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How tight should longboard wheels be
Longboard wheels are available in a variety of brands, styles, sizes, colors, and durometers to suit the needs of any rider. You’ll be hard pressed to find a portion of your longboard that has a greater impact on how you roll, move, and turn than your wheels.
Longboarders who want to satisfy their desire for speed will agree that tight longboard wheels are significantly faster and more stable. In this essay, I’ll show you how to determine how tight should longboard wheels be. The answer is mostly determined by your skill level, riding style, safety, and comfort. To discover more, take a look at the information below:
Every Longboarder Should Know How Tight Longboard Wheels Should Be
In the end, deciding how tight your longboard wheels should be is a personal choice.
There are differing viewpoints on how to adjust longboard wheels for a better riding experience, and there are advantages and disadvantages to consider if you want them to be really tight. After all, it’s nearly hard to achieve the optimal wheel adjustment without sacrificing one benefit over another.
If you want unrivaled speed and stability, you’ll want your wheels to be tight, but not so tight that they can’t move and roll. Loose wheels are more fluid, allowing for easier turns and overall maneuverability.
The following are some of the reasons why you should think about tightening your wheels:
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Unparalleled Speed
Tight wheels are undeniably fast, slippery, and roll at breakneck speeds. Tightening your wheels will also help you to better regulate your speed, resulting in smoother yet more exciting rides.
Tight wheels allow you the flexibility to innovate and redefine how you cruise and free-ride, in addition to delivering exciting speeds. One of the most enjoyable aspects about skating is the ability to change your riding style.
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Defends against wheel bite
When your wheels make contact with your longboard, wheel bite occurs, halting you dead in your tracks. As a result, you can lose your balance or fall off your board. This is dangerous and can easily result in catastrophic injury. Remember to secure your safety equipment at the conclusion of the day!
Tighter wheels stay in position and limit the chance of friction, ensuring your ride’s safety.
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Unparalleled Stability
Tight wheels provide you with the added benefit of a more stable and secure ride. Tighter wheels will protect you by distributing your weight more evenly, whether you’re a beginner still learning the ropes or an experienced rider who enjoys ripping down skate ramps.
Stability in your riding means you can ride in whichever direction you wish with more confidence.
While there are many advantages to tightening your wheels, there are also some disadvantages:
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Turning Radius Restrictions
Tight wheels make it difficult to turn and steer quickly. Taking abrupt twists and curves with limited agility is a difficult task. You can have trouble adapting to the tension on your wheels, resulting in a less enjoyable ride.
Keeping your wheels somewhat slack is a better choice if your skating technique necessitates fluid mobility and flexibility. To ensure your safety, do not loosen excessively.
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Tricks are incompatible with this.
Tight wheels reduce your fluidity, making tricks more difficult. To pull off a trick or two, you may need to push harder or lower the tail of your longboard.
Alternately, you can loosen up your wheels a little to make stunting more pleasant. When cycling more lightly, you can return to tightening your wheels.
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Landing is less convenient.
It’s much easier on the feet and ankles to land slightly off-kilter on loose wheels. You’ll have to apply pressure to your longboard to keep it from going out of line if the wheels are tight. The tighter your wheels are, the closer you must be to a perfect landing, which isn’t always achievable.
Although these disadvantages may appear discouraging, tight wheels will benefit you when you engage in the following activities:
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Downhill Barreling
When traveling downhill, tightening your wheels is the ideal option because they accelerate faster and provide the stability you need to keep your balance. This improves the ride’s enjoyment by making the descent much smoother and easier to control.
Because there is no perfect tightness configuration, it is entirely dependent on your comfort and ability level. However, as a rule of thumb, it’s best to keep it between 70 and 80 percent.
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Longboarding Down A Ramp
When skating down a skate ramp, your wheels must be incredibly fast and stable, just like when barreling downhill. They should also be tight enough to prevent wheel biting and speed wobbles. This results in a more comfortable and secure ride.
If you like flexing tricks on the skate ramp as much as we do, moderately tightening your wheels is the way to go.
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Changing the Direction of Your Longboard
Every longboarder’s dream is to be able to flip their board. The board is rotated around a horizontal or vertical axis to accomplish this maneuver. It’s spectacular to land this feat, but you may need to modify your wheels to get it just so.
Finding a middle ground between loose and tight wheels is the ideal approach to follow for a safe and steady landing that is gentle on the ankles. This will provide you with the fluidity and stability needed to effectively perform the technique.
Tight Longboard wheels have a lot of advantages
Most skaters change their skateboard trucks/wheels in order to make their skateboards quicker. When your skateboard wheels/trucks are tightened, the skateboard moves faster than when they are loose. So, if you want to ride quicker than usual when your skateboard wheels are loose, tighten your skateboard truck/wheels.
Another advantage of tightening the skateboard truck/wheels is that it gives the skater more stability, even at high speeds. With tightened skateboard wheels, there’s little to no risk of being caught up in the dreaded speed wobbles.
Downhill skaters benefit from tighter skateboard trucks and wheels. So, whether you’re planning on riding downhill or doing a vert ramp session, make sure your wheel is tightened.
Finally, tight skateboard trucks keep wheel biting at bay. Wheel bite can cause a serious disaster, slamming a skater to the ground while riding, but it can be avoided with tight skateboard trucks.
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Conclusion
The answer to the question “How Tight Should Longboard Wheels Be?” is an incremental element of obtaining the answer to “How Tight Should Longboard Wheels Be?” When making modifications, keep the following considerations in mind:
- Level of expertise
- Style of riding
- Safety and ease of use
Another item to consider is purchasing high-quality polyurethane wheels from known companies that are durable and dependable.
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