Kaly NYC style board for price of Evolve GTX?

Checked back in my history and see it’s been nearly 2 years since posting for the last time. I was going to build my own board and got to ordering everything but the electronics. Then things like moving to another country etc put things on hold.

Paused but not forgotten. I ride my board a lot but making it electric is never far from my mind. That led me to the Evolve GT line. They look alright and here in Australia they’re decently priced at 1800 Australian dollar (1400 USD).

I do however don’t like the company too much. Something about how they handle things like complaints about their remotes for example, I don’t know. It doesn’t sit right. I think Enertion handles things better, although they have their own problems + they only offer the R2 with regular wheels.

The perfect board really seems to be Kaly’s Urban Cruiser, but all said and done that board is almost twice as expensive as the GTX. I understand where the price difference comes from. His boards are works of art.

But say I’m fine with the performance of a GTX or even a Bamboo GT. Because 25 km/h is enough for me really. I’m getting old an a bit more careful and it would be a commuter board more than anything else. Could I build something with Bamboo GT specs on a Trampa board for the cost of a GTX?

The complete board would be 600 Australian dollar (460 USD) to get here. That would leave about 1200 AUD/960 USD for the rest. I’ve done some quick parts lists, but interested in hearing the expert’s opinions.

Thanks!

I’m not an expert but for cheapest side: -@marcmt88 mounts+wheel pulleys~150 -belts~30 -TB vescs~200 -mini remote~15 -trampa enclosure~100 -2 motors~150 -40x30Q~200 -Bestech BMS~50 -charger~25 -Arduino spot welder, soldering iron, solder, flux, nickel, wires, heat shrink, XT90s, volt meter…? So it would be around 920 without this :point_up_2: :man_shrugging:

3 Likes

This was pretty much my line of thinking, why buy boosted/evolve/enertion when I could build my own. It cost more, and took a lot longer than expected (ok, not like waiting for a Raptor :joy:), but I don’t regret the decision. I learnt a lot, and it’s been a great little side project. Cost was mostly my own up selling, going from single drive to dual, building my own enclosure, getting parts anodised, etc. There was some unexpected stuff to, bolts/wires/connectors/etc all add up to more than just loose change.

There’s some bank and PayPal fees hidden away in buying Trampa stuff. Mine cost 630AUD (street carver), and I believe Trampa prices have since increased. Exchange rate may be better ATM. To their credit I did get my board a week after ordering (UK to Melbourne).

Gut feel says that you’ll exceed your budget.

5 Likes

Also, if you buy part by part, when you exceed your budget, just wait for next paycheck :wink:

This would be easily achievable, I think :thinking:

Where abouts in Aus are you?

1 Like

I’m in Melbourne. I would like to get a dual motor setup. We have some hills here that I don’t trust a single motor AT setup for. I’ve seen several Evolve GTs going around doing them without much issue, so that’s why I’m sort of looking at a setup like that. No use reinventing the wheel so to say.

@Grozniy, you’re definitely right about that, but I’d like to adhere to a budget.

I looked at your thread and saw mention of TE37s and knew I had to pay attention :wink:

Your build is awesome and I think exactly what I’m looking at doing, minus the fancy things like the display on the board and stuff. Do you have trouble getting up any of the hills around the cbd?

The one Hill in the CBD, Collins Street lol. I used to have an evolve carbon gt. It used to eat that hil easily. Locks board would easily go up it faster ( from looking at his parts)

1 Like

See, if I ever need to justify my esk8 costs, I just remember that my total build cost less than a set of car wheels :wink:. Used to do car stuff, now that was an expensive hobby!

I’ve not tried, but as @electrickiwi mentioned there’s really not much in the way of hills in the CBD. I’ve gone up similar near home and haven’t really felt limited by the board.

