Trimmed Avila's: what do you think?

[Glenn S]

Any thoughts on these trimmed Avila's? Was this too much of a trim?
<img src=http://www.slalomskateboarder.com/Wheel ... rimmed.jpg>
They are on Michael Dong's setup here.

[Howard Gordon]

It's a lot more than I would take off. Resulting wheels should be fast but somewhat limited in traction. Also, they've lost the lateral support along the inner and outer walls that would prevent the possibility of some squirming. I think Evans had a more reasonable reshape which took about 10mm total off the width.

[Martin Siegrist]

Hey Howard, I have successfully trimmed two red, four white and two grey avilas. Some of them were not perfectly round, so I smallened the diameter. It was no problem.
I put the wheels on my downhill board. I suddenly realized that this is a wheel to go really fast. The only problem is that it slides in very tight turns. But n a street whitout any tight turns, where you only have to airbrake, it would by just perfect. I m gonna send you a picture soon and thanks again for the wheels.

[Howard Gordon]

That's the tradeoff when trimming - the thin lip creates a larger contact patch for more traction, but it slows the wheel somewhat and also gives less control when sliding.

I will be interested to see how much you trimmed - 4-5mm from the outside lip of the Avilas (none from the inside) seems to work well at normal GS speeds, but most of us haven't tested this at 80 kilometers/hour !

[Martin Siegrist]

I took off 7 mm on the outside and 3 mm on the inside. I know it's a lot but I didn't want it to be wider than 55 mm. It works great for high speed! But no tight turns. I haven't yet tested the Avilas for giant slalom, but I will do that soon...

[Barry Gourley]

Glen,
what kind of truck are they in the picture??????

[Jack Quarantillo]

Those are PVDs. $$$

http://www.peterverdonedesigns.com/skat ... index.html

Q

[Glenn S]

Glen,
what kind of truck are they in the picture??????

Barry,
As Jack says they are PVD's. Michale Dong rides them on all his decks. The ones in the picture above are the R2's (revision 2). There are some other pictures at Peters older site when he was calling them; Ground Effect Trucks. I've bought a set of each the R2's and the R3's, but sold the R3s to Tway because they had a bad loud popping sound when turning which was by a few of us users discussed in the Ground Effect forum (click here). But even after that thread Tway and Terrance Kirby still wanted them. At the time we made the deal we did not know the source of the click sound and yet he was still willing to pay full pop (no pun intended of course) for them. But only about two days after I commited to sellin them Michale Dong found out it was just the angle plates shifting which is fixable and not a hazard.

They are a great truck. Basically the same exact geometry as a Seismic, but with a much more range of pivot/turn and much smoother throughout the entire range of the pivot/turn, with precise straight 8mm axles. I still have two sets of the R2's that I got for $350 a set. I use them now as a back truck only and use an RTX or MidTracks up front. But I am also using RTX offsets in the back too though. Conventional trucks I am finding work better for me, as I am not that good and 48yo, and I feel that conventional trucks are easier to recover when you get off track a bit on a slalom course, also conventional trucks are easier to fine tune. But for pumping you get a more direct and powerful output from your pumping input is my feeling from trucks like the PVD or Seismic.