Let me take a stab at trying to explain in a somewhat physic related way. Let’s think of the board and the truck width as a seesaw. The deck is one side of the fulcrum of a seesaw and the width of the truck is the other side of the seesaw. The deck is fixed so one side of the seesaw is fixed. The truck side is variable depending on width of trucks so the other side of the seesaw is variable.
The further away from the fulcrum of a seesaw a force is applied, the more force it’ll take for the other side to push. The closer to the fulcrum of the seesaw a force is applied, the less force for it’ll take the other side to push. This is why an adult and a child can play on a seesaw together if the adult is closer to the fulcrum and the child is further away
By having wider trucks, the force is being applied further away from the fulcrum, which means more force is required by the rider to make a turn since the rider side is “fixed” on the “seesaw”.
I’m skeptical of the hypertrucks being “super stable” because of how wide they are and not just feeling super stable. I’ve felt super stable on many setups that ultimately just boosted my confidence level only and I survived, and other setups that felt dangerous but no matter how fast I’d take them would not wobble. so, I’m skeptical. I’m not willing to just accept outright that being wide helps with stability. Precision you say? great for agility… agility from precision can easily magnify your own deficiencies resulting in wobbles way sooner than a non precision setup that would have otherwise absorbed your fuckup twitches in the slop… kindof another topic, but still all about speed wobbles.
“In general, a wider truck will be more stable but less responsive while a narrower truck will be less stable but more responsive. For these reasons, 10’’ or 180mm trucks are more common for downhill and freeride, while 9’’ or 150mm trucks are more popular for carving, transportation, and freestyle.”
Definitely agrees with what you’re saying. Smaller is more agile at the cost of “stability” whereas larger is more stable but at the cost agility.
I’m curious the date on this article, they have Randall, indy and gullwings as examples… calibers came out a long time ago and were popular in part for their neutral rake among other things at the time. the fact that they say 180 is standard for downhill, that’s not the case these days (maybe for freeride), that was the case 10-15 years ago.
Not saying the article is wrong, but nuances have been hashed out since then, if this is old… this wasn’t much long after the OG DH race with 2.5" drop, dewedged front and rear, wide trucks, 85mm offset kryptos with 25mm contact patches being the gold standard essentially.
Yeah I feel wider trucks are stable only because they’ll dampen out the per lean response.
My main arguments for precision helping with wobbles are:
Being precise helps get a better feel of the board. You’ll be able to sense wobbles sooner
Also being precise, control is not mushy so less chance of over or under correcting which can help feed a wobble (assuming that a rider doesn’t over or under correct on their own)
You are completely right that precision trucks can magnify a rider’s deficiency if they’re not able to over and under correct their own. This is why I say a large majority of work still comes from the rider themselves being confident and knowing how to ride out a wobble
I’ve been out of the DH scene for about 4-5 years now so it’s quite possible that this article is out of date but at the time, I think 180mm were somewhat of a standard a
k I was out of the DH scene way before you then so if they were still standard then, then I’m probably off… I only go off FB and YT these days outside esk8. I agree with your last posts assessment too.
Just checked your profile description and the year you started skating was the year I came into existence so definitely way before me
Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely people running 220 precision trucks when I left the DH scene and people running narrower trucks too. I think for DH it might just come down to preference and comfort
All Asians look young right until 60. Then bam, it’s instantly looking like you’re 20 years older haha. There is no in between I started in high school and college as parents were deathly scared of me braining myself which more or less happened at one point so I guess they were right haha
Glad to see that the endless speed wobble thread is back…
Years ago, we made a bunch of tests about speed wobble. And we have been contacted by Simpack, a company that makes multibody simulation for the dynamic analysis of complex mechanical system like high speed train (yes, trains have wobble (instability) problem. …).
So they proposed to make a compared analysis of a skateboard and a Flexboardz.
Here is the video of the simulation for the skateboard.
Interesting! My skateboards has never taken off like an airplane!
Jokes aside, you don’t happen to have the parameters for that simulation? I’m wondering what parameters could maybe remove the possibility of that entirely, like if the rear trucks had a 0 degree kingpin or something.
if I remember right, parameters were board(wheelbase) and truck parts dimensions, weight and geometry (pivot angle).
The rider is simulated by a weight rigidly linked to the board (you can see it at the end of the video below).
I have a 35 randall in the rear of the green one
And a 42 randall in the rear of the blue one.
50 in both fronts. At one time I had the 42 up front on the 35 and didn’t feel a difference in stability compared to the 50 up front. All riptide magnum boardside, cannons roadside. Precision washers up front. Cupped in the rear. I don’t have wobble problems unless I get my weight on the rear of the board
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I started in high school and college as parents were deathly scared of me braining myself which more or less happened at one point so I guess they were right haha
