Avila's up front and Avalons in the back

[Glenn S]

Howard or anyone,
I just heard that Richy won the San Francisco Gravity GS event this past weekend using 75mm 3dm Avila’s up front and 68mm 3dm Avalon’s in the rear.

What was the opinion of the riders that quickly started using this idea during that race?

Also curious if this had been done before with 3dm Avalon’s up front and 3dm Cambria’s in the rear? Is this a trick that has been used in the past with other wheels?

[Adam Trahan]

Hey Glenn,

I am not qualified to answer your question, but I used to use a flat 36" x 7.5" with loose Bennett Vectors and Road Rider 6's up front, 4's in back. With that board, I could pump up the side of the Empire State building. It was an odd sort of thing, I really don't think it would be any good for slalom of any sort, but the tilt and the way the back end swang around during the pump was sort of surfy. Sort of anti of how I set my boards up now with stiff rear truck and de-tune the back end.

Just some thoughts, am interested in hearing what others say. Sorry for the tangent but it reminds me of the late seventies...

[Howard Gordon]

Exactly - the Brown Bomber figured the Avila/Avalon combo out first, and then some of the other riders (Maysey, 2nd pro and Miko, 1st open) followed. It was a great idea, as the taller wheels in front carried speed while providing leverage and drive through the shorter wheels behind. Seems like this should work well for Avalon/Cambria, and I think we'll see a lot of experimenting with these combos.

Adam - yesterday, Maysey and others actually removed wedging from their rear trucks to add tail steering. With the pitch of the hill, it was important to get the boards around quickly in order to set up across the fall-line for the next cone. Very interesting to see a variety of on-the-fly adjustments to difficult course conditions.

Amusing side note - Clayton Scott of the Comet Bombsquad told me yesterday that life was a lot simpler when we only made Avalons and no real decisions were required on what wheels to run for a race.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Howard Gordon on 2003-05-06 00:41 ]</font>

[Bruce Brewington]

Talking to Ritchie in SF, he had also experimented with Avalon fronts and Cambria back combo (before the intro of the Avilla's). He noted that the upward rise of the board also dimished the feeling of "going over" the front of your board. It seemed to have a little better 'feel" as you continue to push more forward down the fall line of the hill. Koz may have also tried the Avalon font/Cambria back wheel combo. I also had used that combo a number of months back, since the roll of the bigger wheel (with all four wheels) was a little too fast for me on steeper terrain (ok...way too fast) so I thought I could slow things down a little, and the cambrias stick pretty well.

[Mike Maysey]

I can't really explain it, but what I can tell you is in the offsets at the top of the course where many people were losing speed...I was gaining it. I could stick and hug right up next to them. I also changed rear riser configurations prior to the morning of the race. I assume the combination of riser change and wheel change helped me, no to mention the custom Turner/PD helped as well!!! No pictures please! hehe