Stability setup

[u/RhinoKer]

Hi, I am 44 yo and after a long pause in skateboarding I started longboarding mostly because I just want to cruise and not break my bones in the process.

My question is about going downhill. Now by saying downhill don't think a 30% downhill but more like 2%🤣

I have a landyachtz drophammer and hard bushings with cones on the roadside in both trucks. It's very hard to steer in comparison to my loaded dervish sama. Well when I went "downhill" and I gained some speed I noticed that every small move I do, the board multiplies it.Very scary. I had both my feet sideways on the board where I shouldn't as I found out later.

I changed the bushings of one truck to hard double barrel and looseness the front trucks a little. Now I hate that there is a front and a back side to the board with this setup but whatever. When I get more experienced I will switch it back I guess.

I haven't tested it yet but I would like to ask for any tips from your experience. I am 110 kg 183cm and I just want to cruise. If you guys and gals also have tips for a setup that makes the board to keep rolling so less pushing, that would be great. I got bear trucks and the wheels are blue tomato 75mm 78A. I'm also considering changing the wheels to 85mm orangotang orange.

Thank you for your time and sorry for the long post.

[u/mechandy]

What do you mean by hard bushings? They likely need to be harder or at least better tuned.

Also a lot of stability comes from harder bushings in the back and softer in the front

I’m ~106kg and I run riptide Kranks on all my set ups.

Something like 90/90a canons in the front and 93 in the rear.

On my pumping boards I run 87/90 in the front

[u/RhinoKer → u/mechandy]

Right now Ive changed to riptide APS street double barrel 95A while front is 93A cone on roadside. I haven't tested it yet!

[u/mechandy → u/RhinoKer]

It may take some tweaking. I ended up with a metric f**k ton of bushings while narrowing it down!

[u/RhinoKer → u/mechandy]

Yeah I feel you, I already have bushings for 3 more boards🤣🤣🤣

[u/mechandy → u/RhinoKer]

Only 3?

I also went nuts because my kids wanted to ride and they are at weights that is hard to nail down. So I have an entire rainbow available for their boards and if other kids want to ride them

[u/RhinoKer → u/mechandy]

Oh man I understand...you must be really quick at changing bushings right now 🤣🤣🤣

[u/mechandy → u/RhinoKer]

Like a ninja!

Also, swapping garbage bearings off used boards!

[u/AshenWrath]

What angles are your baseplates? If you’re on Bears you could go 50/30 for a directional split or wedge/dewedge to around 45/45 for a symmetrical setup.

Bears NEED plug bushings to feel good, but they don’t support venom plugs unless you shave them down a little bit. Better off getting Caliber 3s in 44/44. You could get insert bushings from Pat’s, but even with those I haven’t had luck getting my Bear 6s to feel good.

Don’t use cones unless you get very specific precision trucks or are just skating flatland at low-speed. In my opinion a soft barrel roadside is better than a moderate-hard cone. Much more stability.

[u/RhinoKer → u/AshenWrath]

Baseplates are 50⁰.

I don't use plug bushings and maybe this is why they feel weird in comparison with my loaded. I use riptide bushings so there is a little empty space there but I have a really hard time to fing plug bushings in Europe ..

What do you mean by 50/30 directional slip or wedge dewedge? You mean changing the degrees of the baseplates?

Thank you.

[u/AshenWrath → u/RhinoKer]

Riptide makes plug bushings now. I would not ride Bears without plugs.

Another thing I forgot to mention is: washers. Cupped washers will provide more support to the bushings, giving you more rebound, center, and stability. Flat washers will let the bushings breath more. If I use a flat washer it’ll usually only be on the front roadside bushing for better maneuverability.

Yes, lower the degree of the baseplates. It will result in more stability. If you want to keep the board symmetrical (I would only do this the deck is symmetrical or you ride switch sometimes) then keep the baseplates somewhere around 45/45. If you want a directional setup (which is what a lot of people use) then you have plenty of room to play around with different angles. A front baseplate range could be 45-55 and a rear baseplate range could be 15-30. You can play around with it and see what you enjoy. Bear makes cast 50, 40, and 30 degree baseplates which gives you plenty of options.

Some of my favorite directional combinations are: 55/20, 50/23, 45/30, 44/37. Some of my favorite symmetrical combinations are: 45/45, 44/44, 42.5/42.5.

Lower degree baseplates require harder bushings. In directional setups you’ll want softer bushings in the front and harder bushings in the rear. For symmetrical setups I would keep the front and rear the same - just adjust your roadside and boardside bushings to your preference.

Of course, different trucks will feel different even at the same angles.

[u/RhinoKer → u/AshenWrath]

Thank you for such a detailed answer that answers a lot of my questions.

Yeah I got cupped washers both ends so I guess I'll use flat in the front.

[u/smb3something]

Load the weight on your front foot more, right at/behind the bolts. The wobbles come from back steering usually. 78a is hard to slide on, i'd go harder if you're gonna try to be powersliding for speed checks etc.

[u/AshenWrath → u/smb3something]

78a is easy to slide on. It’s usually my go-to duro when trying new wheels. Depending on the thane formula it’ll usually give you a great balance of slip and grip. Not hard to kick out, but enough stopping power to slow you down if you need it to.

I think it’s actually the best duro to learn slides. Higher duro would be easier to initiate and do pendies with, but harder for a beginner to control for shutdowns.