Gear madness support thread

[Sedition]

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Wait. Just to be clear. Do you currently have a skateboard, and are you currently skating?

[close]

No, other than some worn out Thunders laying around and I'm not skating at the moment.

How long have you been off the board for?

[alph]

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Wait. Just to be clear. Do you currently have a skateboard, and are you currently skating?

[close]

No, other than some worn out Thunders laying around and I'm not skating at the moment.

[close]

How long have you been off the board for?

About three years..

[Sedition]

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Wait. Just to be clear. Do you currently have a skateboard, and are you currently skating?

[close]

No, other than some worn out Thunders laying around and I'm not skating at the moment.

[close]

How long have you been off the board for?

[close]

About three years..

Ok, IMHO, you are way, way, way, way overthinking this, even for the nature of the madness thread. I would suggest first just getting a mid-range set-up (e.g. mid-range truck height, mid-range deck size/wheelsbase, mid-range wheel size). From there, just get your legs back, and get use to being on a board again. Once you are again really comfortable, then you can start messing with nuanced gear tweaks.   

EDIT: I would also suggest staying away from the mIndys (mid-height Indys). They have not been well received. If you're looking Indy, and want mid-range height, the Forged Hollows are your guy.

[alph]

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Wait. Just to be clear. Do you currently have a skateboard, and are you currently skating?

[close]

No, other than some worn out Thunders laying around and I'm not skating at the moment.

[close]

How long have you been off the board for?

[close]

About three years..

[close]

Ok, IMHO, you are way, way, way, way overthinking this

Yeah probably, but I also think that dlx wheelbase with forged Thunders felt always a bit too long for me.

[Ok]

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Wait. Just to be clear. Do you currently have a skateboard, and are you currently skating?

[close]

No, other than some worn out Thunders laying around and I'm not skating at the moment.

[close]

How long have you been off the board for?

[close]

About three years..

[close]

Ok, IMHO, you are way, way, way, way overthinking this, even for the nature of the madness thread. I would suggest first just getting a mid-range set-up (e.g. mid-range truck height, mid-range deck size/wheelsbase, mid-range wheel size). From there, just get your legs back, and get use to being on a board again. Once you are again really comfortable, then you can start messing with nuanced gear tweaks.   

EDIT: I would also suggest staying away from the mIndys (mid-height Indys). They have not been well received. If you're looking Indy, and want mid-range height, the Forged Hollows are your guy.

this is really kind, thoughtful advice from sedition
 
alph: most likely, none of it matters, for awhile. if someone asked me what to get, and i didn’t know how big they were, i’d just say 8.25 deck, 8.25 trucks (indy, thunder, venture) and 54 wheels. whatever bearings. basic. if above 30, and ethos permits, consider some leather court shoes, maybe something like a nb 600 ( i haven’t had them, they appear a nice middle ground of support and flexibility).

coming back to skating, for me and a fair amount of others that i’ve spoken too, sizing up a bit works a treat, whereas chasing the smaller sizes of my youth is a lot more difficult.
everyone is their own unique flower so i hope you discard my thoughts as freely as i’ve offered them

[Ok]

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Wait. Just to be clear. Do you currently have a skateboard, and are you currently skating?

[close]

No, other than some worn out Thunders laying around and I'm not skating at the moment.

[close]

How long have you been off the board for?

[close]

About three years..

[close]

Ok, IMHO, you are way, way, way, way overthinking this

[close]

Yeah probably, but I also think that dlx wheelbase with forged Thunders felt always a bit too long for me.

i will ‘qualify’ myself/my ‘madness’.
i’m short 5’8”, and even shorter legs. when i was young/better than i am now, skated tiny boards.
i’ve done some of my best skating of the last 5 ish years on big boards with long wb’s. i hated them. i started a thread about looking for the best 14” wb boards.
with respect. what you are feeling, coming off of a hiatus, will change. dlx makes the entire wb rainbow.
more directly: you haven’t been skating for a long minute, you don’t know shit about how you will skate in this phase of your life, buy some stuff that attracts you to it, skate it, gain a personal vocabulary for what best suits you.
if something seems ‘cool’ grab it. that may help get you out the door and cruising.

[alph]

Yeah you are probably right, there is no point to get in to a madness before even skating again.

[BeachChicken]

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for me it’s the little in between ligaments and such that hurt with larger/heavier stuff

[close]

Dude. This is basically where the madness started for me. In 2019 I badly broke my leg/fibula* just above the ankle. Significant ligament damage in my ankle, too. Bones heal up quick. That soft tissue stuff? THAT is what will kill you. They put in some hardware. Later had to take some out. Had two surgeries. Had to learn to walk again, and wasn't cleared to skate again for a year. My ankle will never be the same, and it does not bend or flex like it use to (and never will again). I'll never skate as good as I did before the injury, but I can still skate in a meaningful way, so that's basically all good.

