Recently, a couple of unexpected packages came in the mail--two Tierney Ride boards. A while back I spoke with the people at Tierney, who mentioned that they wouldn\'t mind sending over some boards for us to test, over the holidays, I had all but forgotten about them until they arrived today...

The Ride

Steve and I took them out for a couple hours to test them, the very first thing we noticed was that, not surprisingly for a board with two wheels, was that they were awkward to push on flat ground (or up a small hill) as were trying to do. We put them under our arms and hiked it up. Coming down (even the first time, and before reading the instructions) was great, it took a couple trys to be get the feel for the initial push-off, but like riding a bike, it became second nature fairly quickly.

The ride down for me was fast and slightly out of control for the first time, Steve carved down easily and stepped off nicely at the end. I was amazed at how fast the board felt compared to a regular skateboard, Steve didn\'t feel a major difference in speed. It turns out that our boards were different-- mine was 3 inches shorter and had the freestyle urethane wheels on it, which were much smaller and faster than his big rubber wheels, and longer board, designed specifically for carving.

From there we took them to our testing grounds, a mile long hill in front of a high school on the edge of town. We switched boards this time and we both made it down pretty good. True to the t-board literature, they carve very tight. At first, it feels somewhat jumpy; the best way I can think to describe that would be your legs second-guessing themselves. When the board drops past normal carving level, there is an instant of panic, this seemed to quickly fade as I got used to the feel of the board. I also noticed that on tight carves, my heels would sometimes hit the ground, not necessarily because of any flaw in the board, but because my (size 14) feet were hanging off the back, once I figured out what was happening; this problem quickly went away also.

Compared to Other Boards...

So, how does the board compare? I started with Pivot trucks and quickly discovered that going faster than about 15 mph was no fun on those trucks. Tracker trucks provided some improvements in stability, but not turning radius. Then, Randal was gracious enough to send me a pair of his Randal 180\'s, which felt radically different from anything I\'d ridden before, the turning radius was amazing, as was stability at speed--in fact, I still recommend them over any other conventional truck.

Then came the BMW. The turning radius is amazing and the ride is super smooth. I was even somewhat depressed after I realized that there was a good chance I might never ride anything better-- surely nothing better for carving... Then today I get this Tierney Board, after riding it, I jumped back on the BMW and the trucks seemed rather tight in comparison, which came as a big surprise. It\'s just a completely different feeling riding the Tierney from anything with four wheels. (Don\'t get me wrong, I still love the beamer, it\'s just a different feeling) It\'s no longer about tight or loose it\'s just about how far you want to take it. I\'m not sure which has a better turning radius (BMW or Tierney) but you can definitely carve deeper on the Tierney.

The T-Board Trucks

I think that the part of the T-board that is most underemphasized is the actual design of the trucks (if that\'s what you call them). I was previously under the impression that the each of the wheels was just mounted onto a stationary truck with no bushing or springs involved. It\'s actually a very different, very innovative piece of work they have created. The trucks pivot (depending on how tight you have them) on an adjustable torsion ring. The rings are available in different durometers, which combined with your personal preference for tightness, wheel size and material (urethane or rubber) come together to give you a highly customizable ride.

In Conclusion

I highly recommend the t-board. It\'s a nice change in the feel of boarding. It\'s not to hard to learn, and there is a huge difference in the feel of the ride over four wheeled boards. They also seem to be very well manufactured and very sturdy, the finish is nice, the graphics are nice. It comes with instructional videos on how to change the bushings etc. as well as a very cool video with some nice action shots. The biggest downside is that on flat ground, it\'s not your best choice. You can push, pump, tic-tac on flat ground, but it is not practical to do so over a very long distance. If you\'re just looking for something to ride around campus between classes, this is probably not your best choice. If you\'re looking for an awesome downhill board, you\'ve found a winner.

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