Flat spots on Longboards wheels occur due to a high-speed slide when the wheels turn 90 degrees to the direction the rider is going. The board wheels will lock up & stop spinning that result in a spot on the wheel.
Often the wheel will become an egg or oval shaped that is far less pronounced than a flat spot, but may cause bumping as you drive. Both oval shaped & flat spots will slow you down & if extremely bad, will throw you off. By using proper riding technique, these sorts of things can be avoided.
Sliding & Foot Braking
Slides are quite popular in Longboarding & they’re what trigger flat spots if your board wheels lock up. Sliding is one of 2 techniques utilized to slow down by handling the speed so as to come to a complete stop. The other method to stop or slow down is foot braking. With foot breaking you are taking your back foot off the Longboard & dragging it on the ground holding your other foot on the Longboard.
Riding Techniques
Looking 1st at Longboard riding techniques which can help prevent flat spotting, a major consideration is to not allow the direction of your Longboard be perpendicular (90 degrees) to the direction the slide is heading. Try not to keep your body completely sideways, carve into the slide & slide in an arc instead of sliding in a straight line. Always, keeps your slide less than 90° to keep the board wheels spinning. Hold greater sections of the slide to 45° to prevent flat spots.
Try Layback & Coleman slides
It may be feasible to round out a flat spot by performing plenty of fast Coleman slides, winding the Longboard back & forth instead of holding it sideways. In a Layback slide, you would like to angle the tip of the Longboard out & go slightly beyond 90° to keep the wheels spinning. If the flat spots aren’t too bad you could round them out by performing long triple or double pendys & switching them out, the drawback is that if your board wheels lock up you’ll end up with even worse flat spots.
Apply Mechanical Methods
If flat spots are bad enough & executing slides to try to round them out do not work, there are a few mechanical methods that you can utilize to repair your Longboard wheels. Bench grinders, Lathes & Circular spinning sanders could be utilized to repair flat spots.
Maintenance
Maintaining your wheels is one more important aspect in minimizing flat spots. The biggest thing to do is rotate your board wheels periodically that can help prevent flat spots. If your wheels are reversible, reversing them regularly will also help uneven wear.
Flat spots aren’t the result of types of wheels on your board. It all comes down to technique. If you really know ways to slide without locking your board wheels up, you’ll be less likely to generate flat spots. When flat spots generate, try utilizing different sliding techniques to even them out. If that does not work, a mechanical repair with a lathe, grinder or sander may do the trick.
