Best Penny Boards

A pennyboard is small, handy and great for cruising. You’re not convinced?

• Okay, so the big advantage are the roles.

» These are far more softer, thicker and larger than the one on the skateboard. For this reason rolls up Cruiser Board more even on uneven ground.

• A further advantage over all means of transport is the handiness.

» As fast as you ride, as fast the board is back in your backpack or simply under your arm.

• In addition, it is much easier to maintain than any other Board types.

» Grease the ball bearing once in a while and that’s it.

• Not to be neglected is the Aesthetics.

» There’s something to be said for a penny board.

If you have never skateboarded or driven a longboard, you’re gonna have to, for better or worse learn how to ride a board like that. In the beginning you will have some difficulties, but within a short time you will learn how to cruise.

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In general a longboard for beginners offers the same and even more advantages than a cruiser board.

Advantage:

► With a longboard you can reach higher speeds, because you stand on it much more stable.

► Although it is bigger and therefore heavier, longer distances are more comfortable than with a mini board.

Disadvantage:

► Size is also the keyword here when it comes to handiness, wearability and manoeuvrability. Unfortunately you can’t put a longboard straight into your backpack, let alone hold it under your arm for a long time.

► The agile driving style also suffers. This is no longer given by the length as it was with his smaller brother.

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Fazit

» If you are more into casual riding and prefer practicality, then a Mini Skateboard would be the right thing for you.

» But if you plan to cover longer distances and be as fast as possible, a longboard would be the right choice for you.

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Basically there are two possibilities.

A: You buy a complete board

B: You put together a board

In general, the most important components are: trucks (axles), wheels (rollers) and ball bearings. The deck does not play an important role for a pennyboard.

TRUCKS – THE PENNY BOARD AXLES

Most of the time the axles are made of aluminium.

❗ Caution: There are also some made of steel. These are clearly heavier and break more easily!

Pay attention to the steering rubbers for the axles. It is important that they meet your requirements. Do you prefer to drive normally, or zigzag down a mountain? If you like the former, then you are lucky. The latter should tend to use conical steering rubbers. That’s all you need to consider. Although there are wider, thinner, higher and lower axles, these characteristics don’t matter when driving. Thus also the transition to the next component 😉

PENNY BOARD ROLLS

Here there is only one thing to consider: NO plastic wheels! There are relatively cheap Penny Board, which have quite normal hard rubber tires. Furthermore, the standard size is 59mm. Here you can also buy bigger or smaller wheels. Just keep in mind that bigger tires minimize the rolling resistance. Ergo these are more recommendable. There are also strong LED wheels, these are also nice.

BALL BEARING

You want to buy a penny board that runs smoothly on the road? Then invest in good ball bearings! Normally Mini Cruisers are equipped with ball bearings of the level Abec 5 to Abec 11. The higher the number, the more accurate the ball bearing.

BUT: also pay attention to the brand, because it is at least as important!

Tip: The principle applies: the more expensive the pennyboard, the better the ball bearing (mostly). Nevertheless, it is not necessary to buy the more expensive one. Get a good ball bearing for the cheap penny board and simply exchange it with the original. Mostly the built-in ball bearing is sufficient. Just look on this page for the products, because we check every mini longboard exactly on the components (by product data) and then go astray if we present it on our site.

PENNY BOARD DECK

Your size and your preferences play a role here. The bigger you or your feet are, the larger the cover width should be. Whether it should be made of plastic or wood, you decide. Nevertheless, we have summarized all pros and cons for you.

DECK MADE OF WOOD

PRO:

✅ better aesthetics

✅ additional suspension (an uneven floor acts like a vibrator for your feet and this is not pleasant in the long run)

✅ Griptape (non-slip and perfect for little tricks)

CON:

⛔ more fragile

⛔ Higher wear (Griptape wears out and the wood scrapes off the kicktail)

⛔ absorbs moisture (wetness damages the deck immensely, thus increasing wear)

PLASTIC DECK

PRO:

✅ water resistant

✅ cheaper

✅ more resilient and more flex (because of a special plastic mixture)

✅ resistant to paint damage (deck is cast in a mould)

✅ softer and more agile

CON:

⛔ unstable driving feeling at higher speeds

⛔ hardly any tricks possible (because of missing griptape)

⛔ Design monochrome, therefore somewhat “boring”

As you can see, the decision is not easy.

