How Has Your Gear Evolved?

[scab]

Elissa is also known to prefer the classic formula. Different strokes and all that.

This is a good thread and exactly the kind of topic I come to Slap for. Unfortunately I was estranged from skateboarding for a very long time, but I've done my best to cram as much experimentation/ madness into the roughly 2.5 years I've been back. I've ridden or have currently set up ...

boards:
- 3 8.25s
- 2 8.38s
- 10+ 8.5s
- 1 8.62
- 2 8.75
- 3 9+ eggs or egg-adjacent shapes

trucks:
- Silver 8.5s (on my first setup after coming back, I didn't know any better, please don't judge)
- Ace 44 classics
- 5 or so sets of Venture 5.8s in hollow and cast hollow
- Thunder 149s lights
- Ace AF1 55 hollows
-Ace 55 classics
- Venture V8 5.6s
- Lurpiv 160 hollows

wheels:
- 56mm 99a OJ Elites
- 55m Bones 103a SPFs
- 54mm V4 Dragons
- 54mm V6 X97s
- 54mm F4 97a conical fulls (old formula)
- 58mm F4 97a radial fulls
- 54mm F4 97a radial fulls
- 55mm F4 99a lock-in fulls
- 54mm F4 93 radials
- 58mm F4 93 radials
- 56mm F4 93 radials
- 54mm F4 97a conical fulls (new formula)

Funny how the mind works. I couldn't tell you what I did last week if my life depended on it, but I can come up with this list off the dome without skipping a beat. I'll spare you what bearings and hardware I tried, but I could probably also remember all that if I wanted to... Take that for a humblebrag!

The funny thing is that I figured out what works for me within 2 months of skating again: 8.5 twins with Ventures and 54mm wheels with large contact patches. That's my setup. Everything else I tried just for fun.

[Ourladyoftheflowers]

Only doing post coming back in 2019 cause like many people went from small boards to big boards.

Rode 8.38-8.5 decks, Indy standard, 58-60mm spitfires classics or OGs and those real wooden risers. Did this for the first few years of skating until the madness settled in.

Rode ventures which I loved but they wore down really quick and grind kinda slow to me. I did find that for the type of skating I do now being slightly lower is helpful.

Post madness my setup has been same decks (8.38-8.5 bbs), Thunder standards (Indy blue conical bushings shaved down to fit) with an ace 1/16 shock pad (little extra height for pop without losing the Thunder pinch) and 54mm radials or classics.

I kinda miss the explosive pop of huge wheels and Indy’s but I do like the control and being able to be more consistent, plus I’m getting older so I’m mostly skating ledges and doing wall rides.

[IusedToSkateMore]

went from 149 to 159 hollows. went from 8>8.62>8.5>8.38>8.25.

Skating 8.25 x 14.13 WB with 159 and 54s. is nice for street and crust

switched from bones swiss to quantums, reds, big balls, etc and made my way back to bones swiss

switched from spitfires to bones stf/spf, PFC, loopholes, back to spitfires

don't skate with a top washer on front truck. i like it loose

strictly NB#1010

[dstrytruitt]

The last ten years I’ve not changed up a ton. I’ve ridden a lot of the antihero Grosso shape. Mainly Indy’s and those have gone from 159–169–166 along with Ace 66 I’m back and forth on. Wheel-wise I’ve bounced around between Speedlabs, Spitfires, and Cherries. Generally 54-56 on my miniramp and 58-60 at big parks. Always knee pads. Used to skate vans or blazers now I skate dunks with aftermarket insoles.

[YeoWhattup]

Bigger everything

[Eddy Mitchel]

With time, I went STF.being tired of flatspots.I also finally indulged Nike that I boycotted for a long time.I must admit now they're great shoes.

