Need Help setting up my new board

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Gleb Budilovsky
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:42 pm
Location: Boston, MA
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Need Help setting up my new board

Post by Gleb Budilovsky » Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:46 pm

Hey guys, I've been skating for about a year now on an Axe with a Bennett in the front and a tracker in the rear. I never fiddled around with much of the settings after I got it and don't really know much about the science of setting anything up.

I just got Fullbag Red Barron, and a Radikal dragon claw. What kind of bushings should I use on the radikal (I'm 175 pounds/80 kg)? What angle should I set it up? What width for hybrid? How should I mount the Tracker in the rear? Also, whats the best kind of grip tape?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Gleb

Paul Howard
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Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2003 7:15 pm
Location: Corvallis, Oregon. USA

Gleb's Setup

Post by Paul Howard » Sat Aug 29, 2009 9:26 pm

Hey, what I would do with that Radikal Front is positive wedge it (small end pointing forward to steepen your turning pivot angle) 10-15 degrees, closer to 10 degrees for bigger faster more open courses and closer to 15 for the tighter courses.

As far as your rear truck goes, I'm guessing you're riding a stock Tracker RT-S?? If so, definately go 10 degrees negative wedge on it (again, small end of the wedge pointing forward toward the nose of the deck so that the steering angle is flatter and less reactive).

If you can I would recommend getting an Airflow OS split-axle for the rear and neg wedging it 5 degrees or if you have more $ get a rear end Virage from Britain or a rear end Radikal.

Since you are using decks with heel-lift "kicktails", the angles on the rear trucks that I mentioned are relative to the main bottom line of the deck, not realative to the "kick" portion, so you will be best served by a hard peice of wood cut to an angle to make your truck "flat" then add wedging or use the hard Khiro bushing kit wedges, I would avoid stacking softer wegdes since you will have a definate "squish" factor in the rear end and risk breaking your mounting hardware.

As far as bushings go, go soft and squishy up front and go a lot looser, and put significantly harder bushings in back and significantly tighter. Also, keep the front end bushings taller than the stock bushings, use something like tall khiro whites or any of the "tall" and soft bushings, suppossedly Retro is doing something like that, the Blue Venoms from Colorado(Zak Maytem sp?) are good too. The purpose of this is for extra hanger swing and still maintaining some compression pre-load so the hanger isn't floppy.

As far as "width" goes, if you mean wheel to wheel hanger width, I personally like to go no narrower than 100 to 105 mm(but some people do, it just doesn't work for me). If you mean wheelbase from front to back truck, then you'll just have to play around with it until you find what you like. Personnally, I would go no closer than 17" for tight and no further than 22" for Giant and Super giant because you will start loosing traction noticeable above 22".

Wheels- I prefer my front end with 85-ish hardness and rear end with 80-ish hardness, I use this everywhere for everything because it just makes life simpler and my board is more predictable and I know what it will do on the pavement with fewer surprizes. Also, I trim my front wheels significantly narrower than the rear so they will swing faster and easier and also, my whole setup will be more likely to go into a controllable 4 wheel drifting sllide that can be ridden out vs a rear-end-only-fishtail-swing type of slide which is much more likely to pitch you off, this is the result of the front end gripping too much relative to the back end causing the back end only to break loose.

Also, I like to practice on courses set awkward enough that I occassionally have to 4-wheel slide at least one heelside and one toeside turn and generally hit 3-6 cones per run, because if I'm not hitting that many cones in practice, then either I'm going too slow or the course is too easy or both. Then when you get to a "race" you're ahead of the game in terms of being ready for the skill and "gnar" factors.

Hope all of this helps, good luck - Paul
I just dig slalom!

Miguel Marco
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Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 10:31 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada
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Post by Miguel Marco » Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:26 am

Gleb, hope you like your board.

I don't have much experience with Rads personnally, but I know Louis Ricard here likes them with 7° to 10° wedging and double barrel bushings (Abec11 Reflex, I think).

As for the rear RTS, mount it to the rearest set of holes on your Red Baron and put 20° total dewedge under the tail (includes the compensation for the tail angle). Try to get some oversized bushings like Venom Eliminators in fairly hard duros and experiment with them. Playing with different washers (small or large flat, bottom cup or reversed cup on top) can also make a big difference in performance and feel.

Get your hands on a Khiro Wedge Rail Kit, if you can. It will be your best friend to fine tune both trucks. It will get the rear RTS to 20° without making the rear end too high.

Make sure to keep the board at least level. If the front truck is 1/8" to 1/4" higher than the rear even better. The board will power through turns more effectively.

Rick Floyd
Pink Floyd Skates
Pink Floyd Skates
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Post by Rick Floyd » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:19 am

Gleb - PM'd you.

-RF
"All the money in the world can not buy sharing the excitement of life with other people. Nothing else matters."

- Jason Mitchell (Criddlezine Interview)

Gleb Budilovsky
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Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:42 pm
Location: Boston, MA
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Post by Gleb Budilovsky » Fri Sep 04, 2009 6:15 pm

thanks for the replies, everyone. Mig, the board is sick!!! I ordered the bushing kit and riser kit today. School has already been crazy, but now its settling down so I can actually get some skate time in. I'll try out those set ups, and see where it gets me. Thanks again!

Rick Floyd
Pink Floyd Skates
Pink Floyd Skates
Posts: 998
Joined: Tue May 08, 2007 4:39 pm
Location: Six foot two above sea level.

Post by Rick Floyd » Fri Sep 04, 2009 6:39 pm

The Red Baron is one of my favorite boards to ride, period. When this one is spent for racing, I'll probably drill it out for old school park riding!

-RF
"All the money in the world can not buy sharing the excitement of life with other people. Nothing else matters."

- Jason Mitchell (Criddlezine Interview)

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