Motor Broke?

So the other day, the absolute worst thing that can happen to me, happened. A nightmare for any electric skateboard owner. And yes, I’m exaggerating a great deal here.

I was skating home from work. My complex has many speed bumps that you really can’t skate around. After living here for a few months, I’ve really refined my technique for clearing those speed bumps. Although my Boosted Board can simply roll right over them, I don’t like the way it *feels* to do that. Instead, I prefer to step off the board just before it hits the bump, and then hop back on.

So I was going up a hill, doing just that. When I hopped back on the board and gave it some throttle, something didn’t feel right. The board was accelerating a bit slower than I had expected it to. What was that all about?

When I began to hit the brake to walk the board over the next speed bump, I heard a sound that absolutely *terrified* me. It was a clicking sound. Which always reminds me of the dreaded ‘click of death’ that computers will suffer from time to time.

I looked at the bottom of the board, to see if maybe I had got a small stick, or some debris in any of the mechanics. But at a cursory glance, everything looked fine. Luckily, I was already at the top of the hill, and my house was on the bottom of the other side of the hill. So I was able to roll back home without much difficult. But I do rely on the brakes to slow me for the speed bump at the bottom of the hill. With this new clicking shit going on, I wasn’t going slow enough to walk the board over the bump. Instead I rolled over it, a little faster than I would have wanted to. But it was no biggie.

When I got inside my home, I stood my board up by the chargers and gave the motor some juice. What I saw shocked me. Only *one* of the two motors was spinning. Holy shit. My Boosted Board was broken. I was crushed.

I mean, on the one hand, I have a bicycle, and my Evolve Boards, so it’s not like it’s the end of the world. But I really love my Boosted Board, and it is definitely the best and safest of all the boards I own. So yeah, I was sad.

Not knowing what else to do, I plugged the board in for a charge, and figured I’d let time take a crack at the problem.

The next day looked kinda wet, and I decided it would be a fine day to bike to work. I’d just got my bike back in working order – precisely because we’ve been having so much rain lately. But before I rode out on the bike, I turned on the Boosted Board and gave it some motor.

Lo and behold, *both* of the wheels started spinning. I was so happy to see that whatever problem had plagued me the previous day, had disappeared just as quickly as it had come. But I still didn’t want to ride the Boosted to work. What if the problem returned? I certainly didn’t want to be halfway to work, just to find that the board really was broken.

So I biked to work. Which really turned out to be a good experience. For the first time, I got an appreciation of the various grades of hills that the sidewalks I use have. On an electric board, it can be very tough to feel if you’re going slightly uphill or not.

But when I got back home yesterday, I knew I’d have to take the Boosted out for a test run. Just to make sure that she really was back to working order. I took her up a hill. Then back down again. I skated to the nearby complex, going around and around a place that is filled mostly with college students.

It was actually one of the best joy rides I’ve had in a really long time. But the best part of all was that, as far as I could tell, the Boosted Board works.

The major difference now, is that I’ve really changed how I walk my board over those nasty speed bumps. Before, I would almost race. As if the goal were to see how quickly I could get the board over the bump, and then jump back on it again.

In doing so, I definitely felt something that the board didn’t like. Something about going from braking to neutral to accelerate in the space of a second or two. During that test run, and probably from here on out, I’ve been taking things a lot slower.

No more of this quick direction change on the motors. Now I ease up to the speed bumps. I make sure that the board doesn’t get any bumps that are *too* big when trying to go over. I jump onto the board with a bit more finesse, and even give it an extra little kick start to help the motors along.

But I am happy to say that I rode my Boosted to work today, and I can’t wait for the ride home.  

Bamboo With Skate Wheels

So after having very quick low batter issues with my Evolve Bamboo Series Two using the all terrain tires, I decided yesterday to put the orthodox wheels back onto the board and give it a test ride. I was fairly certain that the battery issues were caused more by the all terrain tires, and not because the battery was failing. But changing out the wheels was the only way I could really test and know for sure.

So I did. I switched out the wheels, and found that one of the regular old skate wheels was missing a bearing. You might know this if you subscribe to my Instagram account @maulakai. So after a quick run to the local skate shop, Free Ride, I had a new set of very cheap, made in China bearings, and I was able to complete the transformation.

The only thing left to do was take the board for a test run. You’ll remember that the apartment complex that I live in has many speed bumps. Too many, and most are unavoidable. I know that with the all terrain tires, I was able to ride over all of them without any trouble. But with the orthodox wheels, the question left unanswered was, could I still clear a speed bump?

