New Leif Board?

The design is patented, no other company can build this.

Also to clear things up the Leiftech board is released and you can buy it currently, as far as a new board they aren’t a company like boosted that has a V1 or a V2 board and makes you buy a brand new product like Apple, everything is totally modular and as they change and improve pieces you can easily have those pieces changed out and upgraded. To ArmandR who thinks its not practical in the streets of New York, ITS MADE IN NEW YORK CITY. You obviously have things backwards, a leiftech takes less space to turn, I cut fast corners with my friends where the boosted and evolve cannot turn in time or have to take much wider and more dangerous turns than I do. I would also like to add that I commute with mine all the time and its is MUCH more practical than a boosted board that has awful range and an interchangeable battery that requires an allen wrench to change on the go. You get 13 miles range in the middle of a cold day in January on it with their new batteries and the battery is interchangeable, takes me 30 seconds to swap it out and snap the battery cover back in place. Is it as fast off the line as a boosted, no but that’s because it uses AC motors unlike most companies that use DC, that means its easier to control your acceleration versus other boards that feel like they’re gonna tear out from under you if you don’t slowly progress in your speed. The motors are dual 1300 watt motors which means I climb hills better than a boosted V2+.The deck is high quality made of Maple and fiber glass and was designed by NeverSummer which is a high end deck manufacturer. The design is as I said before patented so this isn’t something as easy to build as a normal electric skateboard, a lot of ingenuity went into this product. If freebording excites you this is a great first step towards learning how to do it without bombing down a steep hill to learn how. Lastly without a doubt it is THE most unique board on the market, nothing else compares. If you want to practice your snowboarding skills this is a great way to do so, trust me when I go out and ride with the local NYC E-Skate group I feel like after a long day of snowboarding after doing 6-7 hours on it, its a full body workout and is great exercise. The customer service is above and beyond awesome to boot. KlethBane if you are near NYC or anyone else is I can connect you with the owners or you are welcome to join on an e-skate outing to try my LEIF out as I have a close relationship with the owner/co-owner and they often come out riding in the city with us. I’ve even been one of their main beta testers since I live nearby here in NYC and everytime they have something new and improved they call me in to try it out. Getting my new battery cover and the new beta remote this week to test, super psyched! Lastly its one of the safest board on the market as well and the company pays exponentially less insurance because of this. Every other company has high insurance costs because they rely on electronic braking that can be spotty at times and not respond to you during dire moments, the leif is the only board on the market that you can manually stop without relying on an electronic brake (which it has built in as well).

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Freebords Rock!

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@psychotiller Funny thing is I hadn’t heard of Freebord until I bought my Leif, now I’m trying to work up my skills so next time I head to my home state of Colorado I can try bombing a hill on a freebord for my first time!

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No other company can sell it, but an individual can build it so long as he or she doesn’t sell it.

I understand your desire to support this new company, but those (few) of us who do this for the thrill of DIY rather than the thrill of riding should be able to take any design we want and improve it. This is actually advantageous to the company because it points out weaknesses in their design they might otherwise never have seen.

In the old days almost all farming equipment was modified by the farmers, and I still modify probably 20% of the products I buy to better fit my needs. My latest target for modification, believe it or not, is the stupid noisy range hood.

@DougM I wasn’t trying to say you can’t DIY it yourself, in fact I would kill to see a DIY version of a leiftech!

I don’t understand how it’s still a freeboard. LIEF made their own freebord. The trucks and wheels aren’t freebord.

At least they don’t look like it anymore.

Or are you saying LIEF patented the design?

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I think the ring that allows the motors to spin 360 and still be connected to power is what is patented

Pretty much that’s what’s gonna stop you from making a DIY version

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I suspect this is how a dodgem/bumper car would also be attached. Not sure this would be original enough to be patented?

