If its a road rash situation, tegaderm/tattoo skin
If you broke skin and its wet/puss-y, hydrocolloid
If its bleeding, dry bandages to stop the blood (pepper can work as a clotting agent in an emergency) and then hydrocolloid
I keep dry bandages and insta clot in my first aid kid. The rest can wait til I’m home
Back to ABec
Since it’s 100° out and I’m really sore I decided to just tinker.
I managed to actually clean out the bench which is such a delight and I hardly ever manage to do.
On the bench went the V1 and the Abec wheels.
It takes a bit of effort to pry the pulleys off of the MAD wheels
So ABec is 592 grams, and MAD is 673.
Is not a huge difference. Just 324 grams for the board.
My main reason for changing is I want the pure urethane feeling of the ABec wheels.
And the supreme free roll.
This drivetrain sounds so smooth…
Ha…
So despite the heat and being tired and sore I had to go try out the V1…
I geared up and ended up riding 8 miles.
Not bad for a guy that planned on sitting it out today.
I really like these Abec 111s.
I don’t have the confidence on them I have on MAD wheels…
But the Abecs have not broken traction on me a single time yet…
Great grip.
Great comfort.
And they beat the MAD in the sense of feeling more like a pure urethane wheel.
No hum here…
Im glad the V1 came with these…
I would have never bought them on their own.
I have had so many sets of Abec wheels back in the day when they were the hot shit…
But I was so over them…
Not so much anymore. These are awesome.
The Abec on the tennis courts is a supreme feeling, of glide and perfect connection with the ground.
I actually broke traction here a few times on the MAD Max…
Has not happened with the 111s.
Turns out riding and achieving a flow state helped with overall pain and soreness.
Sometimes DIY is the Cure
I just ordered the lems outlanders and another set of the chelsea boots.
Make sure you go at LEAST one size larger with the lems.
Im usually a US13, i got the primal zens and their chelsea boots in size 14 and they were both JUST too small. Gave them to charity and have just ordered size 15 replacements
I have super high hopes for the outlanders 
Horrible picture I know 
but it’s the best I can be bothered to do right now. I normally wear a 13, so I got these in a 14. I’m pretty pleased with the fit.
The toe box is noticeably narrower than my Within shoes. But I expected that, both because Lems are well known for having a not-super-wide toe box, and because my Within shoes are basically mesh socks with a rubber sole lol. Im hopeful that they’ll break in quickly, as many reviews say they do.
The fit otherwise is a bit weird. There’s space behind and around my heel, but it’s comfortable everywhere else (mid-foot, foot volume, space above and in front of the toes, etc). I dont think sizing up to a 15 would be an improvement.
Due to Lems pretty restrictive returns policy, I’m doing laps around my house and jumping around and standing on my esk8 to try to get as much of a feel for these as I can. Cus once I wear them outside they dont accept returns/exchanges anymore 
I think I’m going to keep them though. They seem really nice, definitely more skate-worthy than my Within socks shoes.
I love the look and build of the outlander, much more than the Boulder Grip that I got. But I decided on these specifically for their outsole. It looked like it was going to have much better traction on grip tape than the really luggy hiking outsole of the Outlander and Boulder Summit. And sure enough, it feels super sticky and locked in on my board (at least, as far as I can tell just rolling around inside lol).
Let me know how the Outlanders work out for you!
Oh and by the way, I rode the 10 miles home from my workshop this evening in my Within shoes, for 20mi total today. My feet felt great! Other than knowing I would destroy my feet if I fell, I really loved skating in them. Basically zero foot fatigue or toe pain like I’m used to with my Vans. Basically no heel impact pain, despite the Within having a 5mm stack height of just solid rubber.
It makes it extremely tempting to risk foot mutilation to have no pain while riding 
hopefully these Lems can compare.
I totally feel where you’re coming from here, it may very well not feel very good.
But saying that, i ride regularly in my redback work boots, and have also ridden a good amount in my columbia hiking boots with no issues whatsoever.
I strongly dislike the boulder boot aesthetic, so rolling the dice on the outsole is a decision i can live with… if they suck to skate in i’ll just keep wearing my work boots
I hear that if you say it 3 times, @xsynatic will bring the receipts
Have you seen these?
I had another set of splay shoes.
They were more substantial than Within.
Not as much as Lems.
Yep they’re in my (very long) list of considerations. I opted for the lems instead cus I wanted something with a larger stack height, for better foot protection.
My two biggest worries are running off the board at speed and my heel smashing against the ground, and tumbling/rolling twisting my foot till it breaks.
So I want a skate shoe that’s got a decent squishy stack height, and some lateral stiffness in the upper. Which is hard, because that’s basically opposite to what all “barefoot” and “minimalist” shoes are designed for
This is literally what we are all here for
Fixing inserts
Inserts are a whole thing right…
Hard to do…
Love to pop off…
Love to crack and get stripped…
Pain in the ass.
