There is probably some optimum cone spacing/board size/truck width/wheels size that would optimize speed through a slalom course of a given cone distance. So far for moderately pitched slopes and courses that do not veer more than 40 degrees off the fall line it seems that spacings slightly under 7 feet allow for the highest speeds.
For steeper pitches cone spacings slightly exceeding 7 feet but still nder 8 feet optimize speeds.
Cone spacings wider than 8 feet do not allow the rider to pump "all" of the time during the turn- except perhaps on a really large board such as a 57" Ed Economy street rider deck. Going too large in board size eventually becomes limiting in speed as well.
Given that this is racing and speed is fun and looks good.....what do you think the board sizes and truck widths and wheel sizes should be?
Granted that seeing Bobby Piercy doing the tight slalom in the Scott Detrich film Freewheeling was likely under 25 mph but looks hella fast- whereas the same 25 mph in a Super G course might look comparably slow.
SO lets assume that we have a goal of
20mph - 30 mph for tight slalom
(no speeds under 15mph) Moderate to fairly steep slopes
25mph- 32mph for Giant slalom
(no speeds under 20mph) Steep slopes only
30- 40mph for Super Giant slalom
(no speeds under 25mph). Steep slopes with longer runs
What set ups do you think would work for this ? For Intermediate level courses the slope could be decreased or course shortened (Similar to Nastar- though not as ridiculous)
*The reason for setting a lower limit in speed for each slalom discipline has to do with the "gearing of a set up for racing" in that if we increase our low end gearing to accelerate at low speeds we sacrifice traction and high speed top end ...obviously two things that we would prefer to optimize in slalom.
