After having built two ESK8-boards and having ridden them for some hundred kilometers I would like to share my experience as a new builder. Some sound pretty basic, but hey, I had to learn all of this.
The soft factors
- Building an electric skateboard is a very time consuming hobby (researching, ordering parts, waiting for parts, re-ordering parts, putting everything together, fiddling and tweaking … )
- It is a very rewarding and addictive hobby; note: you will never be finished
- Doing more research saves time building – but eventually you just have to start
- Most of the issues / topics have already been covered somewhere, you just need to do your research
- You will make mistakes – and learn a lot by doing them
- Having at least two boards is great – you can work on one and ride the other
- This forum and its members are great!!!
The hard factors
- Dealing with the VESC is not that complicated – and well worth it
- A 9mm belt for a single drive doing hills is not going to work (I’m around 85kgs)
- It works well in the flats if you are careful with your braking
- My 12mm belt is holding up fine, even going up and down steep inclines
- My single drive SK3 6364 is very powerful, I can do pretty steep hills …
- … but not for very long as motor gets pretty warm (still ok) and VESC cuts down power due to heat
- An anti-spark solution with 12s is a good idea
- The vibrations your gear has to withstand are immense, use more loctite, hot glue, tape, whatever