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| slob-air |
 Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 10:28 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 27 Oct 2001
Posts: 63462
Location: S&B HQ
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I will not not buy any skateboard product made in China.
Nobody was making boards in China in the '90s, at least not a pro level board. There's always been junk streaming out of there�most of it copyright infringing, poorly made knock-offs.
Yes, it is very hard for Indy (San Francisco) and Tracker (Oceanside) to use 8mm axles. It costs a hell of a lot more as axle stock does not come in 8mm sizes�it has to be ground down from 10mm. It's one thing to enter the market with a better mousetrap and charge a higher price for it, but it's another thing to try and charge more for an evolved 26 year old product line regardless of the improvements.
Companies become trapped in their pricing in this industry. Sure, if they went all precision I would pay double the current price�but the majority of the marketplace would not�you'd be hard pressed finding distributors to move it and stores to stock it.
Always 8mm or 10mm between the bearings? I appreciate standards, but that would quell design and frankly, it's rather tough to get the bearing seat exact. It's the nature of the process. Hell, most wheels aren't truly round (they round off as you break them in, unless previously lathed).
It's hard to have extensive quality control when you don't pay your employees worth a shit and the marketplace won't allow you to raise the prices and survive.
That said, Rockets is one of the few companies out there that has serious Q&C and bulletproof warrentee. The bearings are manufactured to spec and if they do not meet spec, they'd be returned. Ron is a serious mofo about the quality of his bearings and componants. |
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| skinny |
| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 10:48 am |
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Joined: 12 Sep 2004
Posts: 2706
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Ron Foster has done skateboarding a huge favor. Bearings from everyone will eventualy get better because he pays attention to details. Rons ceramics are the best thing I have tried in all of my years of skateboarding. I have had to make equipment myself to improve decks themselves. I couldn't have even began to improve something like bearings, or trucks. The amount of equipment and labor involved doesn't allow for small guys to make meaningful improvements. I do have some conceptual ideas for wheels and trucks, but because of the things involved, they will most likely never be made.
Mario you should try the ceramics from Ron. Maybe I can talk him out of a set at cost or something. It is a very noticeable difference. |
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| skinny |
| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 10:53 am |
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Joined: 12 Sep 2004
Posts: 2706
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| I can recomend that, if you ride bones wheels (the spfs are great!) and use bones bearing spacers, and in my case rons ceramics....They line up great and the wheels roll true. I ride Indys, and I am dissapointed in my favorite truck company. Their new trucks stink. I still ride my stage 8s even though I bought new ones.....You'll still never see me on trackers, or any other trucks. Seems to me there is a market for them to make a truck out of stage 8 geometry, with 8mm axles. |
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| Area 51 |
| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:05 am |
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Joined: 11 Mar 2005
Posts: 840
Location: Incredibly distant star
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slob-air wrote: Area 51 wrote: I believe Bones Swiss bearings are made by WIB, which is now owned by RotoPrecision, a Canadian company.
Did that go through?
When I heard about it I'd assumed it had already happened, didn't know it was pending. So I'm not sure if it actually went through. |
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| MileHighSkates |
| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:05 am |
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Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Posts: 2708
Location: Boulder County, CO
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| What's interesting/sad is that most of the trucks that are made in China have better tolerances than the ones made in the US. |
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| slob-air |
| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:00 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 27 Oct 2001
Posts: 63462
Location: S&B HQ
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I wouldn't say most, Mark. Most China made trucks wind up in WalMart.
Skinny - Sure, Powell upgraded their labyrinth seal after examining Ron's, but I doubt anybody else will change much.
Here's an image from the Hengshen catalog:
It wholesales for $1.10 USD and has ZrO2 ceramic balls (lowest quality).
I bet you can easily find 10 companies online that not only sell those for 5x what they cost, but use the same image from the catalog. |
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| EBasil |
| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:03 pm |
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Big Fish
Joined: 24 Nov 2004
Posts: 335
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Those are the ceramics I pull apart to use the balls in former Biltin 3's... Works great, price is right. The accursed lexan shields look good but resonate like a drumhead, so I don't use those.  |
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| MileHighSkates |
| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:05 pm |
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Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Posts: 2708
Location: Boulder County, CO
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slob-air wrote:
I wouldn't say most, Mark. Most China made trucks wind up in WalMart.
True. I should have qualified it with, "... that I sell ...". |
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| slob-air |
| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:42 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 27 Oct 2001
Posts: 63462
Location: S&B HQ
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slob-air wrote: I wouldn't say most, Mark. Most China made trucks wind up in WalMart.
Skinny - Sure, Powell upgraded their labyrinth seal after examining Ron's, but I doubt anybody else will change much.
Here's an image from the Hengshen catalog:
It wholesales for $1.10 USD and has ZrO2 ceramic balls (lowest quality).
I bet you can easily find 10 companies online that not only sell those for 5x what they cost, but use the same image from the catalog.
How about a little contest?
For the first person to post 5 companies that sell this bearing as their own complete with a link to the proof (they're using this image-usually on a white background) and their retail price, I'll send you a free set of Rockets steels. |
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| steve-g |
| Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 2:01 pm |
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ORDER OF THE SKULL
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
Posts: 7296
Location: UK.
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Cappy wrote: Seriously, this whole "made in..." is bullshit. In fact its only to make money.
Many (skate) companys even re-packed their stuff in the past,
that "made in china" would not make them lose customers.
I used to work for a car parts firm that manufactured brakes and clutches. Management shipped all the machines to China and bought the finshed product, boxed, cheaper than we could buy the raw casting!
The skilled machinists ended up standing next to a desk taking Chinese parts out of a box and putting them into UK boxes! The Chinese didn't put any cast marks on the product, so the only indentification was the (UK) box.
I worked in quality and although the first batches were utter shite, the Chinese got their quality sorted in about six months and were producing a better product, cheaper. Sad. |
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