Hey Rad Rat! This really stoked me out to discover this video you did on me and my company GrindKing. I will personally tell you the whole story of what happened to GK and what is in the works! WE NEED TO TALK!!! Thank you so much for the time and research that you put into this. Was mostly was correct with a few key things that you guessed wrong;) Hope to hear back from you soon!
Hello Don, my name is Vaughn. I'm currently in the process of Reviving Revdeck or revolution skateboards and I'm interested and helping with grind King as well. I will work for free to help you come back. Vaughnconrath7@gmail.com
I remember having some Grind Kings back in the day and thinking they were the lightest trucks ever. I also loved the Tensors with the noseslide plate and I still have some original Unit Phantoms with the built in risers.
VLSkate woah I didn't know vlskate watched radrat too. You guys are like my go- to people for trick tips! You guys have helped me learn so many tricks. Thank you
I was fortunate enought to befreind Dressen in the early 90's and he commisioned me to create the 2 artworks for his Hazmat boards that you showed. Don't remeber all of the details of the meetings with Cassel, but I remember getting something like a $100, a pair of trucks, some tshirts and ONLY one of each of the boards I designed. I still have one of them, but like a young fool I skated on the other board. Great memories all in all.
dude i was just telling a guy at work today about your channel and i mentioned a story when i got my first complete (not nash or walmart brand) when i was 14 and my first pair of trucks were grind kings and they're whole motto was "these axles dont slip" and after about a month of skating them hard, i cracked one axle and bent all the axle bolts. i took them back to the skateshop and demanded they honour the motto since i broke the trucks after 4 weeks. they agreed and got a set of indys and have never skated anything since. keep up the good work!
This was a great episode Rad Rat! All this research and digging can't be easy, so thank you for the entertainment. I absolutely loved Grind Kings back in the 90s and I can't believe the creator was such an innovator. I totally forgot about 'axle slip'. I remember tapping the axles on the ground to get the them centred again. Good memories.
The cooles thing about the grind king truck was the grind king tool. It was the first multytool I have seen, that was developed for skateboarding. It was awesome!
I rode for GK for several years until an injury took me out of the industry. Dan put me on in the late 90's. I also rode for Hurley and Osiris and some other companies which got me made fun of because as one guy put it: "Dude, you ride for every company that 9 year olds like". I liked the trucks though. Axle's didn't slip (well before the AXL's came out), the kingpin nut didn't wear down and they were light and low. I wish they were still around. They also had a really awesome product called "Nut Locks". I still use them on my trucks to this day. They were a tiny, ultralight thing you put under your nuts to make it so you only need an allen wrench for your bolts. FYI, Bridgebolts were also about not having stripped bolts from being crappy with a screwdriver, plus you only needed one tool. I'm sure I still have some Rims in storage. I used them once or twice cuz they were hilarious. I also set up one of those tiny Termite boards for shits and giggles. It was 6 plies. I could nollie hard flip on them like a champ though even though I sucked at them normally, haha. Wow, this video brought back some memories man. Thanks!
One more thing: back in the days, kingpins would break ALL THE TIME. It was so frustrating. When my friends and I would bus into the city to skate, I literally had a spare kingpin in my pocket because they broke so often. That's why the money was worth it to buy the GK kingpin. Breakage was rampant until trucks became lower profile, and companies learned to use a softer metal (grade 5 instead of grade 8) because the harder ones were so hard they were brittle when exposed to the lateral stresses that turning trucks create. If you want to see another wacky truck with removable axle's, check out the old Tracker Floaters from 1991. There were several companies innovating back in the days.
Bridgebolts were the best back in the day. No rounded Phillips head.. pop in do the nuts up and they were short so the thread stayed good. The guy who made the vid obviously didn't skate back then like he makes out because he clearly doesn't know and just researches on a computer
Gk 5s were bombproof IMHO. Mine were ground so bad but never failed. Independent are the best feeling trucks I ever rode. Getting back to skating with my 8 yr old son.Rad rat keep being prolific like u are
Had a pair of grind kings on my 2nd board ever in 6th grade, on a burgundy mini logo with spitfires... got it from ccs. This video really brought me back to the good ol days and your content is amazing
us old guys know all about Grind King kingpins, they were simply indestructible! Also Rad Rat just confirmed I was skating before he was born...damn. still love man! keep it up!
Never a Grind King fan but I did enjoy learning some of their history. Ive seen all your videos on your channel and this one is my favorite so far. keep em coming. Independent for Life.
I had some grind king king pins back in the 80's. They were expensive but they didnt break. Regular king pins used to break all the time back then. Especially on certain trucks. I put mine in some gull wings that would snap regular king pins if you looked at them funny!. . .rubbish trucks really. . . But they were lumo green so you gotta love em !
Thanks mate!!! I really enjoy your take on skating. We need you!! Because of a few reasons. 1-you bring great info that any normal skater won't. 2-you Arnt the normal guy I'd expect to see, so in regard to that skating reached more than I thought. 3-you have great and really in depth info I enjoy. 4-please keep on posting. Thanks mate I appreciate you!
I was associated with Grind King early on, back when they only made their trademark kingpin bolts... They were game changers! I contacted them, which became correspondence through the mail. I would occasionally skate in competitions; next thing you know they were sponsoring me with gear, and I would promote their products. They started sending me new products too, Bushings, riser blocks, etc. They made awesome stuff and they were a great bunch of people. I attribute some of my competitive wins to them; those kingpins wouldn't hang up on curbs or coping; they were a godsend, and they never broke. I never even bent one. Thanks for the memories!
Back when they first came about, you just couldn't live without them. They made curb penetration so much more enjoyable and were worth every penny spent. They might not have a great impact on vert skating, but for streetskating they were a must have. They were of such a great quality, you had to only buy em once, they'd outlive 3-4 generations of trucks you killed. Just a perfect product, but not for the profit of its inventor.
Oh man I remember Termite and Kreper trucks. For years, after using many different truck companies of the late 90s and early 00s, I finally picked up Grind Kings and was immediately in love. Abandoned Tensor for good and went GK from that point on. Fat hanger, low kingpin, smooth nosegrind baseplate, the metal seemed to grind better... good stuff. And i totally had GK AXLs!! They were fan-freaking-tastic! Probably the best trucks I ever used. But I remember the bushing blew out in a weird way. Almost like it was plastic. Still, those babies were light! Also had the rims lol.