The first few speed bumps, I hopped off and let the board roll over solo. It cleared. However, the speed bumps are not all uniform in their curve, as you might expect. Sure enough, there are a couple of bumps that scraped the bottom of the board.

Now in my specific case, this wasn’t much of an issue. The battery pack is on the bottom of the board. It used to be a nice, black plastic color. But now, it has a streak of yellow paint, thanks to those convex speed bumps.

However, it does raise a design issue, that I think is worth mentioning. Because Evolve Bamboo Series Two is a very hard board. It doesn’t flex when you stand or jump on it. I’m pretty sure I know why. Because the original Bamboo series had issues with the battery pack coming off, due to the flex in the board.

But this newer, inflexible design means that the battery pack is under the deck, and that actually makes it worse at going over obstacles, like speed bumps. It’s worth noting that my Boosted Board is extremely flexible, like a spring, and it can clear *all* of the speed bumps. But it clears them because the deck is curved, and it clears them because Boosted Boards have *nothing* on the underpart of the deck. Boosted positions their batteries on the ends of the board, closer to the wheels.

This is significant because, in just the right circumstances, the Evolve Board could risk puncturing the battery, if say a stupid rider went over a bad speed bump too carelessly.

Moving on, once I got past the speed bump part, I couldn’t help but notice what a zippy board those Evolves are. Even though there is but a single motor, it really has a lot of acceleration. Several times throughout my skate, I found myself getting scared that I was going too fast.

I’m used to my electric skateboard slowing down when I’m not using the motor. But the Evolve board really coasts like you might expect a conventional, motorless skateboard to. I had a blast riding it. I’m a little upset that I didn’t engage my gps tracking. But I was able to skate a very big circle around my neighborhood. Even then, the low battery light didn’t come on. In other words, the Bamboo Series Two really does have a great battery on it.

If there was an issue with my board, it was almost certainly due to the all terrain wheels. Maybe they didn’t have enough air in them, or maybe the idea of putting all terrain tires on a skateboard just isn’t as good as I thought it would be. Sure, on some surfaces, it’s the only way to fly. But honestly, you lose that nice, rolling feeling that has come to define skateboarding for me. And most of the time, you’re going to want to skate on a smooth surface anyway.

I was really tempted to take that Bamboo Series board to work today. But I didn’t. Why? It all comes back to that remote, and the way the board brakes, which also has to do with the single engine design. It’s a very fun, very fast board to ride. Next time I’m skating in an empty parking lot, it will easily be my first choice. But for my morning commute, I’m skating around cars. I’m skating around stop signs and cross walks. Which means stopping the board most certainly is an issue. And stopping with that remote really is a challenge.

The brake on my Bamboo series works. Don’t get me wrong, it works. But it doesn’t work nearly as well as my Boosted Board. It tends to either brake too little, or too much. And if you try to break too hard, you risk “clicking”. That’s where the drive belt clicks on the gear attached to the wheel. I know that clicking can be a sign that the belt is too tight. But it’s also a sign that you probably want two motors, with two drive belts, braking two wheels at the same time.

Bottom line, the Boosted Board is still the safer option, especially in an urban commute setting, mainly because of the way you can fine tune how your stops.

Still, I can’t wait to skate my Bamboo Series on a joy ride this weekend. 

Best. Skate. Ever. around the lake

Here’s the background story. My daughter, an adorable little eight year old girl, is visiting. In anticipation I bought her a skateboard. The only place to do this is the skate/surf shop in Gainesville, High Tides.

I was pretty sure I would wind up getting her a Penny board, even before I got to the store. But getting there and holding the boards in my hands, I knew the Penny board was the perfect board for a little girl like her. The next closest thing was a Nickel board, a slightly larger model by the same makers.

What really cinched the sale for me, was the way they changed the color on the wheels, and even the screws, to create a certain look that I knew my daughter would love. I’ll put pics on my Instagram @maulakai. But the real trick was getting her to skate.

My first opportunity was in Miami amidst record heat. That was difficult. First I had her play on the board on the rug, to get a feel for it. Then we went outside and simply pushed our boards down the block.

I saw her do something I remember doing, back when I first started skating. She was almost pogo hopping on one leg. Constantly pushing, but never actually hopping on the board for the ride. A little while later we went back inside.

