Eight recent Kingpin pieces on wheels, trucks and bearings keep arriving at the same gap: the number on the listing is not the number that decides your setup. My bet is that this changes by spring, and here is how you will know if I am wrong.
Tomás Vale4 min readPart 1 of 6
You have two trucks open in two tabs. Both say 34 mm. One costs more, one has a nicer finish, and neither listing tells you whether it will sit right on the deck you already own. You buy one, and then you find the caliper.
That moment showed up, in one form or another, in every hardware piece this magazine ran in October. Read them in a row and the pattern stops being a coincidence: the headline number is always printed, and the number that decides how the setup rides almost never is.
Trucks
Start with why a 34 mm label no longer predicts fit. Its argument is blunt: nominal width is the one figure every truck and deck listing confirms, and it is the least useful thing on the page. The five interfaces that actually decide whether parts bolt together are the ones nobody prints.
Then look at what passes for news in trucks right now. Deli Trux Type 2 Blasted is separated from the Originals by two numbers: 0.7 mm taller and 0.6 mm shorter, at $45. That is a real change to a setup, and it is a change you only understand if the maker publishes it. Deli did publish those two, and our piece still found things the listing does not say.
Galo Fingerboard's new red trucks went the other way. The Chilean maker confirmed two sizes, 32 mm and 34 mm, and lock nuts in the box. After that, as our write-up put it, there was a long list of things the listing does not confirm.
So one truck release is defined by sub-millimeter deltas, and another by width and hardware alone. Same category, completely different ideas of what a buyer needs to know.
Wheels
Wheels tell the same story at a smaller scale. Bloob's 84's restock came in White and Neon orange at 8.4 mm by 6 mm, 70D urethane, ABEC-9 bearings, and our piece argued that 0.4 mm was the whole case for them. When a wheel's reason to exist fits inside four tenths of a millimeter, the spec sheet stops being paperwork and becomes the product.
Maple Wheels' Shark Wheel pushes from the other side. The Optic Black version from the Quebec urethane maker is buyable again at Skull Fingerboards for 37.95, and our piece laid out every confirmed number, flagged two spec lines worth squinting at, and admitted nobody can tell you how it rolls yet. Shape is now part of the argument, and shape is even harder to describe in a listing than diameter.
At the far end, a Short from Jakepfb about customizing the smallest Tech Deck landed on the same tool everyone else did: the honest answer starts with a caliper, and most of it comes down to tape and wheels.
Bearings
Bearings are where the gap stops being about millimeters. Our guide to skate lube in fingerboard bearings started from a post in r/Fingerboards asking whether normal skateboard bearing oil belongs in Piro and Dude Guy FB bearing wheels, how often, and how to get it in. The answer was a split: some of it the makers publish, and some of it you have to ask them yourself.
That is a spec in all but name. If a wheel ships with bearings, how you keep them running is part of what you bought, and right now a rider finds it out after the fact.
Even off the hardware beat, Radical Fingerboards' marble bench ended with a list of specs to ask the Brookvale shop for before paying shipping. The habit of asking first is spreading because the listings keep making it necessary.
Part 5 of 6
Here is the call. I expect the next stretch of truck and wheel releases to compete on published measurements beyond width and diameter, not on finish or color. Deli already sells a truck on 0.7 mm and 0.6 mm. Bloob already sells a wheel on 0.4 mm. Once a couple of makers win buyers by printing the small numbers, the ones who print only 34 mm start to look like they are hiding something, even when they are not.
I'd bet the change comes in this order:
The smart money is not on a universal standard. It is on a handful of makers publishing more, and riders quietly rewarding them for it.
Part 6 of 6
Give it until April 30, 2027. If the truck and wheel releases this magazine covers between now and then still confirm only nominal width and size, and our write-ups keep ending with a list of what the listing doesn't say, I called it wrong and the caliper stays a buyer's job for another year.
If instead a few of those listings start carrying measurements past width, the kind our October pieces had to flag as missing, the shift has started. Either way, keep the caliper on the bench.
Reference links used for this piece. Confidence labels show how firmly each source is established.
Kingpin MagazineOfficial
Optic Black Shark Wheel, 37.95 at Skull Fingerboards; ride unknown.
Kingpin MagazineOfficial
Nominal width vs. five unprinted interfaces.
Kingpin MagazineOfficial
Piro and DGFB bearing maintenance.
Kingpin MagazineOfficial
Height and length deltas vs. Originals.
Kingpin MagazineOfficial
Specs to ask for before buying.
Kingpin MagazineOfficial
8.4 x 6 mm, 70D, ABEC-9.
Kingpin MagazineOfficial
Caliper, tape and wheels.
Kingpin MagazineOfficial
Sizes and lock nuts confirmed; much else not.
Product Spotlights
The Philippine maker's new five-ply deck is listed at Slushcult for $36, with a custom-engraved top ply that the listing says makes each board one of a kind.
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Product Spotlights
Mike Schneider posted a 90-second G4 deck clip ridden by James O'Neill on September 2. The footage came first; the listings that followed date the mold to around 2005 and put the deck on sale.
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Product Spotlights
Delidecks' Type 2 Hex Hybrid trucks differ from the Originals by fractions of a millimeter in two directions. Here's what the listing confirms, what it leaves out, and who should actually care.
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