i have a skate and surf clothing business and sometimes make longboards
the longboards i have i sell to others and have given one away to a sponsored surf contest as a prize for the winner...or they sit in storage but i have never had the urge to ride one of my longboards
in the old days, indys were the truck for everything including longboards (shows my age), but the randals and gullwings are supposed to help alleviate speed wobble better than a standard indy or krux 215 mm. truck
i prefer the stupid art of street skating and though i know it is the most dangerous form of all skating, it's a rush, especially on very narrow 7.5" inch decks and very hard wheels no larger than 52s
i think arbor and sector 9 longboards are great right off the shelf as they have pretty decent hardware (the only changes i would make to a sector 9 or arbor is to get a slightly harder durometer wheel and switch out the bushings and bearings to better ones like doh-doh's bushings and bones reds or swiss bearings)
actually, for street and vert boards, if i got a complete deck off the shelf, i would also switch out the bushings and bearings
every single truck i have used (thunder, indy, venture, and tensor) all work so much better with after-market bushings
i have also sold decks with royals but kept the stock bushings and left it up to the rider as some skaters are ok with stock bushings
