SkateTECH. Adjusting Your Trucks

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1 SkateTECH Adjusting Your Trucks Adjusting your trucks is one of the most important things you are likely to ever do on your skates. This adjustment is important because it allows you to personalise your skates so that YOU achieve more responsive turning and manoeuvrability while using your skates. Because we are all different (size, weight, limb length and build) we will need to set our actions or trucks to a degree of tension that best suits our size and skating style. Skates are rarely set when they come out of the box so it is important that you know how to get them just right for how you skate and the particular sport you may play on your skates. The following is a guide on how to adjust your skates. While this information relates directly to the Crazy Skate brand of skates, you may apply these basic principles to most other brands. It is always advisable to contact your manufacturer if you are in doubt. 1. Know YOUR skates. To familiarise yourself with the components of a roller skate and their functions, please refer to the pictures below: KINGPIN - The main bolt that holds the truck to the skate. 2. CUSHION COVERS (Retainer) - This cap sits on top of the cushion or action rubber to protect the surface. 3. CUSHION or ACTION RUBBER - These rubbers enable you to steer the skate with a fluid motion. 4. ACTION LOCK NUT - In a traditional skate, this nut locks the KING PIN to the plate at a particular tension. This stops the Cushions from working loose. 5. TRUCK ASSEMBLY - This sits between the Cushions and holds the wheels. It also has a pivot rod that sits independently inside the plate. 6. PIVOT CUP - This is a cup shaped rubber part that sits inside the plate. It assists in providing a fluid motion when turning on your skate.

2 What is the LOCK NUT and what does it do? The lock nut has the job of making sure that when you skate, your steering does not loosen and you lose control. It has this one purpose. Once you set the desired tension on your rubbers and you feel that the skate is totally responsive to you - you simply lock this nut down to the base of the plate and this (like the seat belt in a vehicle) keeps everything where it is supposed to be! If your lock nut is secured correctly, you should not be able to adjust your cushions. General rule of thumb: it is the first thing you loosen when you adjust your cushions. It is the last thing you tighten when you have adjusted your cushions. Refer to picture: Lock Nut Location Once you have loosened the lock nut, you then need to loosen the King Pin. This is a long bolt that goes through the middle of all the components of your wheel assembly. It may be likened to the main support of a building that is secured by the foundation (which is the plate). This King Pin can be loosened or tightened against the cushion rubbers depending upon how much movement (or responsiveness) you require when you skate. When adjusting your cushions (found at both the front and the back of the skate) always make sure that the cushion rubbers are in good condition. If they are flat, worn or broken, you must adjust or remove them. Remember, these cushions are generally made of rubber or urethane which can wear and break. If you are unsure, please refer to a skate tech or your local rink or store for advice. King Pin Location How do I know if they are right? Well just like shopping for clothes, you have to try it and make sure you are comfortable. It is the same for adjusting your rubbers. You need to make small adjustments by tightening or loosening the King Pin and then skating on them to see if you are able to turn your skates with a feeling of control that YOU are happy with. Just remember that this is a personal setting. The most knowledgeable person in skating can not feel them like YOU do! So test the settings until YOU feel comfortable. The tension or tightness may also be different in the front truck to the back truck. As a general rule, the back truck is often a little more tensioned than the front. The front wheels are mostly responsible for turning when you skate, so they generally need a little less tension. Standing stationary and shifting your weight from left to right can give you an indication of the tension you require, but you should always adjust your cushions while you have an opportunity to skate. This allows you to correct any adjustments until you have a comfortable flowing and responsive motion when you skate.

3 What can happen if they are too TIGHT? If your cushion rubbers are too tight, so many things can start to go wrong for you when you skate! Here are just a few: 1. Your feet ache and you develop sensitive patches on your feet because you are pushing too hard on specific areas of your foot to achieve a turn. 2. Your feet start to slide around inside your boot because you are pushing too hard in one direction. This can be a result of your cushions being too tight and you have to constantly push against the walls of your skate boots to achieve the turns. It also means that you are pushing the boot beyond its limits. This can result in your skate boots wearing out in a very short time! You should not have to over tighten your laces to achieve good control. Your feet should be comfortable. 3. It places pressure on your plate, truck and pivot rubbers. Your skate should be in balance. It should be adjusted to suit the way YOU skate. Your boot should fit and your cushions should be adjusted to accommodate your style, weight, build and height. If you have your cushions too tight, it does not allow the cushion rubbers to achieve its other job which is to absorb shock. This can place pressure on your plate which could lead to it cracking, bending or snapping. Explosive energy is created when you skate, so this energy needs to find a release. As a rule, this energy is displaced through the wheels to generate motion. If your cushions are too tight, that force may be transferred to your truck assembly or plate which can lead to damage. What can happen if they are too LOOSE? 1. If you have your cushions too loose, you will have a lot less control. This means that you will not feel confident when you skate at high speeds or during competition. The general feeling is that you could lose control at any minute! Your body then tenses and over compensates in other areas which ultimately results in a skating technique that is neither comfortable, effective or efficient! 2. If you do not feel that you have total control when you skate, (as a result of loose actions), you may tend to over tighten your laces around your boots to give you that added confidence when you skate. This can lead to cramping, bruising and the onset of early fatigue. Every part of your skate relates to another. You have to achieve harmony in your skate and that harmony can only be achieved when you understand how your skates work. 3.You tend to compromise your technique to gain control by leaning forward from the shoulders, which distorts your centre of gravity. This is generally achieved by your knees coming together while you skate which in turn may place pressure on the inside of each foot (pronation) which generally leads to stressors on other parts of your body commonly occuring in the hips and lower back!

