Looking for some guidance (help a noob)

General Discussion
1

Hello all. I’m at the point of deciding on my first purchase and need some pointers. I have been reading a lot, researching, but still have some unanswered questions.

My requirements for an eboard are minimal for performance, but are high for reliability & quality. I am 215 lbs (97 kg), 5’10" (178cm)

I need a range of 5-7 miles (8-11 km) with a top speed of 15-18 mph (24-28 kph). There are no hills in my city. I need to cruise with my son to & from school, and he’s into scooters (non motorized), so I’ll mostly be at lower cruising speeds. But it needs to be a smooth ride, the asphalt & sidewalks are rough. I have no problems riding over them with a skateboard/longboard, as long as I have soft wheels. (78-83 durometer), but the constant vibration alone will be shaking electronics.

Like I mentioned, I need something that is reliable & high quality. I want to do the least amount of maintenance necessary. I want everything to work smoothly, so I’m not constantly needing to mess with something on the drivetrain or order parts. Reliability & quality is paramount.

I’d like a kick tail, but it’s definitely NOT a requirement. I ride skateboards & longboards, very comfortable on both. So I’m good with either.

Also… Availability!!! I want something that I can order & then actually have it in 2 months. My ideal budget is the 1100-1600

Taking this all into account, I’ve come to these options:

-Evolve Bamboo -Boosted Dual (+?) -Raptor (dual?)

I know these exceed my performance criteria, but these are the ones I could find that hit my price, quality, & availability guidelines (based on what I’ve read).

The other option I have is… Build one.

Which, I think I could do. But want to stay away from soldering and special tools. Are there options for this? I know enertion sells trucks with everything pre-mounted, which is cool. But does anyone sell the battery, vesc, with everything pre-soldered? So all I need to do is plug everything in, shrink wrap/tape it, then mount everything?

So, I’d love ANY advice, recommendations, info, referrals you have. They are greatly appreciated, as is this forum. Thanks

2

This is probably Key in my mind. No judgment and see where you are coming from.

If you don’t enjoy tinkering, don’t own a soldering iron and RC car assorted tools (shrink, wires, etc.) - then DIY is probably not for you.

Your requirements are pretty straight forward. One quick question on your current longboarding in this area (on those rough streets) - what’s your setup unpowered now? That might be a good starting point to see what you’d like motorized/esk8.

With your budget, and your requirements - i’d recommend the new Dual+ (which should finally have decent range), the Evolve (newest w/ dual motors), or Raptor. In that order.

My experience besides DIY is i have a Marbel (great lightweight setup), and have ridden both the v1 Boosted Dual+ and Evolve Bamboo (just this weekend rode two). I’ve not tried a Raptor to be fair.

The reasons i recommend them in this order is the polished interface and controller. Modes allowing beginner to expert use (on the fly) - so can hand to a newbie friend who wants to try and not have them hurt themselves. Great as you start up. The Boosted in particular is great at absorbing bumps and rough roads w/ the softer duro Kegels, plus the flex of the deck. The Bamboo’s that i rode also were on kegels btw.

App is available for Boosted - unsure on evolve bamboo. Their new carbon GT is pretty sexy too, but over your budget. A feature i liked about the bamboo boards i rode - one was stock/vanilla, and the other he swapped all the electronics to a landyachtz drop deck (about .75") - which looks almost identical to the carbon (just a lot heavier). Those small drops were rock solid under my feet and felt awesome (i’m a fan of drop decks - it’s preference like asking if you like blondes vs redheads (i like both to be clear) ). A unique feature and didn’t know until this weekend’s esk8 meetup in my area.

The evolve boards are heavy though, and the older of the two bamboo boards was having some battery distance limitations from age - limited to about 8-9 mi he said. all batteries age and part of being used, but FYI.

The DIY components you can get almost all require some soldering and fiddling to get connected. Why i spotted your desire to not need tools and suggest a pre-made board.

My .02 - YMMV.

3

Awesome, thank you.

To answer your questions, what I ride now is a regular, unpowered, skateboard. All top-quality parts. I use Bones ATF wheels 60b duro wheels. I’ve tried Cadillac wheels 78a, didn’t like them.

My longboard is a penny 36". They were at Costco for $79, so I had to grab one. They came with “Abec 9” bearings (crap). Changed to Bronson speed co G3. The wheels are advertised as 83a but feel softer IMO.

The penny longboard is heavy. Almost too heavy for unpowered IMO.

And a quick FYI… My only eboard experience is the Acton Blink. I liked it. It’s a little small, wheels a bit hard, but very fun. Had no problems riding it. But then, on the 2nd day of ownership, the belt was making noise (motor-mounting was very subpar), then, the remote refused to sync.

Which is why I want quality.

4

those are both pretty short (definitely the blink) and small/hard wheels.

for really rough roads i love big wheels. Minimum 83mm, but 97’s are my favorite… For DIY at least. The 80mm kegels being a special case and quite amazing wheels.

I’m planning to get the 100mm setup on my Marbel to help tame some of the harsh ride of the stiff CF/Kevlar deck.

I might see if you can demo or test ride the Evolve or Boosted in your area. Nothing better than trying before buying.

I’ll add a 4th board to your mix - might be slightly out of your budget, but a steal at this price, with 2yr warranty: http://www.ollinboardcompany.com/product/dual-esc-integrated-power-system-longboard-deck

@chaka is an amazing builder w/ some of the top quality and innovating improvements for DIY. (cell level fuse, heatsink sandwich VESC option, etc.) Paired w/ a 2 year warranty (none of the others have this) and a stealthy in-board electronics setup… It won’t have the “modes” for handing it to a friend in a “friendly” starter mode, but does utilize (what i consider) one of the best and most reliable remotes (GT2b) in a smaller enclosure for portability.