Anyway, the Madness. Post-injury, I was like, "Ok. I now stand, push, walk, move, and skate differently than I did before. My ankle is now weaker, and now functions/moves in different ways. So, maybe that means I should also make some equipment tweaks? The set-up I had before may not be what is best for me after. Let's try out some different stuff, and see how it goes." Enter the Madness. And it all comes back to the ligaments in my ankle...so, yes, totally hear/get you on that one.   


*Broke it while skating a 6' mini ramp, doing a set-up trick I've done 1,000s of times--nollie rock to fakie.

[close]

mine was a front lip on a curb+ height skatepark ledge. just stood on the outside of my leading foot.
within 10 minutes black lines started appearing up my leg, the lines ran parallel to the ground, perpendicular to the shin. never got it checked out. stopped skating for a few years. my best ever day and this, were less than a month apart.
aaaanyways, to have that during a setup trick that’d do my head in. a large part of me skating has had to do with mental health, and it was nice to ‘shut my brain off’ and skate, sometimes i’d be present, sometimes not so much.
all of this very much relates to gear madness, as for me i was skating an older banged out deck, and then when i started skating again i was so diminished i started riding large shaped boards and just screwing around.

[close]

Grim. And yeah, 6 years later, I sometimes get short-term, crippling fear, with anything on transition going to fakie because of reinjury fear…that comes out of NOWHERE.

Gear tweaks can trigger it, too. I tried conicals for a bit about two years ago, and that little bit of extra “lock” they have over Classic, totally spooked me on pivots to fakie, and I couldn’t do them again for like a month.

Same thing for me. I had a rock climbing fall in 2021 that destroyed all the ligaments in my popping ankle. It took a long time to even be able to drag my ankle for nollies like I could before and I re-injured it landing primo on a backside flip. It still fucks with my head sometimes and when a trick feels off I bail differently than before and don't commit to stomping certain tricks as much.

It also meant I could no longer confidently skate most vulcs and many shoes since there was significant ankle stability issues and roll potential. I moved up from shorter boards because I had some rolls from being a little too tipped fore/aft while landing.

As for @ok the thing you note about Indys feeling great on sesh 1 but not sesh 2- this is where madness fucks you. You need to get to like, session 10 before making conclusions. I don't get how people do like 1 or 2 sessions on one thing, then next week are on another, then they switch decks and do it again- all that shit is so confusing there is no way they're actually adjusting each session and coming to any sort of useful conclusion unless its so magical or so off.

[Ok]

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for me it’s the little in between ligaments and such that hurt with larger/heavier stuff

[close]

Dude. This is basically where the madness started for me. In 2019 I badly broke my leg/fibula* just above the ankle. Significant ligament damage in my ankle, too. Bones heal up quick. That soft tissue stuff? THAT is what will kill you. They put in some hardware. Later had to take some out. Had two surgeries. Had to learn to walk again, and wasn't cleared to skate again for a year. My ankle will never be the same, and it does not bend or flex like it use to (and never will again). I'll never skate as good as I did before the injury, but I can still skate in a meaningful way, so that's basically all good.

Anyway, the Madness. Post-injury, I was like, "Ok. I now stand, push, walk, move, and skate differently than I did before. My ankle is now weaker, and now functions/moves in different ways. So, maybe that means I should also make some equipment tweaks? The set-up I had before may not be what is best for me after. Let's try out some different stuff, and see how it goes." Enter the Madness. And it all comes back to the ligaments in my ankle...so, yes, totally hear/get you on that one.   


*Broke it while skating a 6' mini ramp, doing a set-up trick I've done 1,000s of times--nollie rock to fakie.

[close]

mine was a front lip on a curb+ height skatepark ledge. just stood on the outside of my leading foot.
within 10 minutes black lines started appearing up my leg, the lines ran parallel to the ground, perpendicular to the shin. never got it checked out. stopped skating for a few years. my best ever day and this, were less than a month apart.
aaaanyways, to have that during a setup trick that’d do my head in. a large part of me skating has had to do with mental health, and it was nice to ‘shut my brain off’ and skate, sometimes i’d be present, sometimes not so much.
all of this very much relates to gear madness, as for me i was skating an older banged out deck, and then when i started skating again i was so diminished i started riding large shaped boards and just screwing around.

