So I am thinking about buying this for christmas. http://actonglobal.com/blink-s2/. I just wanted to ask you guys first because this community I awesome. Is the brand known. And whuold you recommend this board. All information i handy.
Thanks Reuben
It all depends on your needs, I suppose. My personal opinion is that, if this if you’re on a budget or if you are new to e-boarding, then I believe that the S2 will the best choice out there. It won’t be the best board out there (not by a long shot), but I do expect it to be a solid board at a great price point. I have a Blink Hub myself, I’m happy with it, and I’m looking forward to their new models.
That being said, I’m pretty sure my opinion here is a minority one. Unlike well known brands like Boosted or Evolve, Acton has stronger ties to Chinese manufacturers. For example, you’ll see that their remotes, trucks, and hub casings are identical to eWheelin boards. I think this is the main issue I think most folks have with Acton. If you have more money to spend, and would like to wait a while longer for something top-notch, I’d recommend Mellow Drive (Board Choice + Swappable Battery + Waterproof), Enertion Raptor 2 (Great Hubs; All-Rounder), Evolve GT (Offroading; Range). The Qu4tro looks cool, but I think the Raptor 2 would probably win out. I’m guessing the Qu4tro would get you maybe a little extra inclined, but the Raptor 2 would have more range and higher top speed.
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I really need it to go 10km a day which it can handle im just worried about the batteries
If you’re talking about safety, I haven’t heard anything to indicate the batteries wouldn’t be safe. My Acton’s been just fine.
You might want t check delivery date. S2 is flagged for Jan 2017 release. Assuming they are on track for that date.
I would be careful with range numbers… If you are riding in an environment with any amount of hills or are a taller/heavier person, or both (like I do), you won’t get close to the numbers they advertise. Range is one of the easiest numbers to bs, because you have no idea usually how they even come up with it.
I don’t think these boards will be total crap, but when you look at prices in this industry, you generally get what you pay for… If a board is at a low price, expect a low quality board compared to what what else is out there. I expect they will have a lot of motor overheating issues.
I personally don’t see how they can do this. They must be using a very cheap esc and motor. A decent quality hub motor should cost no less than $150 IMO, the even better ones are $200+ per motor. Then you have a battery, which should be no less than $200 if you want a short range. $300+ if you want a decent range (like what you want). So we are at $600-$700, and we still need speed controllers. High quality speed controllers go for $180 a piece, so your up to $780-$880 for the single, $1060-$1160 for a dual. Then add another $100 for the deck with enclosure. And another $100 for the connectors, wiring, bms, and other little parts. so your up to $980-$1080 for a single and $1260-$1360 for a dual drive with high quality parts, and this is assuming you get the motors and battery at manufacturer bulk pricing cost. bulk pricing of the esc of a lesser quality could save to $100 per esc, so you could potentially pull it down a bit more. But as a company selling completes, they would need to spend at least $800 for a single drive and $1000 for a dual drive. And to the consumer, they would need to mark it up at least 10 percent.
So you can see, it costs a lot to create a high quality board. To bring costs down, and offer the insanely low prices they do, they must shave quality. I would say these boards will be a great gift for kids or young adults to play with as toys. But they are just that in my mind, a toy. They are not a high speed, long range transportation devices, which is more what I would imagine you would want, based on your reason for buying one in the first place…
This high speed, long range portion of the market is small right now, and your options for such are limited. Evolve and Enertion are the two best that come to mind. Ollin board company will have one soon that will destroy everything, and I’m working on a complete that can compete in this portion of the market also.
Just ask yourself what your goals are with an eboard, and understand that the numbers they give in terms of top speed, range, ect. are usually based on light people and while going on flat or downhill only. On my board, 1 block up hill = 5 blocks of flat = 8 blocks downhill. Board manufacturers will never give you these kinds of numbers, because they don’t want you to think hard about it. On my normal route, with over $300 of battery cells alone, I only get 5 miles with solid performance before I sag down to 0%. Get rid of the hills, and 10 miles easily. Half my weight, and 20 miles easily. Board manufacturers will always give you the best looking number they can come up with, so just be careful 
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If you are looking for a reliable 10km board, I’d recommend the Yuneec Ego. Mine has been extremely reliable and I keep it around in addition to my Evolve Carbon and DIY boards.
