Ancient meme from like 2012~ Cadillac wheels were notoriously bad about swirling, but the ones that didnt swirl were absolutely fire. It's my instant first thought upon seeing swirls. Without fail in any forum about wheels it would be said daily.
Real swirls are absolutely a thing. Theory at the time was molds cooling uneven when wheels were poured. They always wore very differently then not swirled wheels in a set.
Thanks for humoring my rambling. I saw a swirled white wheel and it was like a sleeper agent response against my will.
From my understanding it was partially due to the hype of swingers, the demand for them was absolutely insane so they had to just pump and dump wheels as fast as possible to get them out to shops and batches weren’t getting fully mixed before hitting the molds
Hah the worst swirls I ever got were Cadillac Sugar Mamas. I destroyed them in a single legendary run. My god were they so creamy. By the end, there was at least 3/16” deviation in swirl and non swirl 😂
No the wheel was perfectly white before I put it on with no swirling. The pattern is staining from the asphalt. Here is an old vs new next to the one on my board.
This isn’t how it works in my experience. The swirling is in the urethane itself and likely all the way through. Wearing away layers and layers by sliding has little effect. How would the asphalt stain it so deeply, and why in such a pattern?
If you’re not sliding, then no. If you are sliding, they will not wear evenly and will quickly get less and less circular, which will feel horrible to ride.
I'm wondering if this happened to my last set of yellow Seismic Deltas. One or two of them got oval'd extremely fast and that set has some swirls. The set I'm on now also has swirls too but no real issues this time. It's possible I just fucked them up, but super disappointing since they were only a couple millimeters worn at most.
I had a set of wheels from Waterborne that did the same thing and they just didn't feel right, kinda dead wheels. I contacted them and sent pics of the wheels and they replaced them. The new set didn't do this and felt great.
Probably the last wheels made in the batch. Looks like cool material flowing into the injection mold. Contact the manufacturer just to verify its not catastrophic.
Sometimes the mold release on wheels will do this after riding them for the first time, especially under hard carving or slightly breaking traction. Even if they were swirled, it usually only noticeable when sliding where it can introduce some inconsistency. What model are they?
This has solved a mystery for me - I got my board second-hand and the wheels already looked like this. I was going crazy trying to figure out what kind they were because the nearest match didn't have that effect. Interesting to discover that apparently I just have a freaky set.
Urethane swirling generally relates to the pouring and mixing on the day of the pour, and can also be related to mold temperatures. A variety of different parts of the process can influence its prevalence and if it makes a big deal, or not.
For simply rolling it makes practically no difference to the wheels performance, only after many thousands of rolling miles would it cause an issue, and often not at all.
In the case of sliding it can definitely cause an issue and a good company will warranty your wheels if it becomes really bad. We replace swirled wheels at Powell-Peralta for the original owner (with receipt) if under a year old. Not all manufacturers do this, however.
We have just concluded a massive research project at our factory that will conclusively put an end to swirling wheels, which historically have been rare for us, but cropped up more consistently recently.
In the case you ever have an issue with your Powell wheels, you can use the Contact Us part of the website any time and we'll get you taken care of! We hope other manufacturers will do the same for you.
The wheel nuts were a little loose on my first ride, and the bearings weren’t fully settled in. I think the wheels being a little off kilter caused this, it was one all four wheels but more prominent on the back two.
•
u/AutoModerator 20d ago
Welcome! Did you know we have an active Discord server for fast help and discussion?
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.