Cruising / Carving
Weight Guide Flexy Medium Stiff 50 - 100 lbs 65a 78a 81a 75 - 125 lbs 80a 83a 85a 100 - 145 lbs 85a 87a 88a 125 - 175 lbs 87a 89a 91a 145 - 195 lbs 88a 93a 94a 175 - 220+ lbs 91a
@Mr_Mahal do you have any non electric longboards lying around? Might be worth it to get some gullwing sidewinder II’s and ABEC’s to practice the feel of riding on double kingpins. I always ride on sidewinders on my non electrics and keeps my muscle memory intact when I transition to my eboards. Always good to have that balance.
Amen to this!
Ok, Here is a mini review and purchasing story for novice riders in the 40+ crowd 
First off a little about myself. I’m 5’ 11" 220 and 42 years old and live in Northern Caliofrnia (Bay Area) and I bought my first Esk8 board from E-Glide back about 6 years ago. I bought 2 E-Glide boards, 1 street and the other AT and they used large sealed Lead Acid batteries and weighed anywhere from 50-70 lbs. I would say I road them mostly in the summer and a couple of times a week. (they were great for lazy dog walking) About 2 years ago the SLA batteries just weren’t doing it anymore and I shelved them in the garage and got into Drones.
Fast forward to April this year and I ran across some great downhill youtube videos (Fails) and then saw some videos of the Raptor and started my research to get a new state of the art Esk8 board. Looked hard at Metro Board and had several great emails with Ian. He even has a new RF remote to replace the IR that he offered up in a new build. I also had an email with Jason and how long I would have to wait for a Raptor. I keep researching and ran across Evolve and the pending GT. Made up my mind and setup a computer BOT to tell me when the EvolveUSA site changed and starting taking orders. I had my order in within 2 minutes of the site going live but my credit card company thought my card was being used oddly and rejected the purchase. I had to call Visa and tell them yes, this 40+ year old wants a $2K skateboard, please let the charge through. So once that was done my order was in for a Street version.
Fast forward to Last Friday 6/24 - Set the UPS to pickup and got it at lunch time. Charged it up and did a few laps around work parking lot in Slow mode to get the hang of it. Rode about 6 more miles that night. (Econo mostly) Didn’t get much riding in over the weekend because it’s been crazy hot and I like AC too much. I’ve been doing most of my riding at dusk as it cools down out. Thanks to @MR_Mahal I ordered an AT kit and Abec 97’s that got here yesterday and put them on last night.
Review time - 97’s are the shit. Softer, more forgiving and just feel more planted. Will never go back to the 83’s. Road for about 9 more miles on the 97’s last night and tightened the trucks a little more. Starting to get them dialed in. Most of my riding was in Econo mode with the 83’s, the torque sucks but once you get going it’s very quiet and plenty of speed (for me at least) I tend to carve around 13-16 mph which is a very relaxed riding speed for me. Anything more and I feel I really need to pay attention to what I’m doing and don’t enjoy the ride as much. My ankles can feel it and I can’t ride for anymore than 5 or 6 miles at a time without stepping off for a bit but having a great time. Now that I’m on the 97’s I have moved up to Fast but still tend to ride at about 14-15 mph on average. I might go a little faster as I build up muscles and muscle memory but anything over 20mph is going to send me to the hospital if I fall. The hospital isn’t from the fall, it’s from my wife kicking my ass for getting hurt riding a Skateboard.
So there are many more people on the forums that are more knowledgeable than I, but ask away if you have any questions.
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@Shaftdiggity Where in norcal are you from? I’m in the pushing 40 in the North Bay area category and would love to see one of these in person if you’re local enough.
I’m in the East Bay (Pleasanton). Feel free to reach out and PM me if you want check it out.
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@darkydawson yeah, that was me who bought those bushings. Thanks for the recommendation, although it is from china and so i might not to see it till christmas, haha jk.
I guess I am just lucky, I haven’t ate it yet and I was in GT mode the first day. I am by no means an expert, still a complete noob at skateboarding/longboarding.
Update on my board: Evolve just received my board today and said it was a weak solder point.
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Believe it or not that’s great news (imo). Means the battery didn’t fail Hope you get it back soon.
I figured it was something small like that.
Guys, just got back from a 6 mile ride. Practiced some surfing stances and kinda figured out how to counterbalance the board using my lead foot toe, and rear foot heel (vice versa for turning). Surfing on land is kinda awesome and relaxing. Got up to GT mode but never hit max speed. Just wanted to see the acceleration.
As my right foot gets stronger I think my stance will be very stable and I’ll have no problem stabilizing for straight line speed. It’s awesome sidewalk surfing because I can get around anything without ever leaving the board. It’s a beastly truck to master but has so many benefits when you do. not sure how long it’ll be before I hit the streets hard, but I’ll be enjoying it as is.
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are you on the 97’s? I got a set shipped today and should be arrive later this week. I’ve hit 22mph, but I find that I don’t like sidewalks much due to the constantly clacking and extra vibration. I tend to cruise the streets.
Yup, I don’t think I could ride on sidewalks without them or AT. Very smooth and similar to AT but you still feel it. Just not as bad. I try not to ride too hard on sidewalks because the vibration makes things loose, but I’m still getting comfortable with the board. Probably have only put 10 miles on it. Just now getting down the throttle response and good at fine tuning. Taking it real slow because I’m humbled by the board and still kinda injured lol
Are you using GT? Acceleration on that mode is crazy. FYI I noticed my belts became loose after the first couple miles, but they still worked. When I removed the motor screws I didn’t see much or any threadlocker, so I’d recommend you take them all out, clean them, and apply some more.
I use fast now the majority of the time for mandatory hill climbing, eats my hills at a reasonable speed just fine. I’m very careful with the throttle, I’m learning to love it’s sensitivity, kind of like a mental workout guessing how it’ll act lol
About to do that now, a bud of mine said his just started coming loose every 3 minutes, thankfully got some in anticipation so I’ll do that now so they can cure tonight. Will be keeping these wheels on for some time.
I try to keep my belts on the loose side. As long as teeth don’t skip when braking hard on street setup. On AT I have them so teeth will skip a little with very hard braking. This should serve as a good guideline. If you run too tight you will get more noise/friction. Can slow you down a little.
Don’t want anything coming loose unintentionally though.
Also, do you guys know what a loud popping noise means when you carve hard? I hear it near the front trucks. I’ll be making a 360 turn and carve hardddd and hear a little pop, like a nut coming off. Checked my wheels and they’re all good and snug. Not sure what is causing it. Can take a video of it if needed
For sure, but when mine came loose from factory tightness, it was VERY loose. If I broke hard, it definitely would’ve shredded my belts. I put them tight, but still bendy when you press on them.
This clicking is your bearings moving slightly from the seating in 7in wheels. You can try greasing outside of bearing( lithium grease ), this doesn’t stop the movement but the noise. Only should happen when carving at speed… ( I talked with Evolve AUS about this )
Did you tighten your trucks? If you tightened too much it could be the sound of the metal and bushings rubbing against each other. Try spraying in some WD-40.
Also highly recommend upgrading bearings…