[roba]

started skating on a 7.5, had no idea that boards had sizes - 11 years old

my next deck was an 8 and i set it up with the trucks of that 7.5 complete - still 11, bout to turn 12

after that i got a 7.3 and that board was crazy skinny and short, that's when i learned about sizes - 12 years old

started buying 7.75s and stuck with that size for about 2 years

at 14 i moved up to 8.0, still couldn't kickflip, set up a 7.8 to learn that, went back to 8.0 after i learned it, luckily i was able to keep doing em on the 8, but i set up a 7.75 again to learn how to 360 flip, that was like a month before i turned 15

15-16 i kept switching from 8.0 to 8.125, stuck with those 2 sizes, then one time my board got ran over and i was given an 8.5 from a friend, skated it but it felt too big, so i moved down to 8.375, then 8.25 and stuck with it for a couple months until i broke one and the shop only had 8.5s

naturally i got the 8.5, got used to it, from 17 up until i was like 20 i was mostly skating that size, occasionally going up or down 1/8

i think i learned about wheelbases at 18 because one of those 8.5s felt longer than usual but lined up with my previous board - it had a 14.5 wb while pretty much all boards i had before were shorter in that aspect

at 20 i went back to 8.25, knowing that i can do 14.25 or 14.38 and anything bigger will be harder to adjust to

at 21-22 i gave up on the 14.38s and stuck with 14.25 since (i'll be 25 this month). obviously i had a few boards that were different, disliked all of them, but was often broke so i had to make em work. in that time period i convinced myself that widths are not as important as the wheelbase, so i skated boards from 8.25 up to 8.625 without any real problems

at 24 i finally got a real job and started buying blanks in bulk, they were 8.375s at first, this last pack i got were 8.25s though and i think i like them a bit more, but both shapes work well for me.

truck wise - my first real trucks at 11 years old were ventures, i think 5.0 lows and they were rasta colored, i also had a silver pair, a baseplate broke on one of them somehow and i got royals in a crailtap colorway, blue hanger with a bunch of clouds, also skinny. i don't remember if they were good or not. i was 12 when i had the royals.

at 13 i got a set of indy 139s that were purple

at 14 i was skating thunders which were a busenitz colorway with a thumbs up/down graphic that said "seal of approval/disapproval" depending on which way you looked at em, they were 145s and had a hollow kingpin

at 15 i was skating silvers, size 8.0, from 16 to 18 i was back on thunders, 147s at first, then i moved up to 149s at 18. i was skating 8.5 boards with 8.0 trucks for over a year because of a reynolds set up video. 149s definitely made more sense.

at 18 i got a pair of ace 44 classics, that was my truck of choice for the next 4 years

at 22 i was given a set of ventures from a friend, ended up loving them, been on ventures since, just ordered a new pair of 5.8s

wheels - my first were zero, then i got bones 100s in the party pack colorway. i have a photo of my set up from that time period somewhere, purple plan b logo board, rasta ventures, wheels in 4 different colors, i'm pretty sure i had caution tape grip on there too.

i rode the bones for a super long time, i think 2+ years, i remember that one of those wheels was like 38mm in diameter when i took them off. to replace them i got a set of spitfire grossos in 54mm with a traditional tattoo graphic, they flatspotted super quick and other skaters were calling me ursus, which is a tractor manufacturer, because my board was crazy loud because of it. those got replaced with 54mm mini-logo "a cuts", i had them for a year, then i got my first set of f4s for christmas 2015 and stuck with em. i had like 4 sets of wheels that were different in those 9+ years, i had a set of pig wheels, some dialtones and i think jart wheels once.

my first f4s were 54mm conical fulls, i ran that shape for about 4 years, at 19 or 20 i got 58mm classics and then i kept getting classics or radials only, with a 56mm minimum, 97a if i could find em, 99a otherwise, never had 101s.

bearings are still whatever i can get for free or mini-logos if i have to pay

oh and jessup for life

[Pastasash]

Think the only thing I haven't changed over all these years are the bearings. I usually always get reds or whatever is $20 or cheaper at the shop. Want to make the jump to some swiss finally, but I've been saying that for 2 years now lol. Just hit axle finally on my trucks so will still be a while till I make that bearing upgrade.

[Scarecrow Radio]

Jesus Roba write us a fucking novel why don't you?

[Snackbar]

I sort of went full circle, started skating in the early 80s. Big board, fun shapes, stupid griptape. Made it through the 90s and 00s on popsicles small wheels and all associated gear and now I'm back on fun shapes and big wheels and its still super fun to push around and goof off.

[scab]

Jesus Roba write us a fucking novel why don't you?

Tell me you have poor reading comprehension without telling me you have poor reading comprehension.

@roba I literally lol'd at the Ursus reference. That's some actually funny shit, and even better because it's buried so deep in the post.

[marcusbutler]

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...I prefer the standard formula wheels to F4...

[close]

Wow. That's a rare bird. I have to ask, what do you like better about the standard formula? Flat spots?