[close]

Grim. And yeah, 6 years later, I sometimes get short-term, crippling fear, with anything on transition going to fakie because of reinjury fear…that comes out of NOWHERE.

Gear tweaks can trigger it, too. I tried conicals for a bit about two years ago, and that little bit of extra “lock” they have over Classic, totally spooked me on pivots to fakie, and I couldn’t do them again for like a month.

[close]

Same thing for me. I had a rock climbing fall in 2021 that destroyed all the ligaments in my popping ankle. It took a long time to even be able to drag my ankle for nollies like I could before and I re-injured it landing primo on a backside flip. It still fucks with my head sometimes and when a trick feels off I bail differently than before and don't commit to stomping certain tricks as much.

It also meant I could no longer confidently skate most vulcs and many shoes since there was significant ankle stability issues and roll potential. I moved up from shorter boards because I had some rolls from being a little too tipped fore/aft while landing.

As for @ok the thing you note about Indys feeling great on sesh 1 but not sesh 2- this is where madness fucks you. You need to get to like, session 10 before making conclusions. I don't get how people do like 1 or 2 sessions on one thing, then next week are on another, then they switch decks and do it again- all that shit is so confusing there is no way they're actually adjusting each session and coming to any sort of useful conclusion unless its so magical or so off.

hard agree on needing to get many sessions in, before making some type of lasting choice.
what i was attempting, and failing, to communicate was that initial day on indy’s feels like all prayers are answered. i don’t land everything (everything for me is like 5 slow flatground tricks), but there feels like a clear line of sight to a better future. next session all of my fake gains have disappeared, indy’s feel like cement shoes wah wah waaaaaaaaaah. sessions 3, 4, 5, 6, confirm my biases. back to the drawing board. trucks go into the box to be given away, or setup in 6 months anew.

but. i need to be honest and say im not giving it enough time. i’ve been looking for ‘really good, or really bad’. fuck i’ve gone to the flatground spot with more than setup and just cycled thru wildly different completes like a total dickweed.

[Sedition]

Yeah you are probably right, there is no point to get in to a madness before even skating again.

OK and I have almost the exact same suggestions about specifically what to get. While this would change a bit (up or down) based on someone's height and shoe size, what I advise people to get when starting up again is an 8.25 deck with 14.25/14.38 wheelbase, Forged 144s Indys, and 99a Spitfire F4 53mm wheels (Classics, Radial, or Conical). Why these suggestions? Because they are all dead middle-ground sized products...esp Forged Indys. Forged Indys are slightly taller than Thunders and Ace, and slightly shorter than Standard Indys. They rider looser than Thunder/Venture, but not as loose as Ace (same with their respective wheelbases). They also don't have "the base plate problem" that current Thunders do. Basically, Forged Indys are the "perfect" middle-ground truck to base comparisons to other trucks off. Likewise with an 8.25/14.25 deck, and 53mm wheels.   

[Sedition]

Same thing for me. I had a rock climbing fall in 2021 that destroyed all the ligaments in my popping ankle. It took a long time to even be able to drag my ankle for nollies like I could before and I re-injured it landing primo on a backside flip. It still fucks with my head sometimes and when a trick feels off I bail differently than before and don't commit to stomping certain tricks as much.

It also meant I could no longer confidently skate most vulcs and many shoes since there was significant ankle stability issues and roll potential. I moved up from shorter boards because I had some rolls from being a little too tipped fore/aft while landing.

Mine was/is my front foot. All nollie, switch, noseblunt, noseslide, nosegrind, etc. stuff was total mind-fuck to get back. Pop on nollie/switch stuff has diminished, and re-learning things where I land on front foot was a huge mental battle (e.g. noseblunts, nose slides, nose grids, etc.). Kickflips were incredible hard to get back, because my ankle doesn't really roll/bend any more. It took a month before I even had the ankle strength to flip the board 1/2 way over. Major injuries when you’re already and "older" skater suck.  But hey, I am doing all those tricks again, just not as high/smooth/consistent as before, so I can't really complain. In fact, I actually consider what I can do at this point to be a blessing.

The madness aspect of it--when I started skating again, I thought a smaller set-up might help off-set a slower/weaker ankle (e.g. easier to flip, lighter, etc.). But realized after awhile they were too twitchy and didn't feel stable. I eventually ended up back on same set-up I had pre-injury....and today I am riding any even bigger set-up (and loving it).   

[moonordie]

Yeah you are probably right, there is no point to get in to a madness before even skating again.

But again, this is Slap.

