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Skateboarding has made countless people fanatical, but only those who dare to play and dare to fall can continue to love. In this industry, it is the last word that products and brands are loved by skaters, so in recent years many small groups with unique preferences have formed.
Some people love a certain terrain, such as a curb, and some people love a certain brand, and even achieve faith-like loyalty. But of all the brands that have iron fans, none are more fanatical than the fans of The Endendent Bridge, who have used bridges that have been ground to axles and whose bodies are tattooed with the iconic cross pattern that they never wash off for the rest of their lives.
While the skaters around you are happy with Indy's latest bridge, there are always some diehards who only love the old bridge that is rare now. There's no mistake that among these Indy die-hard fans, there are a handful of more hardcore skaters who can even be described as cult, chasing the old bridges of the eighties and nineties. Their fascination with the old model has propped up a huge underground trading market for the old one, and they are struggling to find old goods on the garage sale and eBay, and are even willing to spend more than 200 knives for the sacred old aluminum blocks in their hearts.
Of course, every skateboarder knows that cult culture is not so mysterious as long as you have a deep understanding.
The Indy series is named after a combination of stage and Roman numerals, probably because it's more punk and simpler.
The first generation of Indy Bridge was born in 1978, and its design concept, in the words of manager Keith Wilson, was "a combination of Bennett's excellent steering and The Trader's resistance and adaptability." "This is Independent Stage I.
After 1979, there were successive Stage II and so on. With each new generation, small upgrades have been made, such as reducing the amount of aluminum used to make the overall weight lighter, modifying the base to make it more durable, and innovating a wing-like webbed-like structure (hanger) that plays a support role to make it more conducive to reducing weight without losing support.
But it's not just the bowl and pool grandfathers who indulge in these tiny differences, and the street skaters you love can't resist the deadly attraction of these old indys. Wilson said, "Some skaters only love a certain generation bridge, such as Geoff Rowley who only uses Stage VII, Gilbert Crockett who only uses Stage VIII, and many skaters like them who only prefer one." ”
Rowley also confirmed Wilson's words, "Since 2005, I've only used stage VII. But when we asked why he had cult-like paranoia and love for the old Indy, he didn't elaborate. Fortunately, we also asked Swedish artist, Ins Celebrity, and JK Industries' sponsor skater Ludvig Hakansson, "The feedback on the steering was more explicit. At least this answer allows us to understand where the point of Indy Bridge cult's persistence lies. But it has not yet encountered the essence of the problem, and may be rooted in the specifications of each generation.
Although Independent has launched 11 generations of products, the geometry has only changed a few times. According to Wilson, the development of street skateboarding in 1993 prompted the Indy Bridge to make its first major design changes. Until then, the position of the mounting hole is closer to the plate head, and the nut of the main shaft (kingpin) is closer to the platform when the table is tapped, and it will be ground when it is tapped.
Later, street skateboarding became popular, and skaters almost smoothed out the protruding nuts when shoveling hard cement props. Indy's Stage VII came into being. The design of the steering structure (pivot) is more robust, and the position of the mounting hole is closer to the inside, and the design of this bridge is very good to protect the screws from the friction of the props.
The deck company and other bracket companies quickly adopted this new bridge nail design, which is still in use today. In addition to these two differences, Wilson said, from the V generation to the VII generation, the geometric parameters are basically the same.
Hakansson agrees with these differences, saying he feels the Stage VII upgrade hasn't affected Indy's signature steering foot feel. "I'm using the Stage VII right now, the first modern bridge, and the Stage V is actually very similar."
Obviously, the 1993 Stage VII was a vintage model at the time, and it was very popular, which explains why some skaters love the Old Indy Bridge. But this big upgrade in geometry didn't convince me of the origin of The Indy Bridge cult culture, and there should be a story behind it.
The second geometry change Indy made was the launch of Stage IX in 2003.
According to Wilson, the Stage IX was "the first product produced by a digital lathe." "It sounds cool, but for Independent, using new technology can be an unexpected surprise." They didn't tell us about the new design on the geometric parameters before they produced it, but my intuition told me that they had modeled it wrong and that the new bridge was lower than the previous one. ”
Stage IX's change directly reduced the Indy bridge from the traditional 55mm to 53.5mm, completely changing its original steering foot feel. They also got the baseplate wrong, punching two more holes. Wilson recalls, "These bridges were easily broken. Although Independent improved the reinforced base in Stage X, the lower geometry remains, and the steering of this bridge is still completely different from the old one, so many skaters are trying to find the old bridge for the best steering foot feel.
After this series of tosses, Independent began to realize that there was a small group of skaters who did not love the new bridge, only the old bridge. Wilson said, Of course we know this cult culture, a lot of people love the old model, I think it's good, after all, our old model is, these bridges deserve their love. 」 ”
Perhaps Independent was aware of the market for old bridges, so in 2013 it launched a new product with the characteristics of the old bridge, Stage XI. But no company will launch new products to compete with their old product lines, right? While Wilson doesn't explicitly state that cult culture has influenced the design of the latest model, he's sure that stage XI was inspired by older products.
"I hope to get back to the geometric parametric design of Stage V and Stage VII as soon as possible." Included, Wilson said, includes a return to the 55mm classic height, as well as the angle between the stage V's spindle (kingpin) and steering shaft (pivot).
In addition to the difference in these parameters and the impact of cult culture, Wilson said that Stage XI is really catering to those old independent fans, on the other hand, it is also a heritage of the brand classic. He said, "After the deaths of founders Fausto and Eric, I felt I should take Indy back to that old fan-favorite era. ”
While Wilson knows that for each new generation of brackets, "there have to be some upgrades and innovations, and skaters want the new product to be different from the old one," he said, but he also said that Indy's biggest seller is "classic silver model, with axle and kingpin with a strong and durable shaft and a lighter bridge." ”
So, if Indy Bracket cult powder can find their favorite old design in the latest Stage XI, maybe they don't need to bother with a bunch of aluminum blocks from 20 years ago, right? But the collector is a disease, and some people are still terminally ill, so they may still hoard old goods, but for them, they no longer have to worry about not being able to buy the right bridge.
Text | Jenkem
Translated | Xiaowen
Source | Jenkem
Edit | Tanks
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