interesting to hear some honest reviews of other wheel companies, it doesn't surprise me that spit and bones are top dogs with ricta/OJ close behind. if nothing else, ricta and OJ make great cruiser wheels, plus OJ has the 95a options.
curious how ricta/OJ "feel" in comparison to bones and spit. with bones feeling a little plastic, and spits feeling kinda rubbery. a lot of people use the word "chalky", wonder if that's accurate.
I used to love STFs, then hated them after riding ricta (because they hard glassy wheels), then F4s came out and like many, I bought into the hype and somehow bones became a second rate wheel. Bones feel like you slide on the surface whereas spits feel like I'm digging into it a bit. Stiff prefer SPF or OJ Elites in park...nod to OJs being just as fast but not as slippery; SPFs are not a novice wheel in that regard.
OJ/Ricta don't feel chalky at all these days (the Ricta Chrome cores of old did). Current Ricta are fucking hard wheels, they don't feel plasticky or rubbery (totally agree with you on those two counts) they just feel HARD as nails, which I like. They slide really well, give you a nice loud chirp and they are fast. I'm riding a set of the 101 super slims (the Nyjah wheel); it's basically a much slimmer Radial Slim shape.
Regular Formula OJs always feel like bones 100s. The 'concentrate' line (pp wheel) just avoid like the plague. OG formula on shit terrain they are just fine but feel slow on nice 'crete. Much like the Darkroom Triclops feel, they remind me of the ABS Autobahn wheels or the [years] older .sml 99s. It's that typical US made Creative urethane feel. Completely uncharacteristic and generic feeling wheel that is a bit on the grippy side. Probably a stock formula since it's a 'deckbrand' wheel.
OJ elites are hard but really grippy; people say they don't slide, which just isn't true, they take a little effort but have never slipped out ever for me; just go watch MM skate them at mach-1 and listen to him get them chirping. The hardline shape is amazing.