I started skateboarding around 97-98 and I always skated Grimd King and I didn't even understand the technology but I always had to have them. Thanks for the video.
Never thought I would dedicate 16 minutes of my life to going DEEP into Grind King lore, but Rad Rat is just so awesome and informative! Can't get enough!
I bought and thrashed these about 1991 in Rotorua, New Zealand. I didnt care if they were expensive back then , no hangups, no snappage, so I always thought they were a great innovation. I just snapped my kingin on my avenue trucks and was considering putting my old gringking kingpin into my p-rod silver trucks, for nostalgia. thanks for the video reminess.
Yes! Before it was ever in a Newspaper, in the late 1980's we called him Grind King at Circle Skates in Venice Beach. Those were the street skating sponsorship days. It was the period that they call the return professional skateboarding. Because when skate parks closed skating somewhat died. All we had were the streets and thank goodness we didn't have Helicopter Parents. Many of the pro skaters spent time at or around Circle Skates and Grind King shared the retail space. Later Grind King (Not THE Grind King) became a sponsor and we all called him GK not Donald Cassel.
Grind King was my favorite skate trucks growing up! So stoked to hear they are coming back, I was going to get new trucks and I will definitely be grabbing grind kings
Longboarding trucks went through a huge series of innovations like 7 years ago. I dunno what's been going on with them since but before 2010 you where hard pressed to find truck companies that weren't Paris or maybe gullwing who weren't tied to a specific longboard brand. then things like specially made hanger angles, CNCing, swinging axles, all sorts of innovations became the name of the game.
Dude, I snapped the kingpin of every pair of GKs I ever owned (3 pairs) in the early 2ks. It sucked cuz you could only replace them with official GK kingpin kits. And it's not like I was skating super hard. I was a tiny kid just learning grinds and flip tricks on flat. Still, I really enjoyed this video. It reminded me of how hyped I was on my first pair of Grind Kings. Oh, but I do remember loving the bushings more than any other truck soon after.
I still have a pair of grind king trucks that is already 30 yrs old. The good about grind king is that the bushings were based deep inside the base plate . That way you could less damaging your bushings during grinding. Other brands have bushings sit on a metal plate then on the truck base plate making the bushings more exposed to abuse.
when i first started skating (96 or 97 probably), my buddy had a willy santos birdhouse with red base rind kings. they had to be replaced about the same time as the deck. but then again, at that age you wouldn't have a new board but maybe twice a year. i learned from his experience and never tried them. cool video
This is all so funny, I was going to ask for this video when you did the first one but it turned out you where going to do this one from the beginning!
cool stuff! I had a few sets of these and always wondered where they disappeared to... They really were picking up steam there, too... But one thing I remember about them was that it was really hard to tighten them after a certain point because allen wrenches are so small, and as I got bigger and taller I needed tighter trucks, so eventually i had to move on.
I ride old (around y2k) Grindking trucks today, bought them mounted to an old zero deck, now they perfectly fit my waltz freestyle deck, I did not find fitting bushings so I had to improvise, but they are still awesome. will not give them away
yeah I was just thinking about those while watching this video. I never had a pair but someone apart of my old skate crew had them. they had eyes or something on the Axel best I remember.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he didn't just ride for them, I believe it was actually HIS company... I had a pair, I remember them being a lot like indys.
Damn man! I was just searching for grind king kingpins and couldn't find them. Finally googled "what happened to grind king" and landed here. Really bummed that I can't find them! I LOVED these. One thing I learned from having my own business is SOMETIMES IT PAYS TO STAY SMALL!!!! Trying to grow can kill you. Multiple small successful companies is better than one big struggling company. Bridgebolts were awesome too, reduced the truck slop.
love your channel! i am also an og skate rat born in 1988 and my family owned and ran our own skateshop in Moorpark, CA called Transition Boardshop. sadly we whent out of business in 2008 when the economy tanked and zumiez and active killed off local shops. subbed now. Peace!
My first setup was an AWS Believe slick with GK6s. I grinded them shits down to the axle; didn't even need to wax the curb. I ended up getting another set of GKs around 2010 and still ride them, although I've never performed a grind with them.
I had a set of Grind King Trucks! They were so nice. I'm kicking myself now for getting rid of them. I really loved this episode! Perhaps you could do something on Fury Trucks too!
Thanks for the cool video..I started skateing in 89' first set of trucks were Gullwings then moved onto Independent Trucks then when Grindking king pins came out i brought them straight away put em on my Indy's and never looked back best investments for your trucks ever now u can grind em deep till you hit your axels no hang ups ....i now have them on my Destructo's .Also i used bridgebolts back in the day and they never got in the way with tricks ..very tough but if u have them over tight u can hair split the deck between the bolts ....i only ever broke one bridgebolt in 10+ years ....now i ride on Shorty's bolts i like the allen key flat heads are lighter...Skate Or Die !!
How about brand breakdown of fury trucks,genesis footwear,dna skateboards,rimz bearing covers,c#1 alpha numeric clothing,termite skateboards,bootleg skateboards,shortys skateboards,savier footwear,axion footwear.Just a few ideas.i know somewhat axion is in business idk how but still are.Huge fan of your channel.Keep shredding
I think you're talking about Genetic. Genesis is a brand of shoes that has nothing to do with skateboarding, I believe. But yeah they had Pat Channita and Lasek on their team, wonder what happened to them.
I loved my grind kings.... my best friend and I were stoked about the warranty and the sheer coolness of them... they stuck out in an area that is really just so similar...RIP GrindKing...
I was in that video... as a dorky 16 year old with giant pants and a bleach-blonde afro, standing in the background as John The Man Reeves does a 50-50 up a curved rail. If you pause your VCR at just the right moment, you'll see me.
th-cam.com/video/EbM60Vo7Zi4/w-d-xo.html I found the Invisible/Human collab vid Caught Clean featuring John Reeves & Andy Macdonald but there is no sound as there is a Red Hot Chili Peppers song within the video
I don't skate anymore but back in the day Grind King was the best. Had the allen bolts, trucks, blue rims, and the camo GK skate tool. All with a mini-logo board. Best set up ever!
evan garvey 👍 I went through about 4 pairs of Tensors (loved the slider pieces and how light they were) and also a pair of venture trucks back in those days I remember GK tho Am now riding thunder trucks and like them so far
Great episode man! Few ideas for next brand breakdown episodes: Deca Bitch Skateboards Speed Demons A-Team Foundation The Firm Also love how your videos are not spammed with like 5 ads per 10 min video and you never clickbait. I just wish more youtubers conducted their ‘way of business’ like you. Keep it up man, love your work!
soberpunk So I looked into it a bit more and according to Skately.com “In 1993, Sal Rocco Jr.(Steve's brother) and his wife Kim started Bitch Skateboards after several riders defected from World, Plan B, Blind and 101 to start Girl.”
