Stop Blaming Your Deck: A No-Nonsense Guide to Sorting Your Bushings Out
Here's a pattern we see constantly: someone's trucks feel wrong, so they buy new trucks. Then a new deck. Then new wheels. Then — plot twist — the trucks feel wrong again, because the problem was never the trucks. It was the bushings, and they've been quietly making your setup feel like a shopping trolley this whole time.
What Bushings Actually Do
Your trucks have two polyurethane donuts per axle — top and bottom — squashed onto the kingpin. When you lean, you're not bending metal; you're squishing rubber. That's it. That's the whole feel of your truck. The hanger just pivots on the cushion of those two little cones. If your turn feels dead, twitchy, or like it's fighting you, the squish is wrong — not the metal.
Hard or Soft? Know Your Skater
Bushings come in durometers, basically hardness ratings. The rough guide:
- Softer (87a-92a): More turn for less effort. Great for cruising, carving, bowl surfing and anyone under about 70kg who wants a loose, surfy feel.
- Medium (93a-96a): The all-rounder. Street skaters, this is your comfort zone — stable enough for landing primo, still turns when you ask it to.
- Harder (97a+): Minimal squish, maximum stability. If you're a heavier skater, or you ride tight trucks for tech street lines, this is where you live.
And a note for the heavier UK skaters tired of wheelbite and copers eating your deck: you're not "bad at trucks." You're likely on stock bushings rated for a 65kg teenager. Going a few durometers harder will genuinely change your skating and save your deck's nose.
The Fiver Tuning Test
Before buying anything, do this. Grab a skate tool and sit on a curb:
- Lock the kingpin nut down flush with the baseplate (don't crank it past — that cracks bushings and wrecks the rebound).
- Roll down a bit of pavement and do gentle lean turns, no kick. Too stiff to lean comfortably? Loosen the nut a quarter turn. Feels wobbly like a supermarket trolley? Tighten a quarter turn.
- Repeat until you can carve comfortably at speed without speed wobbles on flat.
If you can't find a sweet spot — either it's always floppy or always dead no matter the adjustment — your bushings are toast. Bushings are consumables. They get cracked, squashed flat and washed out like everything else. A fresh set costs about a fiver, and it's the cheapest transformation you'll ever make to a setup.
Washer Wisdom and the Cone vs. Barrel Debate
The washers on either side of your bushings matter more than people think. Missing washers let the bushing spill over the edges and feel inconsistent. Running a barrel bushing on the bottom (the fat one) and a cone on top gives you more stability with decent turn — a common setup for street. Two cones? Looser and surfier. Two barrels? Locked in, for the vert and transition crowd.
There's no "correct" combo. There's only the combo that makes your feet happy. Experiment, take notes, ignore anyone who tells you loose trucks are a personality trait.
When to Actually Blame the Trucks
Fair's fair — sometimes it is the hardware. If your kingpin's stripped, the pivot cup is cracked (grinding, clunky turns are the tell), or the hanger's axled out, no bushing will save you. But check the £5 stuff first. Your wallet, and your local shop's stock of decks you don't need, will thank you.
