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.