Backfire II on Kickstarter

I placed an order for the hubs & a spare set of thane, they seem promising and wanted a gander at a hub driven build.

Meepo may be larger (90mm Vs 80mm) but backfire seem more powerful spec-wise, also backfire seem to be the target of some malicious ex-dealer network social activity.

Just curius - Which order number did you get?

As long as you stay under the max voltage, configured on your VESC you should be safe. Normally that voltage is the max the VESC can handle. So If you not driving on 12S you shouldnā€™t have a problem.

But hey, if your BMS (if connected for discharge) or anything else fails and your VESC drops out, you ainā€™t got brakes either.

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@banjaxxed Have you been given timeframe of getting it shipped? Iā€™ve head of a month wait for the hubs ā€¦ They are not in stock and made to order?

ā€œThe first shipping is on Sept 8th , you can get it end of Septā€

1 Like

Hi!

Iā€™ve been reading this topic for a while and thought I should contribute.

Firstly, I have no previous skate/long boarding experience, only snowboarded for 8 years. So, while getting annoyed with walking between office buildings at work I started looking into skate boards, long boards and ended up at electric boards. Since this is somewhat of an experiment, while Iā€™m also kinda impulsive, I decided to buy the Backfire 2.

So, I received the board last Tuesday (26/sept/2017) and took it for a test ride yesterday night. As mentioned before. I have no previous experience, so also no reference to what a good long board feels like. But Iā€™m happy with my first experience.

When the package arrived I was happy to see that it was packaged well (in foam and 2 small plastic bags). The remote, key/tool and cables/charger were packaged separately within the box. The remote and board were charged. On the first night I rode the board through my living room.

Yesterday I took it for a test ride through a nearby park. I realize that long boarding is somewhat different from snowboarding and I have a lot to learn.

So my experience from riding it in the park: The Economic mode is fast enough for me while learning to properly control the board. I tried the Sport mode and it is fast! I will test the board tonight again, with a friend who does have experience and Iā€™ll come back to add some specs. So far it seems like the battery of both the remote and the board are holding up properly. I charged it yesterday during the day and did not see/smell any issues (as in sparks, electric smell). I did read about this on other forums, but did not encounter any issues.I charged it just to try. The brakes (in eco mode) work well too. I used first about 50% and then 100% and was not thrown off my board.

I have 1 issue though. When you power up the remote and the board, the remote is set in Sport mode by default. I would think it would be smarted to be in Eco mode by default. Reason for this is that as a super novice user I feel that the Sport mode gives a proper kick.

A personal thing is the size of wheels. I live and work in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and here we have roads with asphalt, but also stones and tram rails. Iā€™m not yet sure how confident I would be riding the 80mm wheels over the trams rails. If any one has tips on how/where to replace the wheels for a larger size, Iā€™m all ears. I would be looking for 110mm.

Anyways, my conclusion: Iā€™m happy with the board! So far so good. I realize I need to spend some hours/miles on the board.

As mentioned, Iā€™ll get back here to write more.

Just for the record, I have no affiliation with the makers, so Iā€™m just here cause I enjoyed the read in this forum and want to contribute. Oh! And I just wrote a short review on the FB page of Backfire. So that might ring a bell when reading it.

KR,

OverW8Snake

Be VERY careful when your battery is fully charged! Your brakes will most likely not work. Because there is regenaritive braking (which charges the battery back up), if you brake too much and the battery becomes fully charged again, your board will shut down, which will mean youā€™ll lose ALL control! Not good of youā€™re on a hill! Thereā€™s a guy in one of the esk8 Facebook groups who had a pretty nasty accident resulting in surgery because of this issue!

For wheels, youā€™d need to replace the urethane on the hub motor. This is something that almost definitely isnā€™t available. You could change out the front ones, as theyā€™re standard, but that would look kinda odd.

With regards to the automatic sport mode, if it did default to eco mode all the time, once you got confident with it and always wanted it to boot in sport, youā€™d soon be annoyed about thatā€¦ What would be better is if it remembered the last setting and booted to that settingā€¦

3 Likes

Hi,

Itā€™s been a few days, but I further tested the board. Hill climbing in Eco mode was not a great success for me. In Sports mode the board eat the ā€˜hillsā€™ (read: bridges). Iā€™m 73kg btw (google that in pounds, or just switch to metric like a normal person :wink: ).

So far I reached a top speed of 30 km/h. Not sure if I maxed out the board yet, so I will get back to this. So I did not yet reach the advertised 40km/h.

Iā€™m still running on the first charge, and I rode the board 4 evenings now, about 1,5 hour each time. So the battery seems to last pretty long. I will do a distance test soon.

About the downhill issue which @darkkevind warned for, I did not encounter an issue here. The breaks worked fine on the bridges (of which some are pretty steep). Also the breaks in general work fine, as long as you break gradually. Make sure not to slam the breaks.

So again, Iā€™m positive. Saw a guy on youtube (Ronnie Sarmiento (video 1 and video 2)) riding the board and he seems happy too (plus he is pretty funny to follow anyways).

Hope this helps. Iā€™m really curious about other people their experience with the board!

KR,

OverW8Snake

You wonā€™t encounter the issue I mentioned unless youā€™re close to fully chargedā€¦

Iā€™ll test that as well.

2 Likes

Think they got the 100% battery brake issue fixed. Iā€™ve started twice with fully charged battery on a hill at the local high school to test with no issues. It hasnā€™t been an issue but if you run battery all the way down the board will silently shut down and if youā€™re coasting you have no breaks, which I thought it was supposed to shutdown motors but breaks still work. Guess not

Iā€™m looking to buy a electric longboard for commuting. It would need to be waterproof, needs off-road tyres or be able to switch out wheels for off-roading wheels or tyres. I would like a top speed of 20-25mph and also a range above 10miles. Can anyone help? Iā€™ve no experience in building my own, and because of this Iā€™d prefer to buy a pre-built one, ive been looking at backfires Ranger which seems to be okay. Also considered the ownboard w1s with a Sanyo battery.

Ps. Had no idea how to create a thread or post or whatever, if you could help me with that too that would be great as Iā€™m pretty sure this is the wrong place to post this.

yeah its more appropriate to post on another category but in any case, ranger would be a better choice for you IMO because Ownbaord w1s canā€™t use off-road wheels like what DIY builds use. Itā€™s one of the very few Hub motors with off-road tires. Donā€™t expect to carry it far though but water resistance and durability look to be good

Go with the backfire ranger. It is a great deal for what it is. It does weight a LOT though so be prepared for that.

How much does it weigh? Also is it possible to make or buy mudguards for it?

Also Iā€™m a bit unsure about ordering from indiegogo, will it definitely come and if not how would I get my money back?

Backfire is a stable company, they will deliver. Maybe some delays, but they will deliver.

As far as mudguards, you are going to have to make your own. And the board weighs in the 30lb range.