lean but I also don't ride Ventures.
Any thoughts from the pals?

[close]

Have you skated his board and been able to do whatever it is he can't do?

Often that pushes boundaries but I recall one guy who was so pissed at whatever it was he was trying and we all kind of knew he was not doing it right, but it took someone else grabbing his board doing exactly what he was trying and showing him that it was not the board, it was the guy not doing it right.

For some that would be game over, but for others, they might actually see that they need to change things up in the way they skate, more so than blame the board or whatever it is that is not working.

Conversely, has he been able to do the tricks on your board, or any other board?  That would be the easiest way to see whether or not it is the human or the skateboard that needs to change.


Just a thought anyway and not a worry if that option is not a good one.

Woah. That is great advice. I haven't thought about that and now I feel dumb. ^^ We will try that next session. Thanks Brimmo.

[hiljentaa]

I feel pretty content in my setup(s).

Having a separate board for pushing around town/spot exploration and using that for all decks outside of my normal setup has quelled any need for fucking around with my main. I don't really care about this board, so any and all unwanted (for main) decks end up here to be thrashed and razor tailed. In Western Colorado the roads are literally grooved from studded tires and chains. This frees me to destroy my secondary board with no remorse.

Then main board is 8.125 PS Stix, 5.2 Ventures, 52mm round wheels.

[Ok]

sw colorado is one of the prettiest places i’ve been

[Gandito405]

I have some Ace 60 hollows with ti wheel and kingpin knuts,(total weigh 5.6 pounds.) the other day I went to my local skate shop and decided to try one of their boards in the bowl. The trucks (thunder)were heavier and I felt like I had control over where the hanger/trucks were whereas my other board i can’t even try and get into a axle stall because I’ll flat like 2 feet past the coping. Im thinking about getting non hollow ace 60s but even then im not sure if it would feel the same cause the aces are at least a 1/8 in ward but I take off the bottom washer for more turn so make that like 1/4. Any advice, should I just keep skating light or try and get a little heavy? Or even god forbid put on the bottom washer.

[rikki]

I seem to suffer from constant overall setup madness (COSM). I currently keep switching between two fairly different setups:

- DLX 8.25 (8.38 in reality) x 14.38 wb with Indy 144 Tits
and
- DLX True Fit 8.25 x 13.88 wb x 31.5 length with Venture 5.6 V-Lights

On some days the bigger deck and wb feel perfect and solid. Then all of a sudden on some days it feels like a fucking boat and I can't seem to friggin' ollie it off the ground. Then I switch to the smaller deck and feel light and springy for a bit, especially on flat/curbs/etc.. And then I hit transitions and start to miss the longer deck and wb.

Deck size aside, I can't seem to figure out if Indys or Ventures are better for me. Some days the Indys feel great but then all of a sudden they feel soggy and I lose my pop. Ventures feel solid but some sessions feel off with regards to grinds and turns especially on tranny.

Is there a possible middle ground or should I just stop whining and just resort to riding two different setups depending on the spot/obstacles? Is the dream of an all-encompassing overall setup just a pipe dream?

[Sedition]

Is the dream of an all-encompassing overall setup just a pipe dream?

I really like Thai yellow curry with chicken. I also really like Indian Chicken Korma. In the grand scheme, one is not better than the other. At certain times, however, when the mood strikes, one is certainly better than other in that moment. If someone told me to "pick one," I would laugh at them, for it is an impossible delineation. I would also hate to be delegated to only having just one for the rest of my life.

When I realized this also applies to skateboards, my madness did not go away, but I was much more a peace with it. Some days I just really want Yellow Curry, I mean, my 8.75" set-up. Some days it's Pho, or Indian, or my 8.25". Variety is not something I want to banish, but rather, embrace. Imagine asking, "Is the dream of an all-encompassing overall food dish just a pipe dream?"   

[rikki]

Yeah, that was more of a rhetorical rant than a dead serious question. Through gear madness and learning about oneself via performing the art of skating, one can at least narrow down the options somewhat. Unless one enjoys having several setups, which is all good as well.

