Hi Guys,
@bill_f 's two wheeler build thread reminded me about vertigo’s build I saw while ago on ES forum, and few days earlier I realised I just have ESC, 25H sprockets, motor and good battery cells laying around my shop. I decided to give this idea a try, I ordered Trampa Hypa hubs, as this build was supposed to be “budget” and “use what You have” parts only. I did quick sketch of parts, as Vertigo’s build is perfectly documented it wasn’t so hard, some dimensions are different, like my deck width is 174mm to accommodate 150mm long lipo cells, thus front linkages are a bit longer too. The deck and integral battery and esc compartment are made out of material known to knife and gun nuts as G10 which is simply glass fiber laminate, top deck is 5mm thick, sidecovers and bottom is 3,5mm black G10 I had laying around my shop.
And now plot twist, are parts are HAND not CNC made, I cut them rougly to shape using paper templates on my bandsaw, then either milled them to required shape or ground on my knifemaking belt grinder.
(don’t worry about the gaps between shoulder bolt heads and bushing, there will be custom, turned out of titanium bushings, I have them ready)
(axles are made out of titanium )
As I don’t have 10S battery charger and wanted this board to run on 10S voltage, I decided to split the battery pack into two 5S2P packs, connected via loop key to 10S2P pack when board is powered on.
When loop key is taken out it’s possible to charge and balance two 5S2P packs separately (I have turnigy reactor quadcore charger, it supports up to 6S).
I made special charging harness, and it uses 12 pin binder 680 series connector for balancing and charging.
Everything inside is packed pretty tight, as this build was planned around components I had.
Now aluminium parts need just some finishing and bead blasting and then I can get them anodized black.
This should be fun to ride!
I just had first test drive, holy fuck this thing is scary It’s like walking the line except you go a little bit faster I wouldn’t dare to go on this on public road, for me, for now it’s too wobbly. I spent first 10 minutes trying to start riding on this thing, it requires a little training. Even now, sitting and writing this my body feels like it’s balancing to stand on this thing.
ah too bad it is so difficult to ride this thing… I was really putting hope into this that it might prove to be a useful concept for taking sharp turns and being stable at speed mh
So assume 3 wheeler is then the best choice to get best…
I think that bigger wheels would help a lot, they would generate gyro effect like in bikes for example, converting or building something like dirt surfer would be a better option in my opinion, this will remain a kind of oddity vehicle in my collection I’ll try to learn how to ride it better tho!
I’m not an engineer, just speculating, but it looks like your caster design is flat. If you look at something like a yiiboard or rip stick you’ll see that the caster is located under the axel in a way so at rest it wants to center and straighten the wheel. I feel like with your interesting caster design, if you pitched the mechanism up that would lower the board (may have to adjust for clearence) but it should make the board want to go straight and make it more stable
I was hoping this thing was going to perform a little better. Vertigo never wrote much about performance. Maybe it’s like a snowboard—it takes a while to learn, but then it’s awesome (hopeful thinking). In Vertigo’s ride vid, it looks pretty rideable. That vid is what convinced me to make it. ('m sure you’ve seen it. Just posting for others.)
I’m wondering what would happen if the front axle was moved further back. (Would require creating new blocks, plus you will soon run out of room and hit the deck.) I’m guessing it would be more stable but less agile… always a trade-off. Vertigo wrote about building some adjustability into the design. Some way to slide front axle back or change rake angle, etc. would be interesting. Sounds like you’re looking for more stability at this point.
Maybe grind down the struts where they are hitting the ground on turns for more clearance?
Probably not too hard with your skills, to make it into a scooter, if needed.
Keep us posted on your ride progression and post some vids! I’m still waiting for shoulder bolts from China.
Good observation. I believe it has a 15 degree rake (assuming OP went with the same numbers as Vertigo’s). Maybe it could use more? Or maybe the axle could be a little further back, effectively lowering it more.
Yeah I went with the same geometry Vertigo did, I think that it’s just a matter of this steering design, angle is 15 degrees in my case too, after all I WAS able to ride it after a few tries. I just scaled it up a little bit to accommodate 24mm wider deck (longer links), that might not helped (but that would be exactly opposite as I thought, I lowered center of gravity and moved front axle a little bit up). I’ll take another test ride today, maybe that just was a matter of my stance, with feet perpendicular to long axle of the board, I see vertigo placed front foot more parallel to this axle
If this won’t be ridable I was thinking about converting it to something like dirt surfer, with 16" wheels, they would allow to get more clereance, and dirtsurfer seems super stable.
It would be a shame to waste such beautiful and sleek deck with integrated battery compartment
Ok Guys, today I took second test ride and hit that throttle a little bit harder, and this thing became rideable. With speed this vehicle gains stability, it has to do with wheels gyro effect, it’s quite interesting to ride at 30-40 km/h. Anyway, video is worth one thousand words
I don’t know this stuff very well, it’s just my random thoughts, But I don’t think adding more speed caused it to be more stable because of a gyroscope effect. I don’t know much about the gyroscope effect but I thought you need a good deal of mass to be spinning for it to work and these wheels seems small. (bikes have small mass but big wheels so the weight is far from the pivot, motorbikes has heavy wheels) I think it’s more path of least resistance. You adding more velocity in a forward direction, made the front wheel want to be pointed forward because there is less resistance.
I guess we’ll never know for 100% Anyway it’s clear it gets more stable at speed.
I just bead blasted parts, decided to anodize them as I have new motor mounts for my longboard ready as well and company that’ll do this for me wouldn’t take such small comission.
This two wheeler is fun to ride it fast on nice road and I intend to use it for pure entertainment
Very nice! I can see as you’re riding it that it does not seem very stable. But you are showing it is ridable. I wonder if it’ll get easier to ride with time or if that’s as good as it’s going to get. You’re also getting what looks like good performance from that single motor. Well done.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks! I think it’s a matter of training and getting used to this board.
I’ll probably try lengthening front wheel mounting block, thus moving front wheel a little bit more back, and then test if this will improve performance or not.
It’s definitely an interesting concept that Vertigo showed us all, and something “different” among all of those electric skateboards
(don’t worry about the gaps between shoulder bolt heads and bushing, there will be custom, turned out of titanium bushings, I have them ready)
(axles are made out of titanium 
)
It’s like walking the line except you go a little bit faster 