Amazing channel! Your answering so many questions that I had from my skating days! Grind king! U bolts? Remember them? I was totally into Grind King! Ahhh Bridgebolts!!!!! That’s them!!!
My first trucks were grind kings, I remember hating them because you had to use an Allen tool instead of a normal wrench to adjust them, eventually dropped them for Thunders.
Still skate my g5's have the nut locks too, they eliminate the need for a screwdriver. The tool was compact and handled everything, bearing pusher, an Allen for the kingpin, and socket built in for axle nuts. Wish I had some new hangers, mine are seriously ground down .
Pausing the video at 2 minutes 44 seconds to put in my small story, throughout my years skating I skated very big stuff in my younger years and I broke a lot of kingpins until I bought a set of grinding kingpins I ended up installing them in six different sets of trucks just the one pair I originally bought saw six different sets of trucks until they were eventually on a setup that got stolen. He made an incredible product I actually started skating grind kings after the first two years of destroying everything else. They held up and I loved them I was sad to see the brand go and I'm even happier to see it return anyway continuing the video now
I skated during this time. I remember my crew all went out and bought grind king because it was new and innovative. This was the first time my friend had broken his truck landing on it awkwardly. I soon after broke mine on a grind. We all switched up, I've been riding venture ever since. Mostly for the graphics
The one gimmick product that I got and absolutely adore are these truck bolts from like 2005 with an unkeyed, knurled head and a slight protruding star pattern for the part of the bolt that goes through the board, so the bolt digs into the board and you only need a ratcheting skate key to tighten up on the bottom. They're really low profile and so handy. Luckily I'm not a bolt breaker, so I love these things and I'm still riding them today. Everyone that sees them for the first time asks me about them. I don't even remember the brand name, only that I've never seen them again.
I want to say they were from Creature and I think they were called Coffin Nails or something like that, but that isn't coming up with anything when I search. I wanted a set of those bad!
I skate GK-6 trucks back in the day. I liked the fact that the kingpin was low and out of the way for 50-50 grinds. The biggest problem with these trucks were that they did not turn well. The bushings had no rebound. I ditched them for Indys.
I still remember B-52s Skateboard trucks with Axle rollings instead of it fixed to the hanger. And yeah, Those super heavy Sidewinder trucks back in the day.
titan ti-lites were sick too, same era. had to keep hammering in the pin every now and then that they used to prevent axle slip though, no complaints otherwise, still have them around. nice job on the vid
John L I wanted a set of those so bad but they were so expensive, it was like either get trucks or a half oz of weed.. I think I was riding destructos at that time which were fine. that's funny about the axle pin though, trade axle slip for axle pin slip
I had a set of the titans back in the day and I lost the pin in one of mine and my dad helped me replace it with a little roller pin that never came out again. I just missed my GK's so much I ended up ditcing the titans for another set of GK's
This is fantastic. I just started skating again after a 20 year hiatus. My first question was, "what happened to Grind King?" They were the absolute best. Also, I remember seeing only one Underdog shoe design at a skate shop in Charlotte, NC in 1996. I remember thinking it was cool, and almost buying it, but not. If I had known then that it was a GK company, I would have paid any price for them. As a middle-aged sneakerhead, I'm kicking myself right now.
I'm so old that I actually bought the Grind King kingpins when they came out. If I recall, I snapped one, and then realized that I could just invert a regular kingpin for the same effect.
Yeah a lot has. Changed with skate boarding. Last night i took my 12 yr old son to the skate shop to look for grind king trucks. Its so sad to see everything i knew as a kid is gone.
And the best part about dibs was the fact that it would keep your axle from stripping, I used them, but not for the bearing protection, it was just to keep from having to rethread my shit (before the reflex utilitool was out) at my uncles machine shop
In about 2007 I bought a pair of the grind king trucks with the "indestructible" titanium kingpin which I eventually snapped on both trucks (I was only 130 pounds soaking wet with rocks in my pockets). Still loved the trucks and wish there was a little more information floating around as to what happened to the company.
I don't know what stage Indys I have now but I tried to put some old GK kingpins in them but couldn't hammer the indy kingpins out. It's like they're welded in! Also I do believe the reason for bridge bolts was because everyone ditched riser pads at the time and your base plate bolts would rattle loose. Easier to tighten back up cause you only needed a wrench and not a screwdriver to hold to bolt head as well.
religiously skated grind kings for years when i was younger. i loved them so much but the only bad thing was that the kingpin would break sometimes. that didn't stop me from going and buying some new ones though
I dont think it's the same Von Dutch as the t-shirt company, that was founded by a guy called Tonny Sorensen. I've never heard of a Von Dutch skate related brand though.
Donald Cassel did not produce Von Dutch clothing, they were just distributing through his company Dark Horse. But his brother Michael Cassel was the original creator of Von Dutch clothing, he got exclusive rights from Von Dutch daughter to make clothing not expecting it was going to blow up. Later she gave the rights to Tonny Sørensen as she got a better deal from Tonny.
I remember as a kid that skateboarding was a bit too expensive for me, so when I spent a good chunk on a new pair of trucks (Grind Kings) and they broke within 2 weeks, I was done. Didn't skate for about 15 years.
