Review: Cult Classics

Technical stuff:

Size: 70mm
Contact patch: 32mm (it gets broader as you wear them in J )
Durometer: 80a
Hub Setting: sideset
Inside Egde: radiused (that means its round – refer to figure 6.66)
Other Features: The wheel is reverse coned. (When new, the inside lip is higher than the outside lip – refer to figure 6.66)
Thane compound: the infamous and mind-reading Mystothane
My setup: PSB Rebel2 topmount, Paris Trucks (I moved to Caliber Fifty’s halfway through), loose Fat Ant Bushings and a few speedrings.
Type of abuse inflicted on them: My 80kg’s doing all kinds of slides, mostly weighted, held-out standups with absolutely no regard for the integrity or roundness of the wheel.

Cult Classics are always up for a challenge, and keen to teach you a new thing or two. Mystothane’s mind-reading power is pretty strong, and allows for more expression and subjectivity than its racing counterpart, Psychathane (but more of that later).

The shape of the wheel is old-school: a modern rendition of the Krypto Classic. The graphics, on the other hand, are modern and trippy. Little eyeballs jamming in a circle around the hub of the wheel. The wheel is sticky, shiny, colourful and smells like jelly babies. It really does, just crack open a fresh set and stick your nose in the hub…

The first few runs are fast and grippy. The mold release is sticky ,providing lots of grip. The wheel is stocky and fat, providing lots of roll. The thane is soft and reboundy, making the wheel faaast. I did a bombing session with them and it was superb, keeping up with race wheels, but still allowing for some creative drifting… When new, it’s a freeriding wheel fit for the faster and braver scale of things!

But alas, it only takes a few slides to reveal the buttery goodness waiting on the inside. When it’s new and round it’s unbelievably smooth, unlike anything I have felt before. You can really gage how fast you are going, how much speed you are scrubbing, and there’s no surprises, nor a hint of chatter. You tend to learn new slides without even realising it.

If you hold a forward moving line through a corner, it allows you to correct your line with minor drifts and an easy kind of hookup. If you square your board up, the slide is smooth and fast, but easy to control. Excuse the cliché, but you can really hold out your standies further and do your slides faster. Its just that true.

The funny thing is when they get worn in (from about 68mm down) you can hear them before they slide. If you carve hard and hit the edge of grip, the wheels make this hissing snake-like noise. If you push them further, you enter the purgatory between grip and slide for which all the Cult’s thanes are known. Push it out, you slide. Keep it there, you drift. Pull it back, you grip. It’s super fun. 

The wheels age very well. Through their lifetime they are predictable and if you keep them round, they maintain a fair amount of roll. I managed to egg some of mine (an oval version of the “flat-spot”), but could easily straighten out the vibrations with 8 speedrings and some mild standies. The wheels held up to a fair amount of abuse. I tend not to de-weight when I slide, putting all pressure on the wheels to perform.

The ‘thane has heaps of attitude: it keeps on fighting back until the last slide. And it doesn’t get all hard and sinewy, it stays soft and reboundy and under the 60mm mark somewhere it hits that sweet spot. I call it the golden age, and every sliding wheel has it. When these wheels reach their golden age, they leave fat lines. I love lines.

I eventually cored them. Two of the wheels broke in half, splitting urethane with core. It was awesome. And, groms, it’s not because they are of inferior quality, but because they were sideset and coned and because I get aroused when I bash wheels up. 

 I could recommend these wheels to anyone looking to progress in their skating and enjoying a bit more wheel lifetime and pleasure for their money’s worth. These wheels helped me to progress in my freeriding much quicker than before, and all the people that have tried them shared this same experience (the Cult grows in Saffa-land, one soul at a time).

Do yourself a favour, join the Cult, and don’t let your ignorance hurt you any further…

Endnote:

Never get sentimental about wheels (thanks Alex Duss for this wise bit of insight)

Fairwell

Gerhard

[FN]