Bustin Boards Bonsai Review

We’re starting to come up to the end of the skating season. I’m going to try to skate all winter, but I know eventually the weather is going to get harsh enough that skating will be difficult. As a result, I have been skating every chance I get. But, there’s another benefit to the end of the skating season. Back to school season. Bustin Boards and other companies often offer deals for the back to school season (or, rather, clear out inventory for the new models season). It’s a great time to get deals on skateboards. Bustin had a mini cruiser deal, just $99 for a complete, so I jumped on. Not knowing if I’d get a Mini Maestro or Bonsai was a little exciting, but, then it came. My new Bustin Boards Bonsai. Truth be told, I was hoping for the Mini Maestro, but was willing to take the chance.

The Bonsai, for those who don’t know the skate lineup of every single company, is a cruiser board. “But Danielle, don’t you have a whole bunch of cruisers?” Yes. Yes I do. “Isn’t it dumb to get another?” Yes, yes it is. But that stupidity means I can compare it to other cruisers. My addiction to new gear means you get a great comparison!

So, I’ve been skating the Bonsai to bars, restaurants, skate shops, friend’s places, and down some nearby hills. I’ve broken in the wheels, kicked out some slides (some more than others), and even got injured! I think it’s time for a review. That’s the big three for a cruiser, right? Skate to destinations, tackle some hills, and get hurt. Review time!

The Setup

My Bustin’ Bonsai came with:

• 1 Bustin Boards Bonsai (E)Core deck
• 2 Ace 11 Trucks
• 2 soft 1/4″ risers
• 4 Bustin Premier formula 66mm stoneground wheels
• Truss head hardware
• ABEC 9 Bearings (I paid extra to get the ABEC 9’s over the stock 7’s, but it was a small upgrade)

Besides the Ace trucks, I got largely what I expected. I was surprised Busin gave me the larger 66mm wheels, but we’ll get into my review of them in a second. The total value of all of these parts is about $220. I got it for $110. Half off!

The Deck

I’ve got two Dinghys and my rain setup is a cruiser. I love small platforms. They’re nimble, I can take them anywhere, and they’re just a blast to ride. When I saw Bustin had their sale, I went for the mini box because it was either this or a mini pusher that I’d likely use for some nimble freeriding.

The Bustin Boards Bonsai is a 29″ deck with a 16.5″ wheel base. It’s about half an inch longer than a Dinghy, but the wheel base is about 2.25″ longer. They do this with a smaller tail, which is upturned more than it is on the Dinghy. Interestingly, I found that the angle and location of the tail makes manuals more easy than expected.

The big thing you’ll notice are the wheel arches. I like to keep my feet above the bolts, and that means right in line with these arches. They’re not great under your feet. However, I found that I can wedge my rear foot between the rear arches and the tail and my front foot angled in front of and behind the wheel wells. This helps you feel secure in your ride, “caulked in,” as some would say. But the problem with this is you won’t move your feet around as much. You also might mess up popping off a curb, not get the height you need, and hit the asphalt really hard, leaving you so sore that even walking is difficult and you have to sleep on your right side.

Ahem.

The deck is Bustin’s (E)Core design. This involves a polycarbonate layer between maple. It’s stiff and lightweight. It helps keep the weight of your board lower. You can see the black “reinforcement layers” in the closeups, and the sanded wheel wells reveal it. Bustin Boards builds their decks with maple on the top, bottom, and middle layers and uses “(E)Poxy” and their “BlackOps Reinforced Core” along with a fiberglass layer for truck mount reinforcement. The end result doesn’t have a whole lot of wood, but still retains the stiff yet slightly plyable feel of layered maple.

The Wheels

Bustin Boards has their own wheels. They shipped this to me with their 66mm Premiere formula stoneground wheels. This is usually a slight upsell, so it was cool to get them for a low price. They have a very wide contact patch (about 48mm) and square edges. They’re centerset, so you can flip them as they wear down. This means they’ve got a lot of grip. In comparison, while Landyachtz’s Fatty Hawgs have a 53mm width, their contact patch is “only” 43mm. That’s a wider contact patch than I have on my freeride deck.

That edge does not give way without effort, especially at first. These wheels have insane grip and will eat speed from carving or doing small speed checks quickly. I didn’t want to push them too hard out of the box though. Stoneground wheels usually shouldn’t need much breaking in, but that sharp lip and the urethane formula lead to some uneven wear. I found they did eventually get easier to slide when I’d push it, but the edges left me a little worried.

I noticed the wear wasn’t even, like wearing down my Hawgs, Ricta, and Orangatang wheels. Rather than even wear patterns, it seems parts would sort of peel off. In fact, I had small stringy pieces of urethane coming off the edges in the back wheels from small slides and speed checks. These were only small speed checks, so that could explain why they didn’t wear the full lip yet, but the fraying threads of urethane was not something I expected. I’ll be careful to slowly break them in, like wheels that aren’t stoneground. The fraying is a bit unpleasant, but it hasn’t chunked yet. Perhaps enough small slides will get it to the point where it’s more rounded on the edges and doesn’t fray. Still, a fraying wear pattern is not a good or predictable one.

