Why Upgrade Your Trucks

Choosing the right trucks for your skateboard is a personal choice that you should be a part of. Serving as the suspension and turning system for a skateboard, the trucks are an integral part of the overall feel and performance of the ride. Two of the more popular styles of trucks are “standard” and “reverse kingpin”. To put it simply, standard kingpin setups – such as Independents, Trackers, and Destructo – are perfect for technical skating and grinds due to the geometry of the truck. The reverse kingpin trucks – such as Randals, Paris, and Bears – are designed to be used in the carving and downhill genre of skating involving a lot of precision in turning and speed. In order to get the best setup possible, keep in mind the style of skating you wish to do. Skate parks and trick skating would call for standard trucks, and bombing hills and cruising to class or work would call for the reverse kingpin trucks. Keep in mind that it is possible to bomb hills with standard trucks, and to bust a kickflip with reverse kingpins, but this is a choice that you will have to make on your own.

Why Upgrade Your Wheels

Just like trucks, choosing the right wheels for your new skateboard is a personal choice that you should be a part of.

At Muirskate.com we offer hundreds of choices of wheels from 11 Manufacturers.

First of all, it is important to know what rebound is in skateboarding. It is also important to know that wheels come in different shapes, sizes (Diameters), and Durometers (Hardness).

Good wheels are constructed of premium polyurethane. The best way to understand this is by using the gasoline that you put in your car as an analogy. Premium Gasoline is the same stuff that goes into making Premium wheels. You get better milelage and your car runs smoother and so will your skateboard.

Rebound is very important when riding around on a longboard especially on flat surfaces. Rebounding wheels are characteristics of wheels that are made of Premium Polyurethane. Rebound is that effect that you get when a wheel you hit a crack but the wheel does not loose momentum. The wheel appears to have maintained momentum or even increased in speed. It is like a bouncing effect of a rubber ball. Good wheels explode on impact with the surface of concrete. A good way to test the rebounding effect of your wheel, is by completing a 180° turn on your skateboard and if your board maintains most of its momentum after the turn, you will then know that you have good rebounding wheels.

Conical Wheels have soft and thin edges which resemble a cone for example Retro Lime 66mm Zig Zags. These types of wheels are great for carving on all types of hills and also flat surfaces. Soft Durometer wheels (75a) really obsorb rocks and cracks in the concrete really well.

Wheels can also be constructed with rounded lip, such as Abec 11 60mm NoSkoolz. These wheels have a thick rounded edge. This hefty edge makes it difficult to harm the wheel. The rounded lip wheel is a great wheel to do power slides with and also skate parks. But don't get us wrong, Noskoolz are great wheels for cruising too. We recommend rounded lip wheels on Standard King Pin Trucks. They can also be used on reverse king pin trucks as well.

Wheels are measured in Diameter ranging from 48mm to 97mm. Smaller wheels are recommend for trick skating. As wheels increase in size the ride becomes smoother and faster.

We offer wheel Durometers in the range of (75a Soft Crusing) to (101a Hard Ride).

Know that you understand the characteristics of a wheel, it is simple explain why we recommend upgrading your wheels.

Good wheels are constructed of premium polyurethane. The best way to understand the following anology is by using the gasoline that you put in your car as an example. Premium Gasoline is the same stuff that goes into making Premium wheels. You get better milelage and your car runs smoother and so will your skateboard.

Why Upgrade Bearings?

Is it really true that upgrading my skateboard to Bones Swiss or Bones Ceramics will make my Skateboard Crazy Fast?

Answer: Not always

Trick skaters ride really hard wheels with very little rebound. These guys need fast, but expensive bearings. Rebounding wheels are characteristics of wheels that are made of Premium Polyurethane. Rebound is that propelling effect that you get when a wheel you hit a crack but the wheel does not loose momentum. The wheels appear to have increased or maintained momentum. It is like the bouncing effect of a rubber ball. In our estimation, these types of wheels don't really require high end Swiss or Ceramic bearing, but rather Abec 5 Bones Reds.

At Muir Skate we start off by stocking your board with quality Abec 5 Bones Reds. Though not officially regulated, the ABEC system is a good way to determine the speed and/or quality of a bearing. The ABEC scale is a system for rating the manufacturing tolerances of precision bearings. Bearings rated under the ABEC system are typically called "precision bearings", and they are rated with a number from 1 to 9, with the higher number assigned to bearings manufactured against a higher standard of precision (high number = tighter tolerances = higher quality bearing). However, if you keep them clean and away from water, lower rated bearings can stand up just as well as a high quality bearing such as ABEC 5 rated Bones Reds (which we recommend for any rider).