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The top:
The top of the skateboard has to be the dullest bit of the actual board! it is covered with a sheet of grip tape. Grip
tape is kinda like sandpaper but not as rough, otherwise it would eat your shoes off! The main use of grip tape is to stop
the user from sliding off the board, it also serves a purpose in tricks as a major part of the ollie is in the grip tape as
the user has to drag their foot up the board to get the majority of the height.
Skaters call the wooden bit of the skateboard the deck as it serves as something to stand on.
The top of the board also has 8 screws that hold the trucks onto the deck. Ill go into more detials of the trucks and
underside in a min!
The underside:
Now, the underside is a bit more intresting than the topside! the underside contains a lot more important aspects of the
board and is quite a bit more complicated than the topside.
The black bit of my board is the deck that you saw from above. it, like many others is made of... wait for it!!.... wood!
its painted so it doesnt look like it but trust me.. it is! The deck as i said in the first part is an important bit of the
board and its importance is much more appreaciated from the bottom as there is a lot more to see.
It also has the trucks and the wheels, which ill go into more detail after this picture.
The Trucks:
The trucks are another major part of the board. They allow it to turn smoothly without much movement from the user. Turning
is made much easyer by just leaning the way you want to go thanks to the trucks. The way the work is t main parts. The base
plate, and the body. These are put together with the kingpin which is a big screw that acts as an axel so they dont go all
over the place when you try to turn. In the spaces between the base plate, kingpin, and body are rubber parts called bushings.
these act as a cushion so when you try to turn you dont just fling to one side. They do this by compressing when they have
certian amounts of pressure on them. this means that instead of the trucks just quickly flicking to one side they slowly and
smoothly change shape so that its easyer and smoother to turn.
The Wheels:
The wheels serve an ovbious purpose on the board. making it move! Some people think that the wheels just slot onto the
trucks, this isnt true. They have things called bearings put into them and the bearings get slotted onto the trucks.
Bearings:
Bearings make the boards go faster for longer. Bearings have been used for centuries in machinery and construction of
a lot of things, one of these is a skateboard! The basic principle of the bearings is to reduce friction between the wheels
and the trucks. They are made by placing 7 little balls inbetween 2 rings. One of the 2 rings is what gets slotted onto the
axel of the trucks and the other gets placed into the wheel. The principle of bearings is that if there is only a small surface
area then there will be less friction between 2 surfaces. bearings spin inside their rings but do not move sideways because
they are loosley held in place by the crown. The crown is a bit of metal that fits round all the bearings and holds them all
in place. The theory of the perfect bearing is that there should only be one 2 molocules touching the rings per bearing (one
touching the inner ring and the other touching the outer). Of course this theory is for the absolouts perfect bearings, with
hard use bearings get hot and with constant pressure can change shape and cause the entire bearing system to blow up! If bearings
get rusty atall it will greatly affect their preformance, skaters solve this problem by oiling their bearings using sever
different lubricants. Bearings do run faster without lubricants but only for a really short period of time intil they blow
up, so its not really worth it!
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