Hey guys! Was looking for a faster board with good acceleration and came across this kit http://www.diyeboard.com/10s2p-battery-esc-dual-motor-belt-drive-power-truck-kit-8352-p-611.html?zenid=m209t16637s2ncif1e59s2qt32.
I placed an order on the 23 October and received all the parts by the 9 November. You get 2 packages , one package that is sent with DHL that contains the hardware and one package that is sent by UPS that contains the battery pack. The package for DHL arrived 1 week earlier than the battery pack.
The first impression of the kit was that it looked very well made for the price.
The parts waiting for installation. I choose to use a madrid weezer deck (120$ complete) , it’s about 94cm long and has medium flex.First thing that i did was drilling the holes for the cases , i did pu the cases at the very end of the deck to get the most flex out of the board.
Then i used a dremel to cut a line for the cable.After i installed the cable i mounted the grip tape, this because i want the bolts to be above the grip tape and not under (for easy removal).
Next thing was to install the trucks, cases and screws, this was a easy. The only thing that took some time was getting all the motor wires to fit in the esc case, i had a lot of cable left since i installed the case very close to the motors.
One more thing! I also installed a more accurate battery indicator that shows voltage and battery percentage. Can be found on ebay, just search for “Battery indicator Lithium ion”. Was around 8$.
The result , total weight of the board is 6.2kg
Testride.
Before i get into the test ride lets go thru the specs.
- Motors are 1400 x2 (270kv)
- Battery is the LG MF1 cells 10s2p (158wh)
- Board has 3 speed modes on the controller (the new version controller)- Pro mode - 39km/H (Crazy acceleration up to top speed) Medium mode- 37-38km/H (Smooth acceleration that increases after you reach 20km/h) Beginner mode - 20km/h (Balanced acceleration)
- Wheels are 83mm and gearing is 12t-36t , 5mm pitch.
"EDIT" I updated the gearing to 13t-35t and can now reach 3km/h more than before. Top speed is now 42km/h. All kits are delivered with the new gearing (13-35) from now on.
The first test i did was in pro-mode, was very surprised of the acceleration, its very fast. The sound it makes while accelerating is awesome, the sound of power! I was riding full throttle 90% of the time with a top speed of 38-39km/h, board was very stable, i had to tighten the trucks a bit but that’s a easy fix. After 7-8 km riding at full speed (constantly) the board started beeping while accelerating hard, i knew that the battery was finished.
Another good thing that i love is that you can change modes when riding, no need to stop or turn the board off.Battery and voltage sag. At 100% down to 70% the board runs the best, acceleration is superfast and you can reach 39km/h fast! Below 70% the acceleration drops some (hardly noticeable) but still managed to get to 37km/h. When at 30 - 0 % acceleration is still good (still faster than my backfire 2 in fast mode) and top speed drops to 34-35km/h.
Was surprised that i could reach over 30km/h even when the indicator showed 6% left. The Esc cuts the power when at 30.4V and starts beeping at 31.2V. Charging from Fully empty took 2hours and 30min.
Range (tested below 10 Celsius) Pro mode: 7-9km Medium mode : 9-11 km (theoretical, not tested yet) Beginner mode: 11-13km (theoretical, not tested yet)
Note: I orderd a Sanyo 10s2p (8.5ah) from darkkevind that im going to be using on this kit to give me some more range. Will do a update once range/performance is tested on the Sanyo pack.
Cons/negatives
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The stock battery indicator on the board and remote don’t work (Luckily i installed aftermarket one). Diyeboard.com said its normal that electronics like this fail because of vibration (Been riding smooth roads only and it didn’t work the first ride i took). DIYEboard didn’t seem to do anything about it or solve the issue, the answer i got was that it “normal”.
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Wheel bearing in the pulley. My bearing failed after a ride, lucky me that i found it just in time and not at 39km/h. The kit uses a flanged/lipped bearing that holds the pulley in place so it cant be replaced with a standard one.
According to Diyeboard there was a bad batch of bearings that caused it to fail, they have now changed the bearing to a higher quality one to solve the issue. I don’t know if it a successful fix yet since i only been able to ride about 3 charge cycles since i installed a new pulley bearing (still using the old one but Jason will ship new higher quality bearing soon). Edit: I received the new bearings from Jason and i had no issues with failures so far with the new pulley bearing.
Pros/positive Customer service. (Best I’ve experienced) Here is where DIYeboard.com shines compared to many other Esk8 brands. They reply very quickly to customers, even on weekends. You can tell that they want to have satisfied customers and tries to do everything to make it a reality. Jason seems to be a hard working man and tries his best on making you happy with your purchase. The English can sometimes be an issue but all miscommunication been sorted in the end. I think that in 2018 Diyeboard.com will compete with the bigger brands since they are providing a lot of different products and are evolving fast. They seem to listen to customers criticism and are always looking to improve their products.
Overall performance The kit performance (Motors, braking, acceleration) is very good, and it’s as fast as they advertised on the website. Total weight of the kit is also very low compared to other brands. It rides super nice and is very responsive when in fast mode.
I will update the review frequently as i get more mileage on the board. Updates will arrive in the following order
100km - Update review 500km - Update review 1000km - Update review
If you have any questions please let me know =) And for the record im not in Diyeboard.com affiliates program.
Videos of the kit