DIY bushings for winos
December 15th, 2009 by kilwag
Me, I swear by my Bones Bushings, but if I ever find myself in pinch, I could follow the advice over at Sa Ka Roulé and repurpose some of those newfangled plastic corks and make some bushings. In fact, maybe I’ll start building up a reserve of them tonight. I was saving these things for a while, I thought there must be something I could do with them, but this idea never crossed my mind.
December 15th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I wish I could read French, this seems like one of the potentally goofiest things I have seen you present to your readers. it’s cool to see people come up with ways to re-use garbage, but if you can afford the wine, just go get some bushings. sometimes you can find good cheap wine in the synthetic cork catagory (trust a cap over a synthetic cork). with bushings you kind get what you pay for. let us know how it works if you try it though. I don’t know why this guy even needs bushings, look how cranked down those trucks are!
December 15th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
make yourself a dartboard
December 15th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
It says, pretty much..
Have you noticed that wine corks are the size of conventional bushings? The idea of drilling and mounting them in trucks has bugged me for awhile. I collected some corks, drilled and mounted the first homemade (citation needed) bushings.
In testing they were a bit squishy and the turn was not very tight. They’re pretty soft inside, so they quickly disintegrate upon contact with the hanger and kingpin.
While not yet successful, I intend to persevere. Following the instructions found on pavedwave, the wear can be compensated for by sheathing the kingpin in plastic or aluminum.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
thanks carl, I was feeling bad for being so negitive on someones craftyness. I’m wondering if it’s a whole cork, or cut in half (still taller than my bushings).
also the corks are a bit skinnyer than a bushing. I was more surprised they use those bad corks in France for wine. it make sense a French skater would use them for bushings though.
December 15th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I miss clouds (Variflex), best bushing ever.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Curtis, “fine” wines with mold in the genuine cork, which happens often enough, are downright bad. Synthetic corks avoid this, ya rube. (Strangely enough, though, real cork is one of the very best materials for fishing reel drags, when a lot of braking isn’t required.)
December 16th, 2009 at 12:19 am
I had heard that those synthetic corks were actually scientifically better than organic cork, although I originally made the assumption that is was purely cost driven, and thus destined for lower price wines.
Hold on, it’s funny that we are discussing fine wine on SnA….
skaterhusseindave – I’ve got your Clouds right here.
December 16th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Hi guys !
In french a”cork” is a “bouchon” so close to a “bushing” that I had to try something … The result is not as good as a Venom, a Sabre, a Bone or a Cloud, but anyway I wanted to try !
Thx Kilwag – later posts are translated in english for my Anglo-American friends.
Thanks Carl for the accurate translation !
December 16th, 2009 at 6:14 am
By the way: “Sa ka roulé !” stands for ” Let the good times roll” in creole …
Longboarding in Guadeloupe, French West Indies.
December 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am
There is a world wide shortage of cork. Main reason behind synthetic corks.
Have used the same bottom Tracker stimulator bushings on my Indy’s for 20 years it seems.
December 16th, 2009 at 9:46 am
a lot of cork is of a lower quatity in this day and age. the quality is determined by the demand. if everyone on the world wanted to pop a bottle open tonight, we’d run out of corks pretty quick. Charles you are right about a bad cork ruining wine. I just assume than anyone making fine wine uses a fine cork. at your local homebrew shop you can see different grades of cork, some are much better than others. and the low grade corks seem like they could have places for mold to grow. and you are right too Killwag, cos a good cork costs alot more now, and there are more and wine drinkers, and we are just drinking it when it’s 2 yrs old anyway. so why waste a expensive fine cork? I’m not an expert, but I grew up around them in wine country. and from what they tell me, in our lifetime we’ll probably see the cap replace the cork. and they cringe at the synthetics. but who knows?
there seem to be atleast two types of the synthetic corks. the ones that are cork colored. and the more plastic looking ones. I wonder if the plastic looking ones would work better for bushings?
Bevilacqua, sounds like you are living a sweet life! keep at it man!
December 16th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Clouds best bushing ever?
have you tried anything in the last 20 yrs?
they feel dead compared to what’s available today.
Wanna buy some Clouds? I need money for wine.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
I like the Bones Bushings, but the soft ones in particular seem not to last like the mediums. Any suggestions? I like my trucks pretty loose but the medium and hard bushings don’t seem to hold through the whole turn. The upper end gets pretty sloppy when the trucks get as loose as I like them and the soft ones blow out.
December 16th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
According to John Hodgman’s research skateboards of the 16th century used cork bouchons in their trucks.
December 16th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
skp, I actually used stock Indy bushings until maybe two years ago, when they suddenly went from really bad to really, really, really bad.
December 17th, 2009 at 4:43 am
the hype of 2009 is Sabre – I aknowledge they are really snappy and bouncy.
I appreciate they holey also, but they have a special design.
Who has tried the Lucky barrels ?
My next experiences with corks will be bouchingz made from beer corks (Belgian beer of course) and cars spare parts.
Nothing tastes like good old wine !
December 17th, 2009 at 8:55 am
O.K., Time to try out those 1/8 inch leather riser pads.
December 17th, 2009 at 9:43 am
I didn’t know there were so many experts in the field of corkology on here.
December 17th, 2009 at 10:45 am
There is a kid in CO making bushings called Venom.
He is now making barrel bushings that fit in Indys
Best I’ve tried. Soft, consistent, and have held up perfectly for 3 mos now.
Has Indy upgraded theirs recently?
December 19th, 2009 at 10:32 am
This is all quite nice but Our French friend doesn’t have an actual picture of the cork mounted on the truck….But check his own Bay Watch on the blog,about wheels…
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Actually there is a picture with the cork bushing – as well as my feedback: too soft as is, but can be improved with an internal hardener (like the Bones bushings).
Wheels are my sweet spot, especially Kryptos … Actually not a Bay Watch but a general Internet watch – and some test runs reports as well.
Thank you all for your wise comments – leave your old “Bushings”, choose new “Obamas” for your trucks – yes you can !
March 12th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
and here is another kind of DIY bushing:
http://sakaroule.blogspot.com/2010/03/bushingz-nike-just-do-it.html