A love letter to Venom

zomg new shapes?!!

Bushings are my favorite (and the easiest!) way to tune a board, and though I have tried many kinds, my love for Venom bushings rises above all others. There is a particular snap to Venoms that no one else comes close to; they are the Tracker Stims of the modern era.

OK, about those new shapes. Pictured above, from the upper left, moving clockwise, you see a yellow “plug barrel“, olive green “stepped cones” (x2), blood red “stepped cones”, and yellow “kegs” (!) It kinds of feels like when Lucky Charms added new marshmallows! … OK, Zach, be cool. They’re just shapes.

I have some ideas for which trucks to try these in, but obviously there is a lot of experimentation ahead! Unclear if the plug barrel belongs in anything but a Caliber, but obviously we are going to put that to the test.

Try Weird Things!

I stumbled across an interesting bushing combination by accident. The Riptides have been fun to ride on, but I am still looking for the ideal dancer/carver hybrid, so I needed to add some stability to that rear truck.

Pictured is the rear truck with a red Riptide fat cone (aka “Fatboy”) on bottom, and an Orangatang knuckle (orange) on top. Weirdly awesome. Snappy, buttery, without being too wobbly. I think it might be a keeper.

(Not pictured: dual fatboys (yellow) on front truck)

Took ’em apart today to try other combos, like adding a blood red (91a SHR) Venom cone in place of the O’tang bushing. It didn’t add anything, and I think it lost a step compared to the unexpectedly good chimera above. Thinking about trying purple O’tang next, to see if I can’t get closer to the mark with that hybrid dancer thing I am still trying for.

Tuning for a Carver/Dancer combo on the Vanguard

I have been riding on the Loaded Vanguard almost exclusively for a while, digging the unparalleled carviture. The bushing setup for the version is what I call a “Supercarve” : extra snappy bushings, usually some version of SHR, cones, very loose trucks. Basically a deathtrap if you ride over 20mph tho, and shite at dancing maneuvers, since the trucks are so incredibly twitchy.

Vanguard Supercarve Build:
Truck: Paris v2 180
Front Bushings: Top: Olive SHR Venom cone // Bottom: Yellow Venom barrel
Rear Bushings: Orange Orangatang Knuckles

This build is a sweet sweet ride, however, the back truck is just too responsive to be reliable for cross-stepping or anything else besides sinking way down into the saddle and ripping up some big turns. Fun, but time to mix it up.

You’re up Fatboy!

I was eager to try out the new Riptide Fat Cone shape (which for some reason I keep wanting to call “Fat Boy”), with it’s novel hourglass thing when you mount two of them together on the same truck. I started with the 88a (Yellow) fat cones on the rear truck and took a couple runs down the Y2E2 loading dock road. It was fun, but didn’t really help in the stability department, and I think it may have lost a little grip compared with the O’tang Knuckles. Oh well. I might need more data, but at this point I think my next approach will be Venom (non-SHR) barrels in the back, and see where that gets me on stability.

Chuck Taylor – the ultimate skate shoe

For lots of people, its all about Vans, Etnies, Fallen, or whatever, but for me the ultimate skate shoe is the good ol’ Converse Chuck Taylor. Everything else feels like a clunky boot, and there is nothing like a pair of slightly worn chucks for feeling the board under your feet. Since I ride with a regular stance, and footbraking is my go-to method for slowing down, I naturally wear out the right shoe 10x faster, and I ended up collecting left shoes (seen above) as a fun reminder of how much I have been riding lately (and I just couldn’t bring myself to get rid of that custom red/yellow monogrammed one, maybe that’s how this started?). One time I wrote an email to Converse, asking them if they could sell me 10 right shoes … I don’t think they were very amused, LOL.

Tuning the Mermaid

To combat the inexorable accretion of body fat that necessarily follows the formula of {covid + couch + beer} I decided to dust off the LDP board and get some exericise. Time for some config!

First the basics of the build

Deck: Roe Mermaid LDP
Trucks: Custom. Bennett in front, wedged 22 degrees, with custom Cindrich baseplate. Venom bushings (Olive Green SHR tall barrel on bottom, Yellow cone on top) ultra loose; Tracker RTS rear truck, for stability and grip, outfitted with Orangatang knuckles and a Khiro cone on top.
Wheels: Orangatang In Heat (75mm, 80a duro)

Mermaid, pictured with Seismic Blast Waves, replaced in this reconfig.

All credit for this build goes to Paved Wave. Shoulders of Giants.

http://www.pavedwave.org/

This deck is made for pumping, and it’s pretty fun. On day two of my new health kick, I ran into my old enemy, wheel bite, despite all the risers. So, I figured I could drop 3mm from the wheel diameter by switching the Seismics out for the buttery yet snappy goodness of O’tang. And they are a little softer, so I figured I might get some extra grip off the back truck.

In Heats, with Bones Swiss bearings

Yeah, so that all worked. Sweet ride, and the O’tangs are definitely an upgrade … but I still got some wheelbite (!) oddly in the exact same spot on my ride, while riding goofyfoot. Maybe I’m putting too much weight on the front foot in that stance? Not sure, so I’m tightening the kingpin nut a full turn (it was crazy-loose, to be fair) and I might swap in slightly firmer bushings.

Bushing detail

Mermaid front truck detail. Bennet + Cindrich + Venom

LDP front truck works best when it’s as loose and turny as possible. That why I have a cone, and SHR all up in there. But since I am experiencing wheelbite, despite the smaller wheels.

Time to dig into the old Bushing Library for some options. My gut says to swap out the bottom barrel for something firmer than the (very soft) Olive SHR Venom.

To be continued …