What Are Longboard Bushings?

Longboard bushings are the rubber components located in the middle of your longboard trucks. Even though they’re small, truck bushings are a crucial part of your longboard setup and influence how responsive your longboard turns are. Your longboard will come with bushings, but upgrading to a new set and style can improve your experience and broaden what you can do with your longboard.

Each truck should have two bushings, a roadside and a boardside. As their names imply, the roadside bushing is positioned closest to the road while the boardside bushing is nearest to the deck.

There are two primary bushing shapes: cone and barrel. Cone bushings provide minimal resistance and are excellent for turning, while barrel bushings offer more stability. Many riders opt for a combination of one barrel and one cone bushing, as this provides good all-around performance, but cone-cone and barrel-barrel setups are also common.

What Longboard Bushings Should I Get?

There’s no such thing as a “best longboard bushing”; it largely depends on what type of riding you intend to do with your longboard. The two main factors to consider are the hardness of the bushings and the style of riding you prefer.

Bushing hardness is measured on the durometer scale, similar to wheels. The higher the durometer, the harder the bushing will be. Using harder bushings will provide more resistance when riding. One of the key factors to consider when selecting a durometer is your weight. Generally, the heavier you are, the harder your bushings should be.

If you aim to carve and cruise with your longboard, opt for softer, more conical bushings. On the other hand, if you prefer freeride and downhill, then a barrel setup is ideal.

If you are looking for another way to maximize the speeds you can achieve when riding downhill, make sure you have a good set of Longboard Gloves and Slide Pucks.