Valkyrie Cast Longboard Truck 150mm 50° (Single Truck)

Valkyrie Trucks, popular precision trucks in the freeride and downhill scene and known for their unique offset bushing design, now have a cast truck available - the Valkyrie Cast 150mm 50°.

Designed in collaboration with Pantheon Longboards, expect to see this truck on most Pantheon setups in future and it'll only get better once they release new lower angle baseplates to offer the split angle feeling.

Let's address the elephant in the room - the offset bushing design. If you're used to seeing longboard or skateboard trucks, these things look WEIRD!!

The bottom (boardside) bushing does not sit directly below the top (roadside) bushing but is offset further up the baseplate. The idea is that the bushing seat is coplanar - ie, there is no thickness between the top and bottom bushing. However in reality there is still a small gap there.

The offset bushing seat provides a more stable centre - great for pushing, and for going fast. The turn is supported all the way into the extremes of lean.

First and foremost: it works. Valkyrie have been producing trucks with the offset bushing for over a decade - but only in precision CNC format. They've been over 80mph, they've been sliding at over 70... there is no doubt that the design concept is successful.

But then, other trucks have been taken tested to similar standards. It is not the be all and end all - but it is a very cool idea and a really positive move in world of cast trucks that all look fairly similar. We're stoked that it's available at a lower price point for everyone to try!

The major advantage is the ability for the design to stop truck slop - unwanted movement in the truck that doesn't translate into turn.

They also take this cast truck one step further with a CNC pivot. The pivot might be the most important part of the truck in terms of how smoothly it'll turn, so by CNC finishing it, you know that this truck will have the edge over most other cast trucks. The pivot is however very large which is more restrictive than a smaller one.

Other highlights include the high rake - 6mm. The offset bushing design means that this was the minimum physically possible to build into the truck, but we think its a good thing! Higher than most other cast trucks, the turn feels very responsive and lively from the centre, whilst tightening up towards the extremes of lean.

It also has the effect of moving the axle (and therefore the wheels) further outboard, which is a good thing for avoiding wheelbite on dropped decks.

The Valkyrie Cast truck is the first we've seen claiming to be liquid forged. Not to be confused with cold forging (as seen on the Sabre Forged Precision, Bear Kodiak and Paris Savant trucks) which is a completely different process that results in a much stronger, straighter truck thanks to the alignment of the grain structure - read more about that on the Sabre website. Liquid forging is another name for die casting, which is how 95% of cast longboard trucks are made in this day and age.

What is truck slop and why is it bad?

"Slop" is the term for any movement in the truck that is not directly translating into turn. Sounds bad - why would you want your truck wobbling around in ways that you are not creating with your own body movements? You probably don't, and sloppy trucks are definitely not the ones to be trusting at speed.

However it is worth mentioning that the most popular truck brand of the last ten years - Paris Trucks - is notoriously sloppy.

So - perhaps slop isn't completely bad, or perhaps general longboard-enjoyers just don't notice or care as much as truck brands might assume.

However at Vandem we are not great fans of slop, whether its AI product descriptions or trucks getting wobbly for no reason. When we lean on our boards, we want that movement to become turn, and we want that correlation to be as strong as possible.

The faster you go, the more you pump, the narrower your hanger width, and the shorter your wheelbase, the more slop will start to negatively impact your ride.

The cast Valkyries do a really good job at eliminating any unwanted slop from the truck, resulting in a smooth turn that provides a solid base for many types of skating. Whether you're pushing or especially pumping, or whether you want to skate at high speed, the offset bushing reduces slop to make for a more predictable and enjoyable ride.

Replaceable parts

Valkyrie pivots and bushings match the Caliber III sizing exactly:  you can use the RipTide Caliber III Pivot Cups as replacements for the cast Valkyrie.

Bushings-wise, you'll want to take a look at the Venom HPF Plug Barrel bushings.

Orangatang Nipple bushings, Sabre Barrel bushings and Seismic Defcons will go in, but do not have an insert so you may want to compensate by going up a duro compared to what you'd regularly use.