Forget this ^ turns out it isnt a bumper car. I am sure I have seen a 360 contact circuit used before somewhere though

go to 2:35

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Selling. stop you from selling a DIY version :slight_smile:

I can’t imagine they were able to patent power transfer rings - there’s one in every steering wheel of every car on the road.

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They use (or used) them for horns on car steering wheels. Also, high-end winches use them to transfer power and data lines down to submersible vehicles and/or devices. They are used everywhere, have been for decades.

Theyre called slip rings and are used in everything you can think of that has an electrical signal and rotates. Gimbals, radars, gun turrets, tracking antennas, steering wheels, dc motors, helicopter swash plates, etc.

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What happens if you hit a ‘‘gap’’ with your LEIF board while going sideways? Do you get a ‘‘nasty’’ bump or you just roll over that smoothly?

The ride experience does look very ‘‘buttery’’ / nice in comparison how ‘‘regular’’ boards tend to go / roll on the road :slight_smile:


@PXSS @DougM

Im also not sure how that patent is working for these rings… anyone should be able to make them and use them for their own benefit… to be patented they must have some sort of special feature in them I think which would be or should be hard to replicate…

One more version I got is that they somehow ‘‘patented’’ this tech for electric skateboard use… in which case it would be a bit lame… same as like patenting a specific power transmission for all car models and then take all the rights to use such system on only approved / their made cars.

They can patent the use of them on skateboards. I dont see why that would be lame. I can assure you the freeboard design is also patented by someone already and if they are not paying royalties then that person can sue lief if they wanted too.

It’s not a freebord because it has a motor on it, freebord doesn’t have Motors on it and thusly is technically a different product with a similar design that uses Caster wheels. The specific design that they put together they patented, they literally just got their patent last week. The ride is incredibly smooth and the ability to manually stop sideways and speed check yourself on it is great for bumps in the road. It’s nice because if you hit a bump and you think you’re going to fall you can kind of hit and edge and correct yourself very easily. It’s definitely one of the most unique things that I have ever owned, the owner of the company is incredibly nice, he’s going out riding with me in the park today. And as someone just said freebord is as well it’s own patented design, that’s why you won’t find any other company that makes freebord, and because the leif is technically a different design they do not pay any royalties to freebord. Freebords have free moving Caster wheels whereas leif has motor resistance that you have to contend with by using your acceleration.

Cool. thanks for background info! Keep us updated on how it went (if you can) :slight_smile: Looks like u had a great meetup planned / organized there!

Saying it is not a freeboard is like saying our electric skateboards are not skateboards because they have motors in them or that electric bikes are not bikes because they have motors in them.

It is a freeboard and there actually are several companies that make freeboards. Freebord is only the most popular since it has been around since the seventies. I’m not saying that the guys at Leif are bad guys or that they shouldn’t have their patent. By all means, they should protect their product. As I said though, the creator of freebord could probably sue on the basis that he’s patented the use of caster wheels on skateboards the exact same way they do. He probably doesn’t care.

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Once again one has free moving casters, the Leif does not, second no other companies make freebord besides freebord, third freebord was created in the early 90’s not the 70’s. Lastly an electric skateboard is not a skateboard, skateboards require you to kick in order to move, whereas an electric skateboard does not, differing designs mean different products. That’s like telling me a car with motors is just copying the Flintstones car because they both move and have steering wheels, one requires a neanderthal with strong legs to drive, the other does not.

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An electric skateboard is a powered skateboard…A lief is a powered Freebord. Semantics. There is no way to argue the point because Facts are facts and opinions are well…just that.

Fact is, the guys at lief most definitely at some point before they made their product saw a freebord or rode a freebord and thought about how cool it would be to power one…Why? because they also were familiar with how fun powered longboards were to ride.

I tried to talk to you on facebook awhile back and you went crazy and blocked me…Now, it kind of feels like you’ll do it here again with @PXSS.

Hard to read your motivation to shamelessly promote one product everywhere if you’re not being paid. You should try all of the other gear out there though before you talk up one and downplay others in such expert fashion.

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