I have been riding thunders for a long time and I tried the hollow ones because gravity is getting stronger nowadays, you must have noticed? Could be a brexit thing?
But they change everything about flipping the board. Suddenly your trucks are lighter than the board so the heiarchy of what’s forcing/dragging the spin/flip around changes and that affects the natural dynamics of all tricks that leave your feet.
I have a solid kickflip (favourite trick) And I couldn’t land one in 10 tries with hollow trucks, they just sprang up to my bollocks or in front of me.
If you don’t flip then you may not notice much of a difference other then a few cm on your ollie.
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Never bothered trying to clean bearings (Reds) before but thought I’d give it a try with some Bones lubricant. Took the shield off, cleaned them out with 100% alcohol, rinsed off and left to dry for a couple of hours so I could put the lubricant in. They’ve gone rusty as fuck while drying. Presumably I’ve done something wrong so my questions are:
- What? How can you add the lubricant without drying them out?
- Are the more expensive types (Ceramics etc) worth it? Does anyone use anything other than £20 level. Any good? Might as well try and upgrade if I’m getting some more
I tried ceramics once with a set of Bones Reds Ceramics and I wasn’t impressed with the durability. I rode standard Bones Reds for years because they offered a great trade-off between quality and price but about 2 years ago I switched to Bronson G3. They’re still quite cheap (sub-£20 if you shop around) but my experience is they seem to stay smoother for longer than my old Reds.
Ten different bearings tested and reviewed here:
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100% alcohol should have dried in seconds/minutes.
I would try soaking them again for a while, agitate to try and get rid of the rust and then leave them to dry for the amount of time it takes to make a brew, then lather them in lube, reassemble and see how you go.
The rust would probably come off with a bit of riding regardless.
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Are you saying they weren’t rusty before cleaning them?
Edit: re-read and yeah, clearly.
That’s weird if it’s 100% alcohol.
I used acetone on the two occasions I’ve ever cleaned bearings. Put them in a plastic bottle of it and shake them about vigorously to get the crap out before drying thoroughly and re-lubing. Seemed to work great.
A couple were starting to but they all did by the end
I read it as you washed them with alcohol then rinsed the alcohol off with water and left them to dry. If so then you shouldn’t have bothered but just let the alcohol dry off which would have taken a minute or two then oiled them.
Ah yeah, you said ‘rinsed off’. Like Mark says, the alcohol should be left to evaporate of its own accord. Just sit em on a paper towel in some sun outside and it won’t take long at all.
I didn’t notice that part!
As well as lubricating the bearings, the lubricant protects them from any moisture or humidity that might get in and cause rust.
So if you’ve washed the old lubricant off and then poured water in, you’ll definitely get rust!
I go full ham with cleaning bearings. Totally strip them down, clean the races with alcohol /q-tip and polish each individual ball bearing. Takes about an hour.
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Almost as long as one of your mini ramp runs back in the day 
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Yeah in hindsight it was dick move but late last night reading the instructions it was talking about rinsing out after cleaning so 
Have only done this a couple times before but I find it really relaxing/zen-like. Just really taking time with it.
Same set of Bones Swiss for over a decade now. Bang them in the cleaner with some isopropyl alcohol, quick dry off and a drop of Bones oil in each. I’ll be surprised if I ever need to replace them!
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Rock fakie, tail stall…
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Has anyone had any experience with Heathen decks?
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Yeah. They are good wood and I get on with the standard shapes.
Pretty sure they are pressed in Europe.
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The new 93a Formula Fours are really good. I’ve got Dragons on one setup and those on my other, I think the Spits feel a smidge harder and slide slightly better. I can’t really imagine ever going back to a proper hard wheel. I’m not good enough to need that anymore and both of these are so much better to just skate around on.
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Just set this one up.
8.25 Darkroom
148 Thunder hollow lights (as whinged and procrastinated about above)
52mm Stf slims
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Nice build.
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