Longboard Help

[Boxerman08]

I've been thinking about getting a longboard for some time now just to cruise around and what not but I have no idea which brands I should look for or anything. I've seen a lot of ridiculously long longboards, which I don't think I'd like, and they're usually all flattened out.

Are there any longboard companies that make boards about the same size as a regular board that has some shape? Also, instead of buying a complete longboard, would it work if I would use a regular board and trucks and buy just longboard wheels and bearings?

Something similar to this would be what I'm kinda looking for:

[replicant]

I would recommend buying an old school reissue since they have somewhat new school shapes while retaining old school size.
There are also some longboard companies that work with shorter lengths and traditional surf/skate shapes.

Here is a good place to check out. The Longboard Store
Element, Gravity, Old School, Surf One, and NOS (Sector 9 Crushers) all have shapes and sizes you'd probably enjoy.

You can use longboards wheels on a basic setup as long as you have clearance, but you'll *potentially* lose a bit of stability depending on truck size.

[Boxerman08]

I would recommend buying an old school reissue since they have somewhat new school shapes while retaining old school size.
There are also some longboard companies that work with shorter lengths and traditional surf/skate shapes.

Here is a good place to check out. The Longboard Store
Element, Gravity, Old School, Surf One, and NOS (Sector 9 Crushers) all have shapes and sizes you'd probably enjoy.

You can use longboards wheels on a basic setup as long as you have clearance, but you'll *potentially* lose a bit of stability depending on truck size.

sick! I'm looking at the site right now and I'm seeing a few that I'd like. I'll definitely look at the brands you've mentioned. But I might as well use longboard wheels on a regular board if I can, but I just wanted to make sure cause I was thinking that, with wheels that are like 60+mm, I'd get "wheelbite" and break my ass and what not lol but I wouldn't go downhill much so stability wouldn't be an issue for me, and I'm pretty stable on a board (been riding for like 10 years now lol) so I know my way around riding a board.

[pawnluvguitarist]

What is your main goal here, just to be able to cruise, fast smooth ride kinda thing?

I don't know if you've seen my thread with my little old school board. But I got that thing set up to cruise. Bones Swiss ceramic bearings, and 52mm filmer wheels that are super soft, really gets me amazing results for bombing hills and effortless cruising. Soft wheels really help for a smooth fast ride, and they are small enough that you don't have to worry about wheel bite.

I buy all my stuff online from this Canadian shop in BC. Check out the site www.a51.ca/skateshop they ship crazy quick and it's free shipping on orders over $200. They have a whole longboard section oldschool board section as well.

[Boxerman08]

What is your main goal here, just to be able to cruise, fast smooth ride kinda thing?

I don't know if you've seen my thread with my little old school board. But I got that thing set up to cruise. Bones Swiss ceramic bearings, and more importantly 52mm filmer wheels that are super soft, really gets me amazing results bobbing hills, effortless cruising.

I buy all my stuff online from this Canadian shop in BC. Check out the site I think it's area51skateshop or something, I'll post a link when I get the chance, they ship crazy quick and it's free shipping on orders over $200

i wanted to get one mainly to cruise around smoothly, and i'm working my way around to film some friends, so that would definitely be a plus to get a smooth set-up. I don't think I've seen your thread about your old school board, but it sounds like you've got a sick set-up, pretty much what I'm looking to get for myself. If you could get me that link to that shop it would be sick Shipping from BC to Montreal can't be too much of a long time for shipping, but I'll still have to check out the boards/set-ups/prices and all that shit

[pawnluvguitarist]

I edited my post and put the link in

[briden]

The thing about using a regular board with longboard wheels/bearings is that you don't get a longer wheelbase, which 99% of longboards have. Without the wheelbase difference, you're just riding different wheels.

[DonVigo]

I'll come out and say it - I've grown to HATE longboards.

I've owned a couple, kinda miss 'em, but I didn't keep 'em long 'cause unless you're bombing hills or cruising down something like a path on a beach, they don't offer as much smoothness as they take away from mobility.

Around my neck of the woods, longboard owners are just poser kids who can't ride real skateboards. They think about how easily the board goes straight without thinking about the turning radius involved in such a long wheelbase. Like I said, I've had a 42" and 48", and a couple nasty high speed crashes later I realized downhilling may be a bit too gnarly for my taste. (Speed wobbles on a 4 foot long board with 99mm wheels are SCARY!)

I'd recoomend the old school reissue. I have a Powell Rat Bones reissue that rode on Indy's, Powell Swiss', and 64mm Pool Bombers until I blew out a wheel. (I was riding the setup at a park A LOT, soft wheel blow out the center core sections after enough abuse.) But whenever I move back into the city, I'm just going to get a new set of Pool Bombers and call it my cruiser. Nothing better on the city streets and sidewalks than something nice and wide that will still let you weave through people and traffic effortlessly. If you're just doing hills, or looooong straight sections without much to need to turn around, a real longun' would be great... But if you're looking for a cruiser/filmer board, you'd do well by yourself to try and keep your wheelbase under 34-36".

All personal preference though. If you have any buddies with cruiser setups, see if you can ride 'em around for a day or so and see what feels natural to you.