Royal trucks
Considering on the Royals Alvarez trucks 5.25. Any good for these trucks? Should I get these ?
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
In this Discussion
©Skate One Corp. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I had Krux that I purchased under similar circumstances and gave them away - they don't turn.
Compare that to Mini Logo, which I still like and ride on some decks after 6 years. I like Mini Logo on decks that are smaller (8.3 and under), that are reasonably steep with few fingers of flat - setups I will be doing flippy stuff with. I run risers on the 8.38 ones, but not the 8". Kingpin clearance is bad, but I don't do slappies with these setups. They turn well for low trucks and I will run the 8.38 setup in transition.
I like Thunder on flat decks with around 3 fingers of flat (Mini Logo 8" deck with Thunder is super flippy). They give a hefty pop feel meaning you can get a lot of energy out of them. I don't care for them on steep decks.
I like Ace on bigger setups that I use in bowls. They turn better than Indy and grind better too. Pop feel is very light - so not as much height on ollies, but is easier. Good for mellowing out steeper setups like Santa Cruz. Not my favorite on flat decks like Powell.
Indy are middle of the road. If I only had one setup that I was riding everywhere, I may go Indy. I prefer the forged baseplate - it is lower and is drilled to give a slightly wider wheelbase giving a heftier pop.
@BackInAction question for you: You find that you are not able to ollie as high on shorter wheelbase trucks like Ace and Indy's on flatter decks? I have two identical Powell decks in 8.25", one with Indy's and one with Thunders. I like them both, but when it comes to ollies I get way more pop and height, and more consistently, on the Thunders.
@SkaterRick
Yep. Amount of pop and height is determined a lot by the geometry of the truck, but you need to find the right combo per deck. Venture/Thunder on steep decks are a no go for me, as are Ace on flat decks.
Bigger wheelbase to shorter:
Venture forged > Venture > Thunder > Indy forged > Indy > Mini Logo > Ace
Rabbit Hole: https://www.slapmagazine.com/index.php?topic=108580.0
I had two setups with the same wheelbase - one Krux and one with the Indys I was used to - and took them to a local skatepark that is a flow park with mostly 5-8' transitions. I dropped in on the Krux board - wheelbity loose - and the board wouldn't turn as fast as I was used to. I bailed in a number of corners while carving because my body thought it should be turning more, and the board lagged behind. It was a crazy experience. I could skate my Ace, Indy, and Mini Logo back to back and be absolutely fine. Krux just felt like the board didn't want to do what I asked. I think I rode them for 10 minutes and gave them away.
A little while later I saw Ben Degros review them and he had the same feelings.
They are probably fine if you are used to them but I saw zero advantage over Indy.
Edited to remove an assertion that a shorter wheelbase = more distance for the tail to travel. I don't think this is true. Is it just the few mm in height that makes those Indy's feel so different? And if the pop feel should be made lighter by moving the fulcrum point further in, shouldn't this theoretically offset an increase in height?
It seems like everything is super minute - a few mm here, a few mm there... and when drawing it out it doesn't make sense to me that it would matter that much. A taller, more inward Indy should have the board be at the same angle as a shorter, more outward Thunder. should...
Before this lockdown, I skated mostly transition and so the pop feel didn't really matter to me - just what turned well. I thought a lot of this talk was a bit of hogwash and I wasn't nuanced enough to care.
Now I am skating a bunch of flatland. I have been a bit of a gear hussy over the last few years and currently have trucks from Ace, Indy (three generations - all with different geometry), Thunder, Mini Logo and Royal. I have a bunch of decks as well - with the flattest being the MiniLogo, and the steeper ones with less flat being a South Central pressed shop deck and a Santa Cruz.
I spent an afternoon a couple weeks ago moving gear around - trying deck X with trucks 1,2 and 3. I wanted to see how the ollie felt, how consistent I was on kickflips, etc... Then trying all the same trucks on deck Y.
Differences were pretty surprising to me. One setup could feel great, and another could feel like I was just learning to skate again.
My experience is that Thunder work better on flatter decks, and the trucks with shorter wheelbases (ace, older Indy, Mini Logo) work better on the steeper ones. It seems to be the consensus on Slap as well, and Ben Degros' opinion.
It also seems to correlate with what you are experiencing. I don't have an explanation as to why...
I think with setups there is a combination of what "everyone thinks" and what you are used to. If I only rode a Powell/Mini Logo deck with Ace I would get used to the super flat and my timing would come around. If I only rode a South Central deck with Venture forged I would get used to it. When I was 16 I didn't care about any of this stuff. I went to the shop and bought whatever, got used to it and ripped.
TLDR: Thunder work well for you on that deck. Skate it and don't worry why.
The last deck I retired I couldn't ollie that well on, and I tried it with both the Indys and the Thunders. I did a lot better on the Powell and thought that the tail on that other deck must have been shorter, but on closer examination it was actually a couple of degrees (maybe) steeper. That made a big difference, I guess, and neither truck made that deck real ollie-able for me. The Tensors I mentioned earlier in this thread I couldn't get much pop with, and they were a good bit lower. I guess there's an optimal range of height that varies by individual. I don't know if I care enough to start experimenting, but is there some deck out there with the right combination of attributes that would make the Indy the preferred truck for ollies? I don't think so, because it seems like the Thunders have been the easier truck to ollie with across several decks in a few years.
On my 8.5" inch Powell Ripper I have Ace 44's and 56mm SPF wheels, and while it's a good bit more weight to throw around I do not find it as difficult to ollie as the 8.25" Powell with the forged Indy's and 54mm wheels. No explanation for that. I should try Indys on it too to see what happens.
I prefer the turn on Indys and Aces in transition but I can skate Thunders in the bowl just fine. So, like you said, I guess that's my answer.