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I think if you want something that just works, and works relatively well. I would go for a boosted or evolve, there is a reason they are the biggest names in pre-builts.

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Boosted’s Dual+ (new version) is still discounted $100 right now, so even w/ the extended range option (only version i would get) it’s $1600. With the extended battery shipping later this year.

I might take their range claim of 7mi (standard non-extended) with a grain of salt, as their marketing on the original Dual+ also claimed 6-7 miles (6mi in expert), but my experience and others is usually 4-5mi. That’s one major critque and issue i’ve had w/ Boosted. Love the board, but the range S U C K S ! ! ! Glad to see they are offering an extended range option, and from what i hear you can buy a second battery - w/ minimal tools swap to extend further. Spendy battery though.

And unrelated - great to see every single promo video from Boosted has riders wearing helmets!

7

Why not the evolve bamboo with AT tires?? Be perfect for rough roads.

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If you’re just trying to keep up with a scooter, you don’t need much power. Even at 215. I take my kid to Summer Camp on my EGO. Together + backpack, that’s around 180lbs. Small hills are not an issue.

Given your budget, I go with something better, but a Boosted single may fit the bill. It’s less expensive than the dual and would give you better range. The Evolve is more than you need and it’s also heavy. I haven’t tried the Raptor, so can’t comment.

Your other option if you go DIY is to go with a Carvon setup. You can go with a Carvon Dual V2.5. Jerry also sells the battery, VESC, and remote. All you would need is an enclosure and board.

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How old is your son? At some point he would want to rider and you’ll be the one on the scooter!

I would say get the Boosted single or dual, you can even save a bit and get the 1st gen? Basically no point spending too much if that is all you need it for. If and when your son wants to ride it you can easily change it to beginner mode.

The Blink Board was fun ( I still have mine ) but the feel of the DIY is amazing. The Boosted has been proven to be dependable with the amount of R&D and they seem to have really good customer service there.

You can always be a Landwheel guineas pig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAGJ07byXqA and then use whatever deck you want. They quoted me $799 with free shipping yesterday (lower cost if I get multiples but with a freight charge or roughly $73 per unit) and said I would get it mid September.

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Yeah that Ollin is amaizing. I love it. How soon could one get their hands on it?

11

True… But now that someone mentioned it, I think it comes down to using small wheels on my other boards. Even the penny longboard are only 69mm

12

I might hold of on these, there have been some shorting problems but they do have a warrenty…

13

Smaller is worst for ruff roads but evolve can interchange some wheels if you wanted to use normal ones.

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I’d reach out to @Chaka if that’s what you want to do. Maybe shoot him a PM or contact him via his website.

Notes on the pre-sale: Boards start shipping mid November!

Depending on influx of orders, that probably will be impacted, so being early in line might help. Realistically and have seen folks overwhelmed w/ demand and delayed their satisfying orders. Hope it’s successful for chaka and he’s able to keep up with demand.

15

Agreed - as long as your board can clear the wheels without risers (keep deck lower is better IMO), big wheels are great for rough roads!

97’s on Gbomb deep drop brackets is still my favorite setup to date. Roll over small children (unattended usually…) and bumps/cracks with ease!

16

The Best Buy down the street sells the ego 2 for $700… But I’m worried that’s going to violate my rules for high quality. I want a high quality, extremely reliable board.

The boosted single sounds great, especially for only $999… But they won’t be available for quite a while. Boosted is putting priority on dual+, then dual, then single.

Does the Carvin setup require soldering? Mellow seems like it could be cool, but is very expensive.

17

Most likely you’d still need to solder up wires/connectors and do basic assembly for any DIY setup like hubs or belt drive… The other option is to have someone build your board for you. I’m not sure if there is another member in your area who would be willing to help for some $, but that might be an option.

@longhairedboy does some amazing builds too. But he may be out of the build “game” unless you use his deck. Obviously chat with him, but maybe he’ll commend and confirm. No idea on price, but if his builds are any indication it’s top quality - so just a matter of if you like his setups. Check out the scarlet and green hornet builds!

18

I have the original EGO and the quality is surprisingly good. The EGO is pretty well known as a good no-nonsense starter board that is very reliable. Mine has taken the a serious beating going through the city and it still runs like a champ after hundreds of miles. That being said, if you have a higher budget, I would go for something with better performance.

Jerry at Carvon can probably work something out for you where you wouldn’t have to solder a thing. I would talk to him directly. Extremely helpful guy.

19

that’s more or less true. I don’t do full-on commissions on third party decks anymore but i have been known to finish up people’s builds for $$ as long as i don’t have to fab a box for them. That’s the part i don’t do. ITs just too messy and time consuming. I’ve actually had a couple of raptors that people had gathered parts for second hand or new that i completed for them. ITs interesting work. One of them had an Ollin VESC in it that they had purchased to replace the old one that i assume had blown and was the cause for the second hand sale from the original buyer. I’d also be more than happy to complete something like a Space Cell Pro build or one where they have the box already.

20

N00b here. I don’t own a soldiering iron and cant build anything. So props to all of you folks.

What I have found:

  1. Evolve Bamboo GT
  2. Boosted Dual w/ext range Batt
  3. Blink S2

Thoughts?

I like the Evolve for the performance, range, looks, and price. Its still a little less than the Boosted when adding the bigger battery.

Question: is having two motors really better than one? (Look at the performance of the new Evolve ONE board)

Does anyone know if the Blink S2 is airline compliant? (the “S” is) I know both the Boosted and Evolve are simply not due to the Watt Hours. Is Blink any good or more of a “toy”?

General thoughts and advice please and thank you.