Johnny Reno's old school skateboard parts.

Jon owns a bar that my friends and I like to go to, Johnny Reno's at the end of the St. Pete Pier.  He also owns a surf shop, Reno Beach in St. Pete.  He is a good guy and I have had a bunch of skateboard conversations with him.  A few of us went for dinner at Johnny Reno's Sunday and Jon gave me this bag of old school plastics.  There was some cool stuff in there, check it out:

My buddy Charlie snagged this and a set of Powell orange rails.  I offered to trade a green bird for this but he wouldn't do it.

These are awesome.  I can't figure out if I should use or save these.

Then we rode Jon's Hamboard for a little while and watched the sunset from the pier.

@PennyTimeGame- I am 3rd?!?

Look at this, I am 3rd of a lot of players.  I am not sure I deserve it though, after playing a bunch trying to get some levels to 100% i went back and played the tutorial level just for fun.  I noticed that I was getting 50 points for the beginning part instead of the usual 25.  I finished the level and got this crazy high score that went to game center.  But when I look at my high score in the game it still shows my older best score of something like 36,000.  Weird, huh?  Is this a glitch or something random built into the game?  If intentional it was a cool way to make that time in level more exciting, if not, oh well, it still made that run exciting.

Anyway, more importantly this game is still really fun and before too long I am going to get all of these levels to 100%.  4 down, 2 to go since the folks running the Penny Time twitter account gave me the tip on what find the Penny and find the shark mean.  These last two are difficult but we will get there.

#pennytimegame

I finally beat all the levels in @pennytimegame.  Low scores, and I'm still not sure how to find the penny or find the shark even though apparently I have in some of the levels, but I finally got them all.  This is a fun game.

Penny Time is getting harder.

This game is getting hard, I am going to have to play this more often and get good or admit that I'm not so good at video games.  Oh well, its raining today, maybe I can jump on all these circles just right.

Penny Time iPhone Game

I just downloaded this game, Penny Time this morning.

I decide to play as a lady with the same color wheels as me.

No choice to ride a Nickel.

Graphics aren't the best but more than good enough to know what is going on.  I have only played for a few minutes here and there, but it seems fun so far.  I am already on level 3, but in level one I only got 50% and level 2 like 17% or something so even though you can progress quickly through the levels there seems to be a bunch of goals and achievements so there looks like it will have some replay value too.  

The controls are very very very simple.  Thats okay.  I don't care for when some other games try to put traditional control pad on the left corner of the screen and buttons on the other.  This just uses swipes in directions that seem to work anywhere on the screen.  

You swipe in the correct direction when over a target, the color determines the direction you need to swipe.  The more perfect you are the more points, too far off and you slam.  

I skipped most of the story, but there is some kind of time freezing going on. When I get bored, maybe Ill go back and see all the cut scenes and get the story. 

Anyway, for 99 cents, good deal, I like it.

Penny Vs. Globe Bantam Vs. Stereo Vinyl Cruiser Vs. Fish Skateboards

For more discussion please check out plasticskateboarding.com/forum 

My thoughts after exactly one week of having the Globe Bamtam and much more weeks of having the 3 other boards.

From Left to Right: Penny Skateboard, Globe Bantam, Stereo Vinyl Cruiser, Fish Skateboard

The decks of the Penny, Stereo and Fish are all very similar.  The Bantams differences are pretty big in comparison.  The Globe is bigger, 6.5x23.5 vs the others 22.5x6.  It feels bigger that the difference in the number suggest to me, maybe because it tapers less towards the tail.  I have read elsewhere that the Bantam was stiff.  I do not find this to be the case.  I found the Bantam to be the most flexy, followed by the Penny and the Stereo and Fish to be the stiffest.  A factor is that the Globe has a little longer wheelbase, not by much though,  Most of the extra length on the Globe is in the nose and tail.  

The grip pattern is unique, but after riding it to the beach a few times and riding it home with wet shoes it will still need a sheet of grip tape before too long.  

I feel like the trucks are the biggest difference between these stock.  The slant trucks are pretty standard new school trucks, just narrowed to fit the board.  Much better in my opinion than the Penny or Stereo versions.  The Penny and Stereo boards did come with more appropriate bushings though.  The Slant trucks on the Bantam came with what I believe are 94a bushings.  These feel a lot stiffer than I would normally ride on a cruiser like this.  That will probably be the first thing I replace on the Bantam as I keep riding it.

The Bantams wheels I really like also .  They are a little wider, bigger, 62mm and harder, 83a than the Penny or Stereo.  I have been riding 62mm wheels on the Stereo and they might be my favorite size right now so these wheels are just about perfect.  The photos show them vs. wheels that come stock on a Stereo Vinyl cruiser.  Both good sized wheels if a little different.  The slightly harder Globes fit my preferences better though.

The bearings seem pretty good so far also, Im not sure if I will be swapping them out once I start to upgrade the Bantam.  

Hardware is standard, I was a little surprised that the Globe came with risers.  1/4"

This is the only board of the 4 with risers, the wheels are a little bigger, but with the hardness of those bushings a don't know if they are needed.  I may leave them on because I will go to much softer bushings, but I will probably try with out too for a while.

More thoughts to come as I get more time in riding the new board.

For more discussion please check out plasticskateboarding.com/forum 

Globe Bantam to the beach

I am going to post some comparison pics of this guy to a Penny and Stereo soon.

                                      

Globe Bantam First Impressions

I finally got a Globe Bantam yesterday.  I got it from a local shop, Reno Beach.  The owner also has Johnny Reno's, a bar and restaurant on the St. Pete Pier that my friends and I eat at a lot during our BMX rides.  After going there all the time and talking with Johnny about skateboards quite a bit we agreed on some of our impressions of the Penny, Nickel and Stereos.  He was out of the Globes but I decided I would finally get one when he got them back in.  

So last week he lets me know they are in.  It took me a week to get down there and buy it, but I picked it up yesterday.  Reno Beach is an awesome shop and the folks there were really cool, if anyone is in the area please check it out.  

On to the board.  I rode it for a while as soon as I got it home without changing a thing.  

The deck is a little bigger than a Penny or Stereo, and there is a little more nose.  The flex didn't jump out as being drastically more stiff or flexy but I didn't compare side by side yet.  Pretty grip pattern, I like it more than the Penny, maybe not as much as the Stereo, but that doesn't matter much as I think it will soon be covered by grip tape.  Nice design deck, that stands out from the similar Penny, Stereo, Fish and Brighton Boards.

The trucks are more like new school skateboard trucks than the Penny or Stereo's.  They are made by Slant, a company I knew made some long boarding trucks, but these are the first traditional trucks I have seen by them.  They aren't bad.  

I was surprised that they had pretty stiff bushings in them.  I didn't adjust them at all and as soon as I hopped on the board I was surprised by how tight the trucks feel stock.  I will adjust them a little and try them out, but will definitely be changing the bushings soon.

The wheels are similar size to the Penny and Stereo wheels, but Globe branded.  I will have to ride them for a while before I form a solid opinion.  The bearings are also Globe branded and say ABEC 7 on the shields.  They didn't feel bad, but I will have to ride them a little more before I decide on keeping or swapping them.  

Over all it is a solid board.  I am going to have to spend some time on it before I know if I like it better than the Penny style boards because they are all really similar and this is quite a bit different.  So far it is a really fun little board, can't wait to get some more time in on it.

For more discussion please check out plasticskateboarding.com/forum