Staying STOKED during lockdown...
Lockdown continues but let's not dwell on that as I suspect it is a very, very different prospect depending on one's situation. For me, well I am getting more real exercise in, getting back into martial arts (have gone almost full circle as I am practicing a lot of kali/escrima at the moment, something I did in the depths of Liverpool's China town in 1980). Also socialising online by playing a lot of Dungeons & Dragons which is a bit like being a teenager again!
Riding wise I am restricting myself to doing a one a day ride just around my local, mainly deserted, streets which is both weird and great both at the same time. Now, the board of choice for these rides is the Stoke. Reasons for this are two fold, one I love the board, two the smaller travel battery is easy to run down to the 50% mark where it is best to store it at if not in use. Something that I couldn't be assured of doing with either of the GTRs. I am missing the grass riding and the pump track on the carbon GTR but it is a small price to pay.
Filmed the morning run around the other day, mainly out of wanting to mess around with the 360 Insta than anything else...
Stoke morning ride around.
Other than that I have been playing around with the bushings on the double kingpin trucks on the Stoke to try and make it an even more 'surfing' feel when riding. Tried a few combinations and settled on the front truck as below. The board side set of bushings are really the set that affect the stability of the trucks while the road side set affect the carvability of the truck. This is a bit of a generalisation as there is obviously an interplay between the two but it's close enough.
Put the orange 80a wheels on instead of the 77a blues I have been running to see how much it affected the ride vibration and traction wise. See below for thoughts.
I had picked the blue cags to start with because 85mm is about the max diameter you can put on without risking wheel-bite (unless one has the trucks very tight which IMHO defeats the purpose of buying the Stoke with double king pin trucks right away) and the roads around my way are pretty shit to put it mildly. Harder wheels would normally be better at a skate park as they roll better etc, but with the joys of having 3000w of power under one's feet there is no worry about keeping momentum and the stickiness of the 77a would mean no slides on hard carves in the pool etc. So, blues it was, and they are a great wheel. Made of what they call Happythane formula they are an awesome wheel.
The blues smooth out the street well, if you are swapping right from ATs or 107s and the like then obviously the ride is going to feel very different vibration wise. And the traction is very strong, the times I have got them to slide out, usually by accident, they are very smooth and not jerky like some soft wheels tend to be (the old give and bite syndrome). The downside is that they tend to chunk a bit when you run over crap etc. So, I decided to try the orange 80s as people have said they feel quite different and are 'slidey'. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I took them out for their maiden ride. I imagined that they would be very rough feel wise on our road and I also thought that I might slide out on carves too much.
However, I was presently surprised. Vibration wise it was only on the real rough surface on the road outside my house that I felt any real difference. Well, that and when I hit the metal 'man hole' covers. I think I could feel them slide out when I pushed them on frontside (heelside) carves, something I haven't done on purpose on street wheels for quite a while.
So, which ones will stay on the board the most. Firstly I will keep the orange on for a few rides to see any other difference but then will probably put the blues back on just because they are more forgiving on the surface I am riding during lockdown. Once we hit the smooth paths and skate parks again the oranges will be the ones I think. I may even be tempted by the purples.
Bushing wise the yellow bushings on the road side made a real difference, much more than I thought they would as I felt the trucks were real loose anyway. But the yellows seem easier to push into the carve and then seem to rebound better... I will have another ride tomorrow and make sure.
While the lockdown continues the Stoke will remain the board of choice, and perhaps even beyond except for those grass and grit adventures.
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