Friday, July 3, 2015

New Post

I know it’s been forever since I’ve made a post to my electric #skateboarding blog, so I guess today is the day. It’s a fitting day to post to this blog, because today is the third of July. Where I work, it’s a holiday, and more importantly, my city public transportation believes it’s a holiday too. In other words, no bus service. Meaning I couldn’t take the bus to work this morning. Or back home later today, for that matter.
However, they also lifted some of the parking restrictions. In other words, this morning, I had the option to drive to work and park like a respected employee. Or to #skate to work. I looked at the weather report, and saw that there was something like a twenty percent chance of rain around the time I would be going home.
I decided to #skate. This time, I didn’t reach for the usual, @BoostedBoards. Nope, this day, since I’d be skating from door to door, I chose the best board for the job. The big, bulky, Bamboo Series Two with the All terrain tires.
I was happy to find that the roads were mostly clear as I #skated over. No hidden cops or bustling traffic to trip me up. Bravo, Bamboo Series Two.

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So I want to type a little bit more about my #LoudBicycle horn. The one that I’ve installed into my backpack and been using for a few weeks now. At first, I was skeptical about it’s effectiveness. But now, I’m a believer. I don’t know what it is about this horn. Some days, I’m feeling a little horny (lol) and I honk it nearly every chance I get.
Other days, I don’t even bother. But one things for sure. Having the ability to honk the horn when a car pulls out in front of you is a great safety feature. I say a little prayer of thanks every time that horn allows me to know for certain that a drive will yield the right of way.
I still think it would be great to have the horn built into the #skateboard so that you could honk using the remote.

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Now let me talk a little about the battery life on my @BoostedBoards. And I want you to take this with a grain of salt. Keep in mind that I’ve been using this board to commute to work and back nearly every day for as long as I’ve had it. When I first got the board, I would come home, check the battery, and see that I had as many as three lights of battery left.
Then I sent in the board for a minor repair. When it came back to me, it was in the new, faster mode where it had three speed settings and could run at approximately twenty two miles an hour.
Even since then, I’ve used the board pretty much exclusively in the fastest gear. Yesterday, when I came home and checked the battery, I had a single, blinking light. Meaning, my little four mile commute took nearly *all* of the battery.
What does this mean? I’m not exactly sure. One the one hand, we have to expect the battery to get worse over time. Certainly my original Evolve Bamboo board suffers from the same issue. Decreased battery life over time. But it feels a little premature for my @BoostedBoards.
But then you also have to figure that I’m using the board in the top gear. I’m going faster, and going faster will always mean using more battery. What I really should do is a run home on the middle gear, and see how much battery I have left over after that. The trouble is, who ever drives slow on purpose?
Nobody, that’s who.
What’s worse is that I’ve *already* tried to go home in the middle speed setting. But I failed. If there’s one drawback to the @BoostedBoards remote, it’s changing between the speed settings. In order to do it, you have to push the button several times.
Now don’t get me wrong here. I was raised on Nintendo. I’m a lifetime, natural, illustrious grandmaster button pusher. But changing the remote between speed settings is fucking impossible. When I couldn’t do it by the time the crosswalk light said go, I said fuck it, and #skated home at top speed.
This is still a relevant question, because people are still always asking me how far the thing can go. My canned answer is still about six miles. But I might have to admit that now, that range is more like four. At least, the way I skate it is. And four miles is a bit limiting.
This whole post also has me wanting to do a distance test with the board. I mean, if I kept my skate slower, how far *could* I go? It’s a good question, and one I’d like to have answered. I’m pretty sure the answer would be pretty far.
Especially since cheaper, crappier boards, like the Yuneec board, claim to have such great ranges. I’m almost certain that if I reduced the speed, my @BoostedBoards would go even farther than that. It should, it has a much better battery. But then you have to factor in that it also has two motors. I’m not a good enough Engineer to say for certain, but I’d guess that means it’ll use more battery regardless, and that if you’re looking for range, you really need a single motor.

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The other test I’m really dying to do is the beach test. I’m talking about the Bamboo Series Two now. I’ve seen videos of other people using theirs on the beach. And I #skate mine down to the beach all the times. I’m very curious to know if I could skate mine on the right patch of hard sand. I know it would be the shiznit to roll down the beach on it. But I’m so scared that something with the sand would turn it all to shit. And I’m scared that rolling on the sand would take up so much more of the battery that I’d find myself stranded, with that big heavy board, and a very long walk home.
Will I have the balls to try it this weekend? Stay tuned to find out.

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