Slalom angles and beginner setup

[Tim Pritchard]

Right, I'm a long time LDPer and confident on my big board, and style of pump and arm swing I find great fun.

What I wanted was to start a bit of slalom and have a tight turning pumper for over the winter months, pump it through some cones wherever I can.

I have a skaterbuilt and I can have it at 18" to 20" WB. Truck on the front is a Bennett 5.0 and I've been running a seismic 130 on the back. These are the trucks I'd like to use. Started off with around 18 or 19" WB, 62mm wheels, front at 14* and rear at 7*. It seemed to turn amazingly but almost sketchy and out of control.

Today I had it at 20" WB, had the front at 7* and the seismic back on the kick with a soft 7* and a hard 2* so I think it was around 7* overall. Had 75mm wheels so a little higher. It felt ok, but it ALS it felt like the rear was turning a little more than it should be, and the front less than it should?

Neither felt "sweet".

Any tips on angles? Should I get the rear almost dead? Is there a sweet angle for seismics? It's 7* in LDP. I feel that if I get one angle sorted I'll be able to go from there. Such a pain when there's so many options! Like bushings also!

I know I should be going down the 100mm wide route, but the 130's seem to be turning enough for me?

I also have a RTS 130mm and a Virage rear 130mm. I tend to feel the rts wheels lift on my LDP board and the virage is on my LDP board. Might be an idea for me to put the virage on and see what it does for me? Angle already built in????

[Joe Boyle]

I'd recommend 8˚ (6˚-10˚but I like 8˚) on a bennett, it shouldn't quite turn as much as you think it should IME, I like a board which I can just about wrangle through the course (longest wheelbase, widest trucks, stiffest trucks etc. within reason). I'd put it on the 20" wheelbase, try to source a 4.3 hangar (sphericalise it if that's an option) and run a 106 tracker/skandal rear (unless you want to go straight in with precisions) then run some fairly stiff bushings (80-85 front, 93+ rear @around 160) (that's for flat courses, I run softer on hills because the pump isn't such a factor).

[Tim Pritchard]

Cheers for the thoughts on setup!

I'm planning on swapping the rear seismic 130mm with my RTS 130mm one night this week. I'm also going to go with my smaller 62mm wheels as my 75mm wheels feel a little like they’re going to slide out, some how? If I were to get new ones, they’d be lime/pink 70mm zigzags for sure!

As for narrower trucks, I’d still go Bennett/RTS.

The last thing is rear truck angle, what would you say? For a rough guide?

The bushing duros you stated are just a little harder than I use for LDP, interesting. Maybe I need to go a little harder than I'm used to! Would make sense, with a shorter wheelbase.

[Sj Kalliokoski]

I'm running my 4.3 with 14 degrees wedging and it works like charm.
Bushings Venom SHR cone olive green + Venom cone blue.
Truck has spherical bearing added on hangar and glued, that is 10 minutes work to do and highly recommended.

[Joe Boyle]

Cheers for the thoughts on setup!

I'm planning on swapping the rear seismic 130mm with my RTS 130mm one night this week. I'm also going to go with my smaller 62mm wheels as my 75mm wheels feel a little like they’re going to slide out, some how? If I were to get new ones, they’d be lime/pink 70mm zigzags for sure!

As for narrower trucks, I’d still go Bennett/RTS.

The last thing is rear truck angle, what would you say? For a rough guide?

The bushing duros you stated are just a little harder than I use for LDP, interesting. Maybe I need to go a little harder than I'm used to! Would make sense, with a shorter wheelbase.

I personally find limes too soft, even in the rear. I use orange/orange + in the front and orange/lemon in the back depending on surface and course. your response goes all mushy with soft wheels, but 70mm is a good all round size.

Dewedge the KP vertical and go from there.

and the spherical is a really good use of a few minutes, great for ldp too.

[Boris Miladinovic]

Imo, rts kinda sucks... Seismic is way better rear truck. It needs to be set very dead, 12 to 15 dewedge. It offers great precission and rebound.
Bennet 5.0 can be trimmed to 4.0 and spaced back when needed. I run mine at 10*. Defimitelly spherical!