Longboard-Wiki

1. Longboard Decks

1.1 General Information

Most longboard decks are made of pressed Canadian maple or bamboo, both of which are often mixed or coated with other materials, such as fibreglass or epoxy. It’s also possible that the board has a core made from these materials. In recent years, materials such as ashwood, poplar and basswood are more frequently used. Though they differ optically from skateboards the segments of a longboard are the same: In the front, there is the Nose, in the back is the Tail, and the space between the mounting holes is called the wheelbase. As you may have already noticed, there is a wide variety of materials, shapes, lengths and widths, that all have different properties of course. There are two general things about the length of longboards:

• Longer Longboards are more stable at high speeds
• Shorter boards are more maneuverable and will perform well throughout the city

Therefore, the deck length depends on the different types of decks or the terrain the deck is made for.

Which Longboard is right for you?

It’s difficult to provide general recommendations about how to choose the right lenght and width of a longboard based on your height and weight. While it’s easy to match skateboard decks with your height and shoe size, those parameters aren’t very helpful when it comes to longboard decks. Nevertheless, you can say that the taller and heavier you are, the longer your deck can be. For kids, shorter boards or cruisers might be more appropriate. A good reference point is the wheelbase of a longboard deck. The shorter the wheelbase, the smaller the turn radius when you put pressure on the side of the board. In short, a short wheelbase makes sharp turns possible. Consequently, short riders can have a hard time to controlling a longboard with a large wheelbase because they can be less manoeuvrable. Of course, you can filter for different wheelbases in our shop. Since in longboarding fewer tricks are done than in skateboarding, longboard width isn’t a crucial factor when you’re looking for a new setup or deck. Often you’ll stand diagonally on your board, so it isn’t ideal to match your shoe size with deck width. To ease the selection in our shop, we use three levels of Flex to help you make the right choice: “stiff”, “medium” and “flexy”. It is important to note that the Flex also depends on your weight. The heavier you are, the more your board will flex. For our categorisation, we use the standard weight of 70 – 85 kg to indicate all relevant information. So if you’re rather light, you can ride flexy boards easily, but at high speeds, a board with less flex could be more appropriate. It can be quite uncomfortable to ride a board with a lot of flex when you have a higher body weight. Therefore, we would suggest medium or stiff boards in this case. Of course, it also depends on where and how you want to ride your longboard. Some companies such as Loaded Longboards also offer various flex levels for different weight classes. You’ll find information like this in the product descriptions of the longboards in our shop. If you’re unsure which longboard will suit you best or if you’re just starting out longboarding and want to learn the basics like pushing and steering, it’s wise to take a look at our longboard completes. Those boards are already assembled, so you can get started right away. Tip: If you’re looking for a longboard for cruising your city, simply use the “usable for” filter and choose “cruising” to only display all cruising longboard decks. Or you might want to take a look at the cruiser skateboards (a.k.a. cruisers) as well.

1.2 Longboard Deck Types

1.2.1 Downhill

In Downhill skateboarding, speeds of 100 km/h and more can be achieved. Most trucks, however, tend to already start wobbling format speeds of about 50 km/h (known as speed-wobbles). Therefore, most downhill boards have a drop so the board sits closer to the ground than other boards, thus preventing the board from wobbling. Here, only the nose and tail are raised, so that the wheelbase is closer to the ground. The pressure points of the rider on the board migrate below the truck turning point, making the board much more stable at higher speeds. Due to the low centre of gravity, taking narrow corners is easier. Dropped decks are typically somewhat slower in steering, which is why many downhill riders choose for flex-free top-mount boards with a high concave – especially on routes with a lot of curves. These boards are often more agile than the dropped boards.

1.2.2 Freeride

In recent years, Freeride Longboarding established as an extremely popular discipline. Freeride longboarding isn’t necessarily about hitting top speed, but taking advantage of the full width of the road and having the most fun possible when riding down a hill. Therefore, slides and other tricks are hot topics in freeriding. Freeride decks are designed for speed, similar to downhill boards. However, you can also find models with a slight flex. Most freeride decks are twin-tips (symmetrical), so there is no clearly defined front and rear, which is a great advantage for slides. In addition, most freeride boards are designed as a drop-through board to facilitate sliding and that is why dropped boards often find themselves in the freeride world; because of their deeper position. Some freeride decks, however, do have nose- and tailkicks to make wheelies and shove-its possible.

