RAPTOR 2 - THE 100KM REVIEW - Part 1

moving the handles means i need to add weight, cost & extra components. You think i should move handles?

1 Like

you challenged the community to come up with a better solution to increasing the rigidity of the deck, right? Iā€™m just spitballing ideas, man. I never said you were a bad engineer, frankly I think the Raptor 2 is perhaps the best board on the market right now. The handle thing might be its only flaw (from a consumer standpoint).

heres my 2 cent, take it as you will. If I can fly off a curb and land 150lbs on my .4 inch thick board, the R2 is strong enough to tolerate having a ā€œweak spotā€ and having the handles moved back to offset the imbalance. I feel like the weakest spot will still be more than strong enough to handle a 200+ lb rider

please donā€™t get offended, Iā€™m always open to valid ideas.

However, in my experience in product development adding parts is a bad idea, what you want to do is remove parts and achieve a more simple but equally functional product. the simple solution is often the best.

3 Likes

A handle that rotates (in the same plane as the board of course) a forever-captive pin at the rear allows it to rotate 180 degrees and either snap into front ā€œhome positionā€ (where it is now) or rotate it and snap in to the rear ā€œcarry positionā€

I fuckin hate handles but that might be the simplest way to give the people a well balanced handle

Just pick the board up by the front trucks people! You alrrady have a handle!!! It works fine and always balances !!!

Amen, simplicity with function is hard to achieve. especially if you have to mass produce. embedding the rail into cf board and mass produce? crap load of processes

1 Like

Just move the enclosure a bit more to the front. Problem solved!

1 Like

Iā€™m just wondering if we put the handle backā€¦ where the feet are going to goā€¦ because then the handle will clearly be in a bad position where you can easily get your feet stuck ā€¦ just saying!!ā€™

Why is there such a strong debate on the handles? This doesnā€™t even make sense. Its not like yā€™all are gonna not buy the Raptor because of the handles. Crazy man.

3 Likes

seriously, this is stupid. if he had not put handles he would not have to deal with the idiots on here. thanks for the handles onloop. iā€™ll try not to bitch about it too much when my hand falls off because theyā€™re not perfectly situated.

Haha. Itā€™s kinda funny that my article has created such a discussion. Yes the handles arenā€™t perfectly positioned, but my point was, you buy the R2 to RIDE, not to carry around!

If the handle position is the biggest gripe that future owners have with the board then you can consider the R2 to be a massive success.

5 Likes

I think its only because of the cocky response from Enertion ^^

Itā€™s not a deal breaker at all for me at all but it felt wrong to let the excuses go unanswered. Of course it can be designed so the board is strong enough, looks good and is balanced. This is why companies hire engineers and designers.

2 Likes

I donā€™t think strength is so much required as us stiffness around the spot welded battery which isnā€™t designed to be able to flex. Constant flexing of nickle tabs would likely break them

1 Like

No dude, people were piling on and calling the board poorly engineered because of a handle position. He got offended and explained the reasoning behind the handle location then everyone got butthurt for bluntly being called wrong. Everyone threw around personal insults and acted like being called wrong justified it. Someone called him a 3yo for defending his decisionā€¦

Here letā€™s reread his original response.

Bad engineering? Thanks for the insult pal.

Apart from making it easy to pick up the board, the handles are a structural part of the deck. Designed to prevent flexibility at wheelbase centre, this reinforcement strengthens the core and prevents the battery from being damaged from everyday stressors that occur when Riding up to 54km/h

Moving the handle 2 - 3 inches to the rear, simply to balance the board when you carry it makes it look wierd/imbalanced. But worse than that it allows the deck to flex more, slightly off centre, directly in the middle of the battery pack, which is VERY BAD engineering.

Any designer or engineer will tell you that most projects have ā€œfunction-over-formā€ constraints that control what is possible, sometimes sacrifices must be made. In this case board balance, when walking around with it in hand, took 2nd priority over structural, performance, longevity and reliability factors.

grow up everyone.

3 Likes

holy crap! this thread has gotten out of hand. The review is that the Raptor 2 is effing awesome in terms of performance and comfort. I do agree that the handleā€™s position make it unbalanced while holding it for a longer period, but this current back and forth needs to stop. No one needs to call Jason a bad designer or engineer. Moving the current handle back would look a bit weird and probably affect the ride as your toes of heels might get stuck in them. Iā€™m not sure of that weak spot Jason mentioned. The Raptor 1ā€™s handle is underneath the deck, maybe Raptor 3 could revisit that option for that perfect balance once again.

@onloop I apologize for being one of the people who opened this can of worms. I have never walked with a e-board for more than a few minutes so a slightly tilted Raptor for that period of time would not hurtā€¦if it did, maybe I should use an analog board instead 'cause clearly I need the exercise.

3 Likes

Iā€™m WAY less concerned about the handle and 1000000000 times more concerned about the fix for the thane slippage/rock intrusion on the rear wheels. Hoping we can get a visual of the new updated thane soon.

2 Likes

Just to be clearā€¦ Iā€™ve rode a Raptor 2 for the last two month (over 1500km), and never got any rock, water, sand or dirth between the wheel and the thane, also Iā€™ve never had slippage. What you see in the picture is dust from the thane, not from another exterior source.

In this thread: An electric skateboard and 70 posts about its handleā€¦

6 Likes

1st, I didnā€™t call him 3 yo, I said his answer were not mature and he was acting like one. Instead of accepting critics he was trolling a member for pointing out his boardā€™s flaws. 2nd, tell me honestly if this is a mature answer from a company CEO defending from one guy who said ā€œthe handle is not balanced, so itā€™s badly engineeredā€.

Nobody said Jason is a bad engineer (he agreed he isnā€™t a professional and has a team), but that the handle is just not right. If you rely on the handle for the structural integrity and you sacrifice the handleā€™s usability itā€™s not good engineering. You should all understand what are insults (example: your engineering skills suck) and what are critic comments (your handle does not work well, you should fix its balance) instead of being butthurts for no reason for a comment on a handle nobody really cares about when buying this board (that destroys the competition anyway) You can move on, I think Jason learned to be less mean to people, even if they donā€™t agree with him. He isnā€™t changing the handle anyway. Oh and Jason, thanks for calling me a ā€œslaveā€, I appreciate that :wink:

1 Like

Yeah I know you called him a 3yo in a passive aggressive way for an out but you still called him a 3yo. Own it.

Not gonna respond to the rest of your out of context cherry picking and rationalizing. You speak very indirectly and are just trying to rationalize your poor behavior now.