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The
Cartel
With
the big success of the Flare 55 last year, Highland
has made many steps forward with their new offering
- The Cartel.
The
guys have been clever in making a great new
board, but also not making the Flare 55 totally
obsolete in the process, depending on your personal
preference Highland now have boards out there
to really suit your skating needs. This is a
first in the new line of Streetboards, as previously
when a new board was released the older model's
production was stopped.
The
first thing you notice when taking a look at
the Cartel is the shape, which is very aesthetically
pleasing. The footplates and crossbar have been
extended so the gap between them has been closed,
giving the board a much more complete look (like
a small snowboard almost). This does however
add weight to the board, even though to hold
the board it feels lighter than my previous
setup (Flare 55 with AS2 crossbar). The weight
gain isn't noticeable when riding though, unless
you are a fan of a particularly light board,
in which case you probably would take notice
of any weight gain. In any case, we feel the
extra weight isn't a big issue.
The
Cartel also employs the best qualities of the
footplates from the Anderson boards of old.
The Earthquake board used to have the best footplates
ever seen, due to their sheer size and also
being slick. For blunts there was no better.
Now The Cartel is using an extremely similar
footplate size and shape, and with them being
fully slick this makes for the best board for
blunts and ledge action.
The
Cartel description on the Highland site states
that it has been designed for "the street",
however this board is also superior to any previous
boards we've ridden in park.
Mini
ramp is really where there is a noticeable improvement,
having full slick makes the board much more
versatile and the crossbar shape is perfect
for fs feebles, bs smiths etc. The longer effective
edge makes a difference to these tricks in this
area. As mentioned before - the footplates make
blunts a dream. For ledges we have found the
bar to perform about the same as the AS2 crossbar.
The bar is almost the same width as the AS2
(1/2 cm wider), which we feel is the perfect
width, any wider and tricks just become too
easy. It was thought prior to riding the Cartel
that the longer effective edge on the board
would make smiths a lot easier on ledges, however
there wasn't any noticeable difference to the
AS2 crossbar, no easier, no more difficult.
The footplates make for a much more stable feeling
on nose/tail slides, the extra length and slick
mean you'll be hitting extra long slides.
The
crossbar neck has been widened from 9cm to 9.6cm
to make it stronger due to the extra width involved
in the center of the bar, however this does
also make the turning circle of the trucks ever
so slightly smaller, so this may take some getting
used to if you are always making use of the
full truck rotation.
As
with the Flare 55, the Cartel is using the Mercury
Polished Trucks. No improvements needed there,
as the shape, size, speed and last ability are
all great. The Cartel also uses the standard
"OG" kingpin assembly, but the rubber
shocks in between the footplates and trucks
are now thicker than those on the Flare, making
the gap slightly wider between the kingpin nut
and axle - which in turn makes repairs easier
and quicker.
Even
though the board comes with ABEC 5 bearings,
they are easily as smooth and fast as any ABEC
7's we've previously ridden. The 95a wheels
that are included are a lot more grippy than
the wheels previously included with the Dimension
AS2, however they do reduce overall speed by
about 40% when compared with a softer wheel,
so if you're wanting to gain maximum speed out
of your board you'll probably want to replace
them with others.
Overall,
the Cartel is a very welcome addition to the
ever-growing Streetboard market and will be
the board of choice for us for a long time to
come. If you prefer lighter boards and are mainly
doing airs and rodeos then you may want to go
with the Flare 55. Alternatively, if you're
a fan of a heavier board and want the advantages
of longer footplates that are slick then the
Cartel is for you.
Click
here to buy this board now from the Flipside
UK Streetboard Shop
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