I recently went through another episode of “Gear Madness,” which is obsessing over, and trying out, different bits of equipment. I had been writing about it a lot, so that if it ever starts again, I have some preventative notes to look back upon. In the end, I now have three complete set-ups, whereas I only had one before. I have realized the “one set-up to rule them all” concept is just too dogmatic. A spoon, a fork, and a knife all have their specific uses and functions.
There has been some leftover “ Minor Madness,” in figuring out the optimal configurations for each of the three set-ups. I am going to do a post detailing each of those three (again, for future reference). This is the first of those three posts.
The God Particle: DLX 8.25
Length: 31.75
Width: 8.25
Wheelbase: 14.38
Nose: 6.81
Tail: 6.5
Trucks: Indy Forged 144
Bushing: Indy barrel/ cylindrical 92a
Wheels: Spitfire F4 53mm Classics (97a, 99s, 101a)
Bearings: Bones Super Swiss 6
Rails: Powell Rib Bones
Tape: MOB
Hardware: Indy 7/8” Allen
I call this set-up the God Particle, because it is as close to my “holy grail” set-up as I will ever get. I can comfortably ride this board in almost any setting, and really enjoy it. I have ridden this set-up over and over, for years at this point. It is the most significant/best set-up of my 35+ years of skateboarding.
During the Madness I tried two different tweaks to this set-up, both of which I have tried a few times before. The first was swapping out the 144s for 149 trucks. I tried this because, what started the Madness, was realizing I liked wider boards/trucks in some situations. I thought trying slightly wider trucks on the 8.25 might enable some of what I liked about wider decks. What I found was that they were not wide enough (e.g. 159s) to provide the benefits of a wider set-up, but also took away some of what I really liked about 144s. They were the best of neither, and the worst of both.
The second thing I tried was a different wheel profile. For this I tried Spitfire Conicals, which have a much more squared-off shape than Classics. While these did provide a much greater sense of being “locked-in” during (some) grinds and stalls (both ramp and street), for an all-purpose deck (e.g. the 8.25), they were too limiting. For street they were a little clunky. They were great for 50-50 grinds, but not as good on Feeble or Smith grinds (and I do a lot of those). On transition, they locked-in “too much” on pivot to fakies, nose pick to fwd, etc. (and made me feel very unnerved about going back in). The Classics just worked better in these situations for me.
So, in the end, I was right back where I started with the 8.25 set-up. And this is what has always happened when I’ve tried alternate equipment on the 8.25—I try different stuff, only to confirm I already had the perfect set-up. This time around, however, I think things have been firmly set to stone.
Next in this series will be the Raney shaped deck.