I rode grind kings in 1999 and I loved them, so light and it was great. But being a broke poor little dude little to no money, when I felt they grinded down so fast I was put off and went to ventures after and those worked good all around. I wonder how the new grind kings are. Good video
i have 2 sets of grind kings. 6:57 these & 9:18 these. i bought em both on ebay, didnt know what model til now. I actually swapped the hangers because on the 9:18 one, despite the 10:27 feature, the kingpin kept loosening but on the 6:57 one i have they were borderline grinded to the axle. The 9:18 one was brand knew so i swapped it and have had no geometry or kingpin loosening problems since. 🤷♂️
I remember that the bottom bushings "popped" out of the baseplate pretty often...that sucked. Beside this GKs were awesome trucks. Talking Innovation.... Silver trucks had those tiny screws at the end of the axle that saved the nuts. That was brilliant!!! No need for threat cutters after a few weeks of skating the trucks...;))
GK trucks were the bomb! I remember back in the mid eighties we were inverting our kingpins anyway so when the original GK kingpin was released we were totally on it, the second edition kingpins were really good. The GK skate key also rocked, so much less painful to fall on if you had one in your pocket as opposed to an elephant key. All I can say is that if I had access to a pair of the fourth generation trucks I'd be riding them, excellent truck, even better than Indies.
Was kind of surprised when it fell off. One of the more popular companies when I began skating. For the first 6 or 7 years I never stick with any one brand of truck and grind kings were one of my favorites before sticking with Indy and thunder
I loved the king pins, I actually bought a set and put them in my Indys and slappy grinded way down into the axles and was still able to take them out and put them into another set. So king pins that lasted through multiple sets of trucks are worth every penny that you paid for them in my opinion.
I had a pair of grind kings slip. It locks one wheel in place. You could still turn the wheel by hand, but it wouldn't allow the wheel to spin smoothly. It's exactly what happens when you torque down an axle nut too much. You could loosen the nut to relieve the pressure of the bearing, but the next time you repeat whatever trick caused it, it would slip even more. Pounding the axle back in place only accelerated the problem further. What a nightmare (this happened in 1997).
I remember trading my friend a board for his grindkings with a blue baseplate I was really amazed at how sturdy the trucks where since back then we would break trucks left and right. Only ones that would hold up wer indys and gk's
Had the rims and the velvet trucks. The velvet came right off with grinds and didn't affect anything. I did have both baseplates brake in half though even though I've never been a stair/gap skater.
Wow, thank you for this video (and all the other great ones!). Respect to Cassel for bringing progress and innovation to the skateboarding industry. Here's what I remember about Grind King trucks from the mid to late 90s: lightweight, darker grayish colored aluminum, required an allen wrench to adjust, low profile hanger, small wheel washers, rounded baseplate, GK symbol on front of baseplate, axles did slip after a week or two of landing primo while practicing flip tricks, low profile kingpin was out of the way for smith grinds and such, turning radius was relatively wide, ... Overall, I thought Grind Kings were pretty neat to experiment with when I was only a few years into skating and into that experimental phase (you know, trying different deck shapes and sizes, rubber grip tape, allen head hardware, shoe goo, ...). Ultimately, however, as I became more advanced, and I had tried nearly every truck on the market, Grind Kings were just a passing fancy. Namely, they were too light, which gave them a "tinny" and "rattly" ride and grind, the axels slipped too readily, and their turning radius was not tight enough for the technical street skating I did. I also broke the hangers on a few just doing flatground tricks, and they were not even grinded down much. In all fairness, however, I also split the hangers of newish Gullwings, Thunders, Ventures, and even Indy's (I think Krux were the only trucks I've never split). In the last 5 years of my skating or so, after getting sponsored and becoming reasonably advanced, I settled on Thunders (perfect turning radius, lots of grinding "meat", good height, solid and smooth ride and grind, ...). Anyway, that's my history with Grind Kings. We all tried them at one point, and I'm glad Cassel created them.
never had a problem with grind king axle slip..always liked grindking.it did with my destructos though,and had a pair of krux where the axles actually bent.i did have the destructos a very long time tho..still have them from like 20 years ago lol.the kingpin was so low they lasted forever.super heavy
Good you took my advice about GK. Now let’s take about Nike SB and how they changed skateboarding. Let’s not forget they’ve been in skateboarding since 1996 if I recall correctly.
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Hey Rad Rat! This really stoked me out to discover this video you did on me and my company GrindKing. I will personally tell you the whole story of what happened to GK and what is in the works! WE NEED TO TALK!!! Thank you so much for the time and research that you put into this. Was mostly was correct with a few key things that you guessed wrong;) Hope to hear back from you soon!
Hey Donald, looking forward to the new trucks! Saw the picture on Instagram and they look 🔥.
The guy who runs your Instagram account is a dumbass
Hello Don, my name is Vaughn. I'm currently in the process of Reviving Revdeck or revolution skateboards and I'm interested and helping with grind King as well. I will work for free to help you come back. Vaughnconrath7@gmail.com
I miss my G5's. I was just telling my sons yesterday about the best trucks I've ever had.🍻 Good man.
Im still skating on grindking trucks they are great!
I remember having some Grind Kings back in the day and thinking they were the lightest trucks ever. I also loved the Tensors with the noseslide plate and I still have some original Unit Phantoms with the built in risers.
+VLSkate never heard of the built in risers before!
yeah! i'm pretty sure they still sell some too on the phantom trucks site
Had a pair of those too with hookups hotties 50's.
VLSkate woah I didn't know vlskate watched radrat too. You guys are like my go- to people for trick tips! You guys have helped me learn so many tricks. Thank you
Still love Tensor
I was fortunate enought to befreind Dressen in the early 90's and he commisioned me to create the 2 artworks for his Hazmat boards that you showed. Don't remeber all of the details of the meetings with Cassel, but I remember getting something like a $100, a pair of trucks, some tshirts and ONLY one of each of the boards I designed. I still have one of them, but like a young fool I skated on the other board. Great memories all in all.
dude i was just telling a guy at work today about your channel and i mentioned a story when i got my first complete (not nash or walmart brand) when i was 14 and my first pair of trucks were grind kings and they're whole motto was "these axles dont slip" and after about a month of skating them hard, i cracked one axle and bent all the axle bolts. i took them back to the skateshop and demanded they honour the motto since i broke the trucks after 4 weeks. they agreed and got a set of indys and have never skated anything since. keep up the good work!
Never had a nash. I did have a variflex. But, first real complete was a cabalero, with ventures, Swiss bearings, fly paper, and slime balls.
This was a great episode Rad Rat! All this research and digging can't be easy, so thank you for the entertainment. I absolutely loved Grind Kings back in the 90s and I can't believe the creator was such an innovator. I totally forgot about 'axle slip'. I remember tapping the axles on the ground to get the them centred again. Good memories.
