Blue 85mm Krypto / Kryptonics Classic Wheel Review

[gavmck]

Hey hey hey

I recently (yesterday) aquired some Blue 85mm Krypto classics and thought I would give a bit of a review based on what I have found compared to Gumballs (81a) and Zigzags ()70mm 83a).

Read the stuff in bold for a summary heh.



I've heard so much good stuff about these wheels and their drifty funtimes qualities that I had to give them a go!
I have these wheels mounted on a Lush Spooky (new version - 2008 ) with Randal 180s 50 degree baseplate.

First impressions upon riding them down my road (medium grade smallish hill, rough surface) was the super mellow feeling and oh so smooth standup slides! The back end just slides out almost without you noticing it's so smooth! I was having to look at my back trucks to see if I was still gripping the turn or not!
They roll nice and smoothly, with a very chilled out feeling on this medium grade. Compared to the Gumballs and zigzags, they accelerate much slower, but kinda feel like a supertanker that will just slowly crush everything in it's path!
With both the Gumballs and zigzags I feel like I have to really weight my body out in order to get the wheels to slide and they will suddenly break free. The zigz break much more sharply than the Kryptos especially. With the Kryptos if you just push the back end it will force the wheels to slide out, nice and easy...

Took the setup for my morning cruise to work the next day (today!) and was suddenly much less stoked on their performance. Most of my route to work is pretty flat and there was a noticable difference in their ability to pick up and hold speed, they almost felt kinda mushy, but I AM 200lbs. Fair bit harder to push as well with all that extra height, even though my Loaded pintail with zigzags is top mounted it feels easier to push on the flat than the spooky with kryptos.

After this bum out I was feeling rather dissappointed so it was time for another session at lunch!

Took the wheels out to a small steep hill with a heelside hairpin bend at the bottom. First try was some standup speed checks to see how they slid on a smoother road.
SICK!

SSIIIICCCCCKKK!!!

I was busting out 6-8 foot standups where previously I could only slip the back end out on my gumballs and MAYBE get the front to go a little bit. Really, REAALLY smooth in both release and re-grip through the slide, it felt like you could push them as hard as you wanted and still be in control, must be time to hit the corner then!

Tried the corner a few times, each one going higher up the hill and hitting it with more speed. Again, the wheels drifted so wonderfully and predictably, I could keep much more speed out of the turn because I could control the hook up much more smoothly than with gumballs (prone to overdrift and fail the corner) or zigzags (prone to harsh hook up, throwing me off). I ended up being able to rip into the corner with much more speed than before because I knew I could fully control the drift with ease.

So to sum up...

Pros:
- Super sweet drifting!
- Awesome for standup slides
- Feels nice and safe and mellow, not too much sudden acceleration to sketch you out
- Rolls over anything

Cons:
- Slow on the flats
- Annoying for pushing around town, too high
- Sideset means coning is coming quickly

I'd reccommend these wheels for people looking to freeride down medium - > bigass hills. They won't make you get down there the fastest, but DAMN, you'll have some fun doing it.
If you wanna use your setup to push around and generally cruise mellow stuff or flats, then something else would probably suit you better.

[isk]

i have a pair and i can also compare them to gumballs and zig zags. i agree with all the slidey stuff you wrote, but i dont agree on them being slow. they feel very smooth and hold speed well. acceleration is also just fine for me, even compared to the zigzags. they do feel "tanky" though, especially since they roll over almost everything.

theres this nice little winding downhill run through the forest a few kilometers from here. nice run but a lot of sticks, stones and tree generel tree produce in the way. the ground was damp, pine needles all over the place. i was going around 30kmh around a turn when i saw tree bark spread across the whole path. big chunks!! it was too late for a footbreak (damp ground/pine needles) so it was either bail, or go for it. i went for it, and to my amazement, i made it no problem. it was bumpy as hell, but i didnt fall off. those kryptos are almost all terrain wheels. i think it also has to do with their small contact patch, a wider wheel would have probably stalled. the krytos just slashed right through that bark.

[kurdt]

so where can you still get these in the US?

[gavmck]

ISK: Is that acceleration and speed on flats or downhill? I just find them slow on the flats, downhill they are tasty like pie! Also, I am a heavy bugger, that might make them slower for me...
Kurdt: No idea mate, I'm in the UK where we have LOADS ahahahahahahaha!

[guroo]

Originally Posted by kurdt

so where can you still get these in the US?

Here are the 80mm, Longboard Wheels: Kryptonics "Classic K" 80mm/85mm (blue) wheels. (4-Pack).

[rwadley]

not in stock

[Doors]

yeah i think i remember looking there a while ago.

[Wobbles_suck]

So where can you still get these wheels in stock?

[Loki440]

Originally Posted by Wobbles_suck

So where can you still get these wheels in stock?

if you live in europe yes, if in north america no but there is the landy hawgs which is the same bloody wheel more or less

[ConnorH]

can anybody give an comparison to the landy orange hawgs? they have pretty much the same specs, offset and slim contact, 76mm but different thane, anybody wanna help?

[***TWITCH***]

Bump.

Are the other 80a kryptonics just as slidey as these or are these the only ones that are this slidey

[Douginaz]

Originally Posted by ***TWITCH***

Bump.

Are the other 80a kryptonics just as slidey as these or are these the only ones that are this slidey

Raleigh sucks.

Chapel Hill FTMFW