Deck

The deck forms the body of the skateboard and providesa place to stand. It is covered with grip tape(silicon carbide grit on a self adhesive backing),which provides traction for the skateboarder's feet.The first decks were usually made from solid oak orash, and hand-shaped by their owners. Shelves, drawersand table-tops were often used by the first teenageskaters to build their decks.

Trucks

Attached to the deck are two metal (usually aluminumalloy) trucks, which connect to the wheels. The trucksare further composed of two parts. The top part of thetruck is screwed to the deck and is called thebaseplate, and beneath it is the hanger. Between thebaseplate and the hanger are bushings, also rubbers orgrommets, that provide the cushion mechanism forturning the skateboard. The bushings cushion the truckwhen it turns. The stiffer the bushings, the morestable the skateboard. The softer the bushings, theeasier it is to turn. A bolt called a kingpin holdsthese parts together and fits inside the bushings.Thus by tightening or loosening the kingpin nut, thetrucks can be adjusted for steer.

Wheels

The wheels attach to each hanger. The wheels,usually made of polyurethane, come in many differentsizes and shapes to suit different types of skating.Larger sizes like 65-90 mm roll faster, and also movemore easily over small cracks in pavement. Smallersizes like 48-54 mm keep the board closer to theground and require less force to accelerate but alsomake for a slower top speed.

Bearings

A skateboard wheel uses two precision ball bearings ofthe type '608' (8 mm internal bore). Many skateboardbearings are graded according to the ABEC scale, whichgoes from 1-9, in odd numbers. It is a commonmisconception that higher numbers are better forskateboarding. The ABEC rating only measurestolerances which does not necessarily apply tobearings used for skateboarding. The ABEC rating doesnot determine how fast or how durable a bearing usedfor skateboarding will be.



Mounting Hardware

Mounting hardware is a set of eight 10-32 bolts,usually a truss head, and matching self-lock nylocknuts. They're used to attach the trucks to the board.