+Simnett Nutrition Yeah isn't that crazy? It was such a big deal and now it's completely gone
Simnett Nutrition that's dope you use to skate did you do cycles back then too or not till you became vegan?
Man, axle slip... so many memories lol
The cooles thing about the grind king truck was the grind king tool. It was the first multytool I have seen, that was developed for skateboarding. It was awesome!
My friend had that and I loved it. He had the GK5 or 6? With the flame base. Those were awesome
I liked the Allen key kingpin because you would never have to deal with a socket hitting the hanger.
I rode for GK for several years until an injury took me out of the industry. Dan put me on in the late 90's. I also rode for Hurley and Osiris and some other companies which got me made fun of because as one guy put it: "Dude, you ride for every company that 9 year olds like". I liked the trucks though. Axle's didn't slip (well before the AXL's came out), the kingpin nut didn't wear down and they were light and low. I wish they were still around. They also had a really awesome product called "Nut Locks". I still use them on my trucks to this day. They were a tiny, ultralight thing you put under your nuts to make it so you only need an allen wrench for your bolts. FYI, Bridgebolts were also about not having stripped bolts from being crappy with a screwdriver, plus you only needed one tool. I'm sure I still have some Rims in storage. I used them once or twice cuz they were hilarious. I also set up one of those tiny Termite boards for shits and giggles. It was 6 plies. I could nollie hard flip on them like a champ though even though I sucked at them normally, haha. Wow, this video brought back some memories man. Thanks!
One more thing: back in the days, kingpins would break ALL THE TIME. It was so frustrating. When my friends and I would bus into the city to skate, I literally had a spare kingpin in my pocket because they broke so often. That's why the money was worth it to buy the GK kingpin. Breakage was rampant until trucks became lower profile, and companies learned to use a softer metal (grade 5 instead of grade 8) because the harder ones were so hard they were brittle when exposed to the lateral stresses that turning trucks create. If you want to see another wacky truck with removable axle's, check out the old Tracker Floaters from 1991. There were several companies innovating back in the days.
Bridgebolts were the best back in the day. No rounded Phillips head.. pop in do the nuts up and they were short so the thread stayed good. The guy who made the vid obviously didn't skate back then like he makes out because he clearly doesn't know and just researches on a computer
Had a set of Grindkings with flame base plate in approx 2002!
Great trucks, took no time to wear in but didn’t wear out too quick.
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Never thought to find melon references here haha
Gk 5s were bombproof IMHO.
Mine were ground so bad but never failed.
Independent are the best feeling trucks I ever rode.
Getting back to skating with my 8 yr old son.Rad rat keep being prolific like u are
Had a pair of grind kings on my 2nd board ever in 6th grade, on a burgundy mini logo with spitfires... got it from ccs. This video really brought me back to the good ol days and your content is amazing
us old guys know all about Grind King kingpins, they were simply indestructible!
Also Rad Rat just confirmed I was skating before he was born...damn.
still love man! keep it up!
Joseph Carroll i used to break them regularly. I was always heavy for a skater though.
Grind kings were the only truck I ever snapped in half
I dig what your doing
Grind kings was the shit super light weight and the grind was so smooth I loved them those and venture feather lights
This episode help bring back grind kings hahaha thank you! Grindkings 2022
Never a Grind King fan but I did enjoy learning some of their history. Ive seen all your videos on your channel and this one is my favorite so far. keep em coming. Independent for Life.
I had some grind king king pins back in the 80's. They were expensive but they didnt break. Regular king pins used to break all the time back then. Especially on certain trucks. I put mine in some gull wings that would snap regular king pins if you looked at them funny!. . .rubbish trucks really. . . But they were lumo green so you gotta love em !
Thanks mate!!! I really enjoy your take on skating. We need you!! Because of a few reasons.
1-you bring great info that any normal skater won't.
2-you Arnt the normal guy I'd expect to see, so in regard to that skating reached more than I thought.
3-you have great and really in depth info I enjoy.
4-please keep on posting.
Thanks mate I appreciate you!
I was associated with Grind King early on, back when they only made their trademark kingpin bolts... They were game changers!
I contacted them, which became correspondence through the mail. I would occasionally skate in competitions; next thing you know they were sponsoring me with gear, and I would promote their products. They started sending me new products too, Bushings, riser blocks, etc. They made awesome stuff and they were a great bunch of people. I attribute some of my competitive wins to them; those kingpins wouldn't hang up on curbs or coping; they were a godsend, and they never broke. I never even bent one.
Thanks for the memories!
Back when they first came about, you just couldn't live without them. They made curb penetration so much more enjoyable and were worth every penny spent. They might not have a great impact on vert skating, but for streetskating they were a must have.
They were of such a great quality, you had to only buy em once, they'd outlive 3-4 generations of trucks you killed.
Just a perfect product, but not for the profit of its inventor.
Oh man I remember Termite and Kreper trucks. For years, after using many different truck companies of the late 90s and early 00s, I finally picked up Grind Kings and was immediately in love. Abandoned Tensor for good and went GK from that point on. Fat hanger, low kingpin, smooth nosegrind baseplate, the metal seemed to grind better... good stuff. And i totally had GK AXLs!! They were fan-freaking-tastic! Probably the best trucks I ever used. But I remember the bushing blew out in a weird way. Almost like it was plastic. Still, those babies were light! Also had the rims lol.
I started skateboarding around 97-98 and I always skated Grimd King and I didn't even understand the technology but I always had to have them.
Thanks for the video.
Grind King pins on Indy trucks was an awesome combo.
Never thought I would dedicate 16 minutes of my life to going DEEP into Grind King lore, but Rad Rat is just so awesome and informative! Can't get enough!
I bought and thrashed these about 1991 in Rotorua, New Zealand. I didnt care if they were expensive back then , no hangups, no snappage, so I always thought they were a great innovation. I just snapped my kingin on my avenue trucks and was considering putting my old gringking kingpin into my p-rod silver trucks, for nostalgia. thanks for the video reminess.
I still have my old grindking... It still remember on how I grinded them it feels so very groovy when crooked grinding...