The Trucks

Since these aren’t Bustin’s own trucks, I won’t go into too much depth to review these. Bustin normally ships the Bonsai with their own trucks. It was a pleasant surprise to get to try out the Ace trucks. Ace Trucks has been around for a while, but only started to gain popularity and notoriety recently. After spending some time on them, I can see why.

I recently had someone ask me about them in a skate shop. I had just gotten them, but they make a fantastic first impression. They feel stable, yet ready to dive when you lean. They’re nimble and have a great turning radius. Carving on them is good fun. It’s a stable, smooth, fun TKP truck, with room for larger wheels. I had a lot of fun using them, and I’m glad to have them now. I’m loading them up on my Dinghy, and I think I’ll do a comparison of the Dinghy with the Polar Bear 105mm trucks and the Ace 11 trucks.

So, a just quick mini review of these trucks. They’re tall, feel balanced, and have great turn in. They’re smooth. Great carving trucks and a lot of fun to ride. They remind me of Paris’ Street Trucks or Indy’s. Just solid, smooth carving, even with the stock bushings. Although I did find some damage on those stock bushings, so Ace may want to work out their washers, which seem to contact the sides of the bushings and pinch them. I may swap them out for Bones bushings or even Paris’ bushings.

The Complete Setup

Put it all together and what do you get? A pretty fun cruiser. I found skating longer distances to be more tiring because there’s less standing room on top of the deck, especially with the foot arches. It can be uncomfortable to have part of your foot on top of that for any length of time. However, carving down hills, hopping off and on curbs, it’s all good fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the bar runs I went on with it to hang out with friends, and they complimented the design. The larger wheels seem made for NYC’s awful, cracked streets. They, like most of my wheels, hate the painted bike and bus lanes (NYC uses rough, lumpy paint that kills your speed), but the nimble trucks and short size make hopping in and out of those lanes as traffic permits easy.

It’s a good cruiser for short trips. It’s the board you take when you’re mixing skate travel and train travel, or when you’re visiting your friends for a drink or a party.

So do I prefer it over my Dinghy? No. I rode it for a few weeks without touching my Dinghy, to get a feel for it, then I hopped back on my Dinghy. I don’t know how to describe it. It felt like putting on a comfy hoodie. There was more space for my feet, despite the smaller standing platform. I felt like I had a more usable and comfortable space, and the Polar Bear trucks make the deck feel longer than it is in carves (for better or worse).

I’d say you’d prefer this over the Dinghy if you don’t move your feet a lot and like the locked in feel, or you need to use larger wheels and make use of those wheel wells. Or, you could try the experiment I did, and turn it into a surf-like carving setup.

Where In My Quiver Does This Go?

I had to ask myself, where does this fit into my quiver? I already have an everyday cruiser in the Dinghy. I’ve got a rainy day cruiser. I’ve got a Dinghy with Bennett Vector trucks. An Element street deck with Ricta Cloud wheels. And then I have all my other boards. Where does the Bustin Boards Bonsai fit?

Not where you’d expect it. One of the greatest things about the Bennett Vector trucks is the swooping, surfy feel. They have crazy turn in and can be a sometimes startling but always fun truck. However, they lean a lot. That means crazy wheel bite. But I noticed something. The Bonsai has tall wheel arches. So, I swapped the Ace trucks over to my other Dinghy deck and loaded the Bennett Vectors up on the Bonsai. Then I loosened them a bit. With a half inch soft riser, I have tons of room. I could likely be fine with a 1/4″ soft riser, and I’ll likely try that too. No wheel bite though. Now I could really lean in to the Bennett Vector trucks.

This is when it all felt like it was coming together more. The super nimble trucks, the place to lock in my back foot, the lightness of the deck, and the grip of those wheels. It all seemed to come together. I found sliding the setup, even with the same 66mm wheels, to be easier than ever. Carving was fun, even bouncy. I love the Bennett Vector trucks, but they never had a real home in my quiver because I was always nervous taking them out. They didn’t feel stable enough for the hills around me (I basically live on top of a hill). But with this slightly longer wheelbase, the lighter deck, and the added room for deeper carves, I realized it’s an incredibly fun and surprisingly controllable setup. The Bonsai made my Bennett Vectors better!

So now I’ve swapped the Ace trucks onto my Dinghy. I feel like I’ll be able to better review them now that I’ve had them on multiple setups. As for my Bonsai, it’s my new little mini shortboard, and I’m going to have a blast tackling the asphalt waves with it. It might not be my favorite cruiser board, but it found a place among them, and I’m certainly going to love riding it for many years to come. Despite so many boards in my quiver, it definitely won’t collect dust. The Bonsai is a blast.

Where Can You Get It?

Bustin Boards doesn’t exactly play nice with other parties, they don’t seem to offer their boards through local shops, at least not around me in NYC. So, my normal advice of “Go to your local shop!” just went out the window. You can’t even find them on Muirskate, Stoked, or even Zumiez! I can’t find physical locations for Bustin, but you can fortunately still buy them online. You can try your luck with a mystery box or just buy it full price from Bustin Boards’ website. It’s a fun one, and perhaps it can find a home in your quiver too. One thing I did learn: mystery boxes are a lot of fun, and a great way to get a great board without breaking the bank.