kraffft work

[botofusup]

Kraffft was all charged up at Major Stokem 2 (har, har)



link to other pics, tons more to post later:
Mojor Stokem 2 - a set on Flickr

[kraffft]

Truly amazing day yesterday.

Got 7th place out of 49 skaters in my first race! (3-way tie for 7th).

First heat: 2nd place (J-raw in 1st)
Second heat: 2nd place (Fifi in 1st)
Third heat: 3rd place (caught off guard by the kid at the starting line: "readysetgo")

I didn't deserve to do that well though.. Could barely stay on my board with the rough pavement, strong headwind, and my mediocre ~35mph bombing skills. I had some good tips from Alex Newton though.. "get in front and wobble to sketch out the people behind you" etc.

And sliding is always a blast.. though it was my first time sliding since Jan 2nd (injuries). Thought up a new slide on the way to NJ, and tried it out a couple times.. basically a layback combined with a breakdancing swipe.

Layback swipe: A tiny jump with both feet during a layback, so you're sliding on one hand and the board keeps sliding, then landing your feet back on the board.

Sean Leitch from Surf rodZ was getting krafffty too:


Photo by [Ian]

Anyone that got bushings/risers, I'd love to hear any creative uses you come up for with them, or new super-turny board tricks.

If anyone wants bushings, they're 2$ shipped for 8 pieces (enough for at least one board), or find a drill, a 1-1/8" hole saw, a 1/2" spade bit, and a newish garbage tire (older ones the rubber is usually cracked and crumbly), and make some yourself.

First Wheelabrator session of the year is in two weeks, Sunday March 21st, Eastern CT.

A Wheelabrator event is a gathering of like minded souls for the purpose of skating and having fun. There are 3 distinct hills the main hill which is a 30-35mph (max) 2 lane fairly straight forward hill, it's a good place to practice your tuck, it's 8/10th of a mile long and rewards a good tuck, it's also fun to draftrain. The Bikepath is just that 1/3rd of a mile winding through the trees you can make 30mph on it though the last 2 turns can be scary at that speed. Then there is the slide hill which has a right and a left turn. Wide enough to slide softwheel or tech. Some really good sessions have happened at wheelabrator and as a location it deals with crowds very well which isn't always true of skate spots.

[frumpster]

Truly amazing day yesterday.

Anyone that got bushings/risers, I'd love to hear any creative uses you come up for with them, or new super-turny board tricks.

CT.

Hey Kraffft, I got my hands on one of those goodie bags and I'm already loving it. I stuck the 15deg's between a shortboard and a set of 180 RII's with 76mm 75a Krypto classics and 88a bushings. I've been eating $### all day and pumping up and dow the parade that was taking place in my town. It's been a good day.

I was also wondering about a set of those crazy slide wheels made out of UHMW-PE (I'm the guy who was putting the arches of my feet on the toeside edge of your unique slide deck)

[frumpster]

Hey Kraffft, I got my hands on one of those goodie bags and I'm already loving it. I stuck the 15deg's between a shortboard and a set of 180 RII's with 76mm 75a Krypto classics and 88a bushings. I've been eating $### all day and pumping up and dow the parade that was taking place in my town. It's been a good day.

I was also wondering about a set of those crazy slide wheels made out of UHMW-PE (I'm the guy who was putting the arches of my feet on the toeside edge of your unique slide deck)

pic is related

[botofusup]

[Wolfin]

[kraffft]

That skatebike has easily the wackiest video I've seen on the wackyblog:

YouTube - Max Skate Bike

[Islmi]

Retro neon clothing, cops coming out of the wall and pumping, and a Michael Jackson imitator...yup, if I were a kid I'd want one.

[Pleinair]

That skatebike has easily the wackiest video I've seen on the wackyblog:

YouTube - Max Skate Bike

That was so epic I just cried.

[frumpster]

Stokem Prizes

Bringing 8 bags for kreb to give to whoever he sees fit (5th-8th place in both racing and sliding!?)

I'll have some extra bushings in my pockets too, so bug me for em.

Make your own ultra-turny board, learn about wedging, make a shlongboard, or see what else you can come up with.. stack a thin rubber bushing on top of a worthlessly hard urethane bushing, accurately sand wheel wells, etc.