1.2.3 Carving

Carving isn’t about reaching the highest possible speed, but rather taking deeper downhill turns. Carving decks are usually somewhat more flexible. In addition, some segments above the wheels are often slightly hollowed out or not even present (cutouts) to prevent the wheels from touching the board (wheelbites) and therefore prevent the consequent horrible sudden stop. Carving decks often have a camber-profile, so the deck is slightly curved upwards, which supports the flex and provides better turn initiation. The layers are pre-tensioned so the deck really “springs” out of carves and gives a very surfy and snowboard-like feeling.

1.2.4 Cruising

Cruising boards or cruisers are actually just extended skateboards, since they usually have a tail and some are also equipped with a nose. Ollies and airs are also possible in a limited context when using this type of deck. But the classic pintail shape remains the most popular shape for cruising boards.

1.2.5 Slalom

Slalom boards are slightly shortened and typically have a length of 60-90cm, which is why the core scene often discussed whether they should be among the longboards or not. Especially for riders who only occasionally use the board, the slalom board is very popular because of its maneuverability and transport friendly size.

1.2.6 Dancing

As opposed to slalom boards, dancing longboards or simply dancers, are very long since the entire space on the board is used to move on while riding. Additionally, most dancers have kicktails that make some tricks and manuals possible.

2. Longboard Trucks

2.1 Construction

Just like common skateboard trucks, longboard trucks consist of a hanger and baseplate which are connected by the kingpin. Inside the hanger, you’ll find the axle where the wheels are placed. The hanger reaches into the baseplate at the lower end – the pivot. Between baseplate and hanger, the bushings sit on the kingpin in the openings of the hanger which are called bushing seats. In order to reduce uneven pressure on the bushings, washers are installed between the bushings and their points of support.

2.2 Hanger Width

When selecting trucks, you should pay attention to the width of your deck. In general, the position of the bearings should align with the outside of your deck. Of course, it is very rare that the trucks will fit exactly to the board. In that case, we would recommend wider trucks than ones that are too narrow. However, it’s your riding style or what you want to do with your setup that determines what trucks suit you best. In the product description of our decks, you can see which truck widths fit best with the longboard decks in our shop. Narrower Trucks like 150 mm trucks (hanger width) are manoeuvrable and allow you to apply more pressure on the ground when you’re doing turns. Therefore, these trucks are ideal for carving, slaloming and cruising the city. If your board doesn’t have cut-outs, you should think about using riser pads to prevent wheelbites. On the contrary, wider trucks are less responsive, yet provide stability at high velocity. Consequently, trucks with a hanger width between 170 – 180 mm are what you’re looking for if you want to go downhill. Although with these trucks, you’ll have to make a compromise in terms of grip.

What are Wheelbites?

When your wheels touch your deck while turning, it’s called a wheelbite. If you’re riding bigger wheels, the distance between them and your deck can be quite short. In this case, unexpected contact between deck and wheels can occur during sharp turns. As a consequence, your board will come to a sudden stop.

2.3 Truck Height

The truck height is measured from the bottom of the baseplate to the middle of the axle. While wheel size and the type of mounting affect the height of your longboard, the truck height can directly influence the riding properties of your setup. Generally, you can sum up the differences between high and low trucks as follows:

2.4 Hangerflip & Rake

There are some tuning possibilities you can make use of to tailor your truck to your riding – for example in tightening or loosening the kingpin nuts or in giving another bushing type/durometer a try. Another option with some RKP trucks is the hangerflip which changes the trucks’ castor. It requires that the hanger of the truck has rake. A hanger has rake when the axle isn’t on the same level as the pivot but sits slightly offset instead. You could also say that rake changes the position of the wheels in relation to the truck’s axis of rotation. Trucks with positive rake are more manoeuvrable what makes them quite popular in carving and cruising. Sounds super complicated? Agreed, but this graphic should help you understand what trucks with rake look like. So, the hangerflip simply means that you turn the truck’s hanger 180° which makes the truck lower and a bit more sluggish. The truck would then have negative rake. Therefore, your setup might become smoother to ride. Attention: The hangerflip doesn’t change the baseplate-pivot angle! Tip: Especially in downhill skating, you should make sure that the rear truck is tightened harder than the front truck. This reduces the risk of speed wobbles.

