How to make copers

Another of my #DIY posts!

One day out skating, a friendly skateboarder asked me why I don't do truck grinds. I explained that even trying grind down the king pins, they still stick out. He had a look at my trucks and said get copers! So simple solution, why hadn't I thought about it before!? If I can't get the kingpins lower, I should just rise the truck... and with the coper it would be slidier! At home I googled 'copers' to see what they look like and then headed off to a hardware store....

Coper installed

Materials & Tools 

• One length of plastic plumbing pipe (pvc pipe) about 25mm diameter (check your trucks for size!) and with walls thick enough (2-3 mm). I took one truck with me when I went shopping, just to make sure.
• Hacksaw 
• Sharp drill (useful but not necessary) 
• Vice (useful but not necessary) 

Material and tools

Select pipe with thick walls

Steps 

1. Cut pipe to length - slightly shorter than your trucks.
2. Draw a line lengthwise Draw the little cut out in the middle (to accommodate your kingpin assembly)
 (optional but makes things easier: drill three holes to take most of the material off middle of the pipe)
3. Saw the pipe open lengthwise
4. Saw off the middle 'cut out' section. If you'd drilled it already, there won't be much to saw, so just tidy it up.
5. REPEAT three more times until you have four copers

DONE!

Drill 3 holes in the middle, cut lengthwise then cute the middle section out

Now you can fit them by simply snapping them on. The pipe is flexible enough to open up to snap them on, but retains it's shape well and will hold on nicely.

Snap on, snap off!

How to make sliders for Arius

I am skatepark mad and whilst building proper ramp skates, I have been skating with my dear old derby skates. Looking at the plate (Powerdyne Arius size 4), I thought that I could easily fix some plastic on it to help to protect the plate and get me grinding. This is what the plate looks like without the sliders. Handy holes there for fixing the sliders on.

I tested them at the park quickly today (it started to rain) and they feel OK, although I only got to test them for stalls. I will report back once I have tested them properly for grinds! I haven't done any grinding before as I haven't had grinders so it's going to be interesting, ha ha.

Powerdyne Arius plate

How to make the sliders/grinders (grind blocks) for Arius plate

1. Buy a chopping board (cost 80p)
2. Cut a slider template from cardboard
3. Trace 4 shapes on the chopping board using the template
4. Cut the shapes (an electric jig saw works fine)
5. Clamp the cut shapes together and sand them even (electric sander is useful!)
6. Mark the holes on a shape
7. Clamp two shapes together and drill through both
8. Get two bolts, nuts and four washers - and fix the shapes on the plate!

I took about 40 minutes to make these. The chopping board plastic cuts very nicely and does not melt when sawn but goes powdery. 

I made the shape with a shallow V, but they could be made any shape. They feel really solid. There is not much space on the plate for them to sit on, but I hope it's enough.

There is a wide enough gap and the chopping board is think enough to give some sliding surface. 

Skatepark set-up

Summer's round the corner and the skatepark bug has bitten me again. I will attempt to build skates for skatepark/ramps. So how are they different from the derby skate? If you go vert all the way, your skates will start looking more like two mini skateboards!

Boot
Depends what you like. I will use my old Riedell She Devil leather boot as it fits well and is made of sturdy leather. I'm used to having my ankles exposed and like the extra agility that gives.

Wheels
For vertical skating ('quad vert'/ramps) most go for skateboard wheels; smaller and harder. You don't want to stick to the ramp with sticky wheels. For general outdoor skating larger and softer are recommended for shock absorption and smoother roll over bumps. For general skatepark stuff something in between these two might be good.

Plates and trucks
Wider trucks and longer plate for extra stability. You are not looking for quick turning like with derby plates. I'll start with my old Triton plate and see what happens as it's quite long. Many build their own ramp skates using skateboard trucks which make them extra wide.

Cushions
Again, go harder. You're looking for stability here. I'll use my old standard cushions from the Triton plates.

http://leonjwest.wordpress.com/

Toe stop
Some have it, some don't. It might get on the way. It is super useful climbing out of bowls though!

Grind bars
That block of plastic/other material attached between your trucks will let you do a few more tricks.

Derby skaters turned into skatepark hooligans can find useful info on Rollergirl.ca site (see shop section http://www.rollergirl.ca/skateshop/park-skating-c-110_24.html and aggressive roller skating 101 PDF) and on Skatelog from Quad Vert section. I was glad to see there were quite a few of us!

http://zorgdotnl.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/zorg-quad-skates-v2.html