If you are still not sure what it should be, just ask yourself the following question: “Do I want to skate and cruise or just cruise?”

If you want to skate and cruise, the only right decision is a deck of wood. Remember that a deck made of wood is usually more expensive than a deck made of nylon!

A SMALL SIDE NOTE IS THE FLEX

As you may have noticed, a deck made of nylon is incredibly strong. There are some YouTube videos where a whole car drives over a mini board and the board stays intact.

DECLARATION:

The nylon is injected and therefore has a very good structure. This increases the stability immensely. I mention this because I have received many inquiries about the maximum weight. Some manufacturers write that the board would for example withstand a maximum of 176 lbs.

➤ In general you can get on the board with more than 200 lbs without thinking about what happens.

How long a pennyboard is, gives exclusion about the driving behaviour. The most common lengths are between 56 cm-69 cm (22 inch – 27 inch).

In general a small Penny Cruiser is more manoeuvrable and lighter. Nevertheless, especially beginners find it a little more difficult with a small deck.

Another advantage is portability. Due to its size, the small longboard can be easily put into a backpack.

As you now know from the longboard comparison, the longer you ride, the more stable the handling. This is also true for a Mini Cruiser. While a Penny Board 22 starts to rock up at speeds (depending on how soft the trucks are) of about 25 km/h, a Penny Board 27 starts to rock up at about 35km/h.

⇒ Given the problem of longboard or pennyboard, a larger mini skateboard can combine both in one. In the end one can say that none of the two variants has any dark sides.

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Both have their advantages and disadvantages. All pros and cons are summarized here:

COMPLETE BOARD

PRO:

✅ simple: Unpack and start immediately

✅ Amazon Pennyboard cheap

✅ uncomplicated ordering (➤ Order a thing without much previous knowledge)

CON:

⛔ mostly worse components used

⛔ limited selection (➤ For this reason also not individual)

CUSTOM PENNY SKATEBOARD CAN BE PUT TOGETHER

PRO:

✅ Individual

✅ better components

CON:

⛔ more expensive

⛔ complex: unpack, screw together (beginners ~ 45min) and then finally start

⛔ Tool necessary

⛔ in-depth knowledge of individual parts necessary

If you still have little knowledge in the matter, it is advisable to buy a pennyboard first and to replace individual components bit by bit. Putting together a cruiser board is usually less worthwhile if the budget is less than 100£/$.

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It is so that the range of 20£/$ – 200£/$ is relatively large. As in every category there are

again branded products (Penny Board Globe, Ridge, Penny). These are of outstanding quality and you will have pleasure with them for a long time. It does not matter whether you are a beginner or already a pro.

The fact is that with rising price the quality grows (Up to a certain amount, after that you only pay for the brand). The best example are the ball bearings (ABEC). With high-priced cruiser boards the quality of the ball bearings also increases. How much you want to spend at least is of course up to you.

Buying a penny longboard cheap can also have its advantages. Of course the quality would not be too high, but you can test the sport and see how it suits you. Afterwards you can still decide whether it should be a more expensive model or you just replace some parts by better ones. In addition, you can still reach for a longboard if you notice: “Oh, I really want to go downhill”.

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Basically it depends on what you want to do with it. If it’s just for fun or you want to use it as a means of transport, it’s recommended to buy the Cruiser Board on the internet, because the prices are usually cheaper there. Shops like Amazon offer meanwhile for little money (from 15£/$) a Penny Skateboard.

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DRIVING IN THE RAIN – BAD?

YES! If you think logically, you will soon notice that water usually causes rust. This is quite suboptimal! You would notice the consequences very quickly. Beginning with bad ball bearings, up to rusty axles. Furthermore the deck becomes slushy. Especially for decks with a griptape this can end badly, because the adhesion would suffer a lot. “BUT if you clean and dry the Mini longboard right after riding, you can counteract this rusting process” – isn’t that right?

Not quite, although it is easy to counteract the process, you will never get everything dry, because you couldn’t dry the ball bearings yourself! So just remember, if you go and buy a penny skateboard cheaply, that you only ride it on dry ground. If you really want to ride in the rain, buy two cruiser boards (one as cheap as possible) and use one for the rain and the other for fair weather.