What are speed wobbles?

When your trucks start to wiggle and shake at high speeds and become hard to control, you are experiencing speed wobbles. Speed wobbles can make untrained riders (and professionals as well) slam pretty easily. Therefore, agile trucks and high velocity are an unfavourable combination for beginners. To summarize the facts about rake, you can find the different characteristics of positive and negative rake in the following chart:

2.5 Baseplate-Pivot Angle

2.6 Lean & Turn

The last paragraphs should’ve helped you to gain a basic understanding of longboard trucks. Nevertheless, there are some terms you will definitely encounter in the world of longboarding: Turn and Lean. Longboard and skateboard trucks follow the principle: lean to turn. This means that the turn is a consequence of the lean. In other words: the pressure you apply to your board determines the radius of the turn your board makes. Physically speaking, in a 45° truck, the lean and turn are equal. It’s possible that high lean and a big turn-radius are responsible for the fact that trucks with a low angle can be easier to control. So if you want to blast down a hill with top speed, a truck with a low baseplate-pivot angle is the right thing for you. The following table summarizes all information about lean and turn you need to know.

2.7 Assembly

There are basically four different ways to attach trucks to your longboard: Top Mount: The standard installation from below. Drop-Through/Dropmount: With a drop-through or drop mount, the trucks’ baseplates are mounted on top of the board and reach through the deck, which alters the centre of gravity and changes the steering behaviour. Dropped/Lowered: When the longboard deck itself has a drop, it’s called a “Dropped” or “Lowered” setup. These boards have a lower centre of gravity which makes them more stable at high speeds. The truck mounting would technically correspond to “Top Mount“. Doubledrop: A double-drop is the rare combination of “Drop-Through / Drop Mount” and “Dropped / Lowered”. Flush Cuts: The area where you mount your trucks on the deck is milled out so that they are mounted a bit deeper inside of the deck. This provides a good compromise between top-mount and drop-through, but pre-flush cuts are very rare since the cut-outs have to perfectly fit the baseplate of the truck Tip: For beginners, it can be nice to learn to ride on a dropped board because the lower centre of gravity makes it easier to push and keep your balance.

2.8 Bushing Seats

Last but not least, there is one more thing that has an impact on how your trucks perform: the bushing seats. As mentioned before, the bushings sit in the bushing seats of the hanger. There are countless variations of bushing seats but in the end, you can break them down into three different types: stepped, round & flat.

• In stepped bushing seats, the bushings sit really tightly, which results in stable steering
• Round bushing seats give the bushings a little bit more room and provide you with agile steering. Ideal for carving and turns
• Flat bushing seats are the most simple but also the most versatile seats. With these, you can experiment a lot with different bushing types. However, they also are less stable at high speeds

3. Bushings

Bushings are the round rubbers inside the trucks. Normally, one top and one bottom bushing are required for each truck, though this is not always obligatory. Bushings are available in different degrees of hardness and influence the steering behavior of the truck. Of course, soft bushings make a more maneuverable truck than hard bushings. The hardness is measured in durometers with the unit A. High A-values like 100A signify hard bushings and low values indicate soft bushings respectively. There are also different forms or types of bushings. Conical (Cone) bushings offer you more manoeuvrability. Flat bushings (Barrel) make the truck more sluggish but also more stable. In addition, there are Eliminator (Double Stepped Barrel) and Chubby (Stepped Cone/Barrel) bushings that block the truck at a certain point, which can be beneficial for Freeriding and Downhill. We recommend the following combinations of bushings for the different disciplines. These are of course only suggestions.