Yes! Before it was ever in a Newspaper, in the late 1980's we called him Grind King at Circle Skates in Venice Beach. Those were the street skating sponsorship days. It was the period that they call the return professional skateboarding. Because when skate parks closed skating somewhat died. All we had were the streets and thank goodness we didn't have Helicopter Parents. Many of the pro skaters spent time at or around Circle Skates and Grind King shared the retail space. Later Grind King (Not THE Grind King) became a sponsor and we all called him GK not Donald Cassel.
Grind King was my favorite skate trucks growing up! So stoked to hear they are coming back, I was going to get new trucks and I will definitely be grabbing grind kings
Longboarding trucks went through a huge series of innovations like 7 years ago. I dunno what's been going on with them since but before 2010 you where hard pressed to find truck companies that weren't Paris or maybe gullwing who weren't tied to a specific longboard brand. then things like specially made hanger angles, CNCing, swinging axles, all sorts of innovations became the name of the game.
Dude, I snapped the kingpin of every pair of GKs I ever owned (3 pairs) in the early 2ks. It sucked cuz you could only replace them with official GK kingpin kits. And it's not like I was skating super hard. I was a tiny kid just learning grinds and flip tricks on flat. Still, I really enjoyed this video. It reminded me of how hyped I was on my first pair of Grind Kings. Oh, but I do remember loving the bushings more than any other truck soon after.
That was dope bruh. It's cool to hear the stories behind the skateboard industry.
awesome episode man... i loved grindking trucks back in the days.. to bad i've never seen them in the shop no more..
Hey man love your work. Can you do a series on Clive backpacks? Everyone had the "trainer" with the huge X on the back
I still have a pair of grind king trucks that is already 30 yrs old. The good about grind king is that the bushings were based deep inside the base plate . That way you could less damaging your bushings during grinding. Other brands have bushings sit on a metal plate then on the truck base plate making the bushings more exposed to abuse.
when i first started skating (96 or 97 probably), my buddy had a willy santos birdhouse with red base rind kings. they had to be replaced about the same time as the deck. but then again, at that age you wouldn't have a new board but maybe twice a year. i learned from his experience and never tried them. cool video
I still have a pair of GK trucks and still rocking today, with a "Rasta" graphic and everything, love them!
This is all so funny, I was going to ask for this video when you did the first one but it turned out you where going to do this one from the beginning!
cool stuff! I had a few sets of these and always wondered where they disappeared to... They really were picking up steam there, too... But one thing I remember about them was that it was really hard to tighten them after a certain point because allen wrenches are so small, and as I got bigger and taller I needed tighter trucks, so eventually i had to move on.
I ride old (around y2k) Grindking trucks today, bought them mounted to an old zero deck, now they perfectly fit my waltz freestyle deck, I did not find fitting bushings so I had to improvise, but they are still awesome. will not give them away
Anybody remember the truck brand Monster? I think Jamie Thomas rode for them
WhiteTrashWino yeah I had a pair
yeah I was just thinking about those while watching this video. I never had a pair but someone apart of my old skate crew had them. they had eyes or something on the Axel best I remember.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he didn't just ride for them, I believe it was actually HIS company... I had a pair, I remember them being a lot like indys.
WhiteTrashWino how about Web trucks. They looked like a spider web thing
Or Destructo trucks?
Wow man this video brings back so many memories. I remember seeing all those brands at some point.
Damn man! I was just searching for grind king kingpins and couldn't find them. Finally googled "what happened to grind king" and landed here. Really bummed that I can't find them! I LOVED these. One thing I learned from having my own business is SOMETIMES IT PAYS TO STAY SMALL!!!! Trying to grow can kill you. Multiple small successful companies is better than one big struggling company. Bridgebolts were awesome too, reduced the truck slop.
love your channel! i am also an og skate rat born in 1988 and my family owned and ran our own skateshop in Moorpark, CA called Transition Boardshop. sadly we whent out of business in 2008 when the economy tanked and zumiez and active killed off local shops. subbed now. Peace!
My first setup was an AWS Believe slick with GK6s. I grinded them shits down to the axle; didn't even need to wax the curb. I ended up getting another set of GKs around 2010 and still ride them, although I've never performed a grind with them.
Amazing video RadRat! Keep up the good work man.
I had a set of Grind King Trucks! They were so nice. I'm kicking myself now for getting rid of them. I really loved this episode! Perhaps you could do something on Fury Trucks too!
Thanks for the cool video..I started skateing in 89' first set of trucks were Gullwings then moved onto Independent Trucks then when Grindking king pins came out i brought them straight away put em on my Indy's and never looked back best investments for your trucks ever now u can grind em deep till you hit your axels no hang ups ....i now have them on my Destructo's .Also i used bridgebolts back in the day and they never got in the way with tricks ..very tough but if u have them over tight u can hair split the deck between the bolts ....i only ever broke one bridgebolt in 10+ years ....now i ride on Shorty's bolts i like the allen key flat heads are lighter...Skate Or Die !!
How about brand breakdown of fury trucks,genesis footwear,dna skateboards,rimz bearing covers,c#1 alpha numeric clothing,termite skateboards,bootleg skateboards,shortys skateboards,savier footwear,axion footwear.Just a few ideas.i know somewhat axion is in business idk how but still are.Huge fan of your channel.Keep shredding
i have the latest fury trucks released last year but they disappeared again lol
Wow, you have a much clearer memory of those times than me. I think he covered the bearing covers in this episode @12:12 and termite boards too @8:18.
You forgot pig wood, world industries before they started selling boards out of sporting stores popwar decks and wheels
I think you're talking about Genetic. Genesis is a brand of shoes that has nothing to do with skateboarding, I believe. But yeah they had Pat Channita and Lasek on their team, wonder what happened to them.
Donnie Ka I owned a pair of Lask Genetics. Navy blue and orange. They even had a toe cap.
Having become a fan of skateboarding in 2001, I really appreciate these kind of videos. Thanks Rad Rat!
I still skate on an old set of grind kings today and great, and really old! I would buy a new set instantly if they come back!
Chad Kelley they r back! Grind king disrupters
I loved my grind kings.... my best friend and I were stoked about the warranty and the sheer coolness of them... they stuck out in an area that is really just so similar...RIP GrindKing...