[Jort250]

So a few months into Venture Lows from Thunders, my nose and tail slides are night and day which I’m attributing to the longer baseplate. Still not stoked into the lack of turning of Ventures so I think I’ll switch back to Thunders once I’ve had my fun here but are the inverted kingpins or T2s supposed to have a decent baseplate to slide on? It might be hard to go back to the old baseplates.

[Sedition]

So a few months into Venture Lows from Thunders, my nose and tail slides are night and day which I’m attributing to the longer baseplate. Still not stoked into the lack of turning of Ventures so I think I’ll switch back to Thunders once I’ve had my fun here but are the inverted kingpins or T2s supposed to have a decent baseplate to slide on? It might be hard to go back to the old baseplates.

Want baseplate and better turn? Indy.

Inverted thunders do not have a “normal” baseplate. It appears that T2 will.

[rawbertson.]

i have typed and deleted stuff so many times in this

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/K-cDejLP5y0

this setup actually seems kinda godlike

i am really torn between 8.25 and 8.5" trucks. i am pretty set on thunder team.
right now i have setup with 8.38, thunder 148, 55mm classics. was not really considering hot rodding but maybe i should try it out.

[rikki]

i am really torn between 8.25 and 8.5" trucks. i am pretty set on thunder team.
right now i have setup with 8.38, thunder 148, 55mm classics. was not really considering hot rodding but maybe i should try it out.

An 8.38 deck with an 8.5" truck is hardly hotrodding. The trucks sit pretty much perfectly flush. The perfect combo in my opinion.

[Rick Trapasso]

i have typed and deleted stuff so many times in this

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/K-cDejLP5y0

this setup actually seems kinda godlike

i am really torn between 8.25 and 8.5" trucks. i am pretty set on thunder team.
right now i have setup with 8.38, thunder 148, 55mm classics. was not really considering hot rodding but maybe i should try it out.

8.38 with 149 is what I've been running for a long time.

No serious hot rodding going on at all.

I've considered trying the 148s though just to see if I prefer them

[BeachChicken]

I ride 8.38 and with Indys its not hot-rodding cuz the axle width is almost dead on 8.4. I can run 8.25 trucks fine too, but right now a slight bit of extra grind room/pinch is real nice.

[Osage]

   I'm currently riding an 8.38 with 159's and am kind of loving it. I don't notice any hot rodding.

   I was a little concerned and I actually measured the deck, which is a shop deck made by BBS and it's essentially 8.38 spot on. Measured a Krooked 8.5 that I had been riding with the 159's and it's 8.38 over the back trucks and a hair under 8.5 over the front so there's virtually no difference.

[Ok]

i have typed and deleted stuff so many times in this

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/K-cDejLP5y0

this setup actually seems kinda godlike

i am really torn between 8.25 and 8.5" trucks. i am pretty set on thunder team.
right now i have setup with 8.38, thunder 148, 55mm classics. was not really considering hot rodding but maybe i should try it out.

im also struggling with 8.25 vs 8.5 trucks: 144s vs 149s. most often skate 8.25s

[Rick Trapasso]

Riding conical fulls for the first time in a while and am really noticing the increased flip difficulty.

I feel like 56mm classics flip more easily than these 54mm conical fulls.

Gonna stick with them for another board probably just to try and see if it's just an adjustment period thing.

Went from 56 to 54 classics and was having a hard time staying on coping, that's what made me consider conicals again. Lock in is def improved, but man the flip is weird.

[BeachChicken]

Give it some time. I thought the same when I went from Classics to Radials, but then a few times I put on Classics to test the theory and it just wasn't true. All in my head. Radials do have a more rounded profile tho so maybe it's less of a difference.

[Sedition]

Riding conical fulls for the first time in a while and am really noticing the increased flip difficulty.

I feel like 56mm classics flip more easily than these 54mm conical fulls.

Gonna stick with them for another board probably just to try and see if it's just an adjustment period thing.

Went from 56 to 54 classics and was having a hard time staying on coping, that's what made me consider conicals again. Lock in is def improved, but man the flip is weird.

I used to go back and forth between Classics and (regular) Conicals for the same reasons. Classics can slip out a bit on more rounded-off stuff (esp. coping). Conicals certainly lock-in better. But, just as you say, Conicals have a very different "flip." I always ended up going back to Classics (and just adjusting my technique on coping grinds). Conicals had some other drawbacks to me, too. Train-tracking was a major one. They also felt really clunky and "boxy" to me, and didn't seem to slide as well (Conical Fulls are unimaginable to me in this aspect!). Sometimes they lock a tad too much, too (esp. on pivot to fakies). I'm sure at some point I will try Conicals them again (e.g. Madness), but they are called "Classics: for a reason.