The next day I got her to go out and practice again, but I could tell that she didn’t really want to. Still, that day, we got a much better practice in. She was actually standing up on her board. Once or twice, I showed her how fast I could go on my Boosted, if I used the motor (which I wasn’t for our practice session together).

But then, she changed skateboarding for me, forever, when she asked if she could use my skateboard. I let her, but without the remote. Although it was visibly harder for her to push, it also provided a much larger, more stable platform for her. Clearly it was the wrong size, but she could still ride it halfway decently.

Then she asked me for the remote. That kinda scared me a little. I mean, all this time, weren’t we just building up to me giving her the remote? I couldn’t just say no to her, right? But I knew I had to really show her how it worked, and what she had to do to control the board in a safe manner. Neither of us were wearing helmets.

I had her come off the board, and the first thing I did was put that Boosted Board into the slow setting. I don’t know if you’ve ever used a Boosted Board on slow setting, but it is *slow*. It’s so horribly uselessly slow, that its only real purpose is for people riding a skateboard for the first time. Because you can literally walk faster than that. But with the board on slow, I showed her exactly how much she had to roll the remote wheel to get the motors to engage. I showed her again with me on the board. Finally, I let her get on the board and, with me positioned to catch her in the event of disaster, I gave her the remote to use.

After a predictable first start that had her leaning and screaming, “Woa,” she pretty much got the hang of it. Soon I was walking with her, across the asphalt in front of the house, as she skated in nearly perfect lines. That was the one drawback to her using my board. She doesn’t weigh enough to turn it properly. Fun fact, I weigh ninety nine pounds more than she does.

So as fun as it was for her to ride an electric, it wasn’t quite right because she was still riding my board, a board designed for a much larger, much older rider. We got back onto our own boards, her on the Penny and me on my Boosted. We had the two boards setup parallel to each other. She rides goofy, just like me.

“Get onto your board,” I told her, “and take my hand.” Now, standing together, holding hands, I gently gave my board some throttle. I could feel the moment when that force transferred from our handholding, and into forward momentum for *both* of us. It was a great moment. All my years of skating around on electrics, and the ingenius design of the Boosted remote, allowed us to skate in tandem in a way that I’m sure very few people other than us have done before.

Holding my hand, we finally had that fun, wind in your hair, all play, no work experience that I had wanted to give my daughter for years. We wound up skating around the lake, almost a mile. By my usual standards of skating, it was pretty uneventful. I didn’t see anything exciting or out of the ordinary. The highlights of our skate were swerving to avoid puddles. But that simple skate around the lake, at low speed, holding my daughter’s hand, was easily the Best. Skate. Ever.

Which is kind of a funny thing, because I spent much of last year writing a novella about a college dropout with an electric skateboard, who rescues his SO and saves the internet. The working title for the story is Best. Skate. Ever. The story was pretty much written around the idea of a climax where the hero is skating in a city environment, and everything is trying to get him. Drones, self driving cars, police, traffic lights. It’s the skate of a lifetime to save the internet. Basically, the best, most action packed skate I can imagine. And suddenly, in my RL, I find the Best. Skate. Ever. is simply giving the hobby to my daughter.

Boosted Wins Again

So I’ve been making the commute from my new place for a few weeks now. If I remember correctly, I started off thinking my Bamboo Series Two would be the superior board. But then something happened, something that would change my perception of which board to skate on forever.

It rained. Let me elaborate. It rained one day, so hard that I knew there would be no realistic way for me to skate home. So I had to take the bus. Now although I’ve taken the All terrain tires on the bus before, it’s big and it’s bulky, and it takes up a lot of space. Having that board on the bus means you probably won’t have a hand free to use your cell phone or read a book. And I like to have a hand free to read.

I decided to leave the board at home. Which isn’t really all that big of a deal. I could always come back for the board later, with my car. Or else just take the bus to work the next day, and ride the board home then.

But then, at home, I found myself thinking about my Evolve Board as one might regard a loved pet. Was it okay? Would someone try to steal my board? Even, what if someone tried to hide it from me, like a prank? Was my board okay?

Maybe I should just drive back to work and pick it up. But I hate to drive after work, especially if it’s for just one thing. But I could drive if I was going to drive somewhere else, anyway. That would make driving more of a combination move than a trip *just* for my skateboard.

