Milehighskates.com coined a popular phrase in the longboarding world: Loose Trucks Save Lives.
Based, however, on Milehigh Mark’s own work, I would have to add ” , but Good Bushings Make it Worth Living“.
For a while now, Milehigh has been selling some hybrid trucks, based on either the Ace or Indy hanger, and the Core baseplate. It seems that many standard trucks these days do not ship with the oldschool mounting hole pattern in addition to the current standard. As a result, those trucks can’t be mounted on a lot of longboards, which use the oldschool pattern.
Ace/Core hybrid, with longer kingpin, Reflex bushing on bottom, Ace bushing on top. Killer turning.
I already had some Ace trucks, so I decided to give this a try. I ordered some Core baseplates from Milehigh. Of course, Mark doesn’t just sell you the baseplate. He improves them by replacing the kingpin with a longer, grade-8 kingpin to accomodate taller, softer bushings, and puts in a much better pivot cup.
I used some Reflex bushings on bottom, from Retro, and put the stock bottom bushing from the Ace trucks on top (they come with really good bushings). Used flat washers on top. These trucks are the Ace 44s. The hangers are 5 3/4″ wide — just slightly narrower than 150mm.
I put these trucks on my Comet Voodoo speed board, with 1/4″ soft risers under them, and some 65mm 78a Road Rider wheels I’ve been holding on to for about 9 years. The wheels are OK. Not great. They are fast, but with the rounded edges they don’t grip all that well. They are smooth as hell. I’ve used these before, and they wear down pretty quickly. I’ll probably put the Retro Zig Zag 66mm back on when these are worn out.
With really good bushings like this, you can tighten the trucks enough that there is no “slop”. They aren’t floppy feeling at all, but they still turn really well. Obviously, running a tall bushing on top isn’t practical for a street board or a pool board on which you’ll be doing grinds, but for a downhill setup it is killer. If you are a street skater who likes loose trucks, I’d recommend changing the bottom bushing to Reflex. It will improve the handling of your board.
Comet Voodoo, with Ace/Core hybrid trucks and Road Rider wheels.
After setting this board up, I met my friend Chris over at a nearby bike path with a nice mellow downhill section, about 1/4 long. Even without wedge risers, I found these trucks turned as well or better than my 150mm Randal-IIs. To be fair, the R-IIs don’t have the awesome bushing upgrades, so it isn’t really a fair comparison. My point, however, is that with good bushings, a standard geometry truck can turn really, really well. This is something Bennett Truks (yes, that’s how they spell the word “truck”) has known for over 30 years. This does make me want to try the new Bennetts, even though they ride pretty darned high. Generally I’d prefer a lower truck, and then adjust with riser pads. If I can pick up a set of the Bennett 6.0s cheap I might give them a shot.
I know that a lot of longboarders have been switching to Milehigh’s Hybrid trucks. They are expensive, as Mark has to take a normal truck, pay for a new baseplate, and add a better kingpin and better bushings and pivot cup. So they are about twice as much as a normal set of trucks. But I’d have to say at this point that if you can afford it, the Hybrids are worth the cash. They just carve like butter. All the benefits of a loosely-adjusted truck without any of the flop.
An added benefit: A friend of mine has a Comet drop-through deck with Hybrids on it, and the board sits much lower than it would with Randal-IIs. So if getting low is your goal, this would be an excellent option for you. I don’t see any reduction in turning at all.
A few words about Ace trucks:
These are really nice trucks. They machine down the ends of the hangers so that speed ring on the inside is almost unnecessary. The pivot point is round and smooth, which without a doubt helps make ‘em turn really nicely. Next time you have a truck taken apart, check this — a lot of trucks have rough, crappy pivot points. I know a lot of street and pool skaters are switching to these trucks, and with good reason. They are killer. The bushings are good enough that they’d be good on a longboard even without the hybrid modification.
So overall I’m really happy with this experiment. I’m going to consider putting Hybrids on at least one of my other boards.