Radials? Worst of both and best of neither. Don't have the agility of a Classic, or the lock of Conical...which is why we need Radial Slims back. 

[Rick Trapasso]

Yea, I was on 56 classics for the longest time.

Only made the switch to 54 after being on thunders for a bit and wanting a smaller wheel to help reduce wheel bite a bit.

I have a feeling I'll end up back on the 56 classics eventually. That was probably the most consistent aspect of my setup.



My setup adjustments are getting smaller and smaller. I feel like I'm honing in on a permanent setup or at least something very close to one.

I'll consider it a win if I'm only making small adjustments back and forth between the same couple options at infrequent intervals.

[Sedition]

I'll consider it a win if I'm only making small adjustments back and forth between the same couple options at infrequent intervals.

This is basically where I am at...and grateful it.

[Mbrimson88]

.

For any of you guys on specific sized wheels, how long do you skate them / how small do they get before you switch them out for a new set of the same size you had before?

In the 00s I used to rotate 56, 57 and even 59 mm wheels through various stages of wear - big and new on a go fast board, medium wear on an all rounder and worn down a lot on a smaller tech setup.  Still do to a point, but I don't really go big and fast so much at all anymore.

Example - seen some people take 56 mm Classics down to almost 50 mm every time before changing out and it is such a big difference in the before and after sessions, they almost go from fast new skate a lot of transition then worn down and skate a lot more ledge and tech stuff, over roughly quarter to half a year, almost like the seasons come and go with the size of the wheels.

[Plan9Customs]

Riding conical fulls for the first time in a while and am really noticing the increased flip difficulty.

I feel like 56mm classics flip more easily than these 54mm conical fulls.

Gonna stick with them for another board probably just to try and see if it's just an adjustment period thing.

Went from 56 to 54 classics and was having a hard time staying on coping, that's what made me consider conicals again. Lock in is def improved, but man the flip is weird.

I had exactly the same experience. Flips with them were awful. Took a way harder flick to get them to spin. The upside was at a super mellow curb thats always getting the living shit greased out of it I wasn’t sliding over the top and slipping out on the crisco. Was nice not getting bodied because people can’t take more than a half assed push but want to slide 30’.
Mellow grease pits? Connie full for the win.
Anything else Classics are a must.

[BeachChicken]

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Riding conical fulls for the first time in a while and am really noticing the increased flip difficulty.

I feel like 56mm classics flip more easily than these 54mm conical fulls.

Gonna stick with them for another board probably just to try and see if it's just an adjustment period thing.

Went from 56 to 54 classics and was having a hard time staying on coping, that's what made me consider conicals again. Lock in is def improved, but man the flip is weird.

[close]

I used to go back and forth between Classics and (regular) Conicals for the same reasons. Classics can slip out a bit on more rounded-off stuff (esp. coping). Conicals certainly lock-in better. But, just as you say, Conicals have a very different "flip." I always ended up going back to Classics (and just adjusting my technique on coping grinds). Conicals had some other drawbacks to me, too. Train-tracking was a major one. They also felt really clunky and "boxy" to me, and didn't seem to slide as well (Conical Fulls are unimaginable to me in this aspect!). Sometimes they lock a tad too much, too (esp. on pivot to fakies). I'm sure at some point I will try Conicals them again (e.g. Madness), but they are called "Classics: for a reason.

Radials? Worst of both and best of neither. Don't have the agility of a Classic, or the lock of Conical...which is why we need Radial Slims back.

Polar opposite experience for me Radials are the best of all. Roll up onto curbs really nice, seem to feel less clunky for scooping than OG Classics or Conical Fulls, no train tracking like Conicals, bit more surface area than a Classic but not massive.

[Sedition]

.

For any of you guys on specific sized wheels, how long do you skate them / how small do they get before you switch them out for a new set of the same size you had before?

In the 00s I used to rotate 56, 57 and even 59 mm wheels through various stages of wear - big and new on a go fast board, medium wear on an all rounder and worn down a lot on a smaller tech setup.  Still do to a point, but I don't really go big and fast so much at all anymore.

Example - seen some people take 56 mm Classics down to almost 50 mm every time before changing out and it is such a big difference in the before and after sessions, they almost go from fast new skate a lot of transition then worn down and skate a lot more ledge and tech stuff, over roughly quarter to half a year, almost like the seasons come and go with the size of the wheels.

I ride 53mm. I replace them pretty often...like they never get below 52mm.

[BeachChicken]

Switch when below 51ish and feeling slow.