The wheels


About me and these wheels
I have been fingerboarding for about 11 years on and off although my involvement with the online scene is limited. As of this moment writing this review, I am sponsored by Close Up only with no affiliation to any other company. I hope you trust that this is an unbiased review as I intend it to be. These wheels should be the 16th type of fingerboard bearing wheels that I have owned, not including multiples of the same model. I have been skating these wheels as part of a setup for just under 8 weeks. The setup I have mainly been testing the wheels with is comprised of a Boulala Bamboo W1 29mm deck, Riptape, China wide trucks with SB3.5 tuning, the Jace Simple wheels with dual Redemption microwashers on each axle. I also briefly set the wheels up on BRT 1.0s, BRT 2.0s, Close Up G4 trucks and Ytrucks X3 and will cover the compatibility issues further into the review. I have tested these wheels indoors only. This is my 15th fingerboard product review and 6th bearing wheel review (after Close Up original and current version double review, Cartwheels prototype and BKF (China), Tech Deck Expert Sk8 hard wheels as part of the complete reviews). I hope it is sufficient in detail and interesting to read. I personally prefer text-based reviews as opposed to video reviews as the reader can choose to read it at their own pace instead of being forced to follow the speed of the reviewer and who can often trail-off topic.

I would like to personally thank Aika for sending me these wheels to review and thank you for your patience for getting this review out. I do normally prefer a month of testing but this one has taken a little bit longer due to coinciding with the end of the academic year.

Aika sent out many wheels for reviewers to review. There are the Simple shape wheels and also some Skate shape wheels. Only a couple of reviewers received both shapes but not me so I requested the Simple shape wheels as they look like a better all round wheel that is also suitable for freestyle.

I apologise for the cameraphone pictures which do not focus on such small wheels very well.

The setup


Company Profile
Jace Fingerboards has been around for a few years and currently under the ownership of Aika who has transformed Jace into much better functioning fingerboard company. They are a distribution with a range of fingerboard hardware but are mostly known for their wheels. Aika's uncle designed and manufactures the wheels. Jace is also known for being a non-profit fingerboard company with profits going to charity.

As well as the Jace Simple shape wheels I am reviewing, they are also releasing a Skate shape wheel at the same time.

Website (webstore): http://www.jacefingerboards.net/

Transaction Details
Price: Free for doing this preview
Shipping cost: n/a
Time to arrive from CA, USA to Yantai, China: 3 weeks

Packaging
Everything was shipped in a standard bubble mailer. The wheels came in a baggie as standard for most wheels. I do like the triangle sticker on the bag with the protruding J and F and the model name at the bottom (I actually removed this, cut it up and stuck part of it on my setup). Inside the baggie are the loose wheels and a high quality Jace sticker. What is a really nice touch is the personal note that came with it. You can see my name on the mini envelope and inside is a friendly message. Not all companies do this but I definitely appreciate it.

Packaging and a little envelope


A personal note from the company owner!


Craftsmanship
I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to fingerboard wheel manufacturing and it seems so is Aika when I asked some questions about the wheels. All she said was that she showed her uncle a skateboard wheel and wanted to scale it down and make it rounder. There are no other details other than that.

I don't have proper equipment but I can tell you these wheels are slightly smaller than the average size wheel, but not by much. The standard wheel diameter, as with Tech Deck wheels and Flatface G6Ds are about 7.5mm. The Jace Simple shape wheels are just above 7mm. The width of the wheel seems in line with the standard size out there and comparing them with some different wheels I have, I didn't really notice much difference in width for most wheels.

This is a normal hard fingerboard wheel, unlike soft urethane based wheels. However, sometimes, I also want to use "soft" to describe it. It seems to have some soft qualities as well but it is a hard wheel. There are no treads on the wheels but there is sufficient grip on them to maintain your desired direction of movement.

The craftsmanship on the wheels are very good. When new, I could see no flaws with them. The rounding on the wheels are great and on the Jace Simples, it's a perfect shape for all types of fingerboarding, including freestyle which I enjoy. The shape will fit on trucks to be in line with truck axles so it won't damage the surface when doing railstands and primos, whether intentionally or accidentally. All the bearings have metal shields, there is sufficient room in the shape to use standard TD tools to set it up. They are not backless but the is room for the nut on the axle and it fits China trucks fine.

Compatibility with trucks
Due to these wheels not being backless, I assumed they would be great with Blackriver Trucks or Ytrucks.

This is not actually the case. You can see on the picture, I tried the wheels on BRTs 1.0s and 2.0s. They go on the trucks fine and sit in a good position but the diameter of the hole in the bearing is too close to the diameter of the BRT axle so the wheels do not turn as well as other wheels. In addition, the back of the wheel will also touch the matal of the hanger a little bit and will add a little bit of friction. BRT edition wheels won't have this as the hanger will directly touch the bearing.

