In my last post about blood oranges, I mentioned Cal 3s.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the feel of Cal 3s for dancing, and was recommended to use them if I wanted to learn truck grinds by pros and people much, much better than me. I love the feel and stability of the turn everytime I carve, do peter pans, its very much so for my quick-step style of dancing. Of course, I've taken it down hills as well.
However, even if I love it so much, I'm not sure it's worth the tradeoff of risking eating shit.
After around 4 months of use, my Cal 3 kingpin snapped, which was the first ever time I snapped a kingpin (I weigh 110 damn pounds), and I usually ride Paris V3s (3 sets).
After I posted it, I had skaters who I consider to be pretty involved in the longboard community (and better than me lol) reach out to tell me that its p common, and that Calibers snap much easier than Paris trucks, with the most common being the most recent Air Trucks by Travelol (which makes sense at least). I also had some people share with me what their snapped Cals looked like, which all were consistent with mine.
One thing I found interesting to note, that the snaps within the kingpin look all very similar, with half of the axle exhibiting slightly elevated edges and cracks. I never saved their photos, but did note the similarities. My friend who has also snapped his had an extremely similar break (I don't have a better angle, I've seen it in person tho) :
This guy was doing downhill on his new marble mini DK, and did a kickflip before the kingpin snap.
Is it just well-known in the community that Calibers snap or something? Was this a manufacturing defect? A batch of defect trucks? Torsional Strain? I'm starting to get a little tired of spending money on full circle only for their products last a few months. Regardless, if this is somewhat known within the dance/freestyle community, then ig I'll just stick with Paris V3s with soft otang bushings. Anyone else have this problem or similar pattern of break.