Wheel Bite

Parson Adams · Wheel Bite

Hey All,

I was thrown pretty hard yesterday due to our good old friend Wheel Bite. I checked my pivot/bushings and all is working. I did notice that at the wheel wells, I have been getting wheel bite from time to time. I must have just been powering through it. Is there any mod I can do to prevent this again? Or should I just tighten my trucks up--I come from a longboarding background so I just loosely tighten my Bennett kingpin nut a couple of turns.

Here's the setup where wheelbite is happening:

Bennett 5.0 with white barrel bottom and orange barrel top. Wedged 20 degrees with a 1/8 flat soft riser.

Tracker RTS 129 with Barrel blues top and bottom and a 1/8 flat soft riser. Just a tad tighter than I would normally ride them.

I'm running BZs

BTW--I don't know is weight has anything to do with, but I am 190-195. I do love the white barrel set up and would hate to lose it due to weight, but my hip hurts like a MOFO. I don't think I've slammed that hard in years. Or this much--5 times in one week--since I began LDPing.

This is a sport alright. Screw the critics.

Jim

Batalero

IMHO you should try with harder duros in the rear , like red or yellow Khiros or a mix of both . Experiment !
I weight 210 lbs and only got (little) wheelbites when my bushings are chewed and I ride the same trucks than you do
My bushings are : Holey grey on front 78a and 1 red + 1 yellow Khiros on rear .
Sylvain

stocago

Is the wheelbite in the front? Are you using flat washers?

I would just go to a 1/4" soft riser to start. Or if you really want to be safe, add 1/4" hard to your current setup. You don't mention the deck, but you could also sand or cut the board. If you're using flat washers, you could try cupped. Lots of options. As suggested by Batalero, you could go to 90-92a bushings in the back. I prefer orange bottom, white top in front, but it might not make much of a difference in the wheelbite department.

Parson Adams

I'm using a Gravity SN for the moment until my Mermaid comes in. It has wheel wells already. I'll just bump up the riser.

camel

You said barrel bottom and barrel top. Are you running a barrel and cap below the hanger and a barrel above? I run a Khiro cup washer below the cap as well for extra reboundy goodness.

pavedwave

i assume this was front wheelbite, and that always sucks! now that you have a perfect mark in the board from the bite, at least there's a visual guide in case you want to try grinding a wheelwell into the board-- hooking up a drill-bit type drum sander works fast if you are confident in making both sides relatively even.

the other thing, at 190 i might consider running orange-orange in front.

personally i tend to err on the side of having just a little more height as necessary to avoid the bite. but I do run it pretty close. my board never bit on me the last year or so, then a guy who outweighed me 20 lbs got on my board and it bit on him right away. i also think that running a 4.3" bennett up front has helped keep the bite away as well...