9 inch tires were nice for getting over stuff. But for me seemed to make it harder to do sharp turns.
Do you use bindings. Full or just foot?
On my 2WD board, at the front with 420s and standard axles, I used the inside bushing positions. On the rear with the extended axles, I used the outside. However, (not so) funny thing. That incident I mentioned further up where I clipped the tree stump with the rear tire. Well it totally tore out the plate that sits on top of the shockblock and ripped the thread in the baseplate. So I am now using the inside positions on the rear too. Just about to go out and test that in a bit.
Maybe it will fix it and it was destiny
I am guessing we may have different riding styles because I am super timid off road…
But for me it was an interesting paradigm shift having the Gravel Flux and the Gravel Boi without bindings so I can move around the board to push harder to turn.
And step off when I needed to get over something hairy…
But I never really got tuned to bindings.
I always ride with at least half-bindings (no heel straps). However I will ride with the heel straps when I can but it’s a bit scary to ride with them on some of these trails. I was out yesterday and fell off a couple of times and also fell and got stuck in them without the heel straps on. I was thinking at the time if I had them on that I might have come away twisting something in a leg or two.
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This kind of riding is definitely something where you need to have some level of commitment on turns in terms of speed. There’s a reason why some of the turns are banked. Going around slowly seems less scary but it is actually harder.
For general off-roading, I am fine using heel straps but these kinds of trails are definitely a bit scary at times.
Also, you need to be able to hop the front sometimes to make the turn tighter, and that’s harder if you have more weight on the front like 4WD. Matrix IIIs are currently my truck of choice for this kind of riding because the turning is so much easier. However, the vibrations definitely suck compared to PKP which soaks them up, but I struggled a lot with PKP turning on these kinds of trails even after a lot of experimenting with the bushings.
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Another thing I’ve found is that with 2WD it’s a lot easier to slide out the back to get around some of the tight turns. On the other hand, there’s definitely places where 2WD doesn’t have the traction to get up certain places.
On the pkp besides the bushings did you try any angled risers?
The trails I tend to hit are more on the light off roading side…
I can even do them on the GT…
On the Bro deck I was using the risers that Apex sells so that’s 35-degrees on both ends. I think I experimented to the point where it was as soft as possible without being scary unstable for higher speeds. A friend who has a Trampa got on my board, and he’s like “holy shit this is really loose” and it was. At the front I even had white inverted cones boardside and green cones underneath which is pretty loose. For sure I was able to get it turning a lot tighter but I still found it was a lot of effort to execute really tight turns. But when I went back to Matrix III, it was a cinch by comparison to make those same turns. I could make them tighter and with less effort. But the downside for sure is really not so comfortable with shitty trails. Tons of vibration coming through to the deck by comparison.
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This is probably as technical as it gets. You can see a step off move in the end.
Yeah I like to hit those kinds of trails too. I think off-road is definitely something where there’s a huge variation in the definition. For some people off-road is just like not on asphalt. But definitely when you add in really steep hills (with rocks and tree roots to also go over), mud or other loose stuff, and really tight turns, it’s a whole other thing.
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Moving to the Newbee RTKP trucks totally changed my 4WD board. Turning is absolutely fantastic now even on 9" tires. Also, shorter regular Trampa deck helps as well vs Haero Bro on my other 2WD board.
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