Perfection
I’m so happy I have to tell the world. Or all nine of you who follow this: I’ve finally gotten my Thruster set up right. When I got it last summer, I had a feeling that the 65mm 78a EW Superballs would be good—fast and slashy, but still soft enough for cruising—so I bought them from Brian, the last set he had (they’re discontinued, I think because they’re so great. Supply, demand, etc.). I set it up at first with Indy 169s, hard Bones Hardcores, and 1/4” soft risers. Loved it. Then…wheelbite! Tightened front and back, and more wheelbite. Put it on fairly steep wedged risers and more wheelbite. Dread, dread wheelbite—despite what Animal Chin has to say about it—on all four wheels. I have some 56mm 82a Superballs, but they’re a little too little for the cracktastic pavement and cobblestones out here, and also I suck too hard to skate them.
So there it sat, thrust out of the quiver, but looking lovely in its banishment.
Then, one day in February, when I had a spare four hours, I sanded in some lovely wheel wells, as I crowed at the time. You can see in that pic, also, that I started running it on 66mm Road Rages (the old EW 66s poured in the new “purethane”) and flat risers. It was a fine set-up—fine for chugging around in the slush, and miraculously bite-free—but it just felt sluggish. And meanwhile I was falling in love all over again with my Superglider (about which I could really go on and on).
So there she sat again, with a brief return a few weeks ago, right at the thaw, when I went back to the 65mm wheels, unwedged (not dewedged, silly!).
Cut to yesterday. In the course of a general round of springtime parts shuffling (everything got a fresh look except the Superglider, which is perfect) I took the wedges and Core baseplates off my F2 Timeline (it’s on the wall) and put them on the Thruster, for which they were originally purchased last year. I’ve been playing with Venom Eliminators—Zak Maytum’s amazing urethane in a sort of Stim shape—and I realized that with those I could go softer and still, because they are so fat and grabby on the hangers, kill the now infamous bite. (In his defense, Brian didn’t expect anyone to run wheels bigger than like 56mm, so he didn’t spec wells). On went the Venoms, 93a bottoms and 90a tops. Bite! Even with wells and wedges! And tightened to a safe margin, the whole kit felt dead.
I’ve been thinking a lot about something Mark Chandler said/posted recently:
When [you] look at completes, remember:
Wider trucks aren’t necessarily better
Reverse-kingpin trucks aren’t necessarily better
Taller wheels aren’t necessarily better
Always think in terms of the system, not just the components.
The system needed wheels that were fast and could slash a little, for fun and to scrub speed (aka “safety”). The wheels I had that met those criteria—the aformentioned 65mm Superballs—are a little choppy for cruising (exacerbated by the stiff maple deck itself). So I kept the Road Rages; a waste, really, since they are so good at going fast down hills, which this board is not shaping up to be, was not meant to be: the quiver is a system, too. After thinking for a while, “What little wheel would perform like a Fishball/Retro FreeRide,” I realized I had a set sitting right here. I resolved to put the 65mm wheels, the ones I had originally purchased for this board, back on. Then, emboldened by that victory of instinct, I remembered my original bushing conception from last summer: a version of the glider set-up I was happily running at the time. I had the problem solved all along—fat Jimz bottom, for surfy turning and shock absorbing. I threw on a green Eliminator top. Dead. But not so the reds. Take away three little durometer points and…perfection: surf, slash, cruise, carve, And it hasn’t bitten yet.
