On a bright and sunny day in the 1960s, the playground is teeming with life as the air rings with the joyous laughter and playful screams of children. You spend your day basking in the thrills of swings that take you higher and higher, seesaws that bounce you up and down, and monkey bars that challenge your climbing skills. As you look around, you see some kids busy with hopscotch, jump rope, or tag, while others are having a blast on the merry-go-round. As the sun begins to set, you and your buddies head to the nearby soda shop for a refreshing treat. The classic root beer float is always your go-to drink, with its foamy root beer mixed with creamy vanilla ice cream making for a delightful, refreshing blend. You all sit outside on the patio, savoring the deliciousness, and reflecting on the great time you had on the playground, feeling happy and content with the perfect ending to a fun-filled day.
Hi there, I'm PuNkShoO, designer of the Gateron Cream Soda, Aflion Melody, and Aflion Runner switches. Today I am here to introduce my latest Gateron design, the Root Beer Float. Since the release of the Cream Soda one of the main questions I received was “Will there be a tactile version?”. Well I can finally say that, yes, there is a tactile version and it's a banger.
The Root Beer Float pairs the same wonderful housing material combination of Ink bottom and Milky top which are used in the Cream Sodas. However, with this design we introduce a new Ink material long pole tactile stem into the mix to spice things up a bit. This stem is the first of its kind and only the 2nd ever Ink material stem used outside of the North Poles. This material is harder than POM and when combined with the new longer pole gives a nice crisp bottom out on the keypress.This is accomplished while retaining the smoothness we love from Ink material and there is no slip stick on the polished Ink Oil King style bottom housing mold.
This time I also opted for a slightly different spring in order to emphasize the tactility of the switch. While the new gold plated dual stage spring does have a lighter bottom out at 58g, it allows for the nice medium-heavy bump of the switch to shine with the peak tactility coming in around the same as the bottom out force of the Cream Sodas. This results in a typing feel that is more aggressive than the Runner switches but a more comfortable typing experience vs other more sharper tactiles. It really is a nice sweet spot.
Lastly, another popular request for Cream Sodas was for an unlubed version. While I understand the demand and necessity in the upper echelon of enthusiasts, having an unlubed variant was not only counter to the design intentions of Cream Sodas but also more difficult to achieve due to splitting SKUs. However, the opportunity was realized here with the Root Beer Floats due to the simple nature of boutique tactile switches. Each of us have our own desired way of tuning our tactiles to our feel preferences and it was a priority of mine to make sure that this was taken into account for this design. As such, Root Beer Floats come as a completely unlubed sandbox for each of us to tune to our heart’s desire.
Switch Specs:
Tactile Milky Top Housing Gateron Long Pole Ink Material Stem Ink Bottom Housing 58g Bottom Out 62g Tactile Peak 22mm Gold Plated Long Spring 3.5mm Travel Expected Price: 70-75c
What does the bump feel like? The bump is a bigger rounded bump. It is in the same family as Gateron Blizzard, Baby Kangaroo, SolDark Tactile, etc. See force curve for details and check out reviews for more insights.
Will you offer pre-lube? Tactiles are a funny beast. Lubing them can alter their performance in many ways and most tactile enjoyers in the enthusiast space have a preferred method of lubing. Because of this, I decided to offer these unlubricated so that each person can customize these to their preferrence. Due to the Ink material stem on the Ink material bottom using a polished mold the rails are already quite smooth. I am not opposed to offering prelubed in future runs in the demand is high enough but I do have concerns about reduced tactility if/when lubricant migrates to the stem legs.
Is there going to be fancy collector packaging? That is entirely up to vendors. At the moment there is no plan for packaging but, as with all my designs, I am having a sticker design commissioned so that if vendors opt to purchase and distribute them they can.
Price is kind of high. Why is that? You know the old "I know what I got?" Yeah, Gateron "knows what they go" and they change a premium for it. Anything Ink adjacent carries an Ink tax. The price for these switches was originally 25% higher but through negotiations we were able to get the price where you find the Soda Shop switches at today.
Is this a group buy or in-stock? These will be in-stock just like Cream Sodas. So long as these are received well Gateron and I will make sure that both Cream Sodas and Root Beer Floats will have better availability to vendors to reduce gaps in stock availability.
Reviews and Coverage Coming Soon!
Alexotos Georen Gokving ItsFirewire Kimlynnwin Nainaigogo PuNkShoO RandyOcean Starfirepenguin SwitchDoctorAU Tofu_Types …more to come
