Evolve to the Rescue

So I’ve bounced a few emails back and forth with Evolve. They’ve been very helpful. I especially love the way modern technology aids in the process. Instead of trying to describe what’s going on in an email, I can put a video on my InstaGram and simply show them. If you’ve been following me @maulakai on instagram, you’ve seen a few of these videos. My battery appears to be working fine. The problem may be a short in one of the wires, or a problem with the electronics.

Evolve asked me to ship to them the ‘black box’ which is under the board. I’d liked to have mailed it off ASAP, but I haven’t had a chance to mail it off yet. So far, I’m very satisfied with how helpful they’ve been.

In other news, I had a new follower on InstaGram. That’s always a nice validation for me. The user was skatetek_electric_skateboards. I only mention this because, out of curiousity, I checked out their webpage. Have a look for yourself. See anything interesting? Their boards look almost identical to the Emad boards I’ve had so much frustration with.

There’s little doubt in my mind that they’re all made in China by the same cheap ass factory. And while their boards are cheap, they’re still very low quality, and heavy, and all around terrible. Yet, I can’t fully trash them, since my Mom uses one, and they are very good for people with no skating experience.

Houston, we have a problem

The following story takes places after the events of my last post.

So I’m riding home from work. It’s a three mile trip. Everything is typical, save for the fact that I have more battery than usual. Because my remote had broken in the moring, I carried my board to work that morning. The entire round trip is only four miles. I had traveled about two miles when the board lost power.

No bump, or jostle. Nothing sudden or dramatic. I simply rolled to a stop. I hopped off the board and hit the power button. It flashed once, then turned off again. I tried this several times. Nothing. Luckily I was close to a bus stop that would take me to my apartment complex. I waited around, and carried my broken board onto the bus home.

After nearly 700 miles, my board has encountered a problem. I emailed Evolve about it. But after a few rounds, I discovered I had been emailing the Australia branch. I needed to talk to the American branch.

In the meantime, remember the friend I have who makes his own electric boards over at Red Rock Boardshop? Well I took the board over to his house last night. He was kind enough to open it up and test the battery. The results are on my Instagram @maulakai. But the battery seems just fine.

The board flashes one time when I try to turn it on. Which is unfortunate because Evolve’s troubleshooting section has codes for 3, 4, 7, and 8 flashes. But nothing for a single flash.

However, I’m in the middle of emailing the guys at Evolve USA. It looks like the board is going to have to go into the shop. If my two years of engineering school are worth anything, I believe there is a problem in the internal electronics. We shall see.

And in the meantime, I shall walk. Headphones up, gaze down, wishing for my board to once again roll it’s magic for me. Or for the Carbon series to arrive in the mail already.

Oops, I dropped it again

The other day I dropped my remote while I was getting off of the bus. I didn’t think it was too big of a deal. I’ve dropped my remote before, although I do try to be careful with it. But this time, when I picked it up, something didn’t feel right. The trigger was cocked back at an unorthodox angle. From what I could see, a small spring had come loose.

I had to do the unthinkable. I had to carry my skateboard to work, instead of the other way around. There was an awkward moment when I tried to get on the board again. Hoping against hope that it might roll me like we’d once rolled. But it was no use. I didn’t know how to kick a skateboard (I still don’t). Or maybe having to push the board by myself was just too hard. Either way, I walked into work, surprising the many people on the sidewalks who are used to me barrelling past them.

At work, I found someone with a multi purpose tool suitable to open the remote. My multi purpose tool’s screwdriver wasn’t long enough to reach the screws. Neither was the first person I asked. The third person had one that worked.

Inside the remote, I found the spring that had come loose. With the help of a friend and a paperclip, I had it fixed in a few minutes.

I can’t help but notice how much this contrasts with the time I dropped my Emad remote. There was no fixing that one. I had to send the whole schebang back to Emad for them to fix it. And being able to fix my own Evolve remote really felt good. I’m not usually a handyman. But there’s something very rewarding about being able to fix something with just a little bit of tool time.

Early March Now?

I visited the Evolve webpage today. It looks so similar to how it did the last time I saw it, you might not notice one teeny tiny change. Remember how excited I was because it's February, the month I get my new Carbon series board?

CARBONS ARE PRE-ORDER FOR SHIPPING IN LATE FEBRUARY, EARLY MARCH. AS OF SUPERBOWL SUNDAY ONLY EIGHT PREORDERS LEFT!

Now it's late February, early March. My birthday is March 19th. Can I hope to get my board by then? Evolve, I love you so much. But I can't say I'm surprised. You're a lot better at making quality boards than you are at meeting deadlines. Deadlines you got to create, I might add. Until then, all I can do is wait.

Nite Ride, FTW!

It’s February and I’m feeling really happy. I’ve got plenty of reasons. For one, February is the month that Evolve promised to ship their pre-ordered Carbon series boards. I absolutely can’t wait to have a second board so I can take my girlfriend on a ride.

When will I see my board? That’s still anyone's guess. But seeing as how I only put down a deposit on the board, I’d say I won’t be seeing it until at least a few days after they ask for the rest of the money.

Also, last night was the first night skate I’ve had since installing the new green underlights. The result was great. Skating around campus, nearly every group of girls I skated past yelled “I love your lights!” or something to that effect.

As a product, I have a complaint about the lights. If you’ve seen from the picture on my @maulakai instagram account, the entire thing is mounted under my board. But the vibrations from riding cause the battery cover to come partially open while skating. There doesn’t seem to be any good way to avoid this without mounting it on the top of the board. Although the problem would have been solved with a single extra screw in the design. I was going to trash the Nite FX LED Light Riding Kit, but given the number of shout outs I got last night, I’m instead giving it full praise. And my friend riding without lights even had people yell at him -- “You should get lights!”

