Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… “when, what, how did he get hold of these?“, well, if you want to get with the times, do what TK said in the last Baker video and ‘speak to the nigga negotiating your deal!’
Independent has been making low trucks for some time now, but this is different, this is new, this is STAGE 10! That’s right, they are up to double figures in experience and now bringing you a combination of new blood mixed with years of making skater preferred trucks, the end result speaks for itself!
After trying to find out what changes they’ve gone through to come up with a new stage, I could only conclude the following; it’s a new baseplate from an older stage. Disappointed? Don’t be, here’s the score:
When working on the stage 9 Low’s, they created a truck that has a kingpin sitting at more of an angle to compensate for the lower hanger, but whilst doing this, they kept the pivot angle the same as before so that the original axle remains relative to the mounting holes which will provide true wheel base and keeps the weight of the baseplate to enhance tricks off the nose and tail. They also gave it a rounder inside hanger for extra meat on smithies and feebles, but the real clincher for me, was the all new light weight hollow bodied aluminium used to make the low truck about 10% lighter than any other Independent truck on the market. Stage 9 also came with a modified baseplate, it has the hole cut out in the middle, between the pivot cup and the bushings, which I guess had problems with breaking. So, by going back to a reliable baseplate, this meant they’ve created a lower truck that is lighter than ever before and it comes with a stronger base plate…NICE!!!
Some say, why didn’t they call it 9.5, but I think 10 is spot on, it’s a new chapter, so it deserves a new stage, not a half stage! The baseplate, unlike the original stage 8, has only 4 holes where as the previous stage 8’s had 6, making it even stronger than the original stage 8 plate. I should also add that they’ve been running grade 8 kingpins throughout stage 9; it’s a shorter kingpin and is knurled instead of hexed, which shaves a bit off the weight too. The shorter kingpin also lessens the chances of hanging up on a smiths and busting your front teeth on the coping.
These come in custom Haslam colours, copper and black and are in 129 and 139 sizes, good for 7.75″ and 8.00″ boards. The rubbers fucked me around for about 2 hours on the first skate, but they softened up so quickly, I never changed them and that in itself is one mammoth feat! I have to say, the truck responds very well to your skateboarding needs and as for grinding, well, it’s like they claim in their campaign, ‘built to grind‘.
Independent trucks are good, they are solid and now lighter than most of their competitors, they come in all sizes for different types of riding, trust me, the time to convert is now, don’t get left with a bent hanger.
10/10
Live FAST, Ride FAST
2P