I love cars and bikes, and own several, but for some reason I just can’t justify the cost of genuine wheels to myself, haha. Looked at getting Gram Light 57Xtremes, but rather got myself a completely other motorcycle for not that much more :wink:

I’m used to the flatness of the Netherlands, so even the Melbourne hills seem significant to me. Good to know I don’t have to worry! :stuck_out_tongue:

If your looking for a kaly like board have a look at trampa boards UK they come to you in as a kit here’s a pic of 1 I’m doing a few small upgrades on

I had a bad fall a few weeks ago so my confidence levels are low but I hit 23.5 mph and it will do more Specs are 12s lipo.118 kv Trampa motor… I didn’t like this when it was dropped here for upgrades after doing a few bits to it I love it … Also I have a kaly xl Carver on order

1 Like

Thanks mate. Hope you’re alright. I want an AT board to reduce the risk of falling. I have no interest in going 25 miles per hour. I would already feel unfortable on a bicycle at that speed, let alone a board. 15 miles per hour or something is plenty, maybe 20 on a good road. I’ll only be doing a few miles at a time. It’s not a race. I have two motorcycles if I want blurred vision :wink:

I’ll get a Trampa board for sure if I build something. Just hate their battery enclosure idea. I think I’ll send a message to @Kaly to see if he’ll sell his enclosures separately.

Good luck on the new build!

2 Likes

Trampa do a undertray its needs to be made flexible and is very workable and cheap

1 Like

Talk with @Eboosted about enclosure

@Thijsvr I gone and build myself a DIY travel trampa while waiting for my Kaly Carver XL. More details here:http://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/trampa-travel-board/46346
I don’t think top mounted battery have to be ugly (and tbh, its a softpack so I can also strap it onto the bottom). There are quite a bit of advantages with top mount too. I certainly wont ride my kaly down the curb (expensive and worried about bottoming out) This baby however…

3 Likes

Hey bud, don’t want to toot my own horn but while you’re looking at all options, you should consider this as well in your DIY options build kit. Cheers,

http://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/lacroix-board-co-wood-and-cf-deck-segmented-flex-carbon-fiber-enclosure-group-buy/49051

1 Like

There are a lot of evolve customer service horror stories around the internet, but they actually took care of me. I have never really had remote issues, but my deck cracked twice and they easily could have refused to replace it, but they replaced it both times it cracked. New one now has 1500+ miles on it with no issues.

I literally have thousands of miles on my CGT. I say you pick up an evolve to ride in the meantime while you build your custom dream board :slight_smile:

2 Likes

That’s a horn deserving some tooting you have there my friend! Beautiful design.

1 Like

I run into the same issue I always do, and that is that I don’t seem to be able to come to a total costing that comes close to the price of a GTX.

All below prices are in Australian dollars:

Board + enclosure: $460 Trucks (MBS Matrix 2) + wheels (MBS Rockstar 2 + tires): $265
2x FOCBOX Enertion speed controller: $405 2x motors: $200 Complete 10S2P + charger + BMS: $400 Controller: $100 Complete mounting kit: $380 Random bits and pieces: $100

Total: $2,300 This doesn’t include shipping which would likely be another $200.

Even if I were to take some seriously cheaper bits like cheaper VESCs and use a complete Trampa board instead of the LaCroix Boards solution, I’m still around the $2,000 mark excluding any shipping costs. A new Evolve GTX AT is $1,800 to get to my doorstep before the weekend. I understand that it’s not exactly the same as a high performance DIY board, but it’s significantly less money for a brand new board that does come with warranty, that comes from a well known brand and that I don’t have to assemble myself with the risk of things like frying the VESCs. Even an Enertion Raptor 2 is only $2,050 and still cheaper than the above 6355 + 10S2P build.

I understand the advantages of a DIY build and would really enjoy putting in the work, but from a financial perspective it just doesn’t seem like the smartest choice if the main goal is to simply get a fun, working board that doesn’t need to be the fastest one out there.

I would love to be told I’m completely off the mark here with my numbers as all these DIY builds are gorgeous, but I keep coming to this conclusion every time I make the calculation (which I’ve done countless times over the past year or so), but I’m afraid Evolve’s are just pretty good value.

Yep, those numbers look good (well not good, but expected :wink:). And I don’t think you’d be happy with a 10S2P battery…

Evolve and their economy of scale are hard to beat from a cost perspective. FWIW I’d like to spend some time on one just to give me some perspective on my DIY build. I probably would have bought one, certainly spent time looking at them, but in the end decided I wanted to make something. Tough call.

2 Likes