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As above ,I've been pondering this for a while when you see people on skateboards now the wheels are tiny compared to the ones I've got on my board that I've just found in the garage.
I you st to get stopped by stones with bigger wheels ,so these must get stopped by dust as they appear small and narrow .
Anyway now that I've found my board again i think I'll head to the skatepark and see how much damage i can do to myself.Luckily A&E at the RVI is only 200 yards from the park.
I remember lusting over wheels such as these [url=
GASOLINEALLEYANTIQUES.COM wheels[/url] never did get them 😥
Skateboard wheel size seems cyclical in fashion.
I remember in the early 90's when everything was ultra-tech and it was all about rolling up to a kerb on 42mm wheels at 2mph and switch double flipping whilst hoping you didn't trip over your marquee proportioned New Deal jeans.
By the time the late 90's came around I was riding 56mm and people generally rode bigger wheels as tech was out and everyone wanted to be Jamie Thomas.
*Looks in wardrobe and finds new deal T-shirt 6 sizes too big*
Swap you a Vision Street Wear t shirt for it!
I was into skateboarding from 87 to around 91, wheels were pretty small then IIRC.I remember using Santa Cruz OJ II's.
So they can ollie easier - otherwise they don't make much sense.
Bones Parkriders and then Powerflex 9s for me:
Had Bones on my old board, forget what trucks they were on. Heavy solid old plank compared to the light flexy ones nowadays. Got a lovely Powell 'Bones' tee upstairs, style 'Shred', where the material looks ripped with ribs showing through. Wish they'd re-introduce it in their retro series.
Had some slime balls on my Powell Bonite Lance Mountain with indy trucks (wipes nostalgic tear from eyes)
RVI in newcastle?
I used to use 8 Santa Cruz OJ 11's on my Bauer Turbo's, running on Tracker full-track trucks.
It does amuse me that the wheels and trucks on my hockey skates were fatter and wider than the yoof of todays boards
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Class.
I had white Yo-Yo's (60mm about 75shore A), 2nd generation 65mm Green Kryps (about 95 shore A), Z-Flex wheels, which were crap, I think they were meant to be about 75 shore A but the urethane was terrible, just fell apart. Started on various plastic complete boards, then a Benjy Board White Lightning, then G&S something or other when boards started to get a bit longer and wider, though it was probably only about 27" long and 7" wide. All previous with the wider of the 2 original Lazer Trucks widths. Then a Wesley Humpston Dog Town Skate, 30"L x 10"W with 8" lazer trucks. I was a 70's skater boy.
When I was working I kept having a look at boards but still wanted something more like what I finished up on. No point in a new skool as I'll never be able to Ollie or anything else. Just something to cruise around Stoke Skate Plaza on.
Who knows, may still get one but think I will probably have passed 50yrs old before then as I is out of work and skint. Will be a while before I have cash to spare on a board.
Cockroaches!
I still have a set of the first batch of SMA Gizmos.
I still have a set of those red Kryps
Yep the RVI in Newcastle, if you work there i'll be the 44 year old with the broken ankle.
I'm gonna put some pics up tomorrow of the board.
Powell peralta T bones on my signature tony hawk with independent trucks mmmmmmmmm
Red Kryps were one of my first sets of wheels, Spitfires my last.
Used to love the ride off a new set of wheels on plywood, until the inevitable flat spot 😥
From memory wheels used to fluctuate a bit, I've used huge Powell T-Bones down to tiny G&S Nuts and back again on mini-ramps/vert.
Some of the street-pins used ridiculously tiny wheels.
some gullwing magnesiums, with grindkings...
Girl-wing 😉
Grind Kings were ace though!
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SKATESONHAIGHT.COM Yowza! It's still available. I will be ordering a couple of these very soon.
What a small world, I was part of a research project on the skate scene in Newcastle. We had an exhibition at Dance City during the summer.
The skaters we spoke to weren't very keen on exi park. Five Bridges and the Wasteland is were it is at. More details here:
PLAYSPACENEWCASTLE.BLOGSPOT.COM [IMG]
Mebbe this pic will work. Love this design.
Woking has a new skate shop after Surrey Skateboards went ages ago - LongBoard Lounge, they specialise is something but I can't remember what...
How about parks visited, to keep the thread going?
Skate City
Mad Dog Bowl
Uxbridge
The Cage in Brighton
The Barn in Brighton
Also Skatestar in Guildford - I saw Shogo Kubo there - this link mentions him being there in 1979 and the slide he did along the top of the half pipe, which I can still remember!
"We were there in August 1979 when Shogo Kubo (right) came to the park and everybody was amazed when he skated along the top of the pipe"
I am guessing it was around 95 that small wheels stormed into fashion? I have a few brand new spitfire wheels around 42mm-ish kicking about. They were sold off as "keyrings" or something as they couldnt shift them around 1996 if i remember right.
I had T bones on a ss John Lucero.Still got a set of big red kryptonics on the old G&S i bought too. Its such a smooth ride!
I was given a Planet Earth Ken park deck recently for building a few bikes up for someone. The deck is brand new,unstained/laquered. I`ll take a pic some day and post it.
Had a Santa Cruz Rob Roskopp deck back in about 89/90. Whatever happened to them/him , eh?
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IMGS.ABDUZEEDO.COM I had a G&S bowlrider, then Benjyboard John Sablosky. Both on tracker full tracks, and excellerator wheels, which werent common, but were fast and smooth.
