Power Kite Forum

GI Skate Truck Warning

brplatz - 11-1-2010 at 07:10 PM

About 2 weeks ago, 2 days after I had recieved my GI Prodigy 90, I went out kiting with it for the first time.

The first 45min went really well. The Talon binding are like sex for the feet.

As I turn the kite down and right I leaned back and to the left to transfer the pull to the ground and get rolling, as I start to move, Crack!, and Faceplant over the board!

Check out what happened, middle 2 bolts ripped out the nuts and torqued the back 2, snapping the truck base.






Talked to Richard at GI, he said the first time he has ever seen it:rolleyes: but he is sending a replacement.

Just a heads up

Brian

furbowski - 11-1-2010 at 07:13 PM

No troubles sorting things out with GI... that sounds good. :cool2:

That kind of truck failure, is well....:thumbdown:

No chance the nuts were badly / unevenly tightened???

brplatz - 11-1-2010 at 07:15 PM

Not sure on the nuts, it came pre-built for me, but I checked everything before I rode it.

GI was really good to deal with also.

Brian

McDuck - 11-1-2010 at 07:51 PM

That sucks man. That is really bizarre. Are those the original trucks?

Knolee - 11-1-2010 at 07:56 PM

Uh oh, guess who else has those trucks...

I think it's probably just unlucky on your part *jynx* (dammit....)
Hopefully not a full manufacturing defect across all the GI skate trucks. Good luck with the new ones.

FloRider - 11-1-2010 at 07:57 PM

Reminds me of a song. You betta check yourself before you wreck yourself.

I've never seen anything like that before either. Good thing they are sending you a replacement, hopefully you are not too bruised.

flyjump - 11-1-2010 at 08:07 PM

Been there, it suckeddddddddddddddddd. I did the same thing with my mbs at the beginning of a session

power - 11-1-2010 at 08:20 PM

Man that stinks. I think I'd like to have some softer cubes in the bionics so they'd turn more easily but maybe its better that they are stiffer after all:embarrased: Good luck with the replacement.

indigo_wolf - 11-1-2010 at 08:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by brplatz
Check out what happened, middle 2 bolts ripped out the nuts and torqued the back 2, snapping the truck base.


Could you elaborate on "middle 2 bolts ripped out of the nuts"? Did the thread strip? Did the nuts come off of the bolts? I can see the base snapping on only two bolts (or even 4 if the casting was bad), just trying to figure out where things started going south first.

Curiousity can be a terrible thing, but goes hand in hand with insomnia.

ATB,
Sam

BigMikesKites - 11-1-2010 at 09:05 PM

Glad you didn't get hurt, Ground Industries are a great bunch and have some of the best customer service I have seen!

brplatz - 11-1-2010 at 09:32 PM

Sam, not sure exactly on the circumstances of the break. It was almost like I put too much pressure on the rear truck and the middle two nuts must have come off. I have the bolts, which seem undamaged, but the nuts were no where to be seen.

Thanks all,
Brian

DAKITEZ - 11-1-2010 at 10:22 PM

Did you check all the bolts before you went out? Sounds like they were not tight.

brplatz - 12-1-2010 at 07:02 AM

I didn't check em before I went out, which I should have, but it sill baffles me that it could snap and torque like that. Their sending me a set of bolts and nuts too that should be the "proper setup" if anything was wrong in the first place.

Brian

B-Roc - 12-1-2010 at 07:21 AM

That stinks. I've heard of that happening on MBS trucks which is why I love my bionics but the GI boards I was looking at in the current lineup mostly have skate trucks or spring trucks. Hopefully just bad luck and a fluke.

Anyone know if GI will custom build a board for you and ship it as you want it without making you pay for upgrading the gear.

For instance, if X deck comes standard with y trucks and you want it with z trucks and B cube as opposed to the standard A cube, can you call them and tell them, build me this board and charge me the difference in cost without making me buy the complete board first and then pay for upgrading various components? Anyone know if GI would do that so you could customize your bindings, trucks, cubes, etc. and get the product you want (like Trampa) as opposed to buying it off the shelf and then paying the additional cost to upgrade gear as opposed to swap it out before its ever left the shop?

That way one can get the deck, trucks and bindings and cubes they want no matter how they "originally" come and just pay the difference in the cost of componentry as opposed to the full cost of upgrading the gear.

DirtDave1 - 12-1-2010 at 08:55 AM

This is a common occurrence for all skate trucks, having 30 years dealing with skateboarding, I can't tell you how many corners I have snapped off baseplates. It is not a defect, it is usually an uneven tightening issue. That is awesome that ground is replacing it. Just a reminder always check your equipment and tighten like the lugnuts of a car (diagonal). It really surprises me that with kiting and mountainboarding this doesnt happen more often.

Also those are original trucks, that is what was on my sons prodigy until we upgraded to bionics.

f0rgiv3n - 12-1-2010 at 09:05 AM

Sounds like someone needs to lose some weight... :spin:

DAKITEZ - 12-1-2010 at 09:14 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by B-Roc

Anyone know if GI will custom build a board for you and ship it as you want it without making you pay for upgrading the gear.

For instance, if X deck comes standard with y trucks and you want it with z trucks and B cube as opposed to the standard A cube, can you call them and tell them, build me this board and charge me the difference in cost without making me buy the complete board first and then pay for upgrading various components? Anyone know if GI would do that so you could customize your bindings, trucks, cubes, etc. and get the product you want (like Trampa) as opposed to buying it off the shelf and then paying the additional cost to upgrade gear as opposed to swap it out before its ever left the shop?

That way one can get the deck, trucks and bindings and cubes they want no matter how they "originally" come and just pay the difference in the cost of componentry as opposed to the full cost of upgrading the gear.


I thought this was an excellent question so i passed it on to my rep. This was the response:

Quote:
Right now it is not an issue if they contact us or a dealer directly (because we are assembling here). At some point in time it may be an issue.

McDuck - 12-1-2010 at 09:45 AM

That is awesome. I may do this sometime in the future. Just bought a Flight 93 though so...:smilegrin:

B-Roc - 12-1-2010 at 10:08 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DAKITEZ


I thought this was an excellent question so i passed it on to my rep. This was the response:

Quote:
Right now it is not an issue if they contact us or a dealer directly (because we are assembling here). At some point in time it may be an issue.


Thanks for looking into that for me. Very good news (for now). :thumbup: Hope they don't send their manufacturing to China :thumbdown:

indigo_wolf - 12-1-2010 at 11:27 AM

Brian:

Looking to add something to the K-Crowd pimped board thread :wink2:

ATB,
Sam

indigo_wolf - 12-1-2010 at 11:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by brplatz
Sam, not sure exactly on the circumstances of the break. It was almost like I put too much pressure on the rear truck and the middle two nuts must have come off. I have the bolts, which seem undamaged, but the nuts were no where to be seen.


If the middle two bolts were undamaged (no sheared threads), it really sounds like their nuts backed off and fell by the wayside (nowhere to be seen) during your first 45 minutes of riding. At that point, it would be very easy to believe that the baseplate was torqued until it snapped even with reasonable amounts of stress applied to it.

If all the nuts and bolts were accounted for, then I would have attributed it to a faulty casting or a "one-off" defect.

Glad to hear that you got things sorted with GI, and more importantly you walked away unscathed from the faceplant (the term always reminds me of Andy Wardley accident now).

ATB,
Sam

B-Roc - 12-1-2010 at 01:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by indigo_wolf
Brian:

Looking to add something to the K-Crowd pimped board thread :wink2:

ATB,
Sam


If only :shocked2: ;-)