Well.
I needed to fix some inserts on the V1 that popped off.
I did not have a collar that would fit my 12 mm drill bits I just used Tessa tape.
It’s easy doing this stuff with the Hummie deck since it’s almost like 20 mm thick.
I have totally drilled through decks in the past doing this.
After drilling I just cut little cylinders with the dowel.
A little glue.
And they popped in place nicely.
I actually let this sit for 24 hours before I went and drilled out the holes for the inserts.
These babies are in place and ready to get screwed now…
Pecos made me do it
The glorious return of the Bustin Sportster.
Ever since @Pecos picked up that Sportster build and kept flashing it around I started pondering this.
I wanted to do a deck swap from the Rayne Crush to the Bustin Sportster.
.
I need to go back in here and see when the last time It was that the Bustin was electrified.
But for now let’s unravel the Rayne Crush
…
Not very well sealed
I slapped the trucks and taped the box to the Bustin because I was anxious to find out how much clearance is going to have
And it’s really sketchy… But we are not turning back.
Long story short the Bustin Sportster feels way nicer to stand on than the Rayne Crush.
Every now and then I would stand on the analog version I had in the garage, and be in awe of how nice it felt.
It is a short standing platform. But it just works.
I would kill for a Demonseed sized standing platform but with the Bustin foot wells.
Swiss cheese
I have had a few setups on the Bustin…
And many sets of inserts…
I decided I wanted to clean the deck up a little bit.
So I drilled out all the inserts.
And fill them with wood putty
I’m not doing a full refinish as I don’t have the patience… Just making it look less crazy.
since I have no patience I wasn’t going to let the board probably cure. And I started working on the little packet.
I just need to wrap it with shrink wrap so I could tape that to the deck.
It’s such a minimal drive train.
A little VHB tape.
And it’s not going anywhere… Just needs a cover.
Then I needed to add the 4th set of inserts to this deck.
Going with M4 because the deck is so thin…
I added Butyl around for sealing.
And the cover is on with just some tape trimming left.
The box is slightly crooked…
Inserts are hard… Yada yada.
And here we are.
I love the look of the his set up.
It would look even better with the Orange Caguamas… But I will stick with the Blue for now.
These are Paris 50s.
I just put on Riptide 90a Krank Barrels with flat washers and it’s ultra carvy.
This enclosure clearance is pretty sketchy…
I will need to really pay attention if I go somewhere with many curb transitions.
It does not scrape constantly on flat ground… But if I’m turning a bit harder it does scrape.
I can totally live with it… But it could be better.
It feels really good on the patch of good pavement in the neighborhood.
But I decided to go up to the school for the Tennis courts.
The left hub does click a little bit taking away from total perfection.
But still, this feels so close to an analog set up, and I love it because of that.
Very nice!!!
A break from the heat wave
It has been totally brutal hot humid soup here this week…
We got some rain last night and It broke up the heat…
At lunch I needed coffee and cream so I took the Almost a Flux over to Sam’s and the corner store.
It was it’s first outing in it’s new configuration where it did the job of being the all weather board.
It was not raining anymore but the ground was wet enough I would have worried about riding most other boards…
It’s nice surfing around on the grass on these tires…
These tires are in fact a whole vibe on their own.
I need to ask what PSI people run them at…
This is a giant board right…
Giant deck… Giant trucks… Giant tires.
Sure. There are bigger boards. But nonetheless this is giant…
So taking it places is a consideration.
At Sam’s I slid it in the lower part of the cart.
It was awkward to get in there. But easy to move around the store once I was going.
At the little corner market I prefer to leave it outside.
I take some things inside and lean them on a corner.
But this thing has such a bit foot print.
So I just kind of hang it on the bike rack.
Hooray for long evenings
Where I grew up in Brazil it did not stay light super late like it does here…
So to me, the super long evenings is still one of the coolest things about summer.
Luca and I set off for a ride to the playground at 8:30…it was totally bright out.
We cruised around the school.
All terrain baby!!!
It was a really nice sunset ride. It ended up tracking at exactly 5 miles…
I really had a great time riding the Bustin.
The tight stance, and the short wheel base make this set up so playfull.
The Rayne Crush was pretty.
But in comparison to this it was higher, and the concave was not comfortable for my feet…
So the ride on the Bustin feel far superior in so many ways.
It exceeded my expectations.
I do need to try and fix the clicking hub.
I’m thinking I’m going to shove grease between the sleeve and the motor.
Like I did for bearings on clicking hubs(which totally worked)
I also had a few hang ups with the enclosure…
So I have the desire to design a lower profile enclosure.