But then there’s this other issue weighing on my mind. That if I drive back to work to pick up my skateboard, I’ve just used as much gas as if I had simply driven to work. Not only that, but it’s a hell of a lot more inconvenient than simply driving in the first place. So what to do?

That day, I drove back for my skateboard. My co-workers on the night shift heard me cooing my skateboard, “Are you okay? I wasn’t going to leave you. No I wasn’t. No I wasn’t. You’re a good skateboard.” Okay, I admit, I’m a little weird.

But after that whole ordeal, I tried to skate with my Boosted Board. And it remains my go to board for commuting. It gets to work on two lights or less, which means it has plenty of battery and then some. But also, even if it's raining, the board is small and light enough to carry onto the bus without issue.

Maybe I’m being a little unfair to the Evolve board. I’m thinking more and more that I really have to put the orthodox wheels on the Evolve board. That would likely solve its battery issues and give it a new lease on life. It would also make it much more useable for commuting to work and back. Although it would still have the issue of not having the precision braking that I’ve come to expect from an electric.

Another thing happened. Because the next day at work, it rained again. This time, I had the Boosted Board with me. So I wound up taking the bus. But while on the bus, the rain intensified. I found myself cursing because I had brought neither a bag for the board, nor an umbrella for me. As soon as I stepped off of the bus, I was soaking wet. When I got home, I was shocked to find I had made a terrible mistake. I had left my backpack unzipped. Water had gotten into my backpack and killed my Chromebook. Balls.

But the good news is that my Boosted Board, which was being held in my hands the entire time, and thus, got way more wet, that little piece of high end electronics made it through the water without incident. I’m just saying. Boosted, 1, Chromebook, 0.

Which design is best?

Hello my blog. I just wanted to give you a quick update. After writing my last post, I saw the following review on wired.com, putting various electric vehicles to the test. Among them, the FunkyDuck that so many celebrities have been riding recently, an off model of electric skateboard, and an one wheel design.

I don’t want to spoil which one he thinks was best, but I will tell you that I was right ;)

Evolve Battery Woes

So let’s talk about Electric Skateboards again. I went through a dry patch there, where I didn’t have much to talk about. But now I sure do. You’ll note that I’ve recently moved, which *totally* changed my commute. In a way it’s a bit stressful to do that, but in a way it’s fun because I get to learn the optimal way to skate to and from work from a new location. Also note that I’ve moved closer to work, but perhaps along a path where taking the bus is a bit more difficult, as the stop is now easily two or three times farther than it had been.

My new place has a lot of speed bumps in it, and most of them traverse the entire width of the road. Meaning unless you’re on a bicycle, there’s really no way to skip them. Which is a bummer. I also knew from having skated there once before that the sidewalks leading to and from my work are complete garbage. So naturally, I reached for my all terrain Bamboo Series Two from Evolve.

And it didn’t disappoint. It can easily make it over the speed bumps without touching, which is great, although it’s always a bummer to have to slow for the damn bumps. But I understand, because if it weren’t for those, I’d probably have been run over by a car already.

It also handles those garbage surfaces like a boss, so we’re two for two. My new route to work allows me to enter the building by the vallet guys, which is a very nice added bonus. I’ve already heard comments to the effect of “That’s cheating,” and “Sweet board.”

But when I rode home from work, I saw something that troubled me. My remote was giving me the low battery light. What’s up with that? The distance before was three miles. The distance now is more like two and a half *tops*. Five miles on my Bamboo Series should be cake for this board.

Now I’m no battery expert, but I do know that with these new batteries, you don’t want to let them get down below 20% if it can be helped. I wondered if I didn’t charge it incorrectly, or otherwise make some kind of mistake with the charging.

So the next day, I brought my charger with me to work. This isn’t something I do lightly. Because these batteries are also rated for a certain number of charges. If it can be helped, it’s better on the battery to charge it once, not twice a day. So I charged it at work, and rode home that day. Would you believe that before I had gone even a single mile, I looked down and saw that damn low battery light. What gives?

To me, this is a sign. And a bad one. Because the Bamboo Series two is my newest board, with the best battery. It should be the last board of mine to pull a stunt like this.

While I’m trying to sort out what’s going on with the board, I decided to take my Boosted Board to work today. So I did a little testing. Turns out the Boosted can also clear all the speed bumps, without touching. But something about the feel of it going over a speed bump, I found that I much prefer to hop off the board and hop back on.