4. Longboard Wheels

4.1 Size

When talking about wheel sizes, one is usually referring to the diameter. As you might have guessed, the diameter of the wheels affects the riding behaviour: smaller wheels have better acceleration and braking can be just as easy, but they are not the smoothest of the bunch and the bearings heat up faster. Furthermore, they have better slide-ability but they lose their terminal velocity pretty fast in comparison to wheels with a big diameter. Large wheels remain stable at high speeds and the bearings heat up less quickly. On the other hand, they accelerate slower but keep their terminal velocity longer. When choosing the wheel diameter, you should also take the height of your board into consideration. Combining large wheels with a low setup (Dropped/Lowered), trucks with a low baseplate-pivot-angle and a deck without cut-outs you’re very likely to face some serious wheelbite-issues. If you insist on riding that kind of setup, you can also use riser pads to solve this problem. The width of the wheels also affects the riding performance of your board. Wide wheels have more friction, which makes them a little slower than narrow wheels, however, this factor is not as substantial as the hardness of the wheels. Also, wide wheels run more smoothly and have more grip, so sliding can be more difficult than with narrow wheels. You’ll find information about the width of the longboard wheels in our shop in the product descriptions under “contact patch”.

4.2 Durometer

As with the bushings, the degree of hardness of longboard wheels is measured in durometers with the value A. Hard wheels have high A-values whereas soft wheels have low A-values. Soft wheels are grippier but tend to slide uncontrollably as they constantly try to regain traction. They also wear out faster because the friction between the road and wheels is higher, which makes them a little bit slower than harder wheels. Harder wheels slide better, are more controllable and predictable and run faster because of less friction on the road, but they also have less grip than softer wheels. Moreover, they’re less forgiving with rough cracks in the road as is the case with the soft wheels. You should also pay attention to the hardness of the wheels in relation to your body weight: the heavier you are, the harder the wheel should be.

4.3 Hub & Bearing Seat

Another thing that plays an important role is the wheel’s hub. The hub indicates the location of the bearings inside the wheel, in other words, it’s the location of the wheel core. Usually, it is made from a harder plastic than the actual wheel material. Therefore, many longboard wheels are so-called “core wheels”. You can distinguish between three types of hubs: Centerset, Sideset and Offset (see image). Centerset Wheels: The hub lays in the middle of the wheel. Therefore centerset wheels hardly deform and wear out conically. Unfortunately, those wheels don’t slide very easily. An advantage of centerset wheels is that you can turn them around to make the wear more even. However, they are quite susceptible to flatspots. Sideset Wheels: The bearings sist far on the inside of the wheel. They are the easiest to slide with but are most likely to deform conically. Offset Wheels: The hub is located between the middle and the inner border. They offer you the best compromise between centerset and sideset shapes. Generally speaking, the wheels wear out where the bearings sit.

4.4 Wheel Lip

One more thing that affects the performance of your setup is the lip of your wheels. This means the outer edge of the wheel. Especially during slides, you can feel the difference between various lip types. Sharp and square (angular) lips are grippy since they have a wider contact patch. When you’re doing sharp turns with those wheels, i.e. during carving, you have a lot of traction and the wheel won’t break out into a slide that easily. With round/rounded lips, it’s just the opposite. Here, you’ll have less contact with the ground, which lets the wheels break out and slide easier. The following recommendations aren’t rules to adhere to, rather merely some tips that should help you orientate yourself. Cruising & Carving: Soft wheels with a square lip and offset hub in order to maintain grip and a soft ride. Downhill: Harder wheels to facilitate slides. Further, the wheels should have a rather large diameter and a square lip. Wheels with centerset hubs reduce the risk of deformation and are easier to control. Slides & Freeride: medium hard or hard wheels with a round lip and sideset hub to allow you to slide easily.

