Buggering about with Bushings?

[Brian S]

Have got a set of Ace 33 Trucks to use with my ever so wide Kryptonics (white green cores 60mm) on a 9" board, they were new but the seller had put Bones mediums in place of the frankly great Ace stock bushings, which you cannot seem to buy over here, I found that the Bones mediums were too a bit too hard & not turney enough for me, the Softs were just a little too much on this set-up as ACE's are great turners, so I'm experimenting with mixing Bones Med & Soft in the same truck, have just put a Med on the bottom & soft on top to have a skate tomorrow & give it a try out, has anybody tried this at all, have you found which combinations is better top/bottom?

[misterbleepy]

I think I'd start the same as you, putting the harder bushing between the hanger and baseplate (boardside) as that one bears your weight all the time you're on the board, and putting the softer bushing between the hanger and the nut at the end of the kingpin (roadside), to provide a bit more give for turning. Take your spanner too, as it would only take a couple of minutes to switch them over if you want to experiment.

[Brian S]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing taking spare bit n bobs & a wrench as usual

I do hopefully have some Ace bushings coming over at some point, just don't know quite when, but this may be good knowledge for other future set-up options as well, I don't think Bones bushings are quite the panacea many make out, as some stock bushings like Ace are good & work very well

[Unciano]

Never tried bones bushings myself but I swear by my Aces. Minimal adjustment needed when new and they have only gotten more surfy and responsive over time but remain stable as ever.

[GoR64]

I like bones in Indies but have had mixed results with other trucks, probably due to the conical bottom bushing. Currently have a hard/med mix on my 'big stuff' board, seems to work OK.

[MikeK]

Same here. I use bones med on Indy 139, 149 and thunder 149 but a hard board-side and med opposite on 159 to keep the feel similar as med top and bottom felt too soft.

[Brian S]

The soft on top & medium on the bottom seemed to do the trick for now

[tom.hoffman]

One related point -- the Bones soft top bushing is definitely the best soft top bushing out there. Anything at or below 85A or so tends to get squished and torn pretty easily without the Bones insert (and the Khiros with inserts seem to have a lot less rebound than their regular bushings).

On the other hand, the soft Bones conical bottom bushing is super duper turny. Pretty tough to ride unless you're really light.

So yeah, soft-top/med-bottom makes sense.

[Plan9Customs]

I tried ridding just the bones softs in mine but found it was way to squishy(felt like the bushings took some pop out of my ollies), turned great, but just didn't feel "right" when popped. Kept the bottom one the soft bones and used the stock indy on the top(cut down about 1/8"). Ollies felt correct again and still was able to have the turning I wanted. Probably all in my head but just felt to unresponsive with both soft bones.

[Beigebomber]

Traditional kingpin bushings are stone-age compared to what speedboarders and longboarders use on reverse kingpin trucks. I don't know why TKP riders are so easily pleased with 'hard', 'medium' and 'soft', or awful stock bushings compared to the longboarders, but I suppose it's because there's less time spent carving and more time just hoping for a stable landing.

Anyway, over in longboardland, there are many, many, many bushing options including not only the durometer of the urethane used, but also its rebound levels. It's been a long time since I spent any time in lovely leisurely longboardland, but the forerunner in bushing tech back then was Venom. Venom red bushings are a fairly comparable ride to Ace stock bushings, with the added advantage that they don't eventually end up distorted, mushed and dripping over the edges of the bushing recess like Ace bushings do. For those who don't like too much rebound on their bushings and prefer the slightly more 'dead' feel of a streety bushing, Khiro are the most obvious name. Khiros compress under weight, but don't really push back as such - it's up to you to straighten out after a turn, rather than the bushing bouncing back to centre. (The slightly harder Venom green bushings blew minds when they first turned up on the speedboard scene - you'd rail a hairpin and just boing back into a straight line the instant you took your weight off the rail, it was like slotting into a tramline).

Anyway, long digression over. Venom reds are probably what you want. I think they make street-sized units as an option now. If not, you may need to slice a little bit off the barrel bushing to fit it in. Hacksaw, easy.
Bloodorange and Reflex also make well-respected bushings.

[Tuhnafisch]

I used Bones medium on my Indy's 139 top and Bottom.
But after a half Year they got super screwed.
Recently I bought the Hard Version, first in was a little bit weird because I like to ride my Trucks really loose.
But after a few session I alright with them.
My weight is ~78kg.