Anyone remember Scarecrow skateboards ? Or invisible
John Perez yes, absolutely. I had the Invisible video with John "the man" Reeves. I think Donger might have ridden for them too
I was in that video... as a dorky 16 year old with giant pants and a bleach-blonde afro, standing in the background as John The Man Reeves does a 50-50 up a curved rail. If you pause your VCR at just the right moment, you'll see me.
Yeah, I remember them. I think Jason Adams rode for them in the mid 90s, too.
th-cam.com/video/EbM60Vo7Zi4/w-d-xo.html I found the Invisible/Human collab vid Caught Clean featuring John Reeves & Andy Macdonald but there is no sound as there is a Red Hot Chili Peppers song within the video
invisible was great. john reeves and laban pheidas
I don't skate anymore but back in the day Grind King was the best. Had the allen bolts, trucks, blue rims, and the camo GK skate tool. All with a mini-logo board. Best set up ever!
I worked at a skate shop in the early 2000s, I sold more grind king and tensors, than any other truck.
evan garvey 👍 I went through about 4 pairs of Tensors (loved the slider pieces and how light they were) and also a pair of venture trucks back in those days I remember GK tho
Am now riding thunder trucks and like them so far
Great episode man!
Few ideas for next brand breakdown episodes:
Deca
Bitch Skateboards
Speed Demons
A-Team
Foundation
The Firm
Also love how your videos are not spammed with like 5 ads per 10 min video and you never clickbait. I just wish more youtubers conducted their ‘way of business’ like you.
Keep it up man, love your work!
soberpunk
So I looked into it a bit more and according to Skately.com “In 1993, Sal Rocco Jr.(Steve's brother) and his wife Kim started Bitch Skateboards after several riders defected from World, Plan B, Blind and 101 to start Girl.”
My brother has a set of Koston grind kings
Amazing channel! Your answering so many questions that I had from my skating days! Grind king! U bolts? Remember them? I was totally into Grind King! Ahhh Bridgebolts!!!!! That’s them!!!
My first trucks were grind kings, I remember hating them because you had to use an Allen tool instead of a normal wrench to adjust them, eventually dropped them for Thunders.
Still skate my g5's have the nut locks too, they eliminate the need for a screwdriver. The tool was compact and handled everything, bearing pusher, an Allen for the kingpin, and socket built in for axle nuts. Wish I had some new hangers, mine are seriously ground down .
Damn dude this is practically a master's thesis..very informative. Kudos to the research. I rode nothing but Grind King.
Pausing the video at 2 minutes 44 seconds to put in my small story, throughout my years skating I skated very big stuff in my younger years and I broke a lot of kingpins until I bought a set of grinding kingpins I ended up installing them in six different sets of trucks just the one pair I originally bought saw six different sets of trucks until they were eventually on a setup that got stolen. He made an incredible product I actually started skating grind kings after the first two years of destroying everything else. They held up and I loved them I was sad to see the brand go and I'm even happier to see it return anyway continuing the video now
Keep making vids bro I love them and I know ur channel will keep growing! No other skate board channel like this
I skated during this time. I remember my crew all went out and bought grind king because it was new and innovative. This was the first time my friend had broken his truck landing on it awkwardly. I soon after broke mine on a grind. We all switched up, I've been riding venture ever since. Mostly for the graphics
Great video. I had a good friend who was super into them. I never really tried them myself.
The one gimmick product that I got and absolutely adore are these truck bolts from like 2005 with an unkeyed, knurled head and a slight protruding star pattern for the part of the bolt that goes through the board, so the bolt digs into the board and you only need a ratcheting skate key to tighten up on the bottom. They're really low profile and so handy. Luckily I'm not a bolt breaker, so I love these things and I'm still riding them today. Everyone that sees them for the first time asks me about them. I don't even remember the brand name, only that I've never seen them again.
M Ouija I remember those, but never got a set cuz I was all about Shorty's. I'd definitely buy a set today though
I want to say they were from Creature and I think they were called Coffin Nails or something like that, but that isn't coming up with anything when I search. I wanted a set of those bad!
I skate GK-6 trucks back in the day. I liked the fact that the kingpin was low and out of the way for 50-50 grinds. The biggest problem with these trucks were that they did not turn well. The bushings had no rebound. I ditched them for Indys.
I still remember B-52s Skateboard trucks with Axle rollings instead of it fixed to the hanger.
And yeah, Those super heavy Sidewinder trucks back in the day.
A-Team deck, grind king trucks, and either spitfire or darkstar wheels. Those were my go to companies back in the day
titan ti-lites were sick too, same era. had to keep hammering in the pin every now and then that they used to prevent axle slip though, no complaints otherwise, still have them around. nice job on the vid
John L I wanted a set of those so bad but they were so expensive, it was like either get trucks or a half oz of weed.. I think I was riding destructos at that time which were fine.
that's funny about the axle pin though, trade axle slip for axle pin slip
I had a set of the titans back in the day and I lost the pin in one of mine and my dad helped me replace it with a little roller pin that never came out again. I just missed my GK's so much I ended up ditcing the titans for another set of GK's
This is fantastic. I just started skating again after a 20 year hiatus. My first question was, "what happened to Grind King?" They were the absolute best. Also, I remember seeing only one Underdog shoe design at a skate shop in Charlotte, NC in 1996. I remember thinking it was cool, and almost buying it, but not. If I had known then that it was a GK company, I would have paid any price for them. As a middle-aged sneakerhead, I'm kicking myself right now.
I love this series! Keep it up dude.
We importet GK to Sweden back in the good old days. And now I see that they are back. Makes me glad.
I'm so old that I actually bought the Grind King kingpins when they came out. If I recall, I snapped one, and then realized that I could just invert a regular kingpin for the same effect.
Grind king was huge when I was skating back in 2003.. one of my neighbors boyfriend was on the flo team... We were all super impressed by him lol
Yeah a lot has. Changed with skate boarding. Last night i took my 12 yr old son to the skate shop to look for grind king trucks. Its so sad to see everything i knew as a kid is gone.
And the best part about dibs was the fact that it would keep your axle from stripping, I used them, but not for the bearing protection, it was just to keep from having to rethread my shit (before the reflex utilitool was out) at my uncles machine shop
Great video, amazing research... keep it up. I just subscribed.
In about 2007 I bought a pair of the grind king trucks with the "indestructible" titanium kingpin which I eventually snapped on both trucks (I was only 130 pounds soaking wet with rocks in my pockets). Still loved the trucks and wish there was a little more information floating around as to what happened to the company.
