I did a round of development on the skate truck this week. I’m making a push for the G7 truck production. I’m looking into lots of details. I’d like to get these to the point where I can move to a machined aluminum short run version.
I ordered some cheap 70mm 82A wheels from Amazon for testing. I was hoping that I could move up in wheel size to improve roll. Get a lot more glide on rougher surfaces.
Since good wheel shapes aren’t available in this diameter, I needed to modify them. I cut them down from 51mm wide with a slight side set to 40mm wide center set.
I did a quick test around campus. It did not go well. Aside from the terrible urethane of the cheap wheels, I lost far more than I gained. I had to turn the limit screws in about 3/4 turn. This was enough to restrict steering in a noticeable way. I didn’t have the turn that I needed and it sucked. The deck height had grown so that push was not as relaxed as it had been.
This is what I was looking at:
This is a frustrated step. I found notes in the G6 post about not liking the 69mm wheel. I must have lost track of the path and this is lame.
I must have cut down the older wheels. This was strange as the Powell Peralta Snakes (69mm 75a) wheels had been working well but they had been worn. Or maybe they had been cut down. They have a much higher quality urethane. The front wheels were about 63mm and the rear about 61mm.
Since I was set up for freezing and cutting wheels, I refreshed the Powel Snakes by matching diameters down to 60.5mm to get a fresh start on what is left on them. The rear wheels were very worn. One was particularly egg shaped, more than Ive seen to date.
I think that 66mm is the maximum wheel size for a good cruising setup. Optimize, don’t maximize. This is the way.