Used to go to the mad dog bowl, one in wandsworth in an old cinema, stockwell, Brighton cage and One out lewisham way
Wheels are small because California has much better surfaces and trucks are lower than back in the day (2 riser pads anyone?) so you can pop and flip easier. The Big Deal /World times were a bit ridiculous to be honest.
Check this out-
[url=
No idea but but I just moved from a cheapy shortboard with minature 51mm wheels to a longboard with 70mm wheels and the difference is night and day! They roll over everything so much easier, makes commuting by board even better.
On a sidenote, anyone into longboarding in the Bristol area? God knows theres enough hills and I wouldn't mind sessioning Bridge Valley Road before they reopen it.
Hmm, wonder if my parents still have my old board:
Deathbox deck
Tracker trucks
T-Boane wheels with SKF bearings
I think I've still got my old planet earth chris miller, boards I remember having were...
A few twin tail blanks cut v.similar to the shape current decks are now!
SMA/World Industries - Vallely x2
SMA/World Industries - Rocco
Powell Perelta - Hawk (the twin tails one)
Poor House? (I think, memorys a bit crappy) - Bryce Knights
a few santa cruz Natas
a few more hawks including two bonelite one's that snapped
a santa cruz jason jessie (I'd love to get my hands on another of the "sun print" t-shirts, can you get em online?)
loads more...
at one stage I can remember going through a new deck once every two months, shoes lasted about a week before they had to be packed back together with silkaflex and random bits of rubber.
I can remember a friend of mine (Luke) who I saw wear a set of Zorlack Zombu wheels down from their full size(around as big as kryptonite big reds/greens) down to the bearings in a month!! (they were the black ones but he then did the same to some green ones over about two months).
parks I skated were (in no order) Southsea, Dame Em in Bristol, Gillingham, Slades farm, Meanwhile 1+2 and loads more... ...I seem to recall days spent hunting for drainage ditches!!
Street was all around Bristol, Newbury, Marlborough, London and Swindon. Rollermania opened a shop in Swindon and that was great for a while, two indoor ramps out the back, in bristol there was a great place next to the Pink Palace which again rollermania I think helped with. In swindon we all got together, got the council to build a park, loads of fund raising etc, they bought three concrete bowls, put them in, before they added the marblite surface they smashed them up because "they were being used by drug addicts", I always thought it was more along the lines of "swindon council didn't pay for them"!
Briostol scene was a real laugh, what with Skateboard! magazine, the SM5D and the all rest, ah halcyon days!!
Talking of skatebowls, I just missed out on riding [url=
SKATEPARKPAGES.CO.UK as me and the ex spilt up just before it opened. Up until then only had a half-pipe on the prom to ride.
Some of the more well known places I skated...
Southsea, Romford, Stockwell, all the Bristol Parks, Banbury (Mons), Leamington Spa, Shrewsbury, Bury, Barrow in Furness Skateshack (a personal favourite) and my local spot Birmingham Wheels (Dickers indoor mini, spine, vert)
I also remember the 2 mini-ramps in the Pink Palace at Bristol, pink and blue dogs I seem to recall?!
this lunchtime I will be mostly...
In my day, wheels were big, trucks were narrow and decks were home made!
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I've still got my board from about '77 - has Sims Conical wheels (one of each colour), they are angled out from the trucks to make grinding easier 🙂
Torn from the darkest recess of grey matter are the names old green kyptonites and calfornia slalom trucks. Bringing it up to date i bought a board for my son recently and thought the same " why are the wheels so small?" .
Ah....
Sims Streetsnake wheels,
DNM bearings,
Indy trucks,
PP Bug deck
Fly tape.
Back in t'day...
Small wheels in the early 90's were 35mm.
They flipz better innit!
My first "skateboard" was a plank of wood with a steel wheeled roller skate that was taken apart and screwed to the plank. I say plank, from memory it would have been about 14" L x 4" W. This was 1974 and was done after seeing "Skater Dater" which was the backup feature to "Rollerball".
Now them wheels really were hard and small.
I was running a Zorlac John Gibson set up around '86 (can't remember what hardwear was on it though). Also just about old enough to have ridden the 2 bowls (1 snake run i think) that they had at Thruxton race track in the mid/late '70s (i was about 7!), although missed out on Andover swimming pool/park.
Haze - Member
Some of the more well known places I skated...Barrow in Furness Skateshack (a personal favourite)
Ah happy memories - The Shack was at the bottom of my street, and as a kid i spent days helping Milly, Russ and Co carry all that ply up the stairs, so we got to ride it before it opened. Then later when Robin used to lock us in during the day so 5 ofnus had the whole park to ourselves, heading home filthy.
I remember seeing Tony Hawk and the Bones Brigade there too!
A few mates reopened it themselves a few years ago, but the whole complex has been flattened now.
Still miss skating, but don't bounce off the floor like I used to!
Aaaah Nice one Haze... Dicker's indoor bowl.. sweet memories... spent many a weekend down there in me youth! God bless the Birmingham wheels scene... How i miss the deadly levels of methane being belched out the ground on a hot day!
afrothunder88 - Member
On a sidenote, anyone into longboarding in the Bristol area? God knows theres enough hills and I wouldn't mind sessioning Bridge Valley Road before they reopen it.
you can check out the forum on lushlongboards.com theres a fair few people who are around bristol.
This thread takes me back. Skating was my life from about 12 to 18 in the mid to late 80's / early 90's.
I'm a Brighton boy so for me it was The Level and the various mini ramps on the seafront at Saltden and Rottingdean plus going to Romford and Southsea.
Tried to get back into it a few years ago but it hurt like hell!