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.
No comments:
Post a Comment