Tuesday, September 11, 2012

All Hot and Bothered -- Fireball Incendo and Beast Review

Hey My Friends,
   I have been checking out some new wheels lately have been rocking these sick new sets of Fireball wheels the Incendos and Beasts. These wheels are pretty interesting wheels in that preform well in a variety of skating styles and look good to boot. They have a really nice urethane formula that begs to be slid on and are a fun all around skate wheel. Let's get into the specifications of these wheels.
   All Fireball wheels come in 3 signature color/durometer combination with the softest being the white 81a, followed by the red 84a, and finally the black 87a. They also all come slide prepped with a nice stone ground surface so you can slide these bad boys on day one. They have an interesting lip shape, but I'll talk more about that in a second. There are two varieties of Fireball wheels the Incendos and Beasts. Incendos are offset and 70mm with a 44mm contact path and Beasts are offset 76mm wheels with a 49mm contact path.
   I mentioned that these wheels can perform well in many of the different situations a rider might encounter on the road which makes sense because Incendos were designed to be an all around wheel. Unfortunately I have heard some guys who like to hold those long standies out for days complain about Fireballs. Well when I was talking with some of the crew over at Fireball they informed that these wheels weren't meant to freeride specific. However, they told me that may have something along those lines in the works so all you guys who only like to hold out standies can look forward to those, because although these wheels aren't the best shape for freeride the thane formula is soooooo smooth. But I digress, let me tell how these wheels perform in the many different styles of riding you might want to put them through.
Commuting
I really enjoy commuting on both Incendos and Beasts for different reasons. If you like to whip some check slides and do flip tricks on your commute you are going to love the Incendos they are lighter and accelerate nice and quickly. If you like the whole push, push coast dealio then you are going to dig the Beasts. They take a little bit of work to get up to speed since they are larger but they hold speed great. It's really nice for longer commutes and skater who aren't into flippy tricks or doing quick slides.
Freestyle
If you are into freestyle longboarding then you are probably going to prefer the Incendos. They are light, nimble, and break out into quick little slides like it is their job. I really like these wheels for longboard flip tricks and flatland powerslides when I am freestyling. They leave thane so easy, it's kinda cool, you can see your thane lines after quick 180s. The best freestyle application for the Beasts that I have found are that they are dope for dancing. That nice long coast I was talking about means that you can cross-step the day away without having to put your feet back down for pushing. Oh yeah!
Downhill
Now this is a discipline that these wheels were made for! Incendos are great for hitting hills that aren't super long and that you are going to need to get up to your top speed quickly due to their smaller 70mm diameter. Beasts are, well... they are beastly at downhill. They have great top speed and hold that speed very well. That 76mm diameter, as I mentioned, makes them great for sustaining speed and the wide contact path allows them to corner pretty well too. Both Incendos and Beasts come with a stone ground finish so I would not recommend trying to grip through a hard corner going super fast, because you're going to slide. Now, I am not a downhill racer, but I have taken both sets of wheels through some tight turns going fast and they drift beautifully! This is where I think that these wheels really excel over the competition, they are so freaking smooth and predictable!
Freeride
I touched on this earlier in my review, but what is interesting about Beasts and Incendos are that they are not meant to be a freeride specific wheel. Despite this, what is great about these wheels is that they are both awesome to freeride anyways. I really enjoyed the urethane formula of the wheels because it is smooth as hell. These wheels are not the very best wheels I have ridden to hold out loooong standing slides, but they are definitely aren't the worst and I would still say that you should give them a try. What is really interesting is that they are super sick for 180 slides. I will 180 down a hill all day long on these wheels and enjoy every second of it.
So would I recommend Fireball brand wheels to a friend?
Absolutely I would!

I would recommend the Incendos to anyone looking for a nice all around wheel that can really hold its own in all types of riding. I ride my Incendos on my every day do-anything board and they are a perfect fit. I can meet my friends on the hills, to freestyle, or just to cruise around and be confident in my wheels meeting my requirements.

I would recommend the Beasts to someone looking for a wheel that hold speed nicely and drift well. If you live in an area where you need to hit some speed and then take a drifty corner, check out some Beasts. Additionally if you are a strict commuter looking for a nice set of wheels to cruise on grab a set of Beasts for that smooth ride!
Per Usual, if you have any questions whatsoever, comments, recommendations, hatemail, loveletters...
Hit me up!

Stay Awesome,
Wayne

My Favorite Setups:

-Original Drop Beast
-Paris 195mm
-Purple Nipples
-Bones Reds Bearings
-FIREBALL INCENDOS

-Bustin Ibach
-Surf-Rodz 200mm RKPs
-Venom SHR 86a
-Surf-Rodz Pro-Series 10mm Bearings
-FIREBALL BEASTS

Photo Credit: Tyler Pollard