Today I tried what I consider a quantum leap in Hub motor technology or for that matter, a breakthrough for Esk8ing in general. I had the chance to test this new type of board called Airless, manufactured by On-ix, which showcase important developments in different areas of Hub motor technology. I’m not going to talk about specs now because the list is long. Suffice is to say the 4WD platform is 8kw, comes with a 1500wh battery, weights 13 kgs and has 50 mile range (80km). Just go to their website read the spec sheet and confirm their claims. This product presents so many advances in one single package, that is remarkable how they managed different aspects of Hub system and their general construction finding better solutions with lots of ingenuity to solve most of the hurdles from the traditional platform, which in turn improves its overall performance reaching new heights.
I agreed to bring along my venerable Acton Qu4tro production board because the idea was to compare the dimensions of a similar production platform, a 4 WD hub motor system (Qu4tro being the first production board ever of this kind) against the Airless board (2WD and 4WD Hub motor configurations) which I saw before only thru images and videos, but not in person. What impressed me the most was the sheer size of the Airless board, is a huge board with lots of real state! But don’t be fooled by its size and weight; the board is agile, responsive, flexy, powerful and very fast. After driving both of their main models all afternoon here in San Francisco, a 2WD and a 4WD, thru the worst streets on the city like unrideable, cracked, cratered Van Ness Ave. I’m convinced these boards are on a whole different level. Airless is quite possibly the most powerful Hub motor system on a production board on the market today. Offers much more range than others, is faster, sports flexier and much larger wheels (115mm airless spiderweb patterned) with 80mm width 76mm contact patch, are durable, super light, bouncy, rolls over anything and boast a buttery 65A durometer. Take a look…
My Acton Qu4tro is a good size 39" inches, a pure longboard by any means and equally heavy (25 pounds), wears 88mm sleeves on 4WD Hub motor configuration, thus the weight (is not the same thing two motors than four, which could easily weight 800gr each, so we are talking systems with almost 4 kilograms of just motor weight!), my feet sit comfortably across the deck and has spring absorbers. A decent board with 20 mile range, 23mph top speed, devours hills like nothing up to 30% incline and is super reliable…
…well, after I rode the Airless today I came out of that experience thinking I just rode a mammoth super agile and superfast All-Terrain Batmobile Tumbler tank from Christopher Nolan’s Batmovies that could trespass walls, roll over post apocalyptic junk and debris spreaded across highways from the end of the world, surf thru a corn field, over the craters on the moon, or any cracked street the liberals of San Francisco managed to create on their abandoned derelict traffic system they are so proud off.
After I left the guys from Airless (Austin and John) who were very kind in lending us their boards at Fort Mason and later over the incursion we did thru the Marina and that hell-goat driven street the local pacifists call Van Ness, I stepped down from the Batmobile Tumbler tank and came back to reality ridding home on my sturdy, reliable and noble 1959 Jeep Willys.
At Van Ness we paid a visit to our friends at Last Mile SF. The boards with signs of the ‘abuse’ when we rolled over Fort Mason grassy wetted field like it was nothing.
Interesting setup here… I have my doubts about those motors and what they can do though. The motor can itself looks pretty small and with 115mm wheels, you want a larger diameter stator, not smaller. Just physics here with rotational torque.
The other thing is it seems like your feet are really far off the ground with this board. I would imagine that makes the board feel less stable at speed. Standard trucks, so nothing that makes up for that ride height there.
Curious what their battery setup is. If it’s li-ion, it’s going to sag like no tomorrow and good luck getting the 8kw they claim with that. If it’s lipo, it’s risky to put that into a consumer board but you could actually pull 8kw from that.
In general, I’ve been debating for a while what’s ethical to put into a consumer board. It sounds like this thing has more power than most will ever need. For experience riders who have ridden half a dozen other boards, it’s the natural next step. But for newer riders, things can get dicey quick (just look at the raptor 2 demo and the people who got hurt, they were dropping like flies in both events on that board).
Can’t wait to see it in person. I’ve been working every other saturday lately though, and every 3rd Saturday or so, I’ve been going down to LA for electric skateboard races. And then the days I’ve been here, it’s been raining. This saturday, I work and the next Saturday is the Evolve k1 race in Carlsbad. Hopefully, this rain goes away soon so I can check this thing out!
The weirdest part for me is how far apart in performance the two boards are. One board has a 12s3p 18650 pack and the other is a 12s8p 21700 pack. That is an absolutely massive jump.
Those hubs look pretty slick. If this board ends up shipping, it may actually be worth buying. And if they sell those hubs separately, I will probably get a pair.
I rode that 4WD fcker with two remotes yesterday!! One on each hand. What an experience! One controling torque from rear hubs and the other for the front, both controls set for either soft or hard power…and those weren’t even their controls. Their own propietary remote will be smthng incredible with flash light and display. These wheels are the 5th iteration and the final production wheels, either free front 2WD or 4WD hub wheels will be an improved design over these.
They sound like the fckn Abrams M1 main battle tank when is rolling with its honeywell gas turbine at full power! You can roll over any type of gravel, rocks, cracks, potholes or even jump the shoulder from the sidewalk at full steam. I even rolled straight up to this monument brickyard at Fort Mason…
Last I tried it the board has significant vibration from the wheels while riding on perfectly smooth road. There’s no doubt about the “all terrain” aspect but I would like to test it out more. If only they didn’t make the test ride in the middle of the day on a weekday.
Yeah, they wanted to know if real hard core Esk8ers interested on the thing showed up . Apparently all were very busy working, inventing some excuses or simply scratching their balls. I scratched mine that morning so thats why I diligently finished my work early and went straight there sweating like a pig.
Their price will be around $1300. Same will go for their Indiegogo campaing. They don’t want to mess around with that sort of thing like early birds $XXXX this or that $XXXX.
No, is going to be the same price there as well anywhere else, before or after. That I was told.
People are all worried about socialism while the fundamental rule of capitalism is shifting and no one is noticing. Why do the owners get the profits? We were taught because they made the investment and took the risk. With AirBnB and Lyft the owners got others to make the investment, the owners of the houses and vehicles. The owners are no longer risking anything. With Indiegogo and such, the consumers now make the investment and take the risk. First for a discount. Now that is being eliminated. What happened to the investors deserve the profits because they risked the investment? Capitalism is being redefined and almost no one notices.
. Apparently all were very busy working, inventing some excuses or simply scratching their balls. I scratched mine that morning 
so thats why I diligently finished my work early and went straight there sweating like a pig.