Skateboard wobble

[A_Dodgy_Dude]

As a longtime viewer of Ridiculousness, I’ve seen plenty of skateboarders going really fast.

And sometimes when they go too fast, the board starts wobbling - really bad.

My question for you skateboarders: once the wobbling starts, are you pretty much screwed? Does the wobble always lead to a crash?

[Sigene]

heres information on speed wobble:

Speed wobble

not being a skateboarder, I don’t have personal experience with this

[Jumpbass]

I do have experience with this. It’s hella scary, but you can ride it out.

This was in the late 70s. I know wheels and boards have changed since then. All I had was a cheap “banana” board. I would imagine that newer skateboards would be able to handle it better.

[Machine_Elf]

@Jumpbass

I do have experience with this. It’s hella scary, but you can ride it out.

This was in the late 70s. I know wheels and boards have changed since then. All I had was a cheap “banana” board. I would imagine that newer skateboards would be able to handle it better.

I had a banana board back then too, although it had good quality trucks under it. If you wanted to do low-speed tight maneuvering, you loosened up the nut on each kingpin; the result was that shifting your weight a little would cause the wheels to pivot a lot, resulting in very tight turning radiuses with little effort. That’s the sort of setup that results in speed wobble if you start going very fast, so if you were going to bomb a long hill at high speed, you snugged up the kingpin nuts first, conferring some stability; you couldn’t do the same short-radius turns with this setup, but long-radius turns together with high speed gave you the range of lateral accelerations you needed in order to maintain your balance while bombing a hill.

[Deser2]

Definitely depends on the skill of the rider but no, it doesn’t always lead to a crash and most pro-boarders (and anyone that skates vert regularly, aka halfpipes and the like) are able to continue riding even at those speeds.

Search Youtube for Bob Burquist loop-de-loop. Pretty much doesn’t get much faster than that and as you’ll see, he can stay on the board and land the trick even at those speeds.

[China_Guy]

Ahh the wobbles. Going down a hill steeper and longer than you estimated. You ride that sucker out although it is scary. I was always able to ride it out, although I crouched down about as low as a human can get on a board was ready to go over on my side.

Live to ride, ride to die

[Jumpbass]

@Machine_Elf

I had a banana board back then too, although it had good quality trucks under it. If you wanted to do low-speed tight maneuvering, you loosened up the nut on each kingpin; the result was that shifting your weight a little would cause the wheels to pivot a lot, resulting in very tight turning radiuses with little effort. That’s the sort of setup that results in speed wobble if you start going very fast, so if you were going to bomb a long hill at high speed, you snugged up the kingpin nuts first, conferring some stability; you couldn’t do the same short-radius turns with this setup, but long-radius turns together with high speed gave you the range of lateral accelerations you needed in order to maintain your balance while bombing a hill.

Yup, that’s the drill. We actually had a friend’s Dad drive us across town to skate down a very steep road. No helmets, of course. Clamped down our trucks and let 'er rip! Friend’s Dad clocked us at around 25-30 mph as I recall. WAY too fast for those boards. I was about 12 years old. Ah, to be young and immortal!