I’ve been looking around and trying to get more into esk8 parts (specifically the mechanical parts) and I stumbled across spring trucks from flipsky. They don’t seem to be any different from Trampa spring trucks aside from missing bushing on the inside. Has anyone ever used these before? If so, would you recommend them for street riding and for riding in dirt/grass and gravel? I’m planning to go maybe 30+ on the road (not constantly that speed) and I plan to use this on small park trails. This seems like an amazing deal considering it comes with wheels too. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Personally, I really dislike springs. Especially without the rubber thing inside, there’s little to no dampening. This means the trucks bounce back all the energy given to them, making speed wobbles and other oscillations much more aggressive.
Coming from a track rider that actually means a lot. Considering you guys put a lot of stuff like this to the test. Is the feedback just as bad as standard rkp trucks or would you consider it worse? Especially with bumbs and cracks. And would you think havong pneumatic tires and the bushings improve any stability issues and feedback?
I rode RKP on thanes for 5 years.
When I got my Kaly(used), it had springs on it. I switched it to use kaly soft bushings almost immediately. Ill ride RKP everyday over springs(imo rkp isn’t bad)
Yes, absolutely. That said, my kaly had both and I still much preferred the bushings.
I appreciate your feedback greatly! It helps tremendously! Looks like ill be staying away from spring trucks like that and stinking with RKP until i can afford the luxury of proper channel trucks
Btw, Tito just released his new custom design of trucks, Duality.
They’re like channel trucks but better in every way, highly recommend. I’m building a board specially to have a board with them.
I have spring trucks on my mountain board - because the donor board had them. I actually like them for the mountain board.
Downside is it takes me quite a while to adjust from riding the street boards to the mountain board - the first 15 or so minutes are pretty iffy.
But after that I think it makes tight turns easier where bushings offer more resistance the harder you try to turn the spring trucks offer the same resistance all the way to the limit. So for small slow tight trails there’s a distinct advantage.
They also work well for just regular banging around the dirt trails, but I wouldn’t do speed on them. Then again I don’t do a lot of speed on my street boards either.
Spring trucks are about as bad as it gets, I tried a friends board on them and I was wobbling at 12. If setup better they can go faster than 12 but they are still ass. Channel trucks with the lacroix type bushings are great for lower speed stuff, but you don’t really want to go 30+ on them when you have them setup carvy. They usually feel great up to about 25-28.
I’m getting Tito’s trucks for my channel truck board to be more stable at speed, mostly for track riding. These are a more premium option but from the current rider feedback they seem to be the best besides 3 links. I am really excited to try them on my board soon.
Note, for any channel style truck make sure you have a deck with 30±5 degree ends.
My first few rides on channel trucks and pneumatic wheels had me wake up in the back of an old classmate from boarding schools work vehicle, he’s an ambulance driver now.
Ever since the accident, I’ve been dealing with chronic mental retardation on a daily basis.
I wouldn’t use coil spring trucks myself. MBS and boardnamics do some reasonably priced stuff, and you might even pick up some matrix 2’s used for cheaps. I have a set on one board, and they’re okay.
If you do go with coils though, you could try fitting a motorcycle steering damper to the rear truck. I’ve bought one for my lonestar, just haven’t got round to fitting it.
Must be used with a damper but get soft damper. dampers will wear out, the damper retainer screw insert nylon cup can spin in the nylon if you use locktight. If considering get spare dampers and retainer cups. I would stay far away from the flipsly, trampa is a great truck, does the job. But overall, i dont use as a daily rider (i have them on a street cruiser) due to higher maintenance so the other options are more robust.