Stoked Approved: Orangatang Fat Free 83a
The top health trends of 2019 are here! Professionals advise lots of skating, 8 hours of sleep per night, and maintaining a Fat Free diet. We’re here to test these claims out, especially that last one. We took the Orangatang Fat Free wheels and paired them with a variety of boards that we have at the shop to see how versatile they can be. The boards range from cruisers to dancers, downhill and, street boards. Are these small offset wheels going to be the next big thing in the health community?
Cruising and Carving
First things first, wheels need bearings. We chose the Fireball Dragon Race bearings. Thanks to their special oil formula, right out of the box, we had an unmatched, smooth, fast ride.
We decided to start things off nice and easy and set the Fat Frees up on our shop cruiser, The Dodger 28 by Landyachtz.
After some vigorous carving and cruising it was clear to us that the Fat Frees and mini cruiser boards are a match made in heaven. They are soft enough to provide you with a smooth ride, grippy enough for all those gnarly tight carves and small enough to avoid wheelbite.
Street Skating
Next up was the Old School Powell Peralta McGill Snake board.
We asked our warehouse wizard Bryan do to a McTwist. That’s the trick Mike McGill invented so it seemed appropriate but Bryan decided to take it to the streets instead.
He found a couple slippery looking curbs outside and threw down some slappies. As he was sliding the wheels kept turning and it was a glorious moment for all.
On our way back to the shop Bryan ollied on to a manny pad like it was second nature for him.
Bryan told us: “the Fat Frees are perfect for any street skater that wants a softer wheel to cruise around with but still be able to pop an occasional ollie”.
Longboard Dancing & Freestyle
On to bigger things, literally. We’ve set the classic Loaded Dancer, older brother of the Loaded Bhangra, from the Adam & Adam era up with the 65mm wheels to see if they are the dance partner we’ve always been looking for.
Again, the wheels did not disappoint. You can do as many crossteps, nose manuals and old school kickflips on them as you want. They will grip, flip and make you look hip no matter what.
Downhill
So far we’ve tested these wheels on a cruiser, a street deck, and a dancer. It’s time to see how they handle high speeds, tight turns and rough concrete.
Kyle is our in-house downhill enthusiast so we asked him to take a run down our gnarly neighborhood flat on the Fat Frees.
He was reaching ludicrous speeds on our parking lot but we were able to snap a picture nevertheless.
In conclusion, the Orangatang Fat Free wheels worked with all our weird shop completes, so they will most likely fit your board too. Grab yourself a set and check out some of the other goodies Orangatang has to offer! If you have any questions let us know down below or hit us up on instagram @stokedrideshop.
