Your longboard’s bushings provide resistance in your trucks, and without them most trucks just wouldn’t work. The little urethane pieces in your trucks have come a long way since the beginnings of skateboarding, even just a few years ago bushings were not even close to the quality they come in today. When it comes to the best longboarding bushings, it mainly falls on personal preference. Bushings styles are mainly dependent on what your personal preference is. There’s no bushing that will make sliding a lot easier for you, nevertheless you can go for certain styles that fall within your preferences. We’re sticking with Venom, makers of the best longboard bushings:
1. Venom High Performance Bushing Set
2. Venom Double Barrel Longboard Bushings
3. Venom Downhill-93a Green Bushing Set
Do I have to change my longboard bushings?
Often times, stock bushings are not very good, so changing them will make everything feel a lot nicer. Changing your bushings can change how your trucks respond entirely, so if you need more or less turn, instead of cranking down the kingpin nut, it’s a better idea to look at getting different bushings.
Longboard Bushing Sizes
There are three main bushing sizes to accommodate for different types of riding.
The taller a bushing is, the more turn it will allow for. Tall bushings are now seen on some freeride trucks, though they’ve been used for slalom for a long time. “Standard” size bushings fit most all RKP trucks. Short bushings are almost exclusive to TKP trucks. Some older precision trucks take oddly-sized bushings designed exclusively for them.
The size bushing trucks take is determined by their geometry. It’s often hard to make a truck take a different bushing size, and often the result is not as good. Some trucks are designed so that if you add a longer kingpin you can use a bigger size bushing, make sure to read into it if you’re going to try to do those kinds of modifications.
Shape
In addition to the size of the bushing, there are also some other ways to limit or allow for more turn. The more urethane to resist the turn the damper the trucks will feel and the less turn they’ll allow for.
The most common bushing shape combination is a barrel boardside and a cone roadside.
The bushings to pick depend on your style of riding, how fast you plan on going and how much turn you’ll need. It’s a good bet to stay with the two basic shapes unless you really want to tweak out your setup. Double barrel for going faster, cone and barrel for more mild stuff.
Here are some suggestions if you want to implement the “weirder” shapes.
As a general rule of thumb, when using stepped barrels (or eliminators) use a duro lower than you would for a barrel. Eliminators are very restrictive.
Durometer
The final and most common way to control truck turn is bushing durometer. The harder the bushings are the more they’ll resist to turn.
Some people have a tough time finding the right duro for them. Duro is completely dependent on your weight, it is often helpful to use websites such as bushingpicker.com to find the ideal combination for you.
Some of the most recommended double barrels combinations are 87a/87a, 90a/90a and the Venom Christmas tree.
Where to get started
So you’ve decided your stock longboard bushings are not cutting it, and more often than not that decision is correct. Bushings are the cheapest upgrade you can make for your setup, so be sure to get Venom- the best longboard bushings. Only a small amount of trucks come with good stock bushings. Your best bet is to get a handful of quality bushings and experiment with your setup.
Look for Riot, Riptide, Sabre and Venom bushings.
If you want to go big and have plenty to play with, get a Venom full sack. There’s enough bushings to satisfy your thirst.
