Welcome to Stoked School. Episode RAD Glide.
Today we are talking about all three duros. We have the white 78a, the red 80a, and the blue 82a.
Now for the specs of the RADs. These sideset wheels are 70mm tall with 40mm width and tapering down to a 30mm contact patch.
Blue 82a
The first wheels that I tried out today were the 82a, the hardest of the three. I was surprised at the immediate initiation of each slide. The kick out tended to be very sharp and the hook up tended to be very sharp. It was more of an unforgiving wheel that you needed a little bit more rider knowledge to be able to handle these ones. I tended to like to put my hands down and do some pre-drifts more with these because it would go a lot farther and you would have a lot more control with a hand down because of that sharper initiation and hook up.
White 78a
The next week that I tried out was the 78a, the softest of all three of the wheels. I was actually very pleased at how this wheel in particular acted underneath my feet. The initiation and the hook up was a lot softer when compared to the 82a and a lot more forgiving in all of your slides and a lot more personally fun out on the streets.
Red 80a
WAAACHHAA! The last wheel I tried out today was the 80a. This wheel actually going last I was able to see a lot of characteristics from both of the other wheels wrapped up into this one wheel. A lot of the longer sliding from the 82a was also a characteristic in this 80a, but a lot of the softer forgiving characteristics of the 78a were also present in this 80a. This was probably be the most well rounded wheel of all three of them and definitely a good one to go for.
All Three Wheels
Characteristics of all three of these wheels is the extremely high roll speed. Something specific about the 78a is how quickly it loses speed once you slide it. A really cool characteristic about these wheels is just how side set they are. The core of the wheel actually sticks out the furthest on the inside, which causes the inner lip to be extremely well supported for those buttery slides.
And speaking of well supported inner lips, these wheels also have well supported outer lips and that is because of that sweet crown core that is in the center. That core is what gives these wheels such a smooth slide characteristic as well as it's extremely strong roll speed.
Wheel Durability
When it comes to durability in these wheels, you're going to find a pretty good amount of difference between each of the three. The 78a definitely died the fastest but left you the sweetest thane lines on the road. The 82a was definitely the most durable leaving a lot lighter light blue thane lines as well but holding the wheel together a lot longer than the 78a. The 80a also left thane lines but a lot more along the lines of the 82a, very light and rare. Even though all three of these wheels came with the same stone ground finish, I found that the 82as still required a little bit of break in time to get the buttery slides.
Well that about wraps that up. If you want to pick up your set of RAD Wheels, head over to Stoked Skateboards and get them for a great price, as always and price match guarantee.
So get out there, put that helmet on, shred hard and skate with your buddies!
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