no, wood is not too heavy. I’m starting to make wood core with a layer of carbon fiber for strength.
If you want to build something yourself, standard build for a belt & pulley system is a motor of 190-200kv, 3:1 gearing ratio, and use parts known to work well. r-spec is a perfect motor, vesc is a perfect esc. That’s 50% of the struggle of making a diy board right there done for you.
fill in the gaps to apply to every hobby ever 
edit; ok, all collecting related hobbies don’t work
What you guys think about this http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Electric-Longboard-Drive-System-Electric-Skate-Engine-Kit-E-skateboard-Truck-Electric-Board-Double-Motor-Drive/32653557586.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000023.9.oUpPXv Its pretty cheap for start and this esc http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hobbywing-EZRUN-WP-SC8-Waterproof-120A-Brushless-ESC-Speed-Controller-Truck-/222090569486?hash=item33b5a1270e:g:3s0AAOSwiYFXHyy0
Christ that faq reads like it was written by a high school drop out. Why did they even have to mention the DIY scene? Or the fact that they’re claiming thier control are more intuitive? It’s like they’re trying to have a dick measuring contest, it’s not even necessary, let your product do your talking for you.
my thoughts are ~
thrill experience down to 50% .
thrill experience ? = INFINITE ! ! ! !
choice is up to the user . stay safe ! wear safety gear ! & read ALL THE SAFETY WARNINGS & ADVICE when embarking the DIY route !
If that DIY verbiage drove you away, maybe you shouldn’t be building your own board anyway.
I’m waiting for the Boosted 2.0 because I like their design. There’s no way I can drill holes and hide wires under the grip tape and make it look good. At the same time, I’m waiting for parts to build my own board that will outperform the Boosted Board.
I think you are absolutely correct on this. I agree they are fishing for the fence sitters. It’s all fair game in business and marketing, You can’t blame them. I think Enertion could really help pull in those in between people by offering a DIY kit. A one click buy for everything you will need minus the deck. One of the most difficult parts of building a DIY E-board is knowing what to buy in the first place.
Just a thought.
Maybe first constructive comment in this thread. Nice work mate, and agree. Based on the common commentary I read, I also feel the scene needs a more reliable/ robust VESC version and a higher quality/ more capable remote, and then it will blow things wind open in terms of parity of offerings (for those fence sitters seeking a bit more polish or reliability from the get go). For every thread reinforcing the virtues of getting in there DIY, to the fence sitter there is another that is fault finding mysterious VESC failures, or poor controller connection, functionality or form factor. Everything else is there. Also, rather than being butt hurt and whiny, we shouldn’t forget e-skateboarding is addictive, and no matter how people first get into it, it’ll probably lead to a bigger DIY community as the bug bites. I feel the purchase of DIY kit from non-community vendors hurts DIYers more than the garbage Evolve puts in their FAQ.
what you think about the trucks with motor ?
Don’t sell yourself short. Two years ago there was no way i could press my own decks. You can do whatever you decide you want to do if you decide you want it bad enough.
That’s what they had in thier 6S kit that a lot of us bought a couple years ago. Enertion is slowly moving toward mass produced completes, so its hard to say if DIY will continue to be their main focus in the years to come. For now its a huge part, and the new space cells with their monolithic boxes in combination with thier proven drive trains are pretty much exactly what you’re talking about. they just haven’t lumped everything into one package yet like they did with the 6S package back when.
Been meaning to comment on this. This is exactly the thing that held me off from doing my own build. As much as the freedom of being able to choose your own shit and building it from scratch is enjoyable, it is not by any means quick (for a non-engineer type anyway) to just get into, and requires quite a bit of thought and research (and $$ for tools). Coming from someone who didn’t even know about eboards before watching Casey, I can say that I wanted nothing more than to just buy a board ready to go and join the fun that I saw someone else having.
