Bushings... do they make any difference anyway?

Bushings are, I think, the thing most people probably spend the least time worrying about let alone pondering over. I had the high performance kit lying around from a while back and hadn't really done anything with it. To be honest I had put softer ones in my bamboo GTR with the all terrain tyres and with the trucks in the narrowest position and had managed to get wheel rub so had sort of canned the idea for a while.

But then I wondered if it would make a difference to the Stoke, I'd already replaced the black stock 95a ones with the blue ones out of the kit, mainly because I wanted to colour co-ordinate with the wheels. However, I noticed they did feel different, the premium bushings, although the same durometer, felt way better. So, I started playing around.

Now, the feeling I am after with the Stoke is quite specific - I want:

• A surf feel - so very loose and carvey.
• Soft carve and rebound, so needs to be smooth both in and out of the carve. 
• Stable at about 19/20mph - now most of the time on the Stoke speed is not of the essence. But the ability to power out the way of stuff is.

So I was thinking -  loose front end, slightly tighter, but not much, rear end and 78 or 80a wheels.

What you need to make you happy!

So, experiments began. I tried various combinations starting with the front truck. The first thing that struck me was HOW much of a difference it actually made and the, 'Why did I not do this sooner?' rhetorical question sprung into my head. Now, I am not a light bunny by any stretch of the imagination so my results are probably one hardness level up from someone who would be around 90-95kg (which is about the weight of my upper half 😊). Also, note that the tightness you have the bushings has an impact as well. Probably about 2-3 threads showing is what normally loads the bushings enough for them to work at the optimum. Having a lot showing probably means you should put in a harder bushing. Having 1 or 0 showing means you should try a softer one - and as a side it might mean you risk it vibrating off altogether (though in reality I think I have seen this happen to someone only once).

Now a little bit about the double king pin trucks which mean the results are very different from changing the bushings in a normal, or even reverse king pin truck.

The trucks have two sets of bushings set up as can be seen in the picture to the left. For ease of description we normally classify them by the bottom one being the 'boardside' set and the upper set as the 'roadside' set.

I am sure that one could find a solid science/mechanical based explanation of how they work online but the crux of the information is basically:

Boardside - affects the stability slightly more than the turning/carvability (love it when we can make up words) of the board. Stability covering lessening the wobble factor at speed (although real speed wobbles are really  down to the back truck and weight placement - google explanations of wobble when trailers are 'loaded' incorrectly with all the weight at the back) and pseudo speed wobbles, which end with the same visit from Mr. Wilson but are often due to one having such loose trucks that an unexpected weight change results in a turn, which is then overcorrected by the body and so on and so forth. Stability may also be something of a pre-requisite for people starting off on an eskate.



Roadside - affects the turning/carvability  more than stability (remembering though what I mentioned about pseudo speed wobble).

What this means in practice is you probably want to go with harder boardside and softer roadside bushings. Something worth noting is that it is not recommended to mix hardness within the sets, as in have two different compounds to make up one set of bushings. This, I suspect, is because the two differing hardnesses would not work in synch meaning that at some point there would be a gap, easier to imagine if you play around with a truck.

Now on the stock boards both sets are the same - 95a black. These are by no means bad, in fact I would have been perfectly happy with them for ever if I had remained unaware of the joys of changing them. But by playing around with the roadside/boardside set up you can, what Jeff (the CEO of Evolve) calls, 'fine tune' your experience and customise it for the way YOU like to ride, not a set up for the generic Evolve rider.

In the end for the front of the board I settled on the blue and yellow combo which are 95a blue and 92a yellow. I did try softer on the roadside but found with my weight it was too sketchy and felt more like a surf-style truck or adapter. Which is good but not for when I might be going at 16mph +

What I found was that this combo for my weight made the carves very, very smooth. By this I mean you can feel each gradual increment of the turn/carve. With the stock bushings or harder roadside bushings the feel you get as you weight the edges is almost jerky (obviously it is not jerky but you can almost feel the next 'give'). One good way of noticing this is to try to feel what I mean when you are stationary and can gradually weight your heelside. When you have a smooth combo you sink into the lean and can maintain balance until the board is fully weighted. With harder bushings you can't and it is weight, weight .... move, which is likely to put you off balance. Too soft for your weight and you will suddenly snap the lean to full and again one's balance will be off. 

So, with the front dialled in for the moment at least, my attention moved to the back truck. Now to be fair I expected this to be a lot easier to choose which sets and to probably make less difference. 

This lack of expectation was mainly due to the lean/tilt of the Stoke's rear truck being limited at the point the belt covers touch the board. This happens fairly soon into the lean even on the stock bushings. Logic would suggest that the choice of bushings would have only a small effect in this space. Boy, was I wrong! I think because of the reasoning in the previous paragraph changing especially the roadside bushing made a huge difference. What surprised me even more was the fact I went with a softer one than on the front - purple 90a with some 95a on the boardside which seems to maintain the stability. The 90a really seems to aid with the feel of the back truck when going into and exiting the carve.

After revamping the Stoke into an even more little surf rippa of a board I turned my attention to the carbon GTR which has become my off road board of choice at the moment. Used the same as the Stoke on the front which makes it way more of a surf feel but wanted more stability at the back because I do expect to be going 19+ on the carbon. So tried the blue roadside and left the harder feeling 95a stock on the boardside. Works very well and makes the carbon feel as loose as my bamboo, weight transference is instantaneous on the carbon as there is no 'flex' to load so the smoother bushings make it feel very buttery.

Reading this back it does really sound like I am over thinking all this. But, let me assure you once you play with the bushings you will have a different board under your feet. Whether the high performance bushing kit is worth the £70 asking price mainly depends on how many boards you have. I suppose in theory even with one board you could swap the bushings around depending on the ride you are going to be doing - but let's face it who is going to do that. If you have a couple or more boards lying around (of any sort not just eskates) then it is going to be well worth it. For one board it may seem a lot - however, you will be getting a new board ride wise.

Anyway a bit of the Stoke in action can be found on my YouTube:
Stoke carving...
Stoke surf...

Stay safe and stay STOKED.....