New to the forum. Came to post my experience using AF1's for about four months.
A little about me: I skated as a kid in Upstate NY for a couple summers in the early 90's and learned to cruise. There were no skaters in my area so I eventually moved on. Picked back up in 2021 after teaching yoga for a few years which brought me to trying various balance boards and poses (also a carpenter/plumber/jack). At age 40 I started bombing empty parking garages (closed for COVID) learning to slide, revert and such.
Setups I have tried: Started on a street deck, went on to a cruiser, tried a longboard (36" wheelbase drop through) settled on decks with a 15.25 wheelbase. I fell in love with high speed turning and easily initiating slides which felt stable on wider cruiser decks with longer wheelbases. Craving the perfect carve gave me truck madness.
Truck madness begins: Started with Thunder 149's on the street deck, cruiser came with Krux K4 9.0 axle (wheelbite city), I purchased Thunder 161's to replace Krux. Thought I liked tight trucks in the beginning, tried Bones Hardcore bushings in both sets of Thunders which had me leaning hard into turns to make the board do what I wanted. I began carving pools at skateparks and trying out beginner tricks. Viewing Ben Degros on YouTube brought me to understand the importance of wheelbase in relation to kicktail steepness and "fingers of flat" from the drill holes to kicks. It clicked that I needed to slightly shorten my wheelbase on my preferred decks to lighten up the kicks a little, which brought me to try Ace AF1's.
My experience with AF1's: Oh my Aces are looser then anything I had tried prior (the longboard was close but had a wide turn). Rode the AF1's with stock bushings which felt crazy yet stable at the same time. Eventually I noticed the small cup washers bite into the hanger so I swapped them out for flat. Wheelbite really pisses me off, so does squeaking, so I started to play with bushings and lubricants to keep that amazing turn while reducing wheelbite and eliminating squeaking.
The madness takes hold: Tried all three Bones flavors, tried Krux, tried various combos of all the bushings/washers I had using a micrometer to maintain stock geometry (washers are cheap and can be filed down). After two months of playing around I learned that Bones soft separates from its hard core and Ace bushings split in all but my front truck roadside position. I kept craving looser and looser trucks that resisted wheelbite and eventually found a seemingly perfect bushing combo for how I skate.
What works well for me: Front truck boardside is a Riptide .6” 80a barrel APS formula, roadside is a stock Ace 91a cone with super thin flat washer. Back truck boardside is a 90a APS barrel, roadside is a Bones medium (91a) hardcore cone with a thick flat washer (zero threads showing on both kingpins, I am 5’9, 150lbs, I use 56-60mm wheels with .25 risers, 78-80a or 97-99a). Boardside bushings under 80a split in my front truck, so does anything under 90a in the back. This combo has not split in over two months of daily use and yields a super responsive turn that is very stable at high speed (the only time I had speed wobbles was while pushing on a flat section of a parking garage while escaping a security guard chasing me in a car, once both feet were back on the wobble went away). Now I had the carve/stability I was after, however living in a desert zone dust had an effect on bushing performance which had my setup feeling stiffer the dustier it became, I had to find a solution.
My experience with lubricants: Tried oil, tried wax, tried graphite, tried soap flakes and they all had issues. So I brewed up a solution of dye/fragrance free bar soap dissolved in water. I funneled soap shavings into a bottle and kept adding water a little at a time until all soap dissolved to have the maximum soap to water ratio, it has been a game changer. One drop in each pivot, one drop in each top bushing does the trick (no need to remove hanger, I may do this three times on a day I skate a bunch). The solution dries up quickly flaking away most dust while leaving enough residue to lubricate the urethane and stop the washers from clicking. This is all the bushings/washers needed, however the pivot cup needed some extra love when after a month it squeaked no matter how many drops I added. After more research I began to use a minuscule dab of white lithium grease after thoroughly cleaning the pivot cups. The grease lasts for about a month even after cleaning out the pivot a few times, but still require a drop of soap solution on occasion to push out the dust/grime. My pivot cups have not ripped or melted after a lot of use over four months (however I a am a new skater and do not go as gnar as possible at age 40 so your experience with durability may differ). The pivots have loosened up over time which has only improved my balance (just received replacement cups from Ace, though I'll ride the first set till they fail).
In conclusion I really love the AF1’s, I would try Classics but I imagine if I wanted to go into street skating I would prefer play around with more stable trucks and try various other brands. However due to the degree of injury it requires to learn street I’ll most likely stick to bowls and hills for awhile.
Now I feel better having shared my truck nerdieness.