I don't know what stage Indys I have now but I tried to put some old GK kingpins in them but couldn't hammer the indy kingpins out. It's like they're welded in!
Also I do believe the reason for bridge bolts was because everyone ditched riser pads at the time and your base plate bolts would rattle loose. Easier to tighten back up cause you only needed a wrench and not a screwdriver to hold to bolt head as well.
religiously skated grind kings for years when i was younger. i loved them so much but the only bad thing was that the kingpin would break sometimes. that didn't stop me from going and buying some new ones though
I skated Grind Kings back then. Very light. When I replaced them the axels were exposed. I loved them.
If he started Von Dutch then he made more than enough money to have his other companies fail.
For real.
I dont think it's the same Von Dutch as the t-shirt company, that was founded by a guy called Tonny Sorensen. I've never heard of a Von Dutch skate related brand though.
Donald Cassel did not produce Von Dutch clothing, they were just distributing through his company Dark Horse. But his brother Michael Cassel was the original creator of Von Dutch clothing, he got exclusive rights from Von Dutch daughter to make clothing not expecting it was going to blow up. Later she gave the rights to Tonny Sørensen as she got a better deal from Tonny.
@@mssurf69 is this real info? Incredible stuff
I remember as a kid that skateboarding was a bit too expensive for me, so when I spent a good chunk on a new pair of trucks (Grind Kings) and they broke within 2 weeks, I was done. Didn't skate for about 15 years.
I rode grind kings in 1999 and I loved them, so light and it was great. But being a broke poor little dude little to no money, when I felt they grinded down so fast I was put off and went to ventures after and those worked good all around. I wonder how the new grind kings are. Good video
axidhaus
I worked at Grind king during the haz mat society belladonna era for three months... it was good times
The bridgebolt is nice because it only takes one tool to install your trucks. The bolt isn't spinning around while you try to tighten the nut.
i have 2 sets of grind kings. 6:57 these & 9:18 these.
i bought em both on ebay, didnt know what model til now. I actually swapped the hangers because on the 9:18 one, despite the 10:27 feature, the kingpin kept loosening but on the 6:57 one i have they were borderline grinded to the axle. The 9:18 one was brand knew so i swapped it and have had no geometry or kingpin loosening problems since. 🤷♂️
I remember that the bottom bushings "popped" out of the baseplate pretty often...that sucked. Beside this GKs were awesome trucks. Talking Innovation.... Silver trucks had those tiny screws at the end of the axle that saved the nuts. That was brilliant!!! No need for threat cutters after a few weeks of skating the trucks...;))
GK trucks were the bomb!
I remember back in the mid eighties we were inverting our kingpins anyway so when the original GK kingpin was released we were totally on it, the second edition kingpins were really good. The GK skate key also rocked, so much less painful to fall on if you had one in your pocket as opposed to an elephant key.
All I can say is that if I had access to a pair of the fourth generation trucks I'd be riding them, excellent truck, even better than Indies.
Was kind of surprised when it fell off. One of the more popular companies when I began skating. For the first 6 or 7 years I never stick with any one brand of truck and grind kings were one of my favorites before sticking with Indy and thunder
I loved the king pins, I actually bought a set and put them in my Indys and slappy grinded way down into the axles and was still able to take them out and put them into another set. So king pins that lasted through multiple sets of trucks are worth every penny that you paid for them in my opinion.
I remember bridgebolts. I still have a set up with them. Haha. Bringing back some memories.
I had a pair of grind kings slip. It locks one wheel in place. You could still turn the wheel by hand, but it wouldn't allow the wheel to spin smoothly. It's exactly what happens when you torque down an axle nut too much. You could loosen the nut to relieve the pressure of the bearing, but the next time you repeat whatever trick caused it, it would slip even more. Pounding the axle back in place only accelerated the problem further. What a nightmare (this happened in 1997).
I remember trading my friend a board for his grindkings with a blue baseplate I was really amazed at how sturdy the trucks where since back then we would break trucks left and right. Only ones that would hold up wer indys and gk's
I bought a set of gk kingpins and bridgebolts. They really helped my Ollie’s. The would grab your front foot. I loved both.
Had the rims and the velvet trucks. The velvet came right off with grinds and didn't affect anything. I did have both baseplates brake in half though even though I've never been a stair/gap skater.
Wow, thank you for this video (and all the other great ones!). Respect to Cassel for bringing progress and innovation to the skateboarding industry. Here's what I remember about Grind King trucks from the mid to late 90s: lightweight, darker grayish colored aluminum, required an allen wrench to adjust, low profile hanger, small wheel washers, rounded baseplate, GK symbol on front of baseplate, axles did slip after a week or two of landing primo while practicing flip tricks, low profile kingpin was out of the way for smith grinds and such, turning radius was relatively wide, ...
Overall, I thought Grind Kings were pretty neat to experiment with when I was only a few years into skating and into that experimental phase (you know, trying different deck shapes and sizes, rubber grip tape, allen head hardware, shoe goo, ...). Ultimately, however, as I became more advanced, and I had tried nearly every truck on the market, Grind Kings were just a passing fancy. Namely, they were too light, which gave them a "tinny" and "rattly" ride and grind, the axels slipped too readily, and their turning radius was not tight enough for the technical street skating I did. I also broke the hangers on a few just doing flatground tricks, and they were not even grinded down much. In all fairness, however, I also split the hangers of newish Gullwings, Thunders, Ventures, and even Indy's (I think Krux were the only trucks I've never split). In the last 5 years of my skating or so, after getting sponsored and becoming reasonably advanced, I settled on Thunders (perfect turning radius, lots of grinding "meat", good height, solid and smooth ride and grind, ...). Anyway, that's my history with Grind Kings. We all tried them at one point, and I'm glad Cassel created them.
never had a problem with grind king axle slip..always liked grindking.it did with my destructos though,and had a pair of krux where the axles actually bent.i did have the destructos a very long time tho..still have them from like 20 years ago lol.the kingpin was so low they lasted forever.super heavy
Dude...friggin loved bridgebolts !!
Good you took my advice about GK. Now let’s take about Nike SB and how they changed skateboarding. Let’s not forget they’ve been in skateboarding since 1996 if I recall correctly.