Thankfully, they've agreed
to continue doing their business in the woods, thus we can present to you from clean shelves:
Gen 6 Bear Trucks in all widths and angles
We've dabbled in the past, but having taken apart the new Gen 6 for a proper look and given them a good razz around, we were convinced that they're worthy of a spot in the shop.
What we like:
The options! 50° and 40° baseplates and 180mm and 155mm hanger widths suit any board, from a cruisy drop-through to a finely tuned pumping machine...
Talking of which... stocking them allows us to build exactly that - check out this custom Pantheon JM Bandito Pro we put together last week!
Absolute beast.
To gear this more towards pumping we used a 50° baseplate on the front and a 40° on the back - just a 10° split, but it opens up a whole new world.
Split angle setups like this turn more from the front while the back tends to "follow" - like a car. And cars are really stable.
Whilst it sounds quite extreme to have a different truck at each end of your board, I do believe that this will become more commonplace on stock setups in future - more stability, great turning, easy to pump. There's nothing not to like... unless you like skating switch, that is.
We also love the much more open bushing seat of the Gen 6 compared to the previous iterations that felt somewhat restricted in their turn. To combat any sloppiness, the Bears come with a plug/insert bushing to keep everything in line.
What we like less:
They don't sell the bushings separately.
Our tests have thrown up two options for changing the bushings here:
- Use a Sabre bushing kit, but one durometer harder than usual to make up for the lack of insert - see our bushing table for more info
- Use a Venom Plug bushing, but its a bit too tall... it'll need a good rub on your griptape to bring the insert down far enough to fit properly inside the Bear
- 50° front and back: longer longboards for cruising, carving and dancing
- 40° front and back: for getting a bit more speed up, sliding
- 50° front, 40° back: pumping, going fast, nimble round-town setups...
We're stoked to represent and support these as best we can.
Have you ridden a split angle setup? Tell us about it!
Next week: something to get the kids into the skatepark. Where they belong.
See you there,
Matt @ Vandem
