The Mindless Rogue is one of the cheapest longboards on the market, retailing at just £59.95. We have ridden and reviewed longboards that have retailed for several times its price, so this was an interesting journey.
The board's deck is a stubby pintail in shape and has a shallow concave which locks the feet in rather comfortably. It's on the shorter side of the pintail longboard spectrum, measuring 38 inches in length, 9.75 inches in width and the board has a wheel base of 28.2 inches. It's constructed from 9ply 100% maple and is very rigid, sporting literally no flex. It's very strong and doesn't chip and scratch easily from intense impact and pressure.
This is the 2013 Mindless Rogue, which essentially means it has a new graphic. The art on the bottom of the deck allows the maple to be visible and is tribal themed. It's available in red and green; we think the red has the edge. The new artwork doesn't resemble the previous edition of the board's pinstriped artwork in any way and we definitely think it's a welcome and more creative improvement. The top of the deck is unchanged, it's covered in Jessup grip tape and has two cutout pinstripes that run along the middle. The tape is of a good quality and has an OK amount of grip which hasn't worn down greatly from prolonged usage.
The biggest flaw we spotted immediately after riding the Rogue were the 6 inch Star Raw trucks Mindless decided to implement on the complete setup. They were initially terrible, allowing only slim and challenging steering! We found the cause of the issue to be the 95A HR bushings within the trucks and we swapped them out for some much softer offerings, which retailed for a mere £5. This solved our troubled steering and we scratch our heads to why Mindless decided to include such hard bushings in the first place? However, we did feel that the Seagull trucks were slightly flawed regardless, by the fact that they were too small, making the wheels feel a tad too close together, mildly jeopardising balance. The deck is slightly raised which provides more of a floaty feel. It's raised because each truck has a 8mm rubber edge rider pad; these try to prevent wheel bite (but unfortunately this board does suffer from this anyway) and they also reduce the chances of the deck cracking, too.
The wheels are the 70mm x 42mm Mindless Team's. They're rounded and hard, measuring 80A and coupled with the rigid stiff deck the package doesn't absorb rough surface texture very well. It feels like riding a plank of wood when cruising along pot-holed roads and textured sidewalks. This wasn't very enjoyable and hindered the riding style. The wheels are not great at sliding, so attempting to slide can be successful but very jittery due to the shape and hardness of the wheels. But beginners are of course not going to be riding this board in such scenarios, so this can be excused.
Cruising and going in a general straight line, with soft steering, on the smooth open flat is where this board excels. And for beginners that's all you really need. The Fracture Abec 5 bearings within the wheels don't really attempt to keep speeds sustained and for a beginner this might be beneficial for staying in control. We also wouldn't recommend sidewalk cruising as the board isn't capable of tight manoeuvring in and out of obstacles. One thing we saw a few people mention online was that the Rogue is incapable of going in a straight line because the trucks were wonky, we have to say that this definitely wasn't the scenario with our 2013 complete setup.
Riding the Rogue down the local slopes was acceptable. In no way would we bomb down very steep hills and slopes on the Mindless Rogue, but mellow slopes were handled OK on the board. Around 30mph is the fastest speed we could rack up and feel safe at. Unfortunately carving is all a bit lifeless due to the baggy trucks.
As far as tricks go the Rogue has advantages because it incorporates a rear kick tail and overhanging front nose. So manuals and shuvits are smoothly achieved. Cross stepping and dancing is a little restrictive on 38" inches but nevertheless plausible. Bolder tricks which involve handling the board mid-air and flipping it should be written off as this is a weighty board, coming in at around 3.1kg/8.4lbs. It's not too hefty or big to carry around and commute with though.
The Mindless Rogue's main intention is to be an affordable longboard for novice beginners to learn the basics on and then jump up to something which will tap into some of the real thrills of longboarding, and it serves this purpose well. Experienced longboarders will find the character of the Rogue's riding style dull. Yes, you could upgrade the trucks and wheels and still have a board that's under £100, but then you'll begin to get tired of the rigid deck, which shares hectic feedback with the rider. And by the time you've finished tweaking, you wouldn't have the Rogue anymore.
To sum up the Mindless Rogue Longboard, we would say it's an ideal stepping stone entry for beginners. A board you can trash about a bit without leaving a mark on your conscience afterwards.
