TSI Flight 19 Deck
I just got this deck 2 days ago, and rode some flat/street the first day, and went to skatebarn for 3 hours today, and im totally used to it now and will be able to write a legit review.
Price: The price on most decks may be a little high for most youngsters in the sport. I ordered mine from titetoyz.com, which was 10 more dollars then what you would be paying for the deck on the TSI website, which is $149 for the 19 standard, $159 for the 20 standard, and between $169-179 for the integrated models. These are all very good prices when you look at all the other decks in the scooter industry considering these decks do come with a flexfender.
Grinds: I will be writing this coming from a TSI Freeflow 1, so first off i am going to say this deck grinds incredibly. I thought my old TSI grinded well, but this thing is amazing. I think it is the best thing about the entire deck, because its just so smooth and fast on everything. There is a sketchy downrail that i usually would get caught on on my old TSI, but on the Flight, i just floated up it as an uprail like butter. It was awesome. The bottom also has concave, which not only reduces the wear and tear because only a little bit of the deck is touching when you grind, but also makes it slide super fast because not the whole bottom is touching.
Weight: The weight of the deck is around 3.5 - 3.8 pounds (im not sure), but either way it feels MUCH lighter than my old TSI. It is much more balanced which makes everything come a lot easier, and it whips so much faster/easier. If you are worried about the weight of the deck, dont. It is awesome.
Park Feel: I rode this thing on a lot of different park features at skatebarn, and i must say it feels a lot better than i expected, being the 19 long. I was a bit scared on the bigger park at first because its so short, but it worked out very well, just as well as my 20 long freeflow did, even better. I aired higher than i ever had before, which was a good 4-5 feet over coping on this mini pipe, and that was a great feeling.
On the smaller park, every other deck was out of the question. This thing whips so well, combos and everything are just so easy. Its very short, which is a very good thing when it comes to techier stuff.
Street/Tech/Flat feel: So i pretty much busted out so many first tries, that i had never tried before on flat, and landed them. It might just be because its a flight 19, but i instantly progressed on flat. The deck is meant for "street", and when i took it to a couple ledges and stuff, I felt at home.
Geometry: 19 long, 4.75 wide at the front, and then in the middle to the back it tapers to 4.5, which makes this thing whip like none other. The headtube angle is 81, but it feels about 82, and I couldnt really tell the difference between that and my friends flight 20, which has an 83. To me, these are winning measurements of an all around deck.
Concave: This was one of the main things i realized when i pulled it out of the box. My old TSI had 3*, same with phoenixs/districts, and if you have ever seen those you know its hard to tell from the naked eye. Not this one, each side is almost like a ramp, and you can EASILY see it. When you put your feet sideways, they dont come off. It has to at least 6*-8* of concave, if not more. It doesnt take much getting used to, it just makes riding a whole lot easier.
Looks: Some people say the old TSI's looked ugly. Although this thought never really came to my mind, when I saw this flight, I almost came. If you cut the griptape right, then the TSI logo in the middle looks soooo sick. You wont stop looking at it lol. And if you look at the back, where the dropouts are, they almost look like a flower. There are a lot of other little things that make this thing a beauty, like the rounded bottom, the holes on the side, and how the headtube caves in.
Installation: I normally just hammer in my cups, but i absolutely could not do it with this deck it was so bad. I tried everything with that hammer, so i finally took it to a bike shop to get them to press it in since i dont have a vice. The back wheel is the same as the old TSI's, except somehow the washer on mine went in a lot easier on this deck than the old one, probably because it was brand new. I had no trouble installing the back wheel, when I usually have to take 30 minutes to do it on my old TSI. The griptape was very hard to put on, because of the tapering, the concave, the design on the top, and you have to cover the whole thing to make it look clean.
Downsides: There are very, very few cons to this deck. The main one is that the sides come out so far, and are a little sharp, which makes fingerwhips terrible. I cut my hand today doing fingerwhips, and they are my favorite trick. I do not suck at them, i can do them super well. Other than that, see installation, and that the 19 long might not be your cup of tea if you cant get used to things easily.
OVERALL: This deck is by far the best deck i have ever had, and i have had a lot of decks. I would recommend it to anyone, coming from any deck. The thing the 19 long is the best at is Street, flat, and smaller park. If your into heavy vert flowing, and big flyboxes, look into the flight 20 instead. I have to applaud TSI on this deck. It is really amazing.
Sorry for the super long review lol.
Decks pictured are all versions of the flight deck, not the 19 standard though. Looks the same so whatever lol
