Author: Crossfire

‘Harrison, where are these fucking reviews‘, yeah yeah I will have them done by Tuesday. This has been the start of all my conversation with the sarge for the last month. So, here it is. I’m typing this review fresh from a fact finding mission in Barcelona and here they are if you didn’t know already:

Fact 1 Drink Estelle Beer coz is cold and tastes good
Fact 2 Drink spirits in Spain as they just pour in the glass, no measure systems here.
Fact 3 Take your skateboard.
Fact 4 You must apply sun cream when skating in the summer.

Now we have covered the facts of Barca let’s cover the Stereo team board in as many stupid points as humanly possible, if you can think of more just email Zac a picture of your sister (if she is 18 or older) and I am sure he will get in touch.

The Stereo Deck Facts

1 Made of Wood
2 Team board graphic
4 Rides like dream.
5 Plenty of pop.
6 Could get you girls.
7 If you see another rider with the same board you could start a conversation with “Hey we got the same board”.
8 As we all know Stereo boards fill the slipstream of coolness, coz Jason Lee is Earl on TV. Right?
9 Benny Fairfax and Olly Todd both ride for them.
10 Jason Lee once turned up at my birthday party back in 92, after spotting my mini ramp from the street.
11 Can be used to break a car window if you get trapped in a car.
12 You get thrown out of your hotel for pissing of the balcony; you could keep warm by making a fire out of this prime maple (If you find yourself in this scenario, make sure you leave the trucks on as these are a conductor of heat so you can use these to cook up a few sausages on)
13 Fact ten is a lie, but I did have a mini you could see from the street.
14 Buy Stereo skateboards.
15 Never try to write loads of fact about a fucking skateboard.

MAIN FACT: Stereo skateboards rock and can be found at the Stereo Sound Agency

Harrison

I remember my first experience of buying trucks, It would have been around 12-14 years ago now, I had a Tubo 2 board that I bought with my pocket money for £12 off some guy in the market. This was the very beginning of a life long passion for skateboarding, sadly this was cut short after my brother stood on my new rig and the cheap nasty trucks crumbled under his measly 8 stone in weight.

Thus the first lesson of trucks being important started here, I immediate realised that this piece of shit skateboard was not up to the job, I fondly remember grabbing my copy of RAD and flicking through to the Rollersnakes advert and begging my Dad to buy me some ventures, he was amazed that just one truck cost the price of my whole first board and here in lies my point, These ventures changed everything and venture treated me well and in return I stuck with these trucks for many years, and this is the thing once you settle on a certain truck it becomes a long term relationship.

So with some trepidation I agreed to try out the new Tensor Lightweight Response Trucks in a great black and red colourway. I know everyone has their truck of choice and I am sure that all the pro riders for Tensor are getting a truck they love to ride and money in the bank, which can’t be bad by any means. I on the other hand found none of these benefits, yes they looked amazing, but to be blunt they were total shit, and this is the reason.

They were to low for a start. Wheel bite was now a daily occurrence and I am not just talking about landing and getting it but even carving round bowls it would happen sending me flying off the front, and the biggest issue was the back truck developed a crack all the way around the axel within a week, yet there was mostly ledge skating taking place that week and at the most a few games of skate, but I don’t recall any supper heavy landings. I can only assume they were faulty as in 14 years of riding venture and Indies only two trucks have broken and mostly it’s the base plate or kingpin.

If you want a honest review of these trucks I guess a cross section of different riders would be the best way to go, If you want my opinion on Tensor, they had the opportunity to steal away a customer from one of their competitors and they simply blew it.

Trucks are an integral part of your rig and you need to know that they can perform and perform these did not. There is some good news to come out of this, whist on a trip to Barca I gave away my set up to a young kid that had fucked old trucks and a board that had seen better days, so in one sense there is a past it thirty something skater moaning about Tensor Trucks and on the other there is a kid in Barca shredding on a new set up, with a slightly cracked axel.

I guess it all worked out well in the end. Dirty Blood is nothing to worry about.

Harrison
3/10