https://www.electric-skateboard.club/t/raptor-2-the-100km-review-part-1/415
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so nice to see me being right 
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Absolutely everyone though of that and enertion even mentioned it that they went from over function here.
at least they didnât go grammar gnarlyâŚ
How on earth could those thin urethane âskinsâ possibly be comfortable or durable?
For me this the biggest issue with hubs. Not enough wheel material outside the motor to make it viable.
Carvons thoâŚIâd like to try those one dayâŚ
I was expecting a rock hard ride, but was pleasantly surprised. I agree that a full wheel would be a little better again in terms of ride comfort though. I donât think durability is going to be a problem, thereâs still a fair bit of urethane there and itâs good quality.
100% agree with the incorrect position of the handles. Jason tried to tell us that you can shift to the back of the handle, but all the videos Iâve seen proved that it never balances! I have no idea why he made this mistakes because Raptor 1âs handle position make it perfectly balanced
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Even if you hold the handles right at their rearmost point it is still unbalanced. Jason originally designed the R2 with the handles positioned further towards the rear but said it just looked wrong.
Did you even read my post and Jasonâs response? He said:
Which is complete BS in hindsight.
Weight did change over the course of development of the R2. With the rear being heavier on the production model compared to the prototype perhaps weight balance is different? I donât know.
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Where do you get that information from? I never heard of anything like that.
Maybe it gets fixed in the Raptor 3
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If you follow the R2 project from its very inception last year (as I did) he estimates total weight along the way. It started at below 10kg, went to about 10kg, and ended up at 11.8kg.
I doubt that the overall weight had any effect on the balance. I was hoping you could provide some info on how the weight of the motors changed (that would have explained the handle position). Right now it still seems like bad engineering to me. Something he was made aware of and still did not changed 
Not sure if this helps out at all, but I rode/held the R2 when they came to Portland a couple weeks ago and the handle felt nice. Seems to hold the center of balance when I held it towards the back of the handle (closest to the motors). Those handles have been something that Iâve been thinking about trying to recreate on my DIY build.
My little bully Cleo checking out the R2 before we went for a group ride with it. Itâs a REALLY nice board. I really didnât believe that those hubs/urethane would be as comfortable to ride as they were. Glad I purchased it.
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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 âfunction-over-formâ 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.
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What a weird way to go to gain strength in that direction. I canât really see how it does that. Do you have some pictures?
If you look back at the posts in the raptor thread I said the same thing last year already. Not an insult in my mind. It is apparently not correctly balanced and that makes it unfit for the job (I donât have a raptor so I base this completely on the review that was linked). Rest seems like a great board. There are a number of ways you could have taken care of structural integrity of the deck so that is no excuse.
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Jason please, thatâs childish. A handle that is not balanced is badly engineered. Thatâs the point of a handle, to carry a board without too much stress. Attacking people cause they point out a flaw of the board doesnât seem very mature, especially taking as example their first diy board. My cousin used to do the same, when somebody criticized him, instead of understanding he criticized back. But he was 3 y/o. If your deck has problems sustaining oneâs weight, you shouldnât rely on the handles to fix this issue. Good engineering means you get working handles and no stress on the battery. Bad engineering means you have handles but can barely use them cause theyâre in a useless spot, and at that point you can just call them âreinforcement metal barsâ. Not only you canât see your (overall good) boardâs flaws, but you attack people who try to help you. As we say in Italy, âyou stepped on a shit this timeâ. Be more professional please, you arenât a diyer anymore, Jason. P.s. Jason deleted one comment. The âchildishâ refers to the fact that he took a pic of Maxidâs first build to make fun of his âengineering skillsâ
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Very well written review Micky, thanks! Looking forward to part deux.
Imo, the handles on the Raptor 2 seem to be a solution to a problem that never existed.
Would have looked heaps better with none at all.
If it (Raptor 2) had been specâd with an integrated cutout deck for the electronics that couldnât be swapped easily to another deck, the handles, not the lack of them, would definitely be a deal breaker for me.
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