Today, when I rode it to work, I found several points in the road where I had to hop off, because the surface was so bad. That was to be expected. But when I got to work and did a battery check, would you believe I was only down one and a half lights (out of five). In other words, the Boosted Board reports being not even halfway discharged, while the Bamboo Series two already reports a low battery.

Now part of this issue is the fact that the Boosted Board has an awesome battery life indicator that tells you exactly how much battery it has used, and how much it has left. While the Evolve board simply flashes a red light to tell you you’re getting low on juice.

I checked both manufacturer webpages and this is what I found. I’m sorry, all you battery experts, if this isn’t quite the pertinent information. But the Boosted Board claims a 99 watt hour battery. The Evolve board claims a 350 watt. I’m sure somewhere out there is a person who can shed more light on the subject. But the feeling I get is that when it comes to battery life with the all terrain wheels, all bets are off.

Maybe it’s time I put the orthodox wheels on my Bamboo Series two and skate like that for a while. But man, I really love having those wheels to get me over the real life conditions of sidewalks.

As a matter of fact, as I was skating this morning, I couldn’t help but feel like the device I really want is the One Wheel. I think that almost every time I go over the stupid fucking tactical pavement they put on the curbs here, just to fuck with all the old people in Jazzies who have to roll over them.

I still don’t really wanna drop the cash on yet another electric vehicle. Maybe I can finagle one for Christmas. The Boosted Board is the electric skateboard that would really satisfy an orthodox skateboarder. The Evolve Bamboo Series with the all terrain tires is the board that is best suited to a beginner who needs his board to ride more like a bicycle. But the One Wheel strikes me as the only electric vehicle that is truly designed from the ground up to do what it does specifically, allowing a single person to commute over whatever the terrain has to offer.

One last note. I saw skating the Evolve around a parking lot. I pulled up to the trunk of my car, just as a family with a young boy was passing by. The father said to the boy, “You should get one of *those* boards.”

I turned to them and said, “You won’t be disappointed. They’re awesome.”

“What’s it called?” the mother asked.

“Evolve Skateboards,” I said.

They nodded and walked on. What I wanted to add, but didn’t was “You’re in trouble now, because the board costs more than the car.” But then, as I thought more about it, a better response, that would actually help promote this new favorite pastime of mine, would have been, “Go for the LecDec. It only costs as much as a PlayStation.”

LecDec

Long time, no see, all you electric skateboard enthusiasts. How have you been?

Have I got news for you. the first, most important thing I’ve learned, is that the LecDec is here. What a great name that is. But what makes the LecDec worth typing about is the price. This electric skateboard is only $400. That’s right. We’ve reached price parity with a PlayStation 4. This is the time, my friends, when your average neighborhood kid can afford one of these lovely new toys.

Now I don’t want to act like I have the inside scoop on this board. Because I don’t. But I am a member of the Evolve group on Facebook. If you’re not in that group, run, don’t walk, to like that page, because that is an incredible resource for people like us.

So even though I’ve never even *seen* the LecDec, I think it’s safe to say that the board is going to be two things in addition to cheap: loud and slow. It’s pretty much the only way such a board can maintain that kind of distance, is to go slow. Now there’s nothing wrong with going slow. In fact, I like the idea, because that means the board that most neighborhood kids can afford will be one that I can skate circles around.

Let me link the thing already.

So it looks like it’s available in the UK. If anyone has actually rode the thing, please hit me up @maulakai and let me know what you think.

In other, more personal news, I’ve just moved. Closer to work, in fact. But the kicker is that the skate to work is now actually more difficult. It’s funny how little details like a speed bump that you can’t skate around can really change the vibe of the commute.

But in a way I’m happy for the move. Because in my city, the whole damn place is under construction all at once. They managed to have nearly two of the three miles of my old commute under construction, making it a much less fun skate. At least for the moment.

That considered, you’d think my new route, an even shorter distance, would be ideal for a commute. I mean, it travels along a bike path, for gosh sakes. But it’s not. Because of those damn speed bumps, and because of the way the bike path takes a few very sharp turns, and gets cut by major roads. I still haven't actually done the commute, but I’ll definitely be using my all terrain Bamboo Series Two for it. I’m sure making the commute with my Boosted would only wind up scratching the bottom.

Also, my new bus route will take me right to work. But the walk to the bus is a few blocks, with some up hill. So maybe, if I learn to hit the bumps just right the Boosted, it could be a good way to pop on down. We’ll figure it out. Until then, may you ride more than you carry.