Skate Bushings — the €5 rubber that transforms your truck in 30 seconds

You pulled your board out of the attic last Sunday. The truck isn’t turning. You tell yourself it’s age, your knees, six years spent in an open-plan office. That’s not it. It’s the original bushings — the part nobody changes, silently screwing up your ride since day one.

⏱ Reading time: 5 min

What is a bushing, concretely

The small conical urethane rubber wedged between the kingpin and the hanger. Two per truck, so four on your complete setup. It’s what compresses when you lean on your feet, and it’s what brings you back to center when you release. Without a bushing, your truck is a dead piece of metal. With a rotten bushing, it’s a slightly less dead piece of metal — but barely.

On a board that’s spent six years in an attic, the urethane has lost its rebound. On a complete bought in a shop, the original bushings are often hard plastic calibrated for no one — neither light nor heavy, just cheap. The brand’s marketing promise stops at the logo engraved on the hanger.

The hardness that makes you ride like you’re 16 again

A bushing’s hardness is measured in durometer A, like skateboarding wheels. The higher the number, the stiffer the rubber. The stiffer it is, the more stable the truck, but also harder to engage.

You’re getting back into skateboarding after five years and you’ve put on a bit of weight — a shared reality. Go up one hardness level compared to your 16-year-old memories. The board was soft because you weighed 58 kilos in tenth grade, not because it was better back then.

Bones, Indy, Venom — what really works

Three brands dominate the skateboarding bushing market. The rest is just Chinese re-branding.

Bones Hardcore — the benchmark for 30 years. Three hardnesses (81A, 91A, 96A), integrated plastic insert replaces washers, ultra-responsive rebound, insane lifespan. If you change them once and don’t want to think about it for two years, this is it.

Independent — their stock bushings on new Indy trucks come out at 88A. On paper, it’s a compromise for everyone; in practice, it’s too hard for light riders and too soft for heavy ones. If you have an Indy truck that’s not turning well, change these before anything else.

Venom — the brand for obsessives who want to fine-tune to the gram. Varied shapes (cone, barrel, eliminator), 78A to 97A range, advanced formulas. More precise but a pain to choose if you’re already struggling with basic hardness.

30 seconds to change them, stopwatch in hand

Disassemble the kingpin with a skate T-tool. You remove the top washer, the top bushing, the hanger, the bottom bushing, the bottom washer. You reassemble in reverse, sliding in the new ones. Tighten until the bushing is lightly compressed — neither crushed nor loose.

Thirty seconds per truck if you’re quick. Sixty if you struggle with the washer falling on the ground. No workshop needed, no shop needed. One tool, two sets of bushings, a quiet Sunday morning before the kids wake up.

The trap of the overtightened kingpin

The classic mistake of the guy getting back into skateboarding after years. You feel it’s not turning, so you loosen the kingpin all the way to make it turn more. Bad idea. The board becomes unstable in lines, you wheel-bite as soon as you lean into a turn, and the bushings wear out three times faster because they take all the load without support.

The opposite too: kingpin tightened like an electric scooter bolt. You turn your truck into a plank, you lose all fluidity, and after twenty minutes your ankles hurt because you’re compensating with your lower body. The right tightness: kingpin screwed until the bushing is lightly compressed, no more. Look at the top washer — if it holds the bushing flat without deforming it, you’re good.

Five euros of rubber, thirty seconds, a Sunday morning. The board you thought was dead comes back to life. You thought it was you. It was the part nobody changes.