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by robert-brown 1366 days ago
Having broken a couple of kingpins at high speed on roller skates, it's definitely no fun. Unfortunately, the kingpins are under a lot of stress and they're threaded. Invariably, the break occurs on the threads.

Titanium kingpins are available for skates and skateboards, and are much lighter. I don't know if they help with breakage.

3 comments

It’s less dangerous on skateboards because they break when landing flat from drops, but it still sucks.
No, steel is harder. Titanium is lighter and very strong for its weight and also very heat resistant, but not as hard as steel
Does it actually break or just come loose? Can loctite help?
When a kingpin breaks it's almost always complete mechanical failure, e.g. it snaps in half one way or another. In addition, it's usually not possible to foresee it happening by visual inspection, the wear and tear is internal.