PSA: Do not buy Evolve 97mm wheels

While the Evolve 97mm wheels look totally badass, they have a couple major flaws with them.

  1. The hubs are center set. This combined with a wider contact patch leaves regular ABEC pulleys like the Enertion pulley sunken into the wheel a bit which means part of the teeth goes toward the inside of the wheel. This leaves the belt touching the wheel unless you space it out with at least 4 washers.

  2. The 76A duro is misleading. This feels much more like 78-80A duro and is very noticeably rougher to ride than my 97mm 75A flywheels.

  3. The biggest and most important flaw is that the thane formula is god awful. Mine chunked on the first ride

and someone on the Esk8 squad on facebook had this happen to them on their first week

From @Biscione

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That makes me want to cry​:cold_sweat::cold_sweat:. Like seriously, how come Enertion didn’t fix this? And after all they are a $100 darn bucks!!! This is SAD((

??? I do not understand what enertion has to do with it?

I’m sorry, I meant Evolve. Thats a typo!!!

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Good, I didnt want Jason to put a hit out on you :slight_smile:

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Wasnt this a problem on their other wheels aswell?

What a bummer that they dont correct that then…

Hahaahahah, I was looking at the FOCBOX’s on his website thats why I had the name left in mind. But I was seriously about to buy those ‘Evolve’ wheels! Like another 20 minutes and I would have lost a $100( but I must say they are beautiful!

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Yeah this still is a problem with their 83mm wheels. They most likely didn’t bother because most of their demographic/user base wouldn’t know any better…

Most DIY’ers and long-time Longboarders/Skateboarders would know though.

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On the plus side Evolve are willing to take back both sets of wheels i got from them. I might pick up their 75A flywheels since they’re the only ones who have them in stock.

Also, here’s what I mean about the pulley being “sunken” in. You can see that if the belt was resting against the retaining wall of the pulley, it will hit the wheel in resting position. I’m using a 9mm belt in the picture, but a 12mm belt for the 12mm pulley would be even worse.

(excuse the cat hair)

The solution would be to either give up those couple mm of teeth and have the belt sitting further out, 3d print a ring to sit in between the pulley and wheel, or use a lathe to cut off some thane from the pulley side of the wheel.

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Maybe you could try out a set of the bkb wheels :smile:

If you’re willing to send me a set, I’ll gladly review them :smile:

This sounds like a miracle to me! How were you able to contact them (plus in such a short time)??? I was never able to hear back from their customer support! Are they willing to take them free of charge. It seriously sounds crazily amazing to me)

I got the wheels about a week ago and after I contacted them (saturday) they replied the next business day (monday). They’re paying return shipping as well, so I’m happy with the service, just unfortunate the wheels are such poor quality.

I all ready have some really good reviews :wink:

They are also $10 off if you sign up for the newsletter

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Thanks man! great alternative. I’m always down to support @chaka

No doubt, I just ordered a set myself :slight_smile:

holding out for the 107mm SuperFlys to be ready.

ChrisChaput said 6 weeks, even less than a month, for them to become available. and this was said 9 days ago so we’re as close a couple weeks for them to drop.

@chaka Dude, you should deliver pizza or launch satellites or something, that is the fastest I’ve ever gotten tracking info on an order, 14 mins from when I placed the order to when I got the shipping notification :). Thanks brudda.

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I think 97’s are the largest I’d go, though I’d probably even drop down to 90’s. Things are getting a bit bulky and heavy.