The Venture 6.1’s: An Unsponsored Review

For the past six months, I’ve been skating a pair of Venture 6.1 trucks on my main setup. When I originally purchased them, I wasn’t sure what I was going to end up doing with them. I have also been a devout Independent rider. Other than Indy’s, I’ve skated Ace’s on a full time setup, but Ace’s are just a modern day Independent Indy Stage 3. In late 2022, I was going through a personal truck renaissance. After skating a pair of Independent 149 hollows for three years, I decided to move on to something new. I tried everything from Ventures, Independent Stage 7s & 8s, Krux 4.0s, Thunders, and Ace in a huge assortment of sizes. I eventually settled on Venture because of the Venue Skateboards collab that had just come out at the time.

The original idea for this review came when the Venture Loose Truck Bushing Conversion kit came out. I wanted to review the bushings and comment on how different the grind difference between the Conversions and the Stocks. These Venture 6.1s were skated with the conversion bushings from day one. The gold baseplates are from Venue’s Venture Collab, and were swapped onto the normal 6.1s.

“People write these reviews in a day… You can’t listen to an album and rate it in a day, it’s just impossible". - Jay-Z on ‘The Breakfast Club’; 2013

Before writing this, I wanted to grind my trucks down enough to expose the axel a tad bit before giving my review. A lot of skateboard product reviews I’ve seen are all short term reviews that never show the longevity and durability of a product. These trucks were skated for just over six months (still currently skating). Throughout their lifespan so far, they’ve been through four decks and two sets of wheels. This review was done 100% independently (no pun intended) and in no way sponsored by Venture or DLX.

Decks Used:

Quasi 9.0 football

Enjoi 9.0 Popsicle

Alien Workshop 8.75 Popsicle

Quasi 9.0 ‘1989’ Shape (pictured)

The Turning:

When switching to these Venture 6.1, I was only concerned about four things. The main function for a skateboard truck would be it’s turning, which was my first and main concern. I started skating these full time in January 2023, and for those who don’t know, bushings freeze and harden up during cold weather, making it impossible to turn. However, with the Loose Conversion Bushings, my board always felt loose and wobbly (in a good way) during the cold, even fresh out of the package. Luckily for me, Winter of 2023 was very light. However even with the Loose Bushings the turning and carving was nowhere near the levels of Independent or Ace. The Baseplates on Venture Trucks situate the axels further back than Independents, resulting in a wider wheelbase. Wider wheelbases result in less of a ‘surfy’ kind of turn. However, a wider wheelbase helps with reducing speed wobbles. The turning wasn’t too much of an issue, except when it came to bombing crusty hill and pumping at a skatepark. Occasionally, my trucks would take weird bounces when pumping, causing the board to turn extra sharp and shoot out from under my feet. Usually with Independent or Ace, I would always be able to save these odd bounces and ride on. With the Venture’s, I would fall about once every skatepark sesh and one out of every twenty hill bombs because of this issue. Overall, the turning is fine, but definitely takes some getting used too.

The Baseplate:

As perviously stated, one of the trucks I’ve tried out before the Venture 6.1s was the Thunder 149. One huge issue I had with the Thunders were the baseplate, and how it doesn’t connect on Noseslides and Tailslides. My second huge concern was if Venture had the same issue. The short answer, NO, not at all. Even with 55MM wheels, I can still connect baseplate on my slides. My wheels do not come out of slides coated in wax causing me to spin out like I would with Thunder. My slides were silky smooth, but would be better if I skated smaller wheels. My favorite part of the entire truck was how large the baseplate of the truck was. The inside of the baseplates stick out to the point where mine became grooved over time due to the abrasion during boardslides. I LOVE it, and when your baseplates start to groove down, they really improve your boardslides. Even with larger wheels, the inside of the baseplates lock in perfectly, making that beautiful sound of when rail boardslides and grinding combine. My boardslides improved dramatically.

While on topic of baseplates and wheelbases, a longer wheelbase improves your pop. With that being said, skating 9.0 decks can get heavy. However, with the Venture 6.1s, your 9.0 feel much smaller due to the wheelbase. My pop dramatically increased. With larger Independent trucks, my pop sucks. I would fire blanks in terms of my ollie all the time. With Venture, I’m ollieing higher than ever.

Grinding & Durability:

My third concern about the Venture 6.1s were how they grind and the durability of these trucks, and how many grinds I can ultimately pull off. This is Venture’s catch 22. It took me just over six month to hit axel, a very short time to hit axel in comparison to Independent. These trucks were skated roughly 35% metal coping, 30% slappy curbs, 15% brick surfaces, 10% pool coping, and 10% other random surfaces. In comparison, I have a pair of Independent Stage XI’s I’ve been skated for roughly 2.5 years, skating much rougher surfaces, and the Independents still aren’t nearly as close to the axel as my Ventures are. With this being said, grooves form pretty easily. My trucks were rotated once, during the start of my third deck. Once the trucks were grinded flat, 5-0 and feeble grinds can take shape within a single session. As pictured below, my 5-0 grooves (both transition and street) and noticeably visible and help improve said grind nicely.

The actual grinding of the truck is top tier, and can compete with the best brands. Unlike certain brands, the Venture 6.1 has a smooth grind with a huge amount of grind clearance. This grind clearance is greatly improved by the loose conversion bushings. Even while currently grinding on my axel, I’m barely hitting my kingpin. The only times I grind on my kingpin are on Feebles and Smiths and grinds on Up-Curbs and certain uneven curbs. With lack of kingpin interference, grinds can go on forever.

The last thing I was worried about when switching to Venture was the height of the trucks. The height of trucks like Thunders completely turned me off of lower trucks. Standard Venture Trucks stand at 53.5MM, while Independent sits at 55MM and Thunder sit at 51MM. Thunders were so low to the point where I would constantly spin out after landing grinds due to wheelbite. Independent trucks would next to almost never wheelbite out of a grind. Venture trucks have the occasional wheelbite spinout, but at the end of the day it’s much more tolerable than Thunders. If you also worry about your truck’s height, Venture is a safe bet.

Overall Opinion:

My overall opinion of the Venture 6.1 is it’s a fantastic truck with tons of pros and next to no cons. If you’re looking to other trucks in the wake of Independent moving to China, Venture is a good substitute. The only real con to Ventures is the durability, but personally, I wouldn’t mind switching trucks every eight months or so to get the same experience. If I were to rate the Venture on a scale from 1-10, I would give them a 9.3.

Lately, I’ve noticed a lack of 6.1 Venture trucks coming out in production lines. Luckily for me, I have another pair to replace these once they die. However, with lack of 6.1 in production lines and in stock at Skateshops, is DLX trying to phase out the Venture 6.1? Time will tell.