Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The Premier of Speed -- Bustin Premier Formula Review


   I have recently been working on getting better and better at downhill in my longboarding endeavors. It has been a long, scary road full of adrenaline and tons of ungodly speed. I'm kind of a cautious skater, as a rule of thumb, so going really fast has been a bit of challenge for me, but I'm really starting to get hooked/already am hooked. I have been downhilling every weekend for the past two months and my skills have definitely increased many fold  and I can see why so many people love it so much. Bustin Boards sent me over a set of their new Premier Formula wheels to try out, and since I am getting more and more into downhill these couldn't have come at a better time.

    The very first thing that I noticed was that they were super mega grippy out of the box, in fact if I were to press the wheels together a few minutes they would stick together, haha. Let's get into some wheel specs real quick, sooooo the Premier Formulas are 70mm and come in three durometers, 78a, 80a, and 82a. The wheels have a 55mm contact path and hard squared lips. I went with the middle ground as far as durometer is concerned and got the 80a wheels which I figured would do everything I was looking for in a downhill wheel.
   I have already mentioned how grippy these wheels seemed right out of the box, well, that held true when on the road as well. The first place I took these wheels (cause I was excited to ride them) was just to class. UNC Chapel Hill, my campus, is paved entirely in brick so you definitely feel the commute on a longboard as you clatter along. However, these wheels absorbed a whole bunch of those vibrations and were super speedy. They were also really really fun to pump with, unlike some of my freeride wheels, I could thrash these back and forth as hard as I wanted to without them breaking their traction. Meaning I was a pumping machine on my way to and from class and work. To put it a little more mathematically:
 (Premier Wheels) + (Pumping) = (No Putting Your Feet Down) + (FUN)

   These wheels are what I consider to be a perfect size for like 99% of your longboarding needs. They are 70mm which means that have an initial acceleration that is faster than a large wheel, and they are nice wide. Being nice and wide gives them a little more momentum than a more narrow wheel which gives them what I consider to be their signature characteristic. These wheels are wide with a bunch a weight behind them which means they hold speed for sooooo long. They can literally grab on the momentum you get going downhill and hold it for what seems like forever. They are such a sick ride. I feel their ability to accelerate quickly and to hold speed for a super long time are what really makes these wheels shine in downhill. They are just fast. If I was every asked to summarize these wheels in one word it would just be; FAST. 

   These wheels definitely need to be broken in before you get really nice consistent slides. I broke my in by taking them downhill with me and doing glove-down kills slides at the end of my run. It took a while to get them to slide how I wanted them to (it also took some wheel rotations to keep the wear even) but once they got there they were nice sliders. They are not the type of wheels that are going to be super easy to bust low speed 180 standies on, but they are nice wheels to slide on doing downhill and slides going a bit faster. They work really well with gloves, however my favorite has always been standing slides and these guys speed check really nicely. 


   If you have ever wanted a really really really really fast 70mm wheel then look no further than the Bustin Premiers. They accelerate quickly, have tons of grip, and hold speed for eons. I am currently rocking them on my downhill setup and love them. It's going to be a while before I find a downhill wheel that I like more than these!



Current Setup:
-Bustin Boards Ibach Deck
-Surf-Rodz 176mm Fixed Axle Trucks
-Bustin Premier 70mm 80a Wheels
-Orangatang Nipple Bushings (Hard)
-Bones Reds Bearings

Any Questions, Comments, Concerns, Accolades, Feel free to get in touch!
Wayne

1 comment:

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    Laura Morales

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