Why we offer custom bushings
The most important part of skateboarding is being able to turn!
Without turning you can't skate anywhere, or learn a single trick.
It's the basis of all forms of skateboarding.
And without the correct bushings for your weight, you won't be able to do it!
That's why at Vandem, we personalise every board that goes out the door.
This way your board will come set up perfectly for you, straight out of the box.
You won't find this service anywhere else!
Just refer to the table below and make your choice as you add to cart:
| Rider weight | Bushing Hardness |
| 10 - 50kgs | Extra Soft |
| 50 - 72kgs | Softer |
| 72 - 90kgs | Stock Setup |
| 90 - 104kgs | Harder |
| 104 - 120kgs | Extra Hard |
Bushing Compatibility Chart
This longboard and skateboard bushing compatibility chart is a guide that we've worked out over years of personalising setups at Vandem.
If you're buying a complete from us, it's easy for us to help you make the right choice and get your board set up just right.
But if you've already got a board, then we figured the easiest thing for us to do is to give you the same information we use to customise completes with.
You can take this as our "Shop bushing recommendations." When we want to customise trucks to fit customer weight, this table is what we turn to.
Some of our bushing combos are "factory recommended" - eg Independent bushings in Independent trucks. Caliber III's use Venom plug bushings as standard, so all we need to do is change the durometer.
Some are more workarounds that we have here in the shop. Bear Trucks don't sell bushings, but thankfully RipTide APS Plug Canons are a perfect fit. Likewise, Paris Trucks don't sell their own bushings, but Orangatang make some good aftermarket alternatives that are designed to fit Paris, so that's what we'd recommend.
Where we don't have a solution that we're happy with in the shop, we won't make a recommendation. For example, Paris Street Trucks have an uncommon size bushing top and bottom, and whilst it's possible to bodge Sabre Street Bushings or Independent Bushings in there, neither are ideal.
There are further caveats such as the Carver C7 truck which takes a different size bushing in the front truck vs the back truck, so we've left it out of this table. For your reference, you'll want an Independent Standard Cylinder pair in the front, and a RipTide APS Cone/Barrel pair in the back.
Experimenting with truck and bushing combos is key to finding your perfect setup... And this should give you a great place to start!
If you're not sure which bushings to get for your board, or need any help deciding what to go for... get in touch!
A note on split angle setups: Quickly becoming the norm for good quality longboards, split angle setups don't obey the same table.
The front bushings should be softer than this table recommends for you, and the back bushings harder.
