I’m in Melbourne. I would like to get a dual motor setup. We have some hills here that I don’t trust a single motor AT setup for. I’ve seen several Evolve GTs going around doing them without much issue, so that’s why I’m sort of looking at a setup like that. No use reinventing the wheel so to say.
@Grozniy, you’re definitely right about that, but I’d like to adhere to a budget.
I looked at your thread and saw mention of TE37s and knew I had to pay attention 
Your build is awesome and I think exactly what I’m looking at doing, minus the fancy things like the display on the board and stuff. Do you have trouble getting up any of the hills around the cbd?
The one Hill in the CBD, Collins Street lol. I used to have an evolve carbon gt. It used to eat that hil easily. Locks board would easily go up it faster ( from looking at his parts)
See, if I ever need to justify my esk8 costs, I just remember that my total build cost less than a set of car wheels 
. Used to do car stuff, now that was an expensive hobby!
I’ve not tried, but as @electrickiwi mentioned there’s really not much in the way of hills in the CBD. I’ve gone up similar near home and haven’t really felt limited by the board.
I love cars and bikes, and own several, but for some reason I just can’t justify the cost of genuine wheels to myself, haha. Looked at getting Gram Light 57Xtremes, but rather got myself a completely other motorcycle for not that much more
I’m used to the flatness of the Netherlands, so even the Melbourne hills seem significant to me. Good to know I don’t have to worry! 
If your looking for a kaly like board have a look at trampa boards UK they come to you in as a kit here’s a pic of 1 I’m doing a few small upgrades on
I had a bad fall a few weeks ago so my confidence levels are low but I hit 23.5 mph and it will do more Specs are 12s lipo.118 kv Trampa motor… I didn’t like this when it was dropped here for upgrades after doing a few bits to it I love it … Also I have a kaly xl Carver on order
Thanks mate. Hope you’re alright. I want an AT board to reduce the risk of falling. I have no interest in going 25 miles per hour. I would already feel unfortable on a bicycle at that speed, let alone a board. 15 miles per hour or something is plenty, maybe 20 on a good road. I’ll only be doing a few miles at a time. It’s not a race. I have two motorcycles if I want blurred vision
I’ll get a Trampa board for sure if I build something. Just hate their battery enclosure idea. I think I’ll send a message to @Kaly to see if he’ll sell his enclosures separately.
Good luck on the new build!
Trampa do a undertray its needs to be made flexible and is very workable and cheap
@Thijsvr I gone and build myself a DIY travel trampa while waiting for my Kaly Carver XL. More details here:http://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/trampa-travel-board/46346
I don’t think top mounted battery have to be ugly (and tbh, its a softpack so I can also strap it onto the bottom). There are quite a bit of advantages with top mount too. I certainly wont ride my kaly down the curb (expensive and worried about bottoming out) This baby however…
Hey bud, don’t want to toot my own horn but while you’re looking at all options, you should consider this as well in your DIY options build kit. Cheers,
There are a lot of evolve customer service horror stories around the internet, but they actually took care of me. I have never really had remote issues, but my deck cracked twice and they easily could have refused to replace it, but they replaced it both times it cracked. New one now has 1500+ miles on it with no issues.
I literally have thousands of miles on my CGT. I say you pick up an evolve to ride in the meantime while you build your custom dream board 
That’s a horn deserving some tooting you have there my friend! Beautiful design.
I run into the same issue I always do, and that is that I don’t seem to be able to come to a total costing that comes close to the price of a GTX.
All below prices are in Australian dollars:
Board + enclosure: $460
Trucks (MBS Matrix 2) + wheels (MBS Rockstar 2 + tires): $265
2x FOCBOX Enertion speed controller: $405
2x motors: $200
Complete 10S2P + charger + BMS: $400
Controller: $100
Complete mounting kit: $380
Random bits and pieces: $100
Total: $2,300 This doesn’t include shipping which would likely be another $200.
Even if I were to take some seriously cheaper bits like cheaper VESCs and use a complete Trampa board instead of the LaCroix Boards solution, I’m still around the $2,000 mark excluding any shipping costs. A new Evolve GTX AT is $1,800 to get to my doorstep before the weekend. I understand that it’s not exactly the same as a high performance DIY board, but it’s significantly less money for a brand new board that does come with warranty, that comes from a well known brand and that I don’t have to assemble myself with the risk of things like frying the VESCs. Even an Enertion Raptor 2 is only $2,050 and still cheaper than the above 6355 + 10S2P build.
I understand the advantages of a DIY build and would really enjoy putting in the work, but from a financial perspective it just doesn’t seem like the smartest choice if the main goal is to simply get a fun, working board that doesn’t need to be the fastest one out there.
I would love to be told I’m completely off the mark here with my numbers as all these DIY builds are gorgeous, but I keep coming to this conclusion every time I make the calculation (which I’ve done countless times over the past year or so), but I’m afraid Evolve’s are just pretty good value.
Yep, those numbers look good (well not good, but expected ). And I don’t think you’d be happy with a 10S2P battery…
Evolve and their economy of scale are hard to beat from a cost perspective. FWIW I’d like to spend some time on one just to give me some perspective on my DIY build. I probably would have bought one, certainly spent time looking at them, but in the end decided I wanted to make something. Tough call.
Yeah. It doesn’t help that I’m completely new to electric skateboards. Similar to you I think after having checked your thread. I just enjoy longboarding, but am getting tired of the pushing
The Trampa/MBS builds look super impressive. So much cooler than anything off the shelf. That’s why I want one. If I was going to ride serious distances every day I think they’re definitely worth the money, but this is more of a fun kind of thing for when I’m to lazy to cycle to work.
Honestly I had expected DIY prices to come down a bit further since I originally started looking at these things 2 years or so ago. It seems however quality and user friendliness has gone up (FOCBOX, pre-built enclosures, direct drive kits), but prices have more or less stayed the same. And at the same time, being in Australia, the Evolve’s are priced pretty well here (they’re 2300 AUD in the US vs 1800 AUD here).
Time for some long hard thinking. Do I really need a top of the line board while having two liter bikes and a good car in the garage?
Thanks mate. Yeah they sell heaps, and obviously you only hear about the problem cases. Might have to be a bit more open minded towards Jeff and co.
LOL, you know it doesn’t work like this 
. That just means you’re more likely to spend up big on other toys. If you’re thinking pre-built, why stop at Evolve, for an extra couple hundred you could grab a BajaBoard and pick it up from the factory direct (Melb based).
Haha, yeah I’ve seen those. But might as well get a car then
Sucks that I’m now getting this video in my feed: https://youtu.be/TzI0AtsogOk … Fuckers, this is not helping me going for a sensible choice
Had an evolve CGT. Sold it after two months. I could tell the quality control was not as good as it should be. Low and behold after selling a month later. A motor controller failed. I also had issues with dropout on the remote. But for a starter board and getting something that is plug and play. Pre-built is the way to go.
But I am diy minded and I don’t regret the money I have spent on my failures of building boards recently. If you went Kaly style, you will have a top of line board you won’t easily get over like a pre built. But you may have to tinker with it a lot to keep it going. Tightening bolts etc etc
It all depends on how much you like working on something. If you don’t like fixing things then pre-built way to go. Diy if you want to get the best of what style you want but be prepared to fix it, a lot!