The nature of DIY though is trial and error. The problem with this is that I use these things like my car 80% of the time. I don’t have time to play trial and error with my board when I’m going to work. I just need it to work and if issues pop up already be expecting them because someone else with the same thing already went through it. That’s the power with eboard completes. You have a community of people that are essentially beta testers for you, figuring out issues before you even come close to having them, and being able to help you fix your own when they come up. It’s quite awesome. Whereas with DIY it can be a hit or miss, sure, someone may have had your issue, but your specific one could’ve been caused something completely different due to the unique nature of your own build – making it harder to determine the root cause. I guess it’s just a matter of how much time you’re willing to invest…
I definitely plan on doing my own build in the future, but for right now I have a specific goal which is to ride the fuck out of something this summer and make videos for people to understand how to use these things better / which one is the best for their needs.
I find it curious that Evolve would include copy to sway people away from DIY. I mean I get it, but it’s not something Boosted has to do. They figured out their lane and are sticking to it. Can’t really be mad at that. I like having an EGO and Boosted in my collection because when I organize my meetups there are usually younger kids or inexperienced Eboarders in the group. Letting them have a go on one of those is actually a lot safer and gives them the confidence to hop on one of our DIY boards. I mean DIY building is fun and its more fulfilling than buying a complete but it is only a small percentage of why I find DIY fascinating. When you are riding with 7 or more people, all with DIY boards - custom fit to them by a range of variables (resources, style, weight, etc.) is one of the most thrilling experiences I’ve ever had. I couldn’t imagine having the same feeling if we all had the same board because there isn’t that personal history attached to it.
Variety is awesome in many different areas of life. With esk8, at least where I live I rarely see another eboarder. I could imagine variety being important in dense esk8 areas like cali and NYC where everyone is on a Boosted. If I lived there I would definitely be more motivated to do my own thing. Right now esk8 where I am still doesn’t really exist. So any board alone is unique in everyone else’s eyes 
Thank you so much @Photorph for your reply it helped me answer several questions before I make my decision. Last question I could ask is how long would you estimate it would take me to build a board that is the best the industry has to offer?(I’m having a deck being made with an image I really love on it, so there is a two month period right there but I could have all the pieces ordered and test it on my back up board and mount them on the finished product once it’s in)
I’ll be honest, if you’re building a board there will be waiting and a lot of trial and error involved. I’m planning a build with carvon hub motors, and wondering how long it will take also.
You have to get things from multiple places if you want the best components. For the speed controller for me there is only one option, the VESC and ollinboards in my opinion and based on my research has the most reliable VESC currently. So you have to order that and wait for that. Then you have to pick your motors, and motor mounts. First you will have to decide on belt drive vs hub motors, once you do that then you have to figure out where you want to buy those from. Many folks here selling DIY parts. Then there is the battey, then the remote/receiver, then other things like wheels/trucks/risers, etc. Honestly building a board will take a lot of trial and error and a lot of waiting and tinkering. So do it if you really enjoy building. Some of these parts can take months to get to you (like enertion motors/mounts).
The other option you have is to have someone build you a board, I know longhairedboy on this forum builds some killer boards and presses his own decks. He might even build you a board on a deck you send him, so that way you don’t have to worry about needing to have all the tools and learning the BLDC tool for the VESC. He built one for me and pressed a custom deck for me, so far it’s been rock solid and is scary fast.
The easiest would be just to get the Evolve GT which is a very good all arounder, and it should be shipped to you late July. And this board won’t be custom, but it’s probably the best commercial complete as I’ve mentioned earlier.
I think getting a LHB build or the evolve GT will definitely be faster than building your own board. But building your own board will make you learn a lot, get frustrated a lot, may end up costing more, will take more time. but in the end it’s something you built and you will know it inside/out. So your call really.
Oh shit… LHB is turning into Abraham Lincoln with all these fancy quotes.
Four boards and seven ESCs ago, our foreskaters set forth upon this land with only dreams of something something whatever I’m going to bed.