Has anyone got any first hand experience with this chinese kit?

It looks like a good starter kit but would like to see if anyone has any review

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIY-Electric-Skateboard-Parts-Kit-Pulleys-And-Motor-Mount-For-83-90-97MM-Wheels-/132070489883?hash=item1ec003bf1b:g:ueMAAOSw5cNYgeMT

If you can get all of that for a price that low, itā€™s a red flag to me that somethings not right. Good motors will run over $100 USD each, and the decent ones are slightly less than a $100. A full mono drive kit should be around $200 USD, and since that is basically a third of what I feel a high quality kit would be, they are doing something to save money to make it cheap.

Skateboards are dangerous. Through a motor on it and it becomes 5 times more dangerous. Use cheap parts, and its now 100 times more dangerous. I would not want a part to fail mid ride.

Besides the safety concerns, most of us have been victims of the false economy. You buy cheap to save, but it costs more in the long run when you get 5 uses before it breaks, and your forced to buy the higher quality parts anyways. Thereā€™s a lot of forces involved in these mounts. If itā€™s not well made, it will break quickly.

I would suggest looking at other vendors on this forum. Many of us became vendors over the last few years due to the lack of high quality parts on the market. Most of these direct from china parts are garbage. They donā€™t test them in the real world very well, if at all. Enertion and psychotiller both have high quality motors and motor mounts.

Remember that you also have the hub motor option. Thereā€™s carvon and hummie who both make great hub motors (I own both of their motors). Hubs can be a simpler option, especially if your not a mechanical person by nature, as theres basically no maintenance.

Iā€™m trying to convince myself that itā€™ll be better to build a board with less money and as reliable as a Koowheel, but everytime I try I get a higher budget, even though people on this forum defend the DIY route, myself included, I think the DIY market is not ready to compete against the chinese.

Iā€™m really pushing all my friends to get an e-board but only one or two could afford US$ 1500 on a quality build or a built board and I know for a fact more than 80% of them will buy one if itā€™s US$ 600

So the final question would be: is it possible to keep a budget within US$ 600 to build a board better than Koowheel?

On a side note Humie hub motors are still not ready for sale and Carvon hubs raises the budget too much. so my build wonā€™t be able to compete with Koowheel

Iā€™ve used his gear and itā€™s all good. Will fill in with details shortly.

1 Like

youā€™d be surprised how many things here are from the same supplier/firm and just rebranded. Some guys make a shit ton of moneyā€¦ I can partly speak Chinese and price quoted for wheels, trucks or motors ā€¦ Wow. but lets not get into thatā€¦

I agree that these parts are way too overpriced, but disagree that complete boards are cheaper for me. My first build did cost <350$ and koowheel shipped to Finland is about 800$. And I can build quality board few hundred dollars cheaper than buy evolve or boosted, because shipping and taxes are real pain in the ass.

OK - (was on my tablet and dont like typing much on that). I very much have first hand experience with these Chinese kits.

The parts you linked - I have. I bought a complete kit which was mounts, trucks, wheels, motors, from the same ebay seller who is called Dicky (A Chinese guy - very helpful, decent chap). I went to him direct. I bought 2 kits for a dual drive board.

The mounts work with a little extra effort. They have three grub screws that bear down on the truck shaft. This isnā€™t enough to take the torque of the motor. I drilled three corresponding holes into my trucks - takes seconds, so the screws go partially in. Then, and this was necessary too, I put JBWeld around the truck where is meets the mount. Once set, with the grub screws, it is rock solid.

I have a dual drive board that cost very very little, works perfectly, and is smooth as butter.

Someone telling you that cheap = dangerous is trying to sell you something more expensive. Nothing wrong with making money and having a markup for local supply, but less of the bullshit.

2 Likes

I would say a good decent board that can last long would be a DIY route that will cost at BEST. Minimum ~~$650.00. And thatā€™s At best. Board=50_100 Trucks=30-40 Wheels=30-40 Mount=40-60 Motor=80-160 Vesc=90-150 RC/TX=20-30 Batteries=100-400 Case if you wanna be fancy=50-80 Shipping would be roughly 30-60

In my honest opinion, if I gave you a range, then I would pick the highest as worse case scenario, which will mean you will have a safer board and weā€™ll built board. I would say get the absolute max you can spend, and find the best best parts that will cost up to your absolute max budget.