Regarding the food analogy -- I don't skate 2-3 times everyday, plus with food I of course want a significantly larger amount of variation between dishes. Point being that with food -- unless you're travelling to Mars -- you don't want to optimize your "setup" to cover all bases. That'd be just plain boring. With skating, there are a lot of people, myself included, who aim towards a minimal number of different variables. More or less unsuccessfully, of course, but that's where the joy of yelling at clouds waltzes through the door.

[Skrotum]

Been going through some classic truck madness. I want the absolute best setup for 50-50 on circle rails. What would y’all suggest. I keep coming back to ventures specifically 6.1(but I don’t like the turn(which is probably why it locks so good)) I’m also using 99a 56 conical fulls. Any suggestions on a great lock-in truck and wheel combo?  I’m learning how to cross lock

[Sedition]

Yeah, that was more of a rhetorical rant than a dead serious question. Through gear madness and learning about oneself via performing the art of skating, one can at least narrow down the options somewhat. Unless one enjoys having several setups, which is all good as well.

Regarding the food analogy -- I don't skate 2-3 times everyday, plus with food I of course want a significantly larger amount of variation between dishes. Point being that with food -- unless you're travelling to Mars -- you don't want to optimize your "setup" to cover all bases. That'd be just plain boring. With skating, there are a lot of people, myself included, who aim towards a minimal number of different variables. More or less unsuccessfully, of course, but that's where the joy of yelling at clouds waltzes through the door.

No, I get you. I strived for a long time for the single, all-purpose set-up (I actually have that, my 8.25). Simplicity is a nice thing. At least for me, the goal/desire for simplicity actually fostered more ambiguity and, well, madness. The "simple" answer for me was actually quite simple: It's OK to like more than one skateboard (product), despite how much I was fighting that on some weird existential level (and still do at times). The best part? The clouds don't go away when I feel like yelling at something.

[Ok]

Been going through some classic truck madness. I want the absolute best setup for 50-50 on circle rails. What would y’all suggest. I keep coming back to ventures specifically 6.1(but I don’t like the turn(which is probably why it locks so good)) I’m also using 99a 56 conical fulls. Any suggestions on a great lock-in truck and wheel combo?  I’m learning how to cross lock

thunder 151s, i liked the ones with the forged plate best.
56 is pushing it, you’ll get wheelbite. but the big conical fulls will help.
venture and thunder locked in better for me, than ace or indy.
 dont listen to me, i’ve never felt confident with a cross-locked 5050 on round bars. round bars scare me.

[Xen]

@rikki

On some days the bigger deck and wb feel perfect and solid. Then all of a sudden on some days it feels like a fucking boat and I can't seem to friggin' ollie it off the ground. Then I switch to the smaller deck and feel light and springy for a bit, especially on flat/curbs/etc.. And then I hit transitions and start to miss the longer deck and wb.

Deck size aside, I can't seem to figure out if Indys or Ventures are better for me. Some days the Indys feel great but then all of a sudden they feel soggy and I lose my pop. Ventures feel solid but some sessions feel off with regards to grinds and turns especially on tranny.

Is there a possible middle ground or should I just stop whining and just resort to riding two different setups depending on the spot/obstacles? Is the dream of an all-encompassing overall setup just a pipe dream?

Twinsies.

Sounds like you skate a lot of tranny, I would just pick a board for that purpose only (I always have); indys/slappy/aces, 8.5"+, 14.4+wb and 54mm wheels and call it a day.


8.5 and 149 indys feels great most of the time, but like you said other days it might as well be a tugboat. 8.25s and ventures feel great, then suddenly wtf, next day it feels too small.

This is why I've been trying to find that happy medium: 8.3s with average/14.25 WB...I just can't find one that works...ones with good shapes (FA, Primitive all have small wb...and most others are 14.3 and up and usually start getting too long). I'm trying to make an 8.3 hockey with a 14.125 wb work but feel the deck might be too short overall.

This is why I can't have nice things

This is also why I keep bouncing back to royals, they grind, turn, great height, pop, they work for everything (see above on a tranny board tho).

