After a long awaited pause in availability Gravity Skateboards is at it again with their wheels. With the thane yet again flowing, Gravity Skateboards, the home team of SoCal slide style, releases two mildly modified versions of their essential slide wheels. What follows is a review of both The Sergio Slider and the Gravity Super Sliders. Read on for the NBS sessions results after taking another slide at these improved classics

Sergio Sliders

Stats

The Wheel

The Sergio Sliders are modified in both their visual style and the urethane they are comprised of. The graphic is a root style motif adorned by silhouettes of Sergio in his various slide positions. Soft tones add to the island appeal of these wheels. Form is not a sacrifice of function however as the Urethane compound is a higher formula and the contact patch is slightly wider than the “Old School” Sergios. The urethane is bonded to the core adding to a greater rebound and density of the wheel.

The Slide

Everything you would expect from this wheel, the slide itself has changed little. The basic ride is the same. You get a slight hint of a more chalky slide to the wheel not much else feels different, the wheels still have almost no transition point as slides are instant entrance and exit. Full drifts into and out of slides is the norm for these wheels. As with their predecessors, there is no wheel drag even getting it lateral down a hill results in no loss of speed at all.

The wheels are just as durable and once the skin is worn you have a very slick slide wheel capable of multi rotations and lightening fast pendy's. The actual slide sign of these wheels is actually brighter than the old Sergio's and the first test session at Loretta left the hill scarred up like a Tijuana knife fighter. Slashes of glowing thane lit up the hill in the late noon light. The line they leave boarders on graffiti.

With all high duro wheels staying lateral on the hill is less than desirable, although one rider felt that the wheels actually flat spotted easier, we feel he was mistaken and it was pointed out to him that he recently became addicted to laying out stale fish slides that kept him sideways on the hill for unhealthily long distances. After running many sets to the hub the majority of our testers did not feel that these wheels are any more prone to flat spotting, as long as care is taken to reduce lateral sliding and the wheels are rotated when needed.

Conclusion

Sergio “Buy My Wheels” Yuppie is an icon in slide style, lasting, dynamic and always fast. His wheels exemplify this. These are not your best training slider or commuter wheel. These wheels are in a class that very few wheels can occupy. These wheels are a high-speed low transition-friction wheel, durable and lasting. Providing all the slick speed you will need for high rotation combos and extended slides. Bottom line; killer trick slide wheels.

Super Sliders

Stats

Duro: 95a (Grey)
Diameter: 72mm
Width: 45mm
Contact Patch: 34mm
Bearing Spacing: 10mm
Core Placement: Sideset
Tested on: Motion Bigfish, Gravity JP 38”, Gravity Ben Wei
Bearings Tested With: Biltin 3's/7's, Pleasure Tools
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Retail: http://www.gravityboard.com/
MSRP: 32$

The Wheel

New urethane, a more compact spine style core allowing for more of the new high rebound thane, sets the new wheels a step above the older ones. Many of the testers were familiar with the old version and once in hand they all realized they were dealing with a whole new can of worms. Slightly wider and feeling less tall these wheels are powerful even in hand. Yea and the design is different too a flowing script in oceanic colors. We could sit here all day talking about how they look in hand, but let's not.

The Ride

Powerful without a doubt, they hold the line and do not ride anything like there duro should. Due to their sheer size these wheels ride a lot softer both in carve and the cruise. Where Sergio's would shudder at sub par conditions the Super Sliders just deal, straight rolling large and allowing you security with even the larger gaps. Even notwithstanding their duro the wheels hold a tight line in a carve. There is no abrupt loss of line and they hold speed really well.

Now they may hold a line well but they are a high duro wheel and they are meant for drifting, and drifting and sliding they do. Quite well and very fast, once the line is broken be it a stand up slide a speed drift or a very aggressive 360 these wheels push it. It's more about holding the wheel because when they release they release all the tension maintained in the thane and they just fly. The weight alone causes a serious whip then you finally let them fly. Very large, very powerful slide wheels.

You have a much greater transition with these wheels, however it is not nearly as forced as the old sliders were, much less chatter and very smooth. If you get used to the wheels after wearing off their skin their shocking speed can become second nature and your timing will adapt to them.

Conclusion

A good wheel for hills where you need the speed contained in these huge hunks of thane, a great sub par conditions wheel and a solid wheel for someone looking for a bit more muscle behind the slides. A very apparent transition and very powerful rotations bring the rider a level of momentum that is astonishing. If you like the sound of that check them out.

The Ninja Bomb Squad would like to thank the SDPD who have been kind enough to allow us, even going so far as defending us when it comes to our use of "Espinazo del diablo" DMA. We would also like to thank all the drivers and locals who stoke us up while we ride. Most of the photo credit goes to WillJ