Minor Design Flaws In Evolve?

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you might’ve seen the pics I took of how my board currently looks. It’s got an orange bungee cord going around it. The reason why is simple, and hints at a minor design flaw in my Evolve board.

The battery and electronics case is flat. It screws into the board in six places. Normally, that would be the end of the story. But a longboard flexes as you ride it. The amount of flex depends on many things, including the weight of the rider. But when it flexes, it puts stress on those screws. Those metal screws that screw into plastic.

When I got my board resurfaced months ago, they had to remove the battery case. I noticed that one of the places for a screw was broken. Didn’t seem like a big deal. Especially since a few months later, they wound up replacing the entire battery case.

But now, with this new case, the same thing has happened again. Even more so. Now only two of the original six screws are left. The bungee cord is an easy fix for the minor problem. But let’s be fair, this is a victory for Boosted. Because if you look at where they place their batteries, they do it at the front and rear of the board, closer to the trucks. In other words, inherent to their design, they don’t have that problem. Go Boosted. In other news, I’m about to order my Boosted Board, and give it a thorough review. I can’t wait.

My Carbon series board is still in the shop. I think it’s obvious by now, but those boards seem to have some kind of electrical problem. I told the tech that I wouldn't mind if he replaced it with one of their new bamboo series. We’ll see where that goes.

Remember a clicking sound coming from my motor that I blogged about? Well, while I had the tech on the phone, I asked him about it. He told me that it was probably a loose drive belt. I took apart my board, and sure enough, it was caused by a loose belt.

But loose belts are tough to repair. I’ve tried twice now, and each time I only managed to make the belt looser. If I make the belt too tight, the board won’t even go. But too loose, and it wears out the belt and the gears and won’t break like I want it to.

I really like the get your hands dirty, fix it yourself, style of boarding. It’s the other half of the engineering degree I never finished, and I love it. But if you’re thinking about buying an electric skateboard, you should know that it’s not a hands off project. You’re going to have to get your hands dirty. Which is a good thing. When I took the cover off of my belt cover, I found a few twigs in there.