How Do ;-) & my odd setup ?

Barry · How Do ;-) & my odd setup ?

How Do All Wink

First post here; My name is Barry, I live in Middlesex U.K. just near Heathrow Airport.
I have recently become a newbie Longboarder after having enough punishmet in the past riding and crashing my Mountain Board.

I enjoyed carving down the pavement (is that the right word for the road for you guy's as pavement over hear is the sidewalk?) more than I did the crashing through the trees Wink

so a nice low stable longboard would be the answer.
After buying a Lush Kilima drop through board to go hit the hills on, I realised I would still need to travel to board, Then I saw some videos of LDP Wow I wanted some of that as my area is mostly flat.
After reading this forum many times and seeing what everyone else was doing I thought I would have a go at modifying my Lush Kilima.

You can view the photos of the mod's I made here:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Knotty.Bear

My thoughts about the success/ failure of my project are below, sorry for the long post.

As I have not ridden a propper LDP setup I can only relate to the way the kilima rides before and after.
first I rode it with the standard set up; no wedging, avalanche wheels and stock ruby red bushes loose on the front tight on the rear, like this I could not pump the board at all but that may just be my begginers lack of style or technique.
so next I wedged the front 10 degrees and though it felt like I could pump a little but I rapidly slowed to a stop.
Next I added my BIG ZIG's and weged the front 15 degrees and also wedged the back 10 degrees but the wrong way same ruby red bushes, this time it felt better but too carvy now and I had to crank the back bushes nown to keep stable.
So finaly I reversed the wedges in the rear to dewedge 10 degrees and added mello yello bushes on the rear just tight enogh to compress them a little and ruby red bottom with bibi blue top on the front I think this gives a good turny front with a better re-centering of the truck from the stiffer bibi blue but what do I know
took the board out like this and straight away I could pump it and keep going though slowly but still pumping, the now stable rear but turney front made pushing a breeze and I could balance on my front leg between pushes without wobbling but still being able to steer with the one foot, I was also able to carve harder without feeling I was loosing balance during the transition from one side to the other, before I was not able to make my back foot work and it felt like a passenger if you get what I mean now with the board set up like this I can feel my back foot pushing on the board during the pump / carve.

other findings: even with the wedging which lowered the board a fair bit; the angles of the king pins was such that even with the BIG ZIG's there was no chance of wheel bight even when I tried stomping on the board to see if I could make it happen it did not, Maybe as the bushes wear it might but I will have to see.
The hangers also did not toutch the board or hardwear at anytime either.

I will still need to try it on the hills to see what it carves like with the help of gravity, Any Ideas / previous experiences?

I am going to sort out a dedicated LDP but for now this is a fun begginers experiment.
Any thoughts on how I could improve this setup would be great but if I am flogging a dead horse please tell me and I will stop now.

Take care,
Barry Wink

stocago

First off, welcome!

For pumping, leverage is your friend so ideally you would not have a drop-thru. However, if you don't mind tinkering, you could experiment by top-mounting your Kilima and see the difference it makes. It'll look goofy, but I think you'll like it. Another limitation of this deck is that you are unable to but your front foot on or near the front truck.

Barry

How Do Stocago Wink

Thank you for your input, I hear what you are saying and I will try topmounting the board to see if that helps any.
But before I do that I can update on my post, I took the board out last night for a skate but changed the front bushes back to the stock Holey Ruby reds and as loose as the kingpin would allow me to have them.
I had a very slight breeze on my back so I pushed off and wow something happened; I started dancing like a hula girl and aslo started doing this weird chicken dance with my shoulders in the opposite direction, I must have looked like a granny dancing at an over 80's disco Wink

I started to accellerate, at fisrt the weight was over my front foot and I was making like short jabs back and forth heel then toe, as I got faster more weight seemed to transfer to my back foot and my short jabs became slower and more powerful and I could feel my back foot pushing the board through each pumped turn. I think I have found the pump "Proper" Wink

when heading into the wind I had a little more trouble keeping going but I still made progress even if it was slower and more tiering.

I will try my board topmounted now to see what happens.
But first I need to email Scotty and try to order a Pulse 40 Wink

Thanks for your help,
Take care,
Barry Wink

edp_swakakin

Hey Berry Welcome!!!

I too am on a quest for a hybrid. LOVE YOUR SETUP! I have been working with "Gbomb" Mark now for awhile. Things are really coming along. Having your foot on top of your truk is a must. At least to some degree. There is a fine line that you will discover in regards to this feeling and wheel bite. Nothing beats a low to the ground feeling, but having your foot on top of the truk transfers the most power. I highly recommend you buying a Roe or a Pulse (others too) for a strait pumper. Number one - there killer boards. Number two it gives you a template on what true pumping should feel like. So then once you go back to your drop you can than know how it should feel. IMO a dropped deck will never pump as good as one of these other boards but I believe I'm getting VERY VERY close....and the trade off for being able to push is heavenly. Have fun pumping it's an awesome thing.....

Eric

Barry

How Do All Wink

Thanks for your kind comments and advice edp_swakakin, I have now ordered a LBL Walkabout deck and a mixed set of Bennett and Tracker trucks in various widths to play with, I am really looking forward to making some real progress on a propper setup.
I still would like to have a pulse but no word back from scott yet, though after reading more in the gear section and looking ad the Walkabout and Pulse together I am actually liking the traditional looks of the Walkabout and the makes a good allround LDP board vibe that comes with it.

on another note, I did top mount my Kilima and it was just fine my initial worries about my bad knees and pushing were forgotten, at first I did not find it any easier to pump but after loosening the front truck almost beyond the nylock part of the kingpin nut making the truck very turney,
I found it much easier to pump and could accellerate from a single push but it is still hard work to keep up.
I just know though that all this hard practice on an inefficient setup will make riding my new board a breeze? though I will have to get used to the skinny trucks Wink

Take care,
Barry Wink