Top speed on Seismics?

[Adam Trahan]

I have ran in the 30mph range with a short wheel base slalom board, wedged back (de-tune) and flat front Seismic with silver springs and rubber wedge and riser. The board was not twitchy and the vibration was acceptable.

Can any of you help with what your top speed and configuration on a set of Seismics?

Top speed?
Configuration (wedge, riser)
Seismic size and color spring?
Wheel base?
Vibration?

I am about to set up a Super G board with 135mm, urethane wedge (de-tune) rear, rubber flat riser front, 36" board, 80a Avalon with trimmed lip. I'm excited about the prospect of running this board...

[Mike Johnson]

Adam i ran seismics (157mm) on my landyachtz RIV speedboard for a few months and had no real problems with wobble or lack of tune...afterwards i ran the same trucks on a 95cm airflow with 78a flashbacks for longboard slalom...the rear had a lot of de tuned wedge (1/2 inch angled riser)and the front i left standard....the trucks ran the red springs and were quite loose...i made perhaps 40mph while speedboarding and was happy with the response from the seismics....later on i hit a kerb on a slide and the baseplate of the front truck exploded into a zillion pieces so i'm waiting on michael stride for a set of aluminium beautys...quite happy with them though.

[David Price]

i've done over 3o with a 135 seismic in front with the lightest springs set loose.....i've also heard of a buttboarder in the bay area who used to bomb hills on seismics tighened down all the way...sounds nuts

[Shihan Qu]

How would trucks affect speed?

[Daniel Gesmer]

Shihan Qu -

You need to be more specific in your questioning. Trucks are the nervous system of your skateboard, and their relationship to overall performance at various speeds is complex and multi-faceted.

What sort of skateboarding do you do?

...Dan

[Shihan Qu]

I Understand the trucks importance in stability and control, but aside from areodynamics, if I were at a top of a hill and wanting to get down sooner, how would the trucks aid me?

[Daniel Gesmer]

If you want to go in a straight line as fast as possible, then you really just need trucks that are as stable as possible and that turn as little as necessary.

Some of the elite downhill racers in the 1970s even went so far as to use steel bushings in their trucks.

[Shihan Qu]

Steel bushings?? Were they planning to reach speeds exess of a billion miles per second or something? How could bushings be steel, whats the point of trucks of they cannot turn. Explain to me how that works please. I am dumbfounded.

[Daniel Gesmer]

Obviously, steel bushings were used only in races where the object was to go straight down a straight course as fast as possible.

[Adam Winston]

well that would suck if you started not pointing 100% straight down the hill.

[Daniel Gesmer]

You can say that again!

[Doug Kadzban]

wouldn't guys hit like 50-60+ mph on their little 28" banana boards doing that though? i seem to recall hearing of a guy who did some insane speed with a steel bushing

[Daniel Gesmer]

It's extremely difficult to reach speeds that high without the proper equipment and a very long, steep hill. For example, at the recent Texas Cold Fusion Sizzler event, very good racers with specialized downhill boards competed in a speed trap contest. Even with a long hill and unlimited pushes at the start, the winner only reached a speed of 41 mph.

[Michael Stride]

I helped with timing and support of Joel Kings World Record Jet Luge runs.

I think one run was up around 113mph on 85mm Speed vents . (The runs are averaged from two runs in an hour and his previous run was up around 92mph...)

The wheels held up completely. We'd had advice about balancing wheels, but being practical types we took the veiw that balancing wheels on something that was goindg to have weight on it any way was not worth worrying about. KJoel used stock Seismics out of the box, and only 1 set for all day.

That should answer your speed question!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IB50HNO9-jA