Bushings, Baby!

20Apr09

 This morning, I found myself still awake at around 7 o’clock. I was so bored that I decided to tweak the Fish a bit.

I run a pair of stock Randal R-II 125mm trucks which was pretty stable but I wanted to put more “life” to it; I wanted it to carve even easier. So with my skate tool in hand, I removed the trucks and started to disassemble it. I was reading a thread on Silverfish and I found out that the stock yellow Randal bushings had a durometer of 92a. Since I wanted it to carve better, I decided to open up my Khiro Big Bad Bushing Kit; I put the white barrel bushing on top (extra soft, 73a) and the orange barrel bushing (mild soft, 79a) on the opposite side – I feel it’s okay for me to use the softer ones because I only weigh around 98 lbs. After installing the bushings, I also flipped the cup washers of both top bushings. 

 

before: top/bottom bushings -> Randal yellow

 

I haven’t tested it out on the street yet, but the board definitely feels better. I don’t know how to describe it but it “turns better” without having any wheel bite.

With the stock bushings, every time I shifted my weight, the wheels on the opposite side would “rise” but with the Khiros, they stayed on the ground. I think this is safer as it would reduce the chance of me falling of my board.

I might try out other bushing combinations in the future, but for now the white-top/orange-bottom feels okay for me; my brother stepped on the board a while ago and said, “Wow! Ang lambot, parang walang bushings.” (“Wow! It’s so soft, it feels like it doesn’t have any bushings.”)

 

after: top bushing -> Khiro white

after: bottom bushing -> Khiro orange

Filed under: Longboard, bushings   |  3 Comments
Tags: khiro