Hi, I’m new on the forum but not really new to the electric skateboard stuff 
I’ve built an electric bike from eskating parts (the motor drives the back wheel via a belt, like Tom Stanton’s e-bike) and I’ve used it for a couple of months, it works pretty good. For very short trips I usually don’t plug in the battery (to save time), so the VESC is unpowered, but the motor of course still spins when I bike. Could this be harmful for the VESC? I’ve done it a couple of times, and nothing has broken thus far, but I want to be sure it’s safe. My idea is that there may be a back EMF created by the motor that somehow can brake something in the VESC.