Finally got around to setting up the Gecko last night just in time for the torrential rain and thunder today, great.
Set up with the Don't Trip Slalocybins, with Yellow and Pink Abec 11 Zig Zags. (as they were what was on the board I dismantled)
Two rubber shock pads and an Element hard riser under each truck give an extra 10mm of clearance.
Up top there's Mob Super Coarse Grip Tape and a PSD 'IN Side' Footstop.
Red Venom Dome head bolts for three quarters of the fixings and some countersunk on the rearmost after I ended up snapping the heads off of two Khiro Trussheads. Grrr.
Current wheelbase is 19" measured inner truck bolt centres, 21" actual (axle to axle) I can squeeze another half inch out by moving the rear truck on the baseplate holes. That gives me a range of 17.5" to 19.5" with the double drilled nose and baseplates.
Need to find some time and dry weather to try it out before the next race.
I bought this Skaterbuilt Mike Maysey Hybrid slalom at Hogtoberfest from "The Bass Player"
Wasn't too keen on the sticker job albeit there were some cool ones on there so set about removing them, all came off without too much trouble and after a quick clean with some brake cleaner to remove the sticker residue it was looking a lot cleaner.
It looks as though Helen Keller has been let loose on it with an electric drill however, some of the stickers were strategically placed to hide holes.
I had planned to set this up as Mike Maysey recommended with a Tracker RT-S / RT-X combo but didn't have one to hand.
The rearmost set of rear truck mounting holes were an extra set that had been added, I contemplated not using these but then realised that with a 'reverse kingpin' truck the wheelbase is effectively shorter so went with the longer option.
A bit of judicious bolt bending and riser stacking, about 20° of de-wedge under the 35° baseplate and taking the angle of the flattish tail into account the Randal looks to be suitably de-wedged.
I slapped some 85A Riptide barrels in it and some Lime Green Zig Zags on Seismic Tektron bearings.
On the front the Bennett needed a bit of tweaking as the original press in kingpin had been removed and it had been supplied with an 'aircraft grade' longer kingpin, broke out the JB Weld and fixed it into place.
A 10° wedge and a couple of thinner risers, Reflex Bushings of an unknown duro, Yellow Zig Zags blah blah blah.
Didn't take it for a spin as I need to wait for the JB Weld to cure completely before cranking the nut down from finger tight.
Some more trucks arrived at work today.
A Bennett and a Randal.
Both have been narrowed to 110mm. Not sure if these are the Sk8Kings modded Skennett & Skandal.
The Bennett came with Reflex bushings and the Randal has the 35° baseplate, this will need less de-wedging to get the desired angle on the back.
Might set these up on the Skaterbuilt Mike Maysey hybrid. Although I had contemplated getting a Tracker RT-S RT-X combo for that.
Here's some things that happened. Back in August Trev bought along a little rocker deck set up with bottle green Kryptonics and Stroker trucks.
Made by Ermico they were a predecessor of Indy trucks.
Crazy things that turn by the way of pivots and rose joints. Steer more like a car than a skateboard.
On the tiny rocker deck with its short wheelbase it almost turned in its own length.
Headed out for an early morning slalom session today. Plan was to hit Ascot race course underpass. Met Trev and Paul there.
Unfortunately it's Royal Ascot next week and so the normally gated road was open to allow access for contractors etc.
We decided to try Ash Ranges, after a walk from the station car park through the woods we found that the Red Flags were flying and it was a no-go (unless we wanted to get shot, which we didn't)
Trev suggested a spot that he had cycled past recently that was not far a drive away, one junction on the M3.
It turned out to be ok, not the smoothest of surfaces but quiet.
The view as we walked up from where we'd parked
Looking down from about halfway up.
Looking up from the same spot.
Some things to miss.
Had a good time, rain stopped play in the end.
It was all going so well until Trev volunteered to film me.
In the afternoon I decided to have a fiddle with my rear truck.
I was impressed with its performance today but it still felt a bit surfy at the back, I wanted to get it feeling a bit less so.
The Cone Killer came drilled for multiple alternative mounts but in reality only the two extremes lined up with baseplates.
I've had the rear truck mounted on the rearmost set of holes but found this was giving me a really long wheelbase and it was difficult to get over the rear truck.
So the holes in the top of the deck line up with the holes in the baseplate...
But once you turn it over the holes don't…
Holes are drilled perpendicular to the top of the deck.
I put some short bolts through the inner holes and used the baseplate as a guide to drill through, so the holes are now elongated on the bottom of the deck but still round on the top.
Played around with risers, the softer ones are ok but squid out a bit, they do however take up the curve from the kicktail.
I ended up with 3 x soft 0 - 0.5" and a thin hard riser to help spread the load
Still a bit of bending and squidging, about 10º of dewedge.
Have removed the big aluminium block and gone down the traditional route for now.
3 x Surrey Skateboards wedged risers, 10º each, just about bring the kingpin up to vertical.
Front now running on a 10º wedge and a 5º wedge.
Also for last weeks session at Bowlworth I tried No Skoolz on the BDS 8.
Messing a bit with my OCD having 98a's on the outside and 92a's on the inside. Makes it a bit 'Carlos Fandango' and maybe makes it a bit difficult to turn due to the wheel hang.
