Originally posted by Paul Fuzzydeer.
Kahalanis,
Recommended uses:
Downhill speedboarding,
Carving (and drift carving)
Cross country (distance longboarding)
Freeride downhill
When I got my Kahalanis to be honest the first thing I did wasn't go riding on them, I took them to the most precise machine shop in all of Calgary where my best friend happened to work on down-hole drilling tools for albertas booming oil industry. There I had them throughly measured. What we concluded is that they were of a stub axle design the radius on their bearing seat contained a 90 degree angle, this frightened me, and the axles were drilled of 6 thousandths of an inch both in opposite directions. There were also many hard 90 degree cuts made in them. My friend wasn't very impressed and I was left worrying that they would snap on me during a hard toeside standing speedcheck rendering me unable to eat without the aid of a straw. I set my reservations behind and got to work on these trucks fairly soon after to prove our theory (hopefully leaving out the straw part). Since that time they have endured riding in a Canadian winter, a bad crash that left my right hand permanently deformed, half a race season, and some of the hardest abuse I could muster. I am glad to say my trucks, although have deteriorated are still hanging in there.
Now I have a reputation for being able to break any truck in a few hours of use if I put my mind to it. I have even bent or broken every type of 10mm axle I have ridden. Luckily for me the Kahalanis seem to be constructed of a high nickel steel compound that is resilient not only to bending but to oxidations as well. This has allowed me to skate very aggressively, both fast over hard bumpy roads and doing harsh stand-up slides to a stop with out bending. The resistance to rusting also allows me to ride in the rain and I don't need to worry as much about rusting and having my bearings fuse to the axles.
They took very little time to get used to they are by far the most intuitive truck I have used. as soon as I got on them I was able to turn full tilt even pull stand up slides. Pushing Kahalanis is a dream, They are extremely low so you need to bend your leg less to get a full stride. They are also wonderfully light weight making it easy on your quadracepts. Once they are up to speed they feel very good, they are mind boggling agile and yet they are stable at high speeds. I describe the feeling of the kahalani as always being just a few kilometers an hour away from wobbling out. They feel that way at 40 kph and when you get up to 70kph, and yet those wobbles don't come, I've been up to 90 kph on mine and I have friends who have surpassed 105 kph on theirs (I broke my hand before the day before I was planning on testing them above 100). The precision bearing seat is another great feature. When used along with bearing spacers and decent wheels you can tighten the axles lock nut as tight as they will go with medium pressure. The wheels spin as fast as they would loose but you get no chatter and you wheels wear very evenly. Coning may just be a thing of the past! This also allows for smoother transitions into slides and better traction entering corners.
The kahalani trucks sport a 45 degree baseplate and they have no castor. There fore they will not behave any differently if the hangars are flipped. The space between the axles the kingpin and the pivot are much tighter than most trucks giving the kahalanis there low ride height and pleasant handling. They have an abnormally deep turn for such a low truck due to the horizontal "goat eye" bushing seat and king pin hole. This Goat eye allows they truck to urn hard without over compressing the bushings and without having the king pin grind against the hangar. The supplied bushings are nice, both red and blue khiro barrell bushings allowing riders to set the trucks with two differing durometers. However I quickly did away with the bushing washers (cups) because they contact the hangar in deep turns and dug into its surface, I recommend getting some one inch flat washers from a fastening store or a bike shop. Another hardware issue that peeved me wash the lock nuts on the axles, they are not of the standard thread pattern for skateboarding making it difficult to replace, once again a trip to a fastening supplier may be need to replace your nuts.
Now my kaha's are nearly about to fail on me judging on how much I have loosened the pivot pin. A fellow rider with whom with I regularly ride, got his to this stage and shortly after snapped the axle out of the hangar. Although this may be a fair draw back, these trucks are made to preform more than they are to be durable. Many high performance components in the cycling world or automotive racing are designed to be used only a few times before they are to be replaced. Pro freestyle skaters switch decks weekly if not more. I Think the Kaha's are a great value even though they are prone to cycle fatigue. Inf fact I am purchasing not only a spare set of hangars but also an entire second set to use as a backup. My friend who destroyed his has traded his set of mint magun trucks (550 swiss francs!!!) for another set of kahalanis. When reminded that the kaha's are half the price of the maguns, he claimed he likes how responsive and light they are and he is also going to purchase replacement hangars for his broken set. These trucks go highly recommended by me and those who ride them.
Pro's
-2nd most stable truck on the market bested only by maguns (there are other "homemade" trucks but I am talking marketed established brands)
-Lightest race truck on the market
-Super low
-High rate of turn, quelled by extremely wide axle width
-Comes with extra bushings
-Axles don't bend easily even at 8mm, it outlasts all axles with the exception of maguns and the invincible SGS axles
-Bearing shoulder allows for a tightly fastened wheel, no loosening of and less chatter when sliding (needs bearing spacers)
-Axle diameter better than most, Its measures very close to 8mm, but not so much that the bearings need to be pressed on.
-Nice nearly reflective finish
-Cheap for a machined truck at $340 canadian and replacement hangars are seemingly sold at manufacturing costs!!!
Con's
-Could be machined better with better attention to cycle fatigue (gradual stress that leads to breaks)
-Break quickly when compared to other trucks in its class
-Axle are not the standard thread for skateboards, tricky to replace nuts.
-After bottoming out (griding on curbs ect.) the burrs created can become quite sharp
-wheel bit a regular problem on boards without cutouts
Specs:
Weight: 1.88 pounds per pair of trucks
Pivot: Stainless steel (threaded)
Aluminum hangar (aircraft grade, type unknown)
Axles: Stainless steel, Stub axle style (axle doesn't go through hangar they sit only in the ends of the hangar)
Bearing seat: Precision
Width: 204mm
45 degree pivot angle
Through King Pin design
Axle Diameter: 8mm (not standard thread pattern)
Height 3 inches
Bushing seat compatible with most bushings.
Goat eye shaped bushing seat and king pin hole to allow for greater depth of turn
