I had some old Independent 101 mm skate trucks laying around and a set of wheels collecting dust. I figured I’d put them to work. An Indy 101 mm truck is very narrow. Typically, you’d be using side set wheels in a modern context to make these work for anything but a child’s board. I had a set of ABEC11 Pink Polka Dots 62mm 78a wheels which are center set. These are excellent wheels for general use skateboards, not tricks. They are very smooth and float over cracks and imperfections.
I ordered another Powell Hot Rod deck and cut it up similar to the last really cool long board I put together in a similar fashion. 6.625″ wide. Crazy skinny. A 17.25″ skate wheelbase (20.50″ Actual). I’ve loved the original 7.75″ version. This one is a little funky. More of a ghetto rig compared to the real race car. In this case, I moved the front truck forward a full 1.0″ and the rear truck back 1/2 of an inch. It has a noticeably longer stance.
Because of the smaller wheels, I put the board together without risers and used 7/8″ stainless bolts. Bearings are greased Bones Reds. I purchased some Diamond grip tape when given the choice between that and Jessup. The grit looked better. I regret that (so far). The Diamond tape was really lousy during installation. A very cheap tearing when sending bolts through. We’ll see how it rides.
It will be interesting to see how it goes in use. Rain has delayed serious testing.
I’m really not sold on this setup. I wanted to push the long board concept a bit and get out of my comfort zone. Due to rain, I haven’t got out for a solid test ride and just got a few passes in the hallways at work but I have to admit that I’m really thrown by the narrowness and length of this skate. The increase to 20.500″ over the 19.125″ of my other long board really crosses the line in slow speed use. The lower height of the deck is nice for sure.