5.1 Bearings

As in skateboarding, each wheel is equipped with two bearings and you should make sure to use spacers to avoid compression of the bearings and damaging the wheel core. Spacers are small cylinders that you place between the two bearings on the axle. They keep your bearings parallel to each other at any time. Many bearing sets come with spacers so you don’t have to get an extra set of spacers. There are also some bearings with integrated spacers. With those, you won’t need extra spacers at all. Attention: There are 8 mm and 10 mm wide spacers. For most longboard wheels you’ll need 10 mm wide spacers. You can find this information in the product description of the particular wheels in our shop. Furthermore, you should keep the diameter of your truck’s axle in mind. Usually, axles have an 8 mm diameter. There are also some trucks with a 10 mm diameter axle because they’re allegedly stronger. However, those are very rare. As you might have guessed, you’ll need a special kind of bearings for this type of trucks, i.e. the Bear Ceramic 10 mm bearings. You’ll find the axle diameter of any longboard truck in our shop in the respective product description.

5.2 Riser pads & Shock pads

Riser/Shock pads are made of plastic and are available in various thicknesses and degrees of hardness. Shock pads are rather soft and absorb impacts and vibrations that can transfer from the asphalt to your board while riding. They also increase the distance between your deck and your wheels a bit. Of course, there are also drop shock pads for Drop-Through setups. In comparison to shock pads, riser pads are rather hard and are not meant to absorb vibrations but rather to increase the distance between deck and wheels. In some setups, this can reduce the risk of wheel bites enormously. But don’t lift your board too high above the ground because this could make pushing quite exhausting. Keep in mind that the higher above the ground your deck is, the more you have to bend your standing leg with every push. Moreover, there are angled pads, which are often referred to as wedges. With those, you can alter the angle of your trucks and heavily influence their steering behavior. If you mount angled pads with the peak of the wedge facing outward, your trucks will lean more to the outside as well and will become more maneuverable. The other way around, your trucks will lean more to the inside, which will result in less agile trucks. Note: you’ll need two different bolt lengths if you want to use angled trucks on your setup. Note: If you use angled pads you nedd two different screw lengths for the assembly.

5.3 Nuts & Bolts

Mounting kits, bolt packs or simply nuts & bolts make your longboard…well, a longboard! Without them, you would not be able to connect the trucks to the board and you would just have a nice decorative piece of wood. They hold together the things that belong together. Bolt packs come with self-locking nuts that don’t loosen themselves because of vibrations or other tractive forces. However, you should always check repeatedly before every ride that all bolts are still fastened. Better safe than sorry, right? Mounting kits are available in different forms and a variety of lengths. The two relevant types of bolts are flatheads (countersunk bolts) and raised head (fillister, round head, button head and so on). Whether you choose to use Allen’s head (Inbus) or Phillips head (cross-slot) is completely up to you. Countersunk bolts are used with Top-Mount setups and longboard decks that are made of wood. In this case, the head of the bolt sinks into the material and the bolts don’t protrude. Therefore, you won’t have little knobs on your board that might interfere with some disciplines. Raised head bolts are commonly used on Drop-Through decks. Their heads lay flat on the material and do not pull themselves in. Therefore, they are also used to protect the material of foam-core longboards. Since not every longboard deck is equally thick, you can use this formula to roughly determine the correct bolt length for your setup: • Deck thickness • Shock- / Riser pad • Baseplate height + self-locking nuts (usually corresponds to 3/8″) For example: deck thickness 0.6″ (~ 1.5 cm) + shock pad 1/8″ + baseplate height + self-locking nuts (3/8″) = 1.1″ The matching bolts would need to be 1 1/8″ long

6. Griptape

Longboard completes are often sold with the griptape already attached to them. If this isn’t the case or if you want to match your setup to your style of riding, there are different kinds of griptape with different degrees of roughness (granulation) and in various colours. Griptape has a sticky, self-adhesive bottom so you can attach it to your board easily. Protruding residue is simply cut off with a utility knife (cutter). Next to pre-cut griptape for special boards from some manufacturers, you can spare yourself the trouble of griptape cutting with spray-on griptape. Rough and coarse griptape is suitable for downhill setups or if you slide a lot because they provide the most traction for your feet. If you want to do tricks like Ollies on your longboard or if you’re into dancing on your setup, we would recommend a smoother griptape to save your shoes a little bit. Tip: You can use the “Griptape-roughness” filter in our shop to easily find the right griptape for your setup.