I am pretty new, I just started to build my own board. I was wondering if you deplete your batteries or don’t need to turn your board on, how does it feel to free push? Is it natural or is it hard to push?
If you have a belt driven board, there is a bit of added drag caused by the belts.
That means there is more drag on dual drive than on single. also, a wider belt causes more drag than a small one.(15mm belt harder to push than 9mm). Also, the tighter a belt is the more drag it has.
If you run hubmotors, there is nearly no drag, it rides not much different to a unmotorized board.
That said, please never ride a board without batteries / turned of as you might kill your ESC. Rideing with a depleted battery connected is no problem.
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That is not really true though. My jacob hubs have noticeable worse rolling resistance than my unmotorized board. You can coast but getting somewhere with a motorized board just by pushing will be a real pain as you will have to kick every couple of seconds.
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Well, that is interesting. My CarvOn v2.5 have nearly no drag.
Maybe the jacob hubs also add some drag through bad urethane?
Anyways, it will still be way less than my dual diagonal 15mm setup.
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My Single Carvon V2 hub motor is easier to push than some of my friend’s regular longboards. That being said, when a solder joint came off my vesc when I was 3 miles into a 4.5 mile ride to grand central in NYC at 7:30 am on saturday with luggage, I did not have fun. I missed my train too.
Well, if the wires touch it is a whole differnt story.
I decided to carry it after a “full brake phase came loose” situation.
I have a single drive 12mm belt system and there is a bit of resistance. It does get pretty tiring though having to push every few seconds. I would recommend taking a skate tool with you to simply remove the drive wheel, take off the belt and put the drive wheel on again without the belt. This way there is no added resistance and it rides just like a normal longboard 
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I doubt it is the urethane. Even on the bench spinning the wheel by hand it stops almost immediately while the normal longboard wheels keep spinning way longer.
Should one avoid pushing on a board with vesc if the power is turned off as well?
I’m curious about this as well. I didn’t know this was an issue, but I’ve also never tried it.
I’ve had a couple single belt drives boards. Easier than a dual, but still a pain to push. I also have a Carvon V2 single and V2.5 single. The V2 has very little resistance and is enjoyable to push. The V2.5 lies somewhere between belts and my V2 hub. Pushing is not bad, but it feels a tad sluggish.
If you plan on running out of power on a regular basis, a belt drive may be the best choice. If you run out of juice, you can pop off the belt and ride like a regular board.
I can say after just getting my own board that pushing with the belt on does create some drag from the motor. I probably wouldn’t want to count on having to push the board but if you do I would probably remove the belt if possible. Also remember that the board will be heavier due to the electronics so that might make it more tiring to push and harder to stop.
Well, we did not come on a final conclusion on this, but the motors can overcharge your caps and then fry your vesc.
Just if I was going to ride it around though, right, not if I rolled it across my living room floor. It makes sense though.
On topic for this thread though, I end up kicking periodically just because I am in Germany and I prefer a kick start anyways. When my programmer arrives I am def going to flash ackmaniacs firmware and take advantage of cruise control. I was surprised that pushing on a one belt setup really didn’t have that much resistance.
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I never pushed my longboard with jacob’s hubs for long distance, just do it when I see the police, but pushing the board is just a little harder then a normal longboard. There is a little drag because of the magnets of the motors. When I’m spinning the wheel by hand it turns not as long as a wheel without motor and it stops after about 3 or 4 turns.
3-4? I get like 0.5
Well, maybe there is something else wrong with them? Or it is just a different batch.
These guys are using a helical gear system so you get the advantages of a geared board without the drag from belts
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Does it make a difference if you use Foc or BLDC? Same drag when board is on or off? I also cleaned and oiled my bearings a few days ago. And I have 91mm urethane on my hubs, that adds 50g rotating mass per wheel.
hub motors have WAY less drag than any belt setup, and push really easy. BUT they will always have a little more drag than regular skate wheels because of the magnets. I have wheels with LEDs in them that light up from a small magnet in the spacer and even those wheels have a noticeable amount of drag over a standard longboard wheel.
No, drag is drag.