Consumer Research Study on decks for DIY boards! PLEASE HELP!

Hello E-Skate community! This summer is going to be a wild ride. Now that summer has officially started for me, it’s time to dedicate some time to the e-skate community. I’m working on upgrading my cnc machine and incorporating it build some sweet electric skateboard hollow core decks. It’s about time these be made readably available to the market. However, we need to help to determine what the public is looking for with these decks, so we can produce what the community really wants. I have compiled a series of questions that will help determine what the community wants. If you could take 5 minutes or less and share your opinion, we will hopefully have some sweet decks for sale in the coming month. So with out further a due, here’s the questions…

What mount style do you prefer?

  • Drop Through
  • Bottom Mounted
  • Don’t Care

0 voters

Do you like the idea of all electronics being inside of the board, or attached via enclosures?

  • Inside
  • In an enclosure
  • Don’t Care

0 voters

If you like it inside, would you prefer a partial lid (i.e. the lid covers the electronics), like chaka’s freeride deck, or would you like it to be the entire size of the deck, like my 4wd Rocket Board?

  • Partial lid
  • Entire size lid
  • Don’t Care

0 voters

if you like inside, would you prefer your board to open from the top or the bottom, for access to the inside of the board for mount electronics?

  • Top
  • Bottom
  • Don’t Care

0 voters

Remembering that 16 layers is one full inch, what is the most layers you would want?

  • Less than 7
  • 7 - 11
  • 11 - 14
  • As many layers as needed to fit the electronics

0 voters

What style of deck would you like to see?

  • Longboard
  • Cruiser
  • Normal skateboard deck
  • Don’t Care

0 voters

if you want a longboard, how long would you like?

  • Long (greater than 40 inches)
  • Medium (~38 inches)
  • Short (less than 36 inches)
  • Don’t Care

0 voters

If you want a cruiser, would you like wide or narrow?

  • Wide
  • Narrow
  • Don’t Care

0 voters

If you want a cruiser, would you like a kicktail?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Don’t Care

0 voters

Either longboard or cruiser, would you like handles on your deck?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

If you want a long board, how many cells would you like to be able to fit into your deck?

  • less than 12
  • 12 - 24
  • 24 - 36
  • 36 - 48
  • Greater than 48

0 voters

If you want a cruiser, how many cells would you like to be able to fit into your deck?

  • less than 12
  • 12 - 24
  • 24 - 36
  • Greater than 36 (not really practical with a cruiser)

0 voters

How would you like the edges of your board?

  • Rounded
  • Tampered, then rounded (to give a thiner appearance around the edges)
  • Sharp

0 voters

Is concave a must have for you? (no concave means cheaper boards)

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

What is most important to you?

  • Thickness (needs to be thin, likely at the cost of practicality)
  • Aesthetics
  • Light weight
  • Practicality (can fit all the components for a really powerful board)

0 voters

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! We are excited to fill a void in the community and offer a solution to create nice looking, practical electric skateboard decks.

5 Likes

Thank you everyone so far whose shared their opinion. If you have any other thoughts, please feel free to share them.

Many great voices so far! Thank you for sharing and feel free to spread this around so we can gather the most robust information about what the community really wants!

Flex is important option to

1 Like

It is, but however, I can add a new poll after the first 5 minutes. The decks I’m looking at would need to be either stiff or slightly flexible. Vanguard decks are not what I’m looking to make.

1 Like

Not sure why people wouldn’t want tampered edges. Would look really ugly with a 1" deck thickness IMO

Well that’s the thing, everyone has a different opinion. Not rounding it means less work for me, which means a lower price. At the end of the day, the final price will reflect the mount of work done in it. I plan offer options, such as dropthrough or rounded edges, for an addition fee on top of the base price. Some people are fine with the cake looking decks, like me. I think the rounded edge will be more comfortable to carry. But everyone has there own thought.

If that means $30 less, some might even opt to finish the rounding off themselves and save the few bucks… The goal is really to create something for the community that other DIYers can use. I want to give them that starting point. Pressing and cutting the deck, making the lid, ect. is the hard part and requires at least $500 in tools, if not more plus knowledge and experience. I have spent the last 2 years gathering and in the case of my hydraulic press, building my own tools, and experimenting with different techniques. I have narrowed it down to 2 building methods, both of which I’ve had success with.

The future is looking good my friends!

2 Likes

how about this: use your cnc to 3d carve the bottom of your board, then use vacuum glassfiber tech to coat it in carbon/glass fiber, and maybe then move onto testing kevlar etc . You could even cut grooves to use carbon fiber cables inlaid into the board to turn it into a torsion box. look it up. You could save a lot of money by giving the consumer 3d mouldable foam(as in the stuff from vicious) in order to make custom 3d concave, while still having a flat board. try to take inspiration from the inboard M1 monolith, but since we’re diy guys, I’d consider anticipating a bunch of people needing space to accomodate a space cell 3 or 4 at least, or a specific size of lipo pack. On the other hand you could design your own battery packs that are interchangeable. baseline is: copy the M1, give the diy guy as much space as he needs(which is always more than expected),price the whole thing correctly (under 160$ shipped) and you should be ok. remember that this is bare-bones, but it would be nice to be able to inlay wires or something easily before or after or as an upgrade. how about wiring channels for front and back lights or motors being easily accesible?