[close]

I’m pretty sure BA rides standard formula sometimes too for a reason I can’t remember. I swear I saw some video of him talking about it, if anyone knows what that was from please lmk because now I’m curious again.

[close]

Puleo is also anti F4

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Chico and Drehobl too. A lot of older pros.

Swear by f4. I've skated standard spits and you can definitely feel the difference. Standards feels like a board company wheels. Grippy and bouncy is how I can describe it. Any trick you land sideways and skirt your wheels. you are flat spotting them.

[Ok]

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...I prefer the standard formula wheels to F4...

[close]

Wow. That's a rare bird. I have to ask, what do you like better about the standard formula? Flat spots?

[close]

I’m pretty sure BA rides standard formula sometimes too for a reason I can’t remember. I swear I saw some video of him talking about it, if anyone knows what that was from please lmk because now I’m curious again.

[close]

Puleo is also anti F4

[close]

Chico and Drehobl too. A lot of older pros.

[close]

Swear by f4. I've skated standard spits and you can definitely feel the difference. Standards feels like a board company wheels. Grippy and bouncy is how I can describe it. Any trick you land sideways and skirt your wheels. you are flat spotting them.

i think the reason many of the og’s like the original formula is that they are softer, roll over more stuff.

the mike anderson sfw’s….something about the wheel was excellent, and i wasn’t a huge fan of the shape. but the formula felt really good in the street.

my gear has evolved, a lot, to the point of it just being a mess. devolved.
i’d say that i skated boards 7.75-8, often on 8 trucks, with 52s. this worked well enough for me, but even then i’d frequently switch things up. i’ve often felt some ‘tribal’ identity bs about sticking with smaller boards, ‘keeping it real’ as it were, because that was what was authentic and real, when i was skating my best, due to youth. i tried to skate the smallest boards of the time, sometimes sub 7.5, but i’d always skate like shit on that stuff. ‘funnily’ enough, whenever the shop was out of 7.5s, i’d do way better on a 7.75, and then shrug it off. this back and forth messed with me, from like 95-2006 ish.
mentioned this a ton of times, but went out skating with some young g’s around 2008, and they were all on bigger boards 8.25 up, with indy 149s and 53-54 wheels. i was back to skating a 7.6 with lows and 50s. everyone was goooooooone down the hills, and skitching back up. they were unconcerned with trying to do super slow switch backside flips. it was really cool looking. i was going really slow and it was funny.
i tried to size up and could not.
started buying all of the different parts, trying shaped boards, huuuuuge boards (8.88 on 169s), had the full ck1 biter kit with the huffer….crisis.
gear wise i am houseless, no nation. i’ll grab an 8.25 and try that for awhile, eh. try and skate a small board like back when. eh.
i’ve had good days on board with 14.5 wb, and good days on 14 wb. loved low trucks. skated poorly on low trucks.
i’m not above the madness, obviously. but for me, the results are all the same: it ain’t the gear. i can be more or less stoked, but i skate the same shitty way, on all of it.

i’ve made this same garbled post a few times. i really like reading about other people’s experiences on this topic.

in my age cohort there was this movement of l7.75ish boards, with 5.0 lo’s, to 8s with 139s and 52s, and then 8.25 149s, before people went full all over the place.

[Slave IV]

Started on shaped boards in the 80's. All kinds of decks but ended up really liking the Cruz Missile 2 concave on SMA. Favorite trucks of the era were Tracker Ultralights and favorite wheels were Bones Mini Rats 57mm 97A.

Moved to popsicles in the 90's. No idea about the specs other than they were probably all <8" wide. I rode a lot of blank decks and wheels during this time and the only thing that I really preferred was having a strong board with good pop that lasted but I rode whatever I could get. Favorite deck was a Lib Tech and favorite trucks were Gullwing Street Shadows.

After around 20 years off from Skateboarding, I got back into it with a 8.25" deck, Ace AF1, Spitfire Conical Full 54mm 99. Like 8.25" but starting to experiment with differnt sizes and wheelbases so I currently have a 8.3" and an 8.5" and want to try a 8.1". For the first time, I'm really noticing the differences and think the sweet spot for me might be 14" wheelbase even though I haven't tried one yet and 8.1" or back to 8.25" deck. Been riding the AF1, some old Indy's, Thunders and my favorites so far are the Tensor Maglight ATGs.