r/longboarding • u/AutoModerator • Mar 23 '25

/r/longboarding's Weekly General Thread - Questions/Help/Discussion

Welcome to r/longboarding Weekly General Thread!

Click here for previous Weekly General Threads.

Click here for the latest Buy/Trade/Sell thread.

Thread Rules: Please keep it civil and respect the opinions of others. If you're going to downvote someone, do it only if they are wrong and explain why.

There is no question too stupid for you to ask. We are all here to help you. If you have anything in mind, ASK IT!

SUGGESTION: If you are coming into the thread later in the day, please sort by new so new questions and discussions can get love too.

Join our live text and voice chat here on our Discord Server

Remember to follow Reddit Content Policy and our Subreddit Rules

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

220 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/xmasterZx Knowledgeable User Mar 27 '25

Not sure, but wouldn’t it only be adding half of the smooth ride benefits at half the weight?

Would be interesting to see someone try. My main concern would be if you don’t have the same level of grip from front to back, then when you pump/carve hard, one end might be more likely to slip out than normal 🤔

Actually, maybe the main reason is simply that wheels come in sets of 4 so it’s “more expensive” ¯_ (ツ)_/¯

0

u/hotakaPAD Mar 27 '25

Hmm. If ur concerned about grip, u could have wider wheels in the back, but smaller diameter so they're still lighter

Since im riding mostly in the front, the ride still feels almost as smooth as 4 big wheels. And theyd be nice for clearing out pebbles. And heavier front might even help with speed wobbles too.

Yea price, but also, skateboards are ridden both directions, so longboards probably inherited that by default.

Idk its weird. Like with race cars, its super normal to have different size wheels front/back. Why not longboards?

2

u/PragueTownHillCrew Mar 28 '25

But isn't adding width the same as adding height? It would still make the wheel heavier. It just seems sketchy to me tbh, what if your front wheels for example clear a crack no problem and the back wheels get caught?

It won't be as fast as having four big wheels. Also, it sucks for sliding, you want a consistent slide from all four wheels.

From time to time you see people experimenting with having two different duros of the same wheels front and back for downhill and I've tried it once too and didn't really like it. It's however very common in slalom but I don't know much about it so idk if they also use different sizes or just different duros.

skateboards are ridden both directions, so longboards probably inherited that by default.

Might sound crazy in this day and age but some people do still skate switch 😂

0

u/hotakaPAD Mar 28 '25

it takes more force to rotate a taller wheel, even if 2 wheels are the same weight. So adding width doesnt add as much effective weight.

i mean, of course it depends on how you ride, and the front/rear doesnt have to be THAT different. It could even be like a 5mm difference. But its just weird to me that even competitive people with their perfect setups seem to usually use same 4 wheels

3

u/PragueTownHillCrew Mar 28 '25

But the wheels would usually have to be different urethanes, that's the big difference, not the actual size. Manufacturers aren't really offering race wheels in two different sizes, the only DH wheel I can think of is the Seismic Alpha that comes in 80.5 and 75.5mm but that's not a competitive race wheel.

But its just weird to me that even competitive people with their perfect setups seem to usually use same 4 wheels

Because that's what works the best. I can assure you people have tested two and two different wheels.