In another of our reader reviews, Alan Newman brings us details of GI’s flagship product, the Conflict 106

As Ground Industries top of the range board, naturally my expectations were pretty high, and I wasn’t completely disappointed. The board as a whole is well above average with the only let down being the Bionic Trucks and their T3 Torsion Cube’s.

Unfortunately the trucks are a pretty big problem and the cubes are a nightmare. Firstly the provided mid-range yellow cubes are incredibly soft and offer very little stability at high speeds. They are good for carving while freeriding but again speed wobble is an issue. The main problem is that during a turn the cubes become weak and are liable to breaking (mine did after two sessions). I now have stiffer cubes and the board feels a lot better but you cannot adjust the trucks by much unless you spend more money (£20 a time) on different cubes!

In Ground Industries defence the cubes are very easy to change although why the kingpin is so over complicated I will never know.

The Conflict 106 deck is the saving grace for this board, it is very light weighing in at 0.07kg less than the FlightLite 100 (which is 6 cm shorter)and, as a whole, nearly 1kg lighter than the equivalent MBS pro set-up. The pop that you get from this board is amazing and even hitting a small bump can produce a satisfying air.

I have not had the board long enough to comment on its durability but it seems to be incredibly strong and is beautifully stiff. Best of all the graphics are gorgeous and really a mark above any other Ground Industries designs.

The Talon 2 binding are quite simply the best bindings available at the moment and after a few sessions will have shaped to your feet and offer a comfort level well above MBS F3’s. The action of the ratchet is very smooth and very easy to tighten, your feet feel secure and the strap pouch on the front is a nice touch.

The wheels and hubs and pretty standard. I have the basic Crossair Hubs the board is also available with Vegas Hubs. They seem strong enough to take some pretty major abuse and are of a similar quality to the MBS equivalent.

To sum up, The Conflict 106 would be the one of the best complete boards available if it had Scrub Channel or MBS Matrix trucks. Ground Industries has tried to hard to be innovative and have instead came up with something that is a good idea but lacking in practice. Still, I would highly recommend this board to any rider as the good points do outweigh the bad.

Manufactuers Information

Board Specs:

Length: 106cm / 41.7in

Width: 21.6cm / 8.5in

Weight: 6.39kg / 14.1lbs

Deck Construction: Heliocore Comp with V-beam Technology