I then decided to try them on Ytrucks X3. They roll on the axle fine but due to the shape of the wheel, they will go too far along the axle and partially over the hanger when you set it up. This makes riding the board feel much thinner, leave the truck axles exposed potentially leading to huge damage of surfaces and the simple fact that it looks plain ugly. This may be alleviated with microwashers but I felt it still would not be perfect.

Just for compatibility testing, I also tried them on Close Up G4 trucks. They sit at an angle over the hanger due to the shape of the wheel so I don't recommend using them with Close Up G4 trucks.

Finally, I knew they would probably be fine on China trucks. I guess this may have been the truck they designed it for. As they aren't backless, there will obviously be some friction with the truck hanger and the back of the wheel. I solved this by using dual microwashers on the back of each wheel.

On a setup with a Flatface G12 deck and BRT 1.0s


Performance
It was a little hard to write up to the point without mentioning something about performance.

Firstly, the smaller than average size of diameter is not big enough to be noticeable, even for experienced fingerboarders. No need to worry about its size, it's all good.

The shape itself is awesome for all types of fingerboarding. I like street and freestyle best and it's great for doing all my favourite flip tricks and freestyle tricks. The width on them makes them suitable for railstands and primos and the roundness is just right for optimising flips. It's a great all-round wheel.

The material of it performs great. I think this is actually one that most fingerboarders would like. It's a hard wheel but with some elements of softer qualities. Hard wheels are great for hard and smooth surfaces where most fingerboarding is done. They will ride smoother than softer wheels in these conditions. There are no treads but it has enough grip to maintain desired direction of movement. There's no difficulty for doing reverts and powerslides. I also recently took these wheels to porcelain. I have this sick sink to fingerboard in and after trying all the wheels I have in the house, the Jace Simple wheels are actually the best to skate in it. It's smooth and allows for flow and a good feel of the surface.

These wheels also have a little bit of screech in them (when riding on wood). It's not as much as Winkler wheels or some urethane wheels but just a little bit which is cool. According to Kerry, this is only for the black versions of Jace wheels.

I did already say they are smooth and another indicator of this is that spinning the wheels will make them spin for many seconds.

I have had one problem with these wheels though. After about a month of using them, some of the bearings began to slip. The wheel would pop out of position closer to the axle and would stop the wheel rolling as smooth as it was before. This occasionally happens to 2 of the wheels and a few times on a third wheel. This does not happen every trick but will happen after a while of seshing. I can still pop it back into place and continue as normal. This would also be related to the craftsmanship, perhaps some different glue or technique is needed to keep the bearings in place. I am not sure if this was caused by using microwashers. I've also had this problem with G6Ds without microwashers. I believe Kerry reported the same problem with one of his wheels.

Overall Conclusion
The wheels are a great all-round fingerboard wheel. I really enjoy using them. There are a couple of compatibility and durability issues but apart from that, they're a great alternative to the many brands out there.

I must mention that this review is just what I think about the wheels. Reading/watching multiple reviews by different people is definitely recommended. You can search for other reviews of Jace wheels and their different shapes. However, I would like to feature a review by my good friend Kerry Williams, the author on the Unitefingerboarding blog. He reviews both shapes of Jace wheels and it will be good to see a different view of the wheels and much better pictures! Link here: http://www.unitefingerboarding.com/2012/04/jace-wheels-review.html

How to buy them
These wheels are to be released at $24 according to Aika. She also said that she may reduce the price depending on sales. They are not listed on the webstore right now but you can order them at any time by directly emailing her at jacefingerboards@gmail.com

What’s next from me?
This was the last fingerboard product I wanted to review. There's nothing else planned as of now. I may review the new Close Up G5 low concave & high concave blank decks but I feel it will be better if I wait for finished graphic versions. Damien said before that he would send these a month after the package with the blanks so I may just wait on these.

Closing comments
You may use this review and pictures, in part or in full, as long as you credit it to me and get permission from me.

NEW! I have created an archive of my fingerboard reviews, click here to see them!

If you have read this review and it was useful, please reply! Reviews don’t get a lot of replies, even if they are read. If you didn’t like this review, please tell me why so I can improve! I am available to review other products should you have any products you want reviewing.

Miaow.

Awesome Review Xi!

Really good review as always from you! Keep it up!

Really nice review, Xi! As always I enjoyed reading it and found that we share the same love for many words. Keep it up!

Great review!

Great review ! Very nicely unbiased, even if you got them for free! Btw, the deck with all the stickers looks awesome!