Another good plus? Our ride last night clocked in at 7.64 miles. That’s about average for our runs. And nearly double my commute home the other day? What does this tell me? That the battery is still working fine. I guess Evolve is right, you do use more battery by breaking.

But not in every situation. Remember one of the properties of electro magnetism. If using the motor makes you go forward and drains the battery ... Then going downhill and using the break will charge the battery. The big hill on campus, Center drive, is a great way to charge. As a matter of fact, I had a low battery light on my remote at the top of the hill. But by breaking all the way down, I was able to charge it back up, and even made it back to my car without the low battery light.

I bet some skaters out there think what I’ve said is blasphemous. That’s probably just the difference between orthodox longboarders and electric longboarders. But that’s part of the style of being an electric skateboarder. You don’t have to make your ride all about speed and going fast. You have a motor to speed up on the slow parts and slow down on the scary parts.

Anyway, I just thought I’d make it clear. If you’re slowing down for pedestrians and then speeding back up again, it really is a waste of energy. But if you’re at the top of a hill with low battery, then using the brakes really can charge your board.

More students = Less battery?

Well a new semester at UF has started. This is always bitter sweet for people who live in Gainesville. It means that the roads are once again crowded with students. And the buses. It’s a good thing, if you like being stuffed into public transport with young college girls. And it’s great from the point of view of skateboarding past a long line of traffic. But it’s bad in almost every other aspect. Oftentimes now, the bus is so crowded that I can’t get a seat. People bump into my board when they walk past me. And worse, there’s more foot traffic on the sidewalks I’m forced to skate on. Which means more slowing down. More yelling “Excuse me,” (I’m still waiting for my electric horn, kickstarter), and statistically, I’d expect to have more collisions with pedestrians.

When I ride the bus, I always try to stay at the front of the bus. This is for practical reasons only. I get off at a stop on the top of a small hill. If students get out in front of me, I’m just going to have to pass them, half a moment later. Since I’m consistently the only skater getting off at that stop, if I get off first, I can blow down the hill without the inconvenience of passing someone who may or may not suddenly decide to step in my way.

I’ve been boarding home long enough to have learned to take a shortcut through a parking lot. To simply take the bike line down one, off campus street, where the UPD has no jurisdiction. But by the time I get home, about four miles ride in total, I’ve been getting the low battery light.

This troubles me slightly. Remember, I keep meticulous logs on how often I skate, and the distance I skate when I do. The purpose is to show what kind of mileage my board can get. This is dependant on many factors. Florida is known for being flat, but my route takes over several hills. And with the students in town, I’m doing a lot more braking and accelerating. So that factors in.

According to my log, I’ve traveled 669 miles on my board so far. That’s no small chunk of change. I’ve changed the grip tape once. The wheels show no signs of wear. But if the board blew up tomorrow, it would have cost me about $2 a mile. Of course, I’d expect it to last longer. Much longer. At the one year mark, I’d expect the cost per mile to go down to less than $1 per mile. How cheap a form of transportation it is depends entirely on how long the battery works for me. But if my four mile commute becomes too much for the battery before then, it will be a bad omen. I’m hoping to ride the board long enough to get the cost down to at least .50 cents a mile. But only time will tell.

In other news, @evoskate44 followed me on twitter. They’re the European branch of Evolve, not to be confused with @Evolvesk8boards. Either way, yay! I’m almost mildly relevant in an emerging technology most people don’t know about.

Best on Block / Boosted Response / Carbon Series

Driving home with my girlfriend, we saw the neighborhood kids, out on their scooters.

“I feel really bad about showing off my skateboard to them,” I told her. “We live in the ghetto, they can’t afford one. It just doesn’t feel right. It’s not the same as when I do it in the rich neighborhoods by the beach.”

When we got out of the car a minute later, I heard something new. The sound of a small electric motor. The poor kids had new scooters. Electric scooters.

“Oh hell no,” I said. “It is *on* now. If they can afford electric, then they can afford to know that I have the best one in the neighborhood.” I said. I went inside, got my Evolve longboard, and skated around them.

I went at their pace for the first block. I asked them what kind of scooter they had, but either they didn’t know or were apprehensive about speaking to a ‘stranger’ or both. “Wanna race?” I asked. They nodded and sped off. I gave them a headstart, and they blew past them. I lapped them. I peeled off around a corner, and disappeared into my house. Hopefully, the illusion fooled them, and they thought I was gone, already the next neighborhood over.

In other news, Boosted has responded to me about how they come to say they’ve got a six mile battery on their board. I’ll let him tell you:

Range estimates are tricky, because they're so dependent on things like rider weight, riding surface, wheel bearing condition, ground slope, average speed, etc.  The same goes for any performance metric (like how steep a hill can it climb) but range is the one compared most often.  

For our board, we both computed it mathematically and also rode the board a lot and measured the range on each ride.  Our 20 beta testers also recorded their rides using speed tracking apps like strava or cyclemeter and told us the range they got.  6 miles was a good average, with some riders getting 8 or 9 miles using techniques like pushing to accelerate or gently coasting up to lights and stop signs.  

They’ve still got that sexy picture of their board back when it was so skinny. Still no word on their final production specifications. To my friends at Boosted, keep up the hard work! We’re all waiting for your boards!

Finally, I’ve ordered a Carbon series board from Evolve. It will be my primary board, and my Snubnose model will go to my girlfriend. Finally, we’ll be able to ride together. Evolve says they’ll have it to me some time next month. I can’t wait.

I’ll leave you with a video my friend made of us longboarding down campus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDEG4rMdyl0&feature=share&list=UU9SqB3KdC5gse8Fv2RNRnsQ