[plzdonthateme]

Hey,
I usually skate with an 8" 14wb deck, 52mm wheels, and loose Venture 5.2 HI standards. Recently, I've been experiencing what feels like ghost pop, and I'm considering making changes to my setup. I'm unsure if switching to Venture lows would help since I prefer loose trucks. Ventures hollow 52mm seems to fix this, but idk to be honest, if anyone else is skating with a similar setup or has any advice for me, I'd appreciate it.

[Ok]

Hey,
I usually skate with an 8" 14wb deck, 52mm wheels, and loose Venture 5.2 HI standards. Recently, I've been experiencing what feels like ghost pop, and I'm considering making changes to my setup. I'm unsure if switching to Venture lows would help since I prefer loose trucks. Ventures hollow 52mm seems to fix this, but idk to be honest, if anyone else is skating with a similar setup or has any advice for me, I'd appreciate it.

did the deck change? venture lo’s are great, but 52 mm wheels are difficult: wheelbite easily and aren’t large enough to roll over harsh surfaces. they remain my favorite trucks, because i can lazily pop an ollie.

venture hi’s with the forged baseplate might be your thing.

[Mbrimson88]

Expand Quote

Hey,
I usually skate with an 8" 14wb deck, 52mm wheels, and loose Venture 5.2 HI standards. Recently, I've been experiencing what feels like ghost pop, and I'm considering making changes to my setup. I'm unsure if switching to Venture lows would help since I prefer loose trucks. Ventures hollow 52mm seems to fix this, but idk to be honest, if anyone else is skating with a similar setup or has any advice for me, I'd appreciate it.

[close]

did the deck change? venture lo’s are great, but 52 mm wheels are difficult: wheelbite easily and aren’t large enough to roll over harsh surfaces. they remain my favorite trucks, because i can lazily pop an ollie.

venture hi’s with the forged baseplate might be your thing.

Or you getting old and lazy and not bending those knees enough??

Had that happen a whole lot and had to reconfigure myself, not my setup to make sure I got down low enough to get the board off the ground enough, etc.

Not that it is a be all and end all, but I think that could be more relevant than changing up a board that used to work well but now feels different, or you are having issues with.

I got a more mellow board to accommodate my lazy ass, which works well and I prefer it, even though I can't get as high off the ground anymore, but I never was going to ollie over tennis court nets like some people I know, so I am ok with that.

Bending, stretching, squats, etc have really helped.

[Xen]

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Expand Quote

Hey,
I usually skate with an 8" 14wb deck, 52mm wheels, and loose Venture 5.2 HI standards. Recently, I've been experiencing what feels like ghost pop, and I'm considering making changes to my setup. I'm unsure if switching to Venture lows would help since I prefer loose trucks. Ventures hollow 52mm seems to fix this, but idk to be honest, if anyone else is skating with a similar setup or has any advice for me, I'd appreciate it.

[close]

did the deck change? venture lo’s are great, but 52 mm wheels are difficult: wheelbite easily and aren’t large enough to roll over harsh surfaces. they remain my favorite trucks, because i can lazily pop an ollie.

venture hi’s with the forged baseplate might be your thing.

[close]

Or you getting old and lazy and not bending those knees enough??

I got a more mellow board to accommodate my lazy ass, which works well and I prefer it, even though I can't get as high off the ground anymore, but I never was going to ollie over tennis court nets like some people I know, so I am ok with that.

Bending, stretching, squats, etc have really helped.

I was riding a mellow flat toy machine twin with indys and x99s it was boaty, and heavy, and it made me lazy as hell, I just shifted how I skated; fun for kicking back and slappies tho.

Steep deck, non-indy-style trucks and harder wheels and I get on point, because I have too.

[rikki]

Thanks for the replies and support pals, appreciate your input and the general feeling of politeness, respect and sense of humour here on this board. Yeah, the clouds won't go away if I yell at them. Man, it'd be scary if that happened all of a sudden.

I think it's been inevitable and I've known it all along subconsciously -- probably gonna try to embrace two main setups, one for street/ledges/better pop and the other one for more transition-based skating. Just have to swallow my pride to acknowledge that with the tranny setup I won't be able to do everything that I can do on the lighter setup. I'm not 26 years old with kangaroo pop anymore (as if I ever had the latter).