YouTube - Kraffft Pumping setup

^ A video of my initial ride

[kraffft]

Been taking care of some wheel and bushing orders yesterday and today. I'm thinking I'll limit the mass production work to one day a week or less from now on.

Nice vid frumpster, I like how you're just going for it as hard as you can! 'Real' pumping setups typically have the rear dewedged slightly, and the front wedged heavily, so if you want to get into pumping at higher speeds I'd try that direction.

The 'kraffft pumping setup' is more of a dick around and do figure skating moves type of thing.. though if you're good/insane you can go fast on it too. I really enjoyed it as an indoor board over the winter.

Wheels are $32/set any size up to 80mm. bearings and spacers installed. Shipping in the U.S. is $5 for one to three sets. International is $14 for orders under 4lbs (1.8kg), then there's any customs you have to pay on your end. (3 sets of 65mm wheels weigh just under 4lbs).

[TioEmm]

Been taking care of some wheel and bushing orders yesterday and today.

One of those is probably my freebord wheel order - should be interesting!

[kraffft]

Yeah, definitely interested to hear how the UHMW wheels work with the freebord.. my guess is that they'll work well for low speeds, and might be easier wheels to learn on, but won't have much use at high speed, except for going in a straight line.

Figured I'd post a pic of another order though. Sometimes people that order wheels want Delrin pucks as well. I got sick of using a router to do the bevels and went with the wood lathe this time:



Lets you do completely custom bevels. For me, the ideal bevel is less than 45 degrees for the majority of the life of the puck. The more acute the angle between the puck and pavement, the smoother the slide. Starting with a roundover onto the flat is nice too.

Rough circles were cut out of 5/8" Delrin, and screwed to the lathe plate from the back.

[SeanML]

Kraffft's slide wheels kick major ass.

They take some serious getting used to, but you can rock gnarly slides at not-so-gnarly speeds, which is awesome for scaredy cats like me. The part that takes practice is the complete lack of push-back from the slide... turning at speed is a little tricky, but on the other hand it means you can whip and twist the board around effortlessly.

Seriously fun, I entirely recommend getting a set.

[kraffft]

Kraffft's slide wheels kick major ass.

They take some serious getting used to, but you can rock gnarly slides at not-so-gnarly speeds, which is awesome for scaredy cats like me. The part that takes practice is the complete lack of push-back from the slide... turning at speed is a little tricky, but on the other hand it means you can whip and twist the board around effortlessly.

Seriously fun, I entirely recommend getting a set.

Hah, thanks for the review Sean.. It's definitely an ongoing experiment to see whether it's worth it for anyone to start casting them.

There's definitely a tiny bit of 'push-back from the slide' though (or 'hook-up'), if you manage to get a bad enough flat spot where the wheel no longer turns, you'll see what I mean.. then the board really starts to act more like a block of ice: complete lack of hook-up.

[kraffft]

Refined that puck design and fabrication process a little more.. these things are ready to slide over the roughest, most cracked pavement you can find:



(Small white chunks are some various finger puck ideas that were tried. Two old gloves in back for scale.)

Really got sucked into small builder mode this week.. I'm going to spend one more day tying everything up, then take an entire month off from any production work.. So around April 12th, I'll make another decision on what approach to take.

If folks have ideas for experiments, I'll still be doing lotsa those, but for now I won't be taking any orders.

[thehorse]

what is known about teflon slide pucks?? i started a new job yesterday and at first i thought it was UHMW lying around the place but the catalogs we give to customers say we use teflon wear-strips...

i'll find out exactly what it is on monday but i figure this thread is as good of a place as any to ask.

oh and those round pucks with the gnarly bevels look awesome!

[kraffft]

what is known about teflon slide pucks?? i started a new job yesterday and at first i thought it was UHMW lying around the place but the catalogs we give to customers say we use teflon wear-strips...

For puck use, Teflon slides well but wears fast, and it's very expensive. Current rough prices for a square foot of half inch thick:
UHMW $12
Delrin $40
Teflon $70

Definitely always on the lookout for new materials though.. for all purposes.. the expense thing is the tricky part usually.

[Wolfin]

Nylon slides okay, wears fast, but is cheap. Amirite?

[chandler95]

Official Kraffft Theme Song?