99 problems but my board ain't one

This experience gave me the kick up the back side I needed. I have been riding channel truck boards for nine years, starting out on a mongoose uni camb and then various MBS's. I love the responsiveness of a channel truck and its light weight. I have seen it evolve from just relying on springs to the addition of cylindrical rubber dampers to the egg shocks and adjustable matrix design that the majority of boarders ride today.

However, as someone with a little knowledge of mechanics and engineering, I have always known that the springs on a channel truck have no rebound damping i.e., the spring wants to bounce back in an uncontrolled way every time after it has been compressed. Adding polyurethane dampers only adds compression damping, i.e. it helps cushion the spring under load. If you are familiar with cars, motorbikes, mountain bikes etc you will know that they don't just have springs for suspension but also use damper units to control that spring, without that unit it would be better to have no suspension at all, than to have an undamped spring bouncing away. I always assumed as the sport got bigger we would eventually have miniature fully dampened versions of mountain bike shocks to fit into our channels trucks, but there is no sign of that happening anytime soon.

So on my way back home from that frustrating day at Whinlatter, knowing that designing and building fully damped shocks was out of range of both my wallet and engineering expertise, I plotted a coup to release the grip that these evil speed wobble causing springs have on our sport. Start simple I thought as I looked at my trucks. As it turned out that was the key, keep it simple, why re-invent the wheel? It was only the springs I had beef with, not the rest of the matrix design. So I ditched the springs and modified the design to run on just the egg shock. I did this because the polyurethane egg shocks are self-damping, it does not recoil in the same uncontrolled way a spring does.

I was not expecting this to work but I thought it was a good place to start from, so off I went back to Whinlatter. I could not believe the difference ditching the springs made. Now able to straight line whole runs that the week before had me on the edge, struggling to scrub speed at every available point. I was incredulous that I had unleashed the full potential of my board, I was seriously excited about what this meant to me and my riding, where what and how I could now ride, but I was also mad at myself for not trying this years ago.

Fast forward a month to OTG where I hooked up with my good friend Mark "skully" Sullivan, like other riders that day who saw me riding without any springs he thought I had completely lost the plot, but a few races down the Boarder X and a few hits of the slope style and he was convinced enough to give my board a test ride.

He was very impressed with how it rode so I made another kit for his board, since then he has been raving to all who would listen and many that wouldn't about the many advantages of going springless.

When fitted to a Matrix truck that's in good condition and when the correct Egg Shock stiffness is selected we have not seen any disadvantages. Skully and myself have ridden a lot since then, we have not had any problems and are still on the same egg shocks that we started on. Apart from giving the board much greater stability the springless kit reduces weight, I lost 420 grams as I was using HD flat coil springs. Also because the plastic hanger is no longer under constant stress from the springs it does not stretch around the bearing housing. This adds to the ride quality by removing the play that this wearing creates. It also increases the life span of the hanger.

I decided to bring my idea to the masses and went about manufacturing kits for sale, thus the West Coast ATB Truck Co. was born. Even though I am producing them in very small quantities at £19.99 (the West Coast ATB Truck Co. 20 bag, if you will) they are very good value for money when compared to replacement parts for a standard matrix truck i.e. springs, save a ride kits, top hats etc. For your money you get 4 x Pre-load Bolts, 8 x Egg cups, 4 x Lower Bolts and 12 x Spacers. To sum up the type of performance these kits offer, you get the stability of a noSno whilst keeping the quick turn, light weight and responsiveness of a channel truck. For the price comparible to a new set of springs which isn't too bad when you think about it!

Even though the design means that adjustment of the pre-load is done with a 4mm allen key as per standard, the springless kit can also be adjusted by hand. One thing to watch here is even though the bolts all come with a coating of lock-tight. It's not a very thick coat and might wear off eventually if you keep adjusting them.

Rather than spend a whole heap of money on advertising and promotion and hype which would greatly add to the cost of a kit, I am happy at the moment to let the product do the talking. Riders using the springless mod-kits have have been no strangers to the podium at this years ATBA-UK rounds, and I'm happy for riders to try before they buy. Or if you want to find out how to get your hands on a set check out our facebook page or drop us an email

Happy riding.

words by Leon Dove