ISSA - International Slalom Skateboarding Association

I've got both the soft and hard plastic risers. Be it angled or flat, 1/2 inch, 1/4 or various angles, I've got some of each.

Has anyone ever noticed a difference in performance between the soft and hard risers? Does it really make any difference? Is it just a matter of what materials the particular manufacturer decided to inject that day?

Personally, I can't feel any difference. For a while I was concerned that with soft risers I might feel my mounting hardware loosen as the riser compressed and rebounded, but it's never happened that I can tell. I can't feel any difference in the "comfort" of the ride either. It's not like the soft risers act to absorb any shock or vibration.

So, is there a performance difference or is it just a cosmetic difference between two different kinds of risers?

soft risers can break your baseplate.
once you compress a soft riser enough there is not much difference to any hard riser.

Uhhh, Donald?

My Radikals have a baseplate milled from a solid aluminum billet to 5/16" thick. My Splitfires have a Randal baseplate cast to a thickness of 3/16" thick and completely reinforced with a longitudinal rib running from the pivot to the king pin.

What am I going to be doing while slaloming that's going to cause these elements to crack? If the soft riser in some way doesn't complete support the face of the baseplate, I still can't see any sort of event that will cause a fracture.

Are you referring to soft risers causing damage when kickflipping, ollieing or some vertical maneuver?

ehhhmmmm wesley


i am referring to folks who love to tighten their bolts to the max.
the pressure from that to the baseplate with the added weight/pressure ratio coming to the truck when turning could do what i mentioned before.
it's an age old experience...
remember when the soft risers of the 70's got replaced by hard risers,mostly tracker risers at that time?
it was not only the weight of the risers,which led to that decision.


in most cases it's not the baseplate which wil break though,but the area around the bolt holes.

trust my experience,i don't want to sound arrogant,but trust my experience,again!

Donald,

In the 30 years I've owned and ridden the following:

Chicagos
Bahnes
Trackers
Trackers with plastic baseplates
Bennetts
Bennetts with plastic baseplates
Gullwings
Indys
Chindys
Seismics
Radikals
Splitfires
Randals

I rode Chicagos, Bahnes, Trackers, Bennetts, Gullwings and Indys with soft Rad Pads til the pivot point was worn to the point the truck was worthless. I've never cracked nor seen a cracked aluminum baseplate. Of course, I think we all broke at least one Bennett plastic baseplate. I have to admit, though, that I do not have a tremendous amount of time on the new trucks. I've just gotten into Rads, Splits and Randals recently.

If you say it cracks, I'm not arguing. I just can't envision a circumstance where slalom skating would cause the stress you describe to a baseplate, whether it's with a hard, soft or no riser at all.

Not possible? Think again! Happened to me today, and it's FRUSTRATING!











This is such a dumb way to mount trucks. It has a very clear problem- the bolt goes through the board and the truck at a different angle:


We need a solution similar to this, which would allow separate bolts to be used for the deck and truck:



...I guess I have a new project.

That is a cool idea but I think the issue will come that not every tail is at the same slope. That means you would need those molded in several configs. The narrow end might be a bit hard to get mounted but I think that the angles there are minor enough that they would not break.

I like the idea. You would have to figure out the middle base to either not offer any flex or offer some type of variable flex to assist with the pump. A lot of possibilities there.

Of course I would hate to have one of the middle bases break while riding, nothing but trouble coming from that.

Not a bad point about the front mounts. They probably could use just one bolt for both the deck and truck. The mockup was just to show the idea. I think if I made it in reality (which I plan on) then it will likely have a similar concept the the rail system by khiro, though with the ability to mount the rear mounts independently.