It just works. Gets 10-11 MILES of range and does 12-13 mph. In an urban environment, this works well as I have found that 15-16 MPH seems to be the fastest I want to go around traffic (cars pulling out of alleys, UBER drivers, etc).
You can also fit all the components on a shorter deck which makes it even more practical
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Well I was hoping to get crowd funding stage for the price the yuneec ego looks good but less afordable… IDK…
I just preordered one, $530 shipped seems like a good starting point for my short commute/ new hobby.
Definitely struggled with considering the Raptor2, but the lightness/compactness of the s2was a big factor, as was cost of course.
This post on the Reddit sub is interesting:
I will be shocked if dual hubs have a range of 10 miles with only 2500mah.
Please post up a review when you get it.
The Carvon emc2 which is speculated to share hub components with the Acton s2 has a 2500 mAh battery, but I haven’t been able to find this metric on the s2 - it is reported to have 160Wh however, so assuming 36V like the Carvon = 4444 mAh? Please do correct me if I’m wrong, am completely new to this world and am just basing this on a google search that showed the following:
I’ll definitely do a review. My commuting needs are pretty modest TBH, 5 miles would more than suffice - but I’m hopeful that the claims are close to real-world.
I would be shocked if 2500 mAh gets you 5 miles… Unless you weight 120 pounds, ride in super flat and downhill environments only, and at 12 mph max in the lowest torque mode.
Honestly, I use a 10000 mAh and I barely get 5 miles… This is due to the fact I weight 200 pounds, live in a super hilly environment, and like to ride above 20 mph at all times. Again, there’s hypothetical and there’s the real world, and the real world is never a perfect scenario.
they are using range number from the factory. not real world because it doesn’t seem like there is a single skater in the company, aside form the ones they pay in their videos…
the older actons were claiming. 6-7 miles. users are reporting 3/4miles! not surprising since they are using cheap low discharge, low capacity batteries.
$500 seems cheap compared to other boards. when you consider you can order from china(randomly branded) for $300.
or build a real custom board for about $600 
Saul,
Do you know which batteries are being sold on the s2? I’ve not found anything definitive from Acton except that they are 160Wh (found this info when researching the possibility of air travel w/ board) which assuming 36V ~ 4300mAh, which jives with the specs of the “Koowheel” board which is claimed to be derived from the same/similar hardware (or straight up re-badged?)
I definitely plan on building up an electric board myself, but for the price I figured this isn’t a bad way to go as I get into the hobby and learn. Perhaps I’m mistaken however, I admittedly am ignorant and there isn’t as much info to go on as I’d hoped.
I’ve got quite a large quiver, having been pretty active in the downhill scene, so I’m considering cancelling my Acton order and instead going with an Eon or Dash drive system… had been following mellow but it’s just too much$.
Ha! I wrote that post on reddit.
I ended up just building my own using Carvon 2.5 dual hubs. It was a lot more expensive. But I am pretty happy with it. I even think I might go ahead and build a single hub too.
I see that single hub drives are pretty common, but I’d assumed that this kind of setup would negatively affect handling, having weight and drive coming from one corner? And wouldn’t the urethane on the drive wheel wear faster than the rest, compounding this asymmetry?
I don’t think it would make that much of a difference unless you like showing off and have your board do burnouts and stuff. Also peep the V3’s they use regular wheels so you could just rotate them like normal wheels.
Ohhh awesome. Using regular wheels would be great, I’ve been trying to convince myself that I won’t be tempted to slide on the flats but I know myself enough to know that I’d probably end up shredding 