Stupid wheel question?

[john scott]

Just wondering about something here, it seems very common to mix wheel duros from front to rear, but are there any pros/cons in mixing wheel diameters the same way? Say like 70s on the front & 65/66 on the rears. Or are the two sizes just working against one another?
Would the bigger wheels speed up the smaller ones OR the smaller wheels slow down the bigger ones? Just lookin for an edge up! AND I only have two sets of wheels! Thanks for any advice!

[Wesley Tucker]

John,

This isn't meant to be a smart ass answer or an attempt to blow you off, but if you've got two different diameter wheels (maybe an Avalon and a Cambria?) then try it and see what happens?

Hell, this is SKATEBOARDING. Play around with it. I've never heard of mixing and matching diameters but who knows? I can think of applications where it's done (drag racing, some open wheeled racing) but I don't know the advantages.

All I can say is put some avalons and cambrias on (as an example) and run the course. Rearrange the wheels and see what happens. At best you'll go faster. At worst you'll forget about your wedging and the big wheel will bite and you'll mess up the asphalt with your face.

Either way, it's all good.

Take a Saturday morning when there's no pressure to play around with it.

(By the way, duros are mixed for a simple reason: rear traction. Since the front of the board rarely gets loose in turning, a hard wheels it run up front. Since, though, rear end traction is an issue a softer wheel is in the back. The trick is to find the HARDEST wheels you can run in the back and yet still grip. I usually run an 86.82 combo, sometimes 86/80s.)

[john scott]

Wes,

No offense taken on my end at all! I appreciate the response and your sense of humor. That's what I love about all you guys/gals...all the support and encouragement. Just getting back into all of this after 30 years and it's great. It's just that I don't have a lot of course time under my belt as of yet and if it did feel faster and might just be fooling myself. I'll take your advice and give it a try though! Have a great weekend!

[Lenny Poage]

I was thinking about this thread and it seems like I remember seeing some folks with different sized wheels in GS. I went back and looked at some photos where I thought I saw that and can't find them, though.

[Tod Oles]

John,

Larger wheels have more gyroscopic inertia when spinning and thus have a tendency to resist changing direction... wheels designed like the Seismic Speedvent counteract this by using a lighter inner core to mold the heavier urethane around....so they do feel more agile given they're 77mm size.

I'll run Cambrias (62mm) on the front of my tight slalom setup with 70mm rears so I only
lose rolling inertia up front but the front of the deck is alot lighter feeling and much easier to swing through tight cone spacings... conversely I've used some old worn and coned down Avalons (65mm on the rear of my GS setup and big Gumballs (76mm) in front on courses where rear traction is a problem like seal coated blacktop...

Like Wes said above, there's really no rules except those that physics WILL impose upon you

[Lenny Poage]

Not to hijack a thread, but this all reminds me how I used slalom skateboarding (especially) in a workshop on education. We were talking about getting kids to understand the cirriculum and I mentioned that we need to move out of the classroom more than we do; for example, geometry and algrebra baffle me on paper, but when applied (i.e. wedging trucks for a desired effect, setting a course, etc.) it becomes clear(er). And this thread exemplifies physics. If only I could pull this into my English class...

[Dave Gale]

Now Lenny...cirriculum ? Is that a Hebrew nation cut? Or something to do with wheel size?

[Steve Collins]

I remeber Jack Smith winning a JPL on a setup that had front wheels that were taller than the back:

viewtopic.php?t=1618&highlight=jpl

Ever since I saw Jack's writeup from that race, I look at the trees before a run ...

[Claude Regnier]

I use smaller wheels on lots of different course in the front. Both taller and narower. Like Tod said quicker turning for tight stuff.

I like the lighter feeling for the front foot especially since tweaking my ankle in '03.

I don't know if is really any faster or not comparitively but feeling comfortable allows you to ride more effectively and confident.

Play with things and test the results if you can to see if it works for you. It's all good.

[Lenny Poage]

Now Lenny...cirriculum ? Is that a Hebrew nation cut? Or something to do with wheel size?

A ceremony to trim wheels, possibly. LOL You coming to Marc's race in June? It'd be great to see you, bro!

I was surfing around and saw this on pic on the slalom forum of NCDSA. Check the wheels.



I may experiment a bit with that as well.

Also, I was wondering about mixing duros on the same truck as well. EVERY now and then, I have a tendency to pump really hard and slide out a bit on toe side cones. Do you guys think that putting a slightly softer wheel on the heel side of my back truck would help that?

[Dave Gale]

Richy C. does it. (even on his front ,I believe) I've tried it, but it just feels funny.

[Stephen Lavin]

Richy suggested I put a softer duro on my front toe-side at La Costa Hybrid race last year and do same but opposite on side on the rear. Believe me, I needed much more help last year than that suggestion but it did help me "dig" into my turning up front and I "felt" I could push that softer front more so than if duros hard up front were even.

I did not do very well (I had other setup issues) but that was not due to the wheel placement suggestion IMO - I think it was good advice.

BTW, I have run larger wheels up front than on rear on tight straight courses and have done well. The larger wheel momentum will pull those littles right along and with a tighter truck rear I think the littles help whip you around back there.

LAVIN

[Claude Regnier]

It comes down to what you like and what works for you. I thought about the harder /softer wheels set-up on the same truck years ago but never actually hace tried it. It makes sence that it works.

I have seen several do this Richie included.

It also make sense have a smaller quicker wheels in the rear for some courses. You need to test things out with a timer and such to really find out.