The Mindless Raven Longboard is designed to deliver excellent speed whilst maintaining a good amount of response.
It's quite a bit shorter than the average longboard being just 88.3cm/ 33 inches. But the board is very wide against the length at 24.1cm/ 9.5 inches. The wheel base is 24.1cm/ 25 inches. The weight of the board is light and coupled with it's length, it is very easy to transport. The purple and black design theme and very visually bold decals are not to my taste, I prefer bright colours and designs on my boards but that's definitely a matter of personal preference.
Materials used to construct the board consist of a top layer of 5 Ply Canadian Maple Tree, the middle consists of 1 Ply fibre and the bottom layer is 1 Ply light bamboo. The wide drop through trucks are very standard 7 inch reverse kings, that get the job done well. The purple wheels are the Mindless Nimballs 71mm 83A and these are perfect for beginners and experienced Longboarders alike. The wheels provide a great deal of grip and engage with speed excellently, but lean towards being quite firm in response that is especially noticeable on textured ground. The overall build of the Mindless Raven is superb and after an intense seven months worth of usage on the streets and blasting along country roads, the board hasn't shown any signs of serious depreciation and nothing has come loose either.
But the most important question is whether it's fun to ride? And I can confirm it's an absolute blast. It's really best suited for cruising/ commuting, due to the fantastic manoeuvrability given from the flex of the deck and it's low positioning from the ground. It's silky smooth to ride and at around the £100 mark the Raven is an excellent introductory longboard for someone. It's also an ideal board to trash about a bit and not feel so bad about after. Speed can be racked up and kept easily in control on even dirt paths. Carving is what I love most about the Raven though, it's flex and responsiveness deployed from the boards length, wide deck and drop through trucks (which prevent wheel bite), has delivered one of the best carving experiences I've seen presented from a longboard in this pricing bracket. Downhill performance has also been noteworthy obviously within the carving department. Bombing hills has been possible due to the reverse pin trucks and wheels that engage and bring high speeds into a managable state and they also lend a hand in adequate sliding too.
Overall I loved the Mindless Raven Longboard. It's comfortable, ultra fast, has very liberal manoeuvrability, a superb build, is easy to transport, rocks awesome carving capabilities and is rather affordable, floating around the £100 mark. Making it an ideal Longboard purchase for those looking to cruise and carve this summer on a budget.