What's more actually, I think it's easier for an old fart to push their "tech" setup to cover more bases on bigger trannies than vice versa. Yesterday I dropped into my local bowl with my DLX True Fit and had great old time. Just gotta observe the young rippers, they rip trannies on matchsticks and go back to hardflip nose grinds on ledges in 30 seconds.

I fucking love skateboarding to no end and all this madness is really a kind of an enjoyable version of the Stockholm syndrome, if you will.

[Sedition]

I fucking love skateboarding to no end and all this madness is really a kind of an enjoyable version of the Stockholm syndrome, if you will.

/end thread

[plzdonthateme]

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Hey,
I usually skate with an 8" 14wb deck, 52mm wheels, and loose Venture 5.2 HI standards. Recently, I've been experiencing what feels like ghost pop, and I'm considering making changes to my setup. I'm unsure if switching to Venture lows would help since I prefer loose trucks. Ventures hollow 52mm seems to fix this, but idk to be honest, if anyone else is skating with a similar setup or has any advice for me, I'd appreciate it.

[close]

did the deck change? venture lo’s are great, but 52 mm wheels are difficult: wheelbite easily and aren’t large enough to roll over harsh surfaces. they remain my favorite trucks, because i can lazily pop an ollie.

venture hi’s with the forged baseplate might be your thing.

[close]

Or you getting old and lazy and not bending those knees enough??

Had that happen a whole lot and had to reconfigure myself, not my setup to make sure I got down low enough to get the board off the ground enough, etc.

Not that it is a be all and end all, but I think that could be more relevant than changing up a board that used to work well but now feels different, or you are having issues with.

I got a more mellow board to accommodate my lazy ass, which works well and I prefer it, even though I can't get as high off the ground anymore, but I never was going to ollie over tennis court nets like some people I know, so I am ok with that.

Bending, stretching, squats, etc have really helped.

I'm just a 22 yo individual. I think, or at least hope, I'm not classified as 'old.' But yeah, sometimes I get feelings that I'm too lazy to pop. Especially on 360 flips, I've started noticing that there's too much space between my tail and the ground, and I feel like I need to scoop/pop more. It feels uncomfortable and unstable.
I'll try ventures with forged baseplates and go up to 8.1 deck, to eliminate unstable factor; maybe that will fix the issue. Thanks.

[Ok]

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Hey,
I usually skate with an 8" 14wb deck, 52mm wheels, and loose Venture 5.2 HI standards. Recently, I've been experiencing what feels like ghost pop, and I'm considering making changes to my setup. I'm unsure if switching to Venture lows would help since I prefer loose trucks. Ventures hollow 52mm seems to fix this, but idk to be honest, if anyone else is skating with a similar setup or has any advice for me, I'd appreciate it.

[close]

did the deck change? venture lo’s are great, but 52 mm wheels are difficult: wheelbite easily and aren’t large enough to roll over harsh surfaces. they remain my favorite trucks, because i can lazily pop an ollie.

venture hi’s with the forged baseplate might be your thing.

[close]

Or you getting old and lazy and not bending those knees enough??

Had that happen a whole lot and had to reconfigure myself, not my setup to make sure I got down low enough to get the board off the ground enough, etc.

Not that it is a be all and end all, but I think that could be more relevant than changing up a board that used to work well but now feels different, or you are having issues with.

I got a more mellow board to accommodate my lazy ass, which works well and I prefer it, even though I can't get as high off the ground anymore, but I never was going to ollie over tennis court nets like some people I know, so I am ok with that.

Bending, stretching, squats, etc have really helped.

[close]

I'm just a 22 yo individual. I think, or at least hope, I'm not classified as 'old.' But yeah, sometimes I get feelings that I'm too lazy to pop. Especially on 360 flips, I've started noticing that there's too much space between my tail and the ground, and I feel like I need to scoop/pop more. It feels uncomfortable and unstable.
I'll try ventures with forged baseplates and go up to 8.1 deck, to eliminate unstable factor; maybe that will fix the issue. Thanks.

possibly try tightening your trucks. tighter trucks give
me better pop