4 TAKING YOUR SKATES APART. 1. Loosen the lock nut about a half turn. 2. Then undo the king pin completely. It will separate from the plate when it is free. 3. Remove the lock nut from the bottom of the king pin. 4. The truck should be completely separate from the rest of the skate now. 5. Piece by piece, remove each component from the king pin. 6. Take note of where they go, so that you know where to put things when you reassemble!

5 7. Look at your plate. Your truck was connected to the plate in two places. It was secured with the king pin and it also rested inside a space in the plate where you should see a rubber. This is your pivot rubber. Remove this rubber and inspect. If it is worn or damaged in any way, replace with a new one. Without a pivot rubber, you will not be able to maintain consistent control when you skate. 8. Inspect your cushion rubbers. Make sure they are not cracked, split, torn or crumbling in any way. If they are, you should replace them immediately. Look closely at your cushion rubbers. One end is slightly bigger than the other. This is on purpose. The bigger end sits inside the truck assembly. The smaller end fits inside the metal cushion cover. Please ensure that the cushion rubbers are put back in the correct place when reassembling your skates. Slightly smaller Slightly larger 9. Make sure that your king pin is straight. If it is bent in any way, it is not safe to continue skating without replacing it with a new one! 10. All of your parts should like something like this:

6 PUTTING THEM BACK TOGETHER. 1. First, take your king pin and place a cushion cover (retainer) on with the flat surface touching the top of the bolt. The lip should be on the opposite side of the head of the king pin. 2. Take your cushion rubber (remember the smaller end fits into the retainer) and slide it on to the king pin. Make sure it is sitting flush or flat inside the retainer. 3. The king pin and the cushion with cap now needs to be thread through the truck assembly. Make sure you have the truck assembly the right way up! The best way to get this right is to position the truck near your plate and check it is the right way up! 4. Once you have the king pin positioned, take your second cushion rubber (with the larger end first) and slide it down the king pin shaft. It should then sit into a space (or seat) in the truck assembly. Sits inside seat or grooved out area.

7 5. Take the remaining cushion retainer and tread it onto the king pin shaft with the retainer facing towards the rubber so that is surrounds it when it comes into contact. The flat surface of the cushion cover should NOT touch the rubber. The cushion rubber should sit inside the little well! 6. Take the lock nut and screw it on to the king pin. Remember, if there is a jump bar on your skate, this should go on first! Jump Bar Location 7. Replace the pivot rubber and rotate it so that it is in a different position than it was when you took it out. This allows the rubber to wear more evenly and last longer. 8. Take your truck assembly now it is complete and very carefully line it up with the hole that is the base of the plate. You have to make sure that this is lined up correctly so that you DO NOT cross thread the plate when you insert it! Make sure that the truck is placed inside the pivot rubber.

8 9. Very gently start turning the king pin with your fingers (not a wrench) and get the feeling that it is screwing in smoothly. If it turns very easily, after three or four (3 or 4) turns, it should start getting more difficult as it begins to tighten. You will need to get a wrench to continue tightening the king pin. If you feel that it is very tight to turn straight away, remove it immediately and try again. If you continue to have difficulty, please ask for assistance from a skate tech! DO NOT continue to tighten if in doubt! 10. Once you have tightened the king pin so that there is tension, it is time to make the adjustment that suits YOU. If you know your tension setting straight away, that s fine, but if you don t, put the skate on your foot and while standing on the spot, displace your weight from left to right and observe how easy the wheels pivot from left to right. This is the first indication for you to see if they are close to your desired tension. YOU SHOULD NOT SKATE WITHOUT TESTING THE INITIAL TENSION LIKE THIS FIRST. It is not safe to take to a surface without weight testing the cushion rubbers first while standing stationary. You should only start skating to test your cushion tension when you are very sure that you are close to your desired tension setting. 11. Once testing is complete - remember the last thing you do is tighten the lock nut! This should be tightened right down against the plate until you cannot turn it any further. Its job is to lock the king pin into the desired tension for your optimum skating experience.