Skateboarding

I remember reading a bit on spacers where a guy measured a whole load of wheels & a few were just enough out of tolerance that the bearing seat sat just slightly too deep / not quite deep enough, meaning that if spacers were used it caused a bit of slack / tightness when everything was nipped up... have you tried mounting the problem wheel without a spacer?

Well I just tried an extra washer either side of the wheel - no change.

Then I took all the wheels off and put them back on again - perfect.

I think maybe I’ve just got a haunted wheels or something.

I was convinced it wasn’t the wheel that was at fault, but since the problem magically disappeared just now, I’m not so sure after all!

Use that hand for a Lotto ticket immediately!

Actual live streaming feed of my wheel - let’s see how long it spins for…

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Still spinning...

Major bits have arrived! Just need bearings and risers, and then some time to put it all together..

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I've got some old bearings and risers you can have for free, if you're in east London?

I can get over there, maybe today. Pm your deets and we’ll work something out.

That looks like it’s going to be a shit-tonne of fun

Nice!
Meanwhile, there, THERE, on the deck:

‘14.2 WB’

This refers to the deck’s wheelbase - the distance between the trucks and that’s the number I was referring to upthread (I prefer a longer wheelbase). It affects the board’s turning circle and can be a big factor in the overall feel of a setup.

^ Bizarro-world-vilms eyerolled and told me to shut up and skate. Trundle at 1pm.

All built up, will attempt to ride on it over the next week. Trucks feel well flexy when just standing on them.

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Sweet. Those wheels look crackers!

When you say flexy, do you mean the turning movement? Is it better with them tightened up a turn or two?
If you’re having to over tighten the kingpin nuts to get them to not feel too loose, you could try buying some harder bushings.

I painted another board. This one’s for sale, if anyone happens to be interested. Maybe. I might just build it up and skate it :-D
It’s a nice 8.75” pool shape.

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When I say flexi I mean when you put your feet on the board it doesn’t take much of a transfer of weight for the board to start tipping in either direction.
I don’t have anything to compare it to (I am not a skater) but BiL was over to help put the grip tape on, and he seemed to think it was overly flexi, though he did say his boards are set up to be fairly stiff.
We tightened the kingpins, I’m not sure it made that much of a difference.
I could buy some stiffer bushings, but I’m not sure it’ll make a difference to learning to skate, or if I’ll notice the difference. So I’ll just get on it and get used to it and see what happens.

[taps sign]

(wheelbase) affects the board’s turning circle and can be a big factor in the overall feel of a setup.

(and what @AlexD said about bushings)

As long as it’s not actively wobbling when you roll on it, it’ll be fine. And you’re right, you’ll get used to it.

Those wheels are nuts. I’m trying to work out what the grooves are supposed to be doing? If that’s supposed to be a way to squeegee water and allow skating in the rain, I am sceptical! Urethane and wet weather don’t really play well.

Very nice!

I just read the Shark blurb. Okeh.

Went out into my car park and skated for about and hour and a half, just getting used to standing on it, pushing, rolling at slowish speeds and getting my pushing foot onto the board. Seemed okay. Got a bit of a sweat on actually.
Current issue i need to overcome is getting comfortable turning my front foot from forward to over the side of the board and back again when I transition from pushing to skating/rolling and back again.

BiL sent me a video teaching you how to tic tac, so that’s next on the skill tree.

My advice for turning that foot, someone may correct me... keep your knee bent and lightly pivot on the ball of your foot, it's a bit harder with fresh grip. I've found pushing up a slight incline really helps as you'll not likely go speeding off and you have to keep adjusting to push.
That and just skating everywhere you can. Sometimes I'll skate 5km to a spot and 5km back (quality of the roads / pavement allowing).

Yeah that sounds like good advice. Especially the bit about skating as much as you can - a lot of the technique stuff, like foot position, will just come naturally as you get more confident on the board. Don’t worry about learning particular things at the moment - just skate around and get used to balancing and leaning to turn. Getting over the initial awkwardness and gaining a bit of confidence will make stuff like kickturns much easier so don’t worry about stuff like that straight away.

And @monkdagola thanks for the advice, I’ll spend the next couple of weeks just getting comfortable with skating and getting over the awkwardness, going to take myself over to a park and skate on their paths. I’m assuming having somewhere to travel to will increase my comfort on the board

^ all good stuff there, also - ankle stability is one thing that will only improve the more you skate (unless you want to spend a lot of time balancing on one leg, lol) so you'll eventually spend more time with only one foot on the board and the other just making big pushing movements rather than a series of small taps. Also don't underestimate the difference a decent surface will make for your confidence - find a good smooth spot & practice making a couple of big pushes before setting that foot back on the board, once you get your balance on one foot dialled you can pick up speed surprisingly quickly.

Yeah ankle strength was something I didn’t really think about when I first started skating ‘properly’ again last spring. I was finding it really hard on my ankles initially and thought I was doing them damage, as they were sore after every skate. Turned out they were just getting stronger I guess - they’re fine now and I’m skating harder than last year.