okay so I promised this one a while back but shit has been busy since being back at work after the break.
disclaimer: I usually ride nothing but spitfire F4 99 classic and radial slims in size 54mm - I'm old and stuck in my ways and don't want to change but, as I mentioned a few pages back, I wanted to set up a EE3 era inspired board that had some big chunky wheels that were reminiscent of what those guys were riding back then, I was thinking I wanted something like physics wheels and ended up getting these 56mm conical loopholes:
said set-up looks/ looked like this:
initial impressions: as you've probably seen from pics, these wheels are NOT white and look quite old from the get-go. I usually skate F4s so this isn't a problem per se but they are more yellow than brand new F4s. I also noticed little air bubbles/ imperfections in the finishing which kinda reminded me of 90s wheels too!
first skate: I set them up ready to break them in over xmas/ new year because I knew I had enough time off to get a good 7 - 10 session in. The first roll I had on them was in front of my house on the rough road with my son. Hard to judge from this session but they felt nice and fast (probably because I ride 54mm usually) and it was good to see they had no tread on them, just like my beloved F4s. also, the get DIRTY! maybe it's the bigger riding surface but they seemed so fucking grimy after each of my skates...
Second session: Off to my local DIY. The ground there is concrete but still smooth enough to get good power slides on. I do quite a lot of frontside power slides and little switch front 360 ones and straight off the bat I could tell they are down to slide and were quire responsive/ similar to F4s. These ones are listed as 101s (or 84b or some shit) and I could tell they were a tad more slippery than regular F4 99s especially when skating another local spot that has granite tiles on the ground.
third and forth sessions: not gunna lie, I had a lot of fun on this setup and it was the exact look/ feel I was looking for. I did skate a lot over the break and while I'm hardly progressing these days I felt that there wasn't something right about all the skates I had, I was still landing stuff but some tricks were a pain and I was having particular problems with long board slide/ lip slide type tricks on the local ledge. Of course I blame the wheels because I never had this problem with my F4s. The other issue was pop, I was ghosting a lot on tricks I don't usually ghost on. sure, it's a new set-up and it's only 2mm difference but it was getting me down, my board felt heavier too (probably 99% mental). how can 2mm fuck me up this much???
few more sessions in front of my house in the cold: what the fuck is wrong with my pop? I'm skating nearly every day and I'm missing simple shit, even just straight nollies are dribbling along the ground. I get fed up with this shit, run in the house and grab and old pair of F4 classic 54mm (probably 52mm at this point) and start changing them over. In my head I don't want to do it, but the kick on this deck is quite short and I NEED to check if it's the wheels or if I just suck at skating. I think the spitties are going to be a lot slower but was surprised to find that there was hardly any difference. I chalk this up to 99 vs 101 issue; the loopholes were harder and thus not as good when riding on rough surfaces. After 5 or so minutes I get my old (man) pop back, my board instantly feels lighter and even though I don't have the "look" I was going for my set-up just feels right.
next session at my local: had a much better session than the last 3 or 4. Lipslide/ long board slide tricks on the ledge still don't work but it was a wax issue, not a wheel issue.
closing thoughts: they aren't terrible wheels, far from it. The color is going to turn a lot of people off, but function wise I liked them a lot, and their slide felt natural and intuitive. The site I bought them off said they were a tad softer than F4 99s. I don't agree with that but I don't think they are on the harder side of 101s either (ala prize fighter cutlery which absolutely rattled my teeth). So yeah, slide better than 99 F4s but I never skate F4 101s so can't compare. I'm thinking of giving them another shot; either on a board with a bigger tail, or back on the northern co. until I can dial the pop in. In hindsight I probably should have just gotten 54mm because a) I never skate bigger than that anyway and b) I don't usually skate conical wheels.
If I end up not doing anything with them, I'm happy to unload them to a fellow pal if they want pay shipping from Japan. Will let you all know... hope this review is somewhat helpful for someone out there!
Topic: Wheels Thread (Read 789003 times)