Tierney Rides Overhauls its Street-Carver

Jack Michaud
6/04

Almost three years ago Kurt Tierney and his team took his dream of a carving skateboard to market with the Tierney Rides T-board model T-001. I reviewed the first generation board then here, and oh yes, it was good. Tierney Rides provided an ingenious new approach to the problem of getting a skateboard to carve with its two-wheeled wonder. Not content to rest on their laurels, Tierney has released a second iteration of its radical truck mechanism.

The old trucks were perhaps over-done. While they accomplished their mission of bringing real carving to the street, they were rather heavy. Although freestyle maneuvers like ollies and kickflips were possible with the old board, it was a chore to get the thing off the ground. Not anymore. The major improvement of the new trucks is weight savings. The new trucks tip the scales down a whopping 4 pounds from the previous version.

The benefits of lower weight manifest themselves not only in the air, but also on the ground. The new board feels light under the feet, and getting the thing to change direction is a non-issue. It feels more responsive, and more nimble. Simply think about turning, and it does.

The demo board Tierney sent for this review also came mounted with the urethane wheels, which are considerably smaller in diameter and lighter weight than the rubber wheels. The new urethane wheels are also a few milimeters smaller than the old urethane wheels. The reduced deck height results in less tippiness, easier pushing, and greater "flickability". The lower ride inspires greater confidence and steepens the learning curve.

That's not to say that the T-board is a piece of cake to learn. It is still a challenging board to learn and very difficult to push, compared to most four-wheeled boards. Indeed if you don't live near any decent hills, this is not the board for you. But offering more of a challenge makes it that much more satisfying to learn. The fact that the trucks are all but speed-wobble "proof", and that some whacko-nutbag has done 70mph on one of these things inspires you to want to master carving it. Unlike a typical skateboard, the T-board just begs to be ridden faster and harder.

The new wheels remain a "rounded square" profile with about a two inch flat middle surface. I still want to try round profile wheels - I would think they would be a little smoother when tilting the board up "on edge". The prototype also came with the original skateboard sized T-001 deck. This gets the job done and is eminently portable and trick-able, but I would love to try these trucks on a nice longboard with some flex where you can stand between the wheels instead of on top of them. For this purpose, Tierney sells the trucks for $100/pr with wheels. The complete package with the Tierney deck is $149

One curious modification to the new design is that the rear truck is locked. All steering is accomplished via the front wheel, so the pivot point of the system is under your rear foot. This feels slightly but noticibly different from snowboarding, where the pivot is between your feet. I asked why this was done, and Eric Tierney replied that they had endured far too many complaints about poor performing boards due (unbeknownst to the owner) to the rear truck loosening up. Apparantly many people expected a maintenance-free toy. With the rear truck unlocked, it "pushes" the rear wheel ahead of the truck pivot. Thus, it tended to loosen. According to Eric, this phenomenon "effs the ride all to hell". This is not a problem for the front truck because the wheel follows the pivot, so it is self-centering. Actually it's not a "problem" for the rear either, if you monitor the tightness regularly. So the default configuration for the new board will be with a locked rear. A two-wheel-steer modification will be available by special request.

All in all, the new T-board is a significant improvement on an already viable solution to the summer carving quandry. If you have been thinking about an off-season cross-training device, now more than ever Tierney Rides deserves consideration.