Wont need anything quite this big but it is out there. Would take filling some more holes in though 
. Glad to see the sportster love. I wanna switch to the orange sleeves and orangatangs - i think they break traction more predictably. Im also running paris 50° but im looking for some 44° or 30° baseplates to get a little more lean for a little less carve. Already dewedged as much as i think i can get away with and it’s still very playful at low speeds. I think im just looking for duality/singularity type leaning.
Poast suggested wfb so ima get a set of those and keeping my eye out for baseplates.
I was reading on the longboard reddit that the qc has dropped off with the new ownership at bustin 
modern business schools teach that practice unfortunately. It’s foolish and short sighted so I hope it’s just exaggeration
Saturday morning ride with Luca
I can’t believe I literally spawned a riding buddy…
It’s quite seriously the coolest thing.
And he is all about riding so he asks me to go all the time.
We left the house just after 10.
And rolled through campus.
Then he wanted to go to the new skatepark, which is kind of on the other side of downtown.
Standing around is boring, so I started to go around and made it ok.
Much scraping…
Then we rolled back through downtown.
The ice cream place was closed, so we went next door for coffee…
Worked out well for me.
Can we started rolling back home meandering through campus.
We hung out on this lovely little pond they have.
We were out for a long time.
And rode 12 miles.
Most epic!!!
Super cool little side kick! Tough too!
Luca gets an electric longboard
So Saturday afternoon got interesting…
After our ride we were chilling on the couch watching reviews of the Linnpower Zephyr.
I think it looks killer and I want one…
Turns out Luca through it looked killer and he wants one…
So I say we could build him something similar.
And he calls me out on it…
it was a good time to tinker anyways…
We go in the basement and dig out the Loaded Tan Tien.
This goes back to when I deck swapped my Wowgo 2S… Wow…
We set up Paris trucks and Kegel wheels on the Tan Tien, along with super soft Riptides I got recently.
The Tan Tien is definitely the smallest longboard in the house. Look at it compared to the Bustin…
I do wish I had a drop down kids longboard.
Like a miniature Demonseed…
We rolled up the street so he can try it analog and see if the vibe is good.
He is into it
It’s a pretty good size fit.
And most importantly he can turn it.
So the next order of business is making the board as short as possible for the little dude.
So circumcision it is
It’s an even better fit.
It’s really cute how he actually helps me with stuff. A bit of sanding here.
Next up it was time to dig for parts.
So far we had the:
Tan Tien deck.
Paris 50 trucks, Riptides on.
Orange Kegels.
So then we added
Boardnamics 170 hanger. Because you can’t use good pulleys with the Paris
Boardnamics Idler mount (yep, the OG)
5365 200kv motor.
OG Focbox. Flipsky Bluetooth.
Flipsky dumb anti spark because I’m dumb and bought a non smart one…
Mini remote.
14 tooth/36 tooth BN pulley
The funny thing is that part of me at the beginning of the day I thought I would build a little 12S1P pack for this…
But just getting here took me a long time.
So we stole the battery from the Bustin…
I was excited About that set up, and I’ll make a pack for it …
But now the little dude had all the parts needed to go zoom zoom.
And the little set up comes to life.
The little dude asked me when I was going to be done 1000 times, I almost strangled him…
The funny thing is that he passed out just about 10 minutes before I was all done.
Amazing how things can take a long time.
I rolled it up and down the block.
The little motor with 40 amps , at 14/36 on 80mm wheels could totally move me fine on flat ground.
I was going to have to turn it way down for little bro.
I think it’s so cool how tiny it is compared to the V1
Fairy similar size to the Dinghy in a lot of ways.
Leaving this ready in the garage for him to find in the morning was better than Christmas!!!
Haha I love this. I can totally picture my kids doing the same exact thing. They always get excited about new esk8 builds and always think that “Dad takes too long to build it”.
You running the loaded hubs right? Get some Ronin trucks. Little hard to get your hands on these days but they are awesome if you want a super leany setup. Feels fairly close to dualities in terms of ride feel too. The only downside is that they do require more maintenance than other trucks.
I have the OG cast ones, haven’t had the chance to try newer versions but I expect them to feel great also. These might bit a crazier than the newer versions due to their 8mm positive rake which is a fair bit for sure. Newer versions only have 3mm rake I think.
Here I’m running them on flat washers boardside and flipped cone cups roadside which is about as insane as you can go. 45/35 angles on a switchblade 36 and risers because they are necessary to avoid wheelbite with so much lean. Stock red bushings rear, in the front boardside is the stock red and roadside is some blue APS, I think the 85A one. Really stable trucks also.
With this washer setup they are absolutely frightening especially with PU wheels since they lean (and turn!) so much. And that’s coming from someone who loves really leany WFB setups on dualities! With a combination of some cups and flats or all cups they can be tamed a bit but are still great. My setup on them is probably too crazy for most people