Yes my numbers donā€™t add up, but I donā€™t have my spreadsheet with me so I donā€™t have the exact prices.

I already built 3 boards, doing my fourth at the moment, all of them were between $1400 and $1800 plus huges amount of time which I wonā€™t add to the cost at all. The challenge Iā€™m setting for myself now is to build a board, better than koowheel with a lower price tag, so I could make them for all my friends and keep them from buying the Koowheel, if they end up being $600 o will build them myself, 6 of them already confirmed they will pay for all parts, Iā€™m just pushing the hobby around my town and making no profit out if it as I love to build boards

1 Like

First off, I have no financial incentive for you not to buy this. I donā€™t sell motors or motor mounts.

If your goal is to built cheap boards for others, by all means, try it. Itā€™s possible it will work flawlessly. Just donā€™t have high expectations.

You guys are obsessed with ā€œexpensive = value/good qualityā€. It can be, but it 100% doesnā€™t mean that cheap can be good value/good quality.

My latest board costs:

From Dicky (the supplier of the parts that started this thread: Trucks, Wheels, drive train (belts pulleys mount etc) $205 (delivered to the UK) (Ā£162)

Remember - thatā€™s two wheel drive.

Longboard Deck Ā£25 from Amazon ESCS (2 x FTV 120amp with programming card) Ā£93 RC Ā£20 Batteries ( 2 x 6s 6600Mah) $80 (Ā£55 at the time) Case - I printed it - Ā£3

That comes in at Ā£358 All in - ready to roll. $447 USD at the current exchange rate.

Lets call it USD $500 when adding decent Bones bearings (the chinese ones were junk) and risers, plus some JB Weld adhesive.

Thatā€™s $500 - real money (not an estimate) for a smooth board that rides wonderfully. Iā€™m 90Kg and I get 8 miles out of one charge, It does 25mph - and Iā€™ve geared it that way as I donā€™t want to go faster. It would easily do over 30 with different gearing.

Iā€™ve ridden it many times a week since August last year, usually on 15 mile runs (I have a second interchangable battery pack). I also ride it to the pub on rough UK country lanes frequently.

The ESCs are waterproof (as are motors by default) so I dontā€™ have to worry about frying an ESC. I can make regular ESCs accellerate smoothly - just needs a gentle touch, and the braking is fanstastic. Vescs are indeed super smooth from standstill, but they are eye wateringly expensive, and super fragile and I can kick start - if you canā€™t you really need to rethink skating.

$500 , reliable, light, fast, smooth. If a motor fails, they are pennies to replace.

1 Like

Wow, I must say that the pictures you sent in. the mounts in them look quite superb! At least from the looks it looks like they are quite durable! I assume that is not aluminium but perhaps steel?

Non the lessā€¦ I will reply to the rest of the replies soonā€¦ I just wanted to step in and confess that I had been looking at these kits / mounts for a while tooā€¦ also trying to decide whenever they are any good or notā€¦

Besides that - I think the chinese market is rapidly growingā€¦ so they offer their parts to the rest of the world - for their pricesā€¦ as everything is just cheaper in china, unfortunately :smiley:


Also @RogerD can you throw in how the JB Weld works for you? I assume you just sqeeze both parts outā€¦ mix them together, then fill the empty spaces between the mount and axis - or just apply a coat on both surfaces (mount/axle) so that they ā€˜ā€˜stick togetherā€™ā€™ more?

Some inside info on this one would be great!

With these new Hub Motors from Maytech that are like $90 you could probably build a mediocre board for $350 (without the cost of a deck). Iā€™m planning on building another board using a Maytech hub and itā€™ll prob com out to around $250 for me cause Iā€™ll be using the old ESC from my current board.

1 Like

The mounts are steel.

As for the JB weld, just mix it and smear it on the truck shaft. Slide on the mount, then the glue will ooze out a bit. You have plenty of time to clean it up.

Why not buying a chinese board and substitute the ESC + controller.

Would you please post the link of the 90 dollar Maytech hub motor?

Because I want to choose my board, wheels, bearings, trucks, batteries, gearing, and motors.

here is the maytech hub motor

keep in mind that you will need a specially made truck for that motor.

ya, need use their truck to fit in the motor.