Skatebreak makes break systems for skateboards, and downhill luge skateboards with built in breaking systems. A reader named Hans bought a Cruiser 42 longboard with built in skatebreaks, and has some great insights.
My main use for this board is commuting to/from work (using transit along the way). My route to work has some relatively steep down hill sections, with no room for turning, and therefore I felt I needed a board with a brake to make my commuting safer (I also have a wife and 2 kids so a brake system was the only way I could justify using a skateboard for commuting). I have been riding my Cruiser 42 to/from work for about 2 months now and I feel I have some useful things to say to anyone thinking about using a Skatebrake system for commuting.
Pro’s :
- The Skatebrake system works. The brake application is smooth and never jerky in my experience. So far I have only had minimal bake pad wear.
- I like the Cruiser 42 board shape and the curved up sides helps turning. (note that the board shape is not as advertised (front /back symmetrical, no round nose)
- All components mounted with nylock nuts.
- The hand brake is of relatively good quality and feels comfortable.
Con's :
- The board is noisy. On the bottom of the board there is a bracket to snap the hand actuator into, and it rattles loudly. There are also brake actuators which are mounted onto the rear trucks, and they rattle if you are not on a perfectly smooth road.
- The board underside graphics are not as advertised (the board as received was blue with a small chincy sticker)
- There are problems with the bearing nut tightness and the clearance with the brake pad (the recommended solution to reduce pad contact is to loosen the bearing nut … seems like something could have been designed better).
- The hand actuator mounting bracket did not adequately secure the hand actuator. On multiple occasions, when riding on my way home (flat/uphill) I would clip the hand actuator into the bracket on the underside of the board. The road vibrations caused the hand actuator to rotate and then the brake level would grab the ground and the actuator would pull out of the bracket ... which I would then run over !!!!
- The website claims a tight turning radius … I’m not an expert but I found the trucks very stiff and hard to turn. Even after loosening the king pin nut I found the board hard to turn.
- The deck cut outs for avoidance of wheel bite are very ambitions relative to the truck spacers and the truck turning performance (ie the wheels don’t get anywhere close to the deck).
- Once I let the board shoot past me as I jumped off, and I didn't pull the brake lever ... the result was that the brake cable pulled on the aluminum nut securing it to the hand actuator, which then got stripped.
Discussion:
There are some things that I have tuned up after using the board for 2 months and have some other comments to boot as follows:
- The stock wheels are very stiff (the owner didn't know what duro), I replaced them with Satori Goo Balls 80mm x 78A Duro. (for the rear truck you need wheels with the same hole pattern as the Kryptonics). The change improve the ride dramatically.
- I removed the hand actuator bracket completely (discussed in Con's 1 & 5) to keep the board quiet and to avoid the temptation of using it while riding.
- I replaced the stock truck cushions with some low-medium high rebound cushions (94A). This improved the turn radius immensely, and made the board cut outs actually useful.
- I plan to put some non-metal washers in between the hardware on the brake actuators to try to tone down the rattle, I also wrapped them in electrical tape (I might try some shrink wrap next). Note also that the brake cable end nut rattles against the brake actuator so I also taped this up also.
- For commuting you would probably want a dropped deck to make any pushing much easier.
- The hand actuator should have a mechanical attachment either to the board or to some point on the brake cable to avoid the aluminum nut strip out (see Con's 8).
- The brake cable limits your motion when you are pushing because you can't swing your brake hand as you normally would. A longer brake cable may be a cure, or a better attaching bracket for the hand actuator.
- The wheels were not spaced with mini washers to prevent bearing shield contact (small issue but worthy of note).
- The truck spacers are stiff and I plan to replace them with some softer ones to give a quieter ride.
- Adjusting the hand actuator/wheel nuts is kind of finicky (see Con's 4).
So for people planning on getting a Skatebrake system for a commuter board expect that you will have to do some tinkering, and spend some extra cash to get the board performing the way you want it to.
