That’s a good idea. How prevalent are dynos for eskate? Seems like a pretty specific item that not many people would have. And if it’s anything like the car market, all sorts of gamesmanship can be played with dynos. Do a quick google search on whether a cold air intake has performance increases on a Dodge Charger and you will see all sorts of arguments about who was using this dyno or that dyno. What the heat was on that day, etc.
Unless it is an independent party doing dyno tests across multiple boards, I don’t know if this could be standard.
Me too! There is a whole topic starting on the sister board electic-skateboard.club on racing. I think the hardest thing to overcome will be traveling with the boards. You can’t just jump on a plane with one. So my bet is most of the early racing will need to be local circuits drawing on the population that can drive to the race.
Regarding the dyno there are some instructables on putting together small dynos for testing small motors, not sure if there is one that would hit the sweet spot for the kinds of motors we typically use. Did some searching around but couldn’t find prices on prebuilt dynos that are really made for this sized motor (found some for smaller or bigger but not the middle ground for these motors).
How about a figure 8 time attack challenge to test acceleration, braking, and turning? This could be a test with 2 cones a set distance apart (50m? 100m?). Do 10 figure 8’s as fast as possible. It combines left and right turns with acceleration and braking. A lot of this would depend on the skill of the rider, but the performance and ride-ability of the board would also be key factors.
They do a lot of these time attack challenges in drifting. Could work for esk8, too. I’m really trying to think of challenges that people could do anywhere with a board and a camera.
This sounds good for the mostly qualitative tests (and test of skill), think it’s always good to have a standard tool for doing any of the quantitative measurements though really (gotta take the human factor and other environmental effects out as much as possible).
Something like this might work but probably not cheap (just checked $500-$1000, nice looking test rig though):
Maybe someone can come up with a relatively cheap/safe rig for doing the torque testing too (have it lift a weight tied to a rope or something of that nature, time to lift 10lbs 10ft or some other easy to find metric equivalent that would work given the torque and power of the motor we typically use).
The figure 8 is the only test I personally see as having any relevance in rating e-boards. Reason: You can’t inflate or lie about the boards capabilities. The only variable is the rider. So get a better rider if you don’t like your stats.
Distance? Not sure I’ve ever read an honest stat. How many boosted riders are getting 6 miles?
Distance should be a pretty easy one to track assuming you have unbiased third parties doing the testing, any GPS tracking app or even the timeline built into Google Maps can give you a total distance and average speed (could also use the metr.at data gathering and overlays as well to show the live power usage).
Biggest problems I see with distance measurements done in the real world is the elevation changes and the differences in road surface in different places (could just use a standard high school track but sure they use different materials and techniques to lay those down depending on where you are so would be hard to compare numbers remotely).
Dyno can give you relative information about the range but of course doesn’t account for wind resistance and fighting hills and all (unless it has a dynamically controlled brake in the dyno as well).
I think distance on a single charge could have some min/max parameters. For example, you have to include GPS coordinates and can’t travel a route that is ever more than +/- 100 ft from your starting elevation above sea level. There could be some strategy in picking the right type of route. You can be certain that the automakers have this down to a science when they test their cars for MPG.
I don’t know what strategy would work to create the best distance- very controlled and flat environment (like a local high school track)? using a slow eco mode approach? Getting up to top speed as quickly as possible and then holding a tuck for the majority of the ride? Heck, someone may even lie down on their board to reduce wind resistance. I have no idea what would work best, but it would be fun seeing some of the videos to capture the title.
We had a meet up a week ago, @mccloed, Carvon Jerry and @ChrisChaput tested 4 or five different boards. All long wheel base. Chris was doing donuts on all of the builds easily turning an 8 foot radius (probably 6’)
You do realize the course will be bigger than the napkin drawing right?
I’m heading to the Raptor 2 meetup this weekend in Long Beach and will be bringing my camera along with a radar gun and a digital scale. So look for a few performance metrics soon. Maybe we can try the figure 8 challenge out for the boards that are there.
You don’t set up tests to suit certain riders. This isn’t elementary school where everyone gets a participation award…You set up a course and some shine and some don’t. If someone’s board can’t make a turn what should they do? Go race on a different course? Build a better board. The idea should be to showcase boards that have the ability to perform well in all conditions.
Turn radius
Braking
Top speed
Acceleration
Stability at speed
Varied terrain stabilty (rumble strip/bumps, speed bumps, gutter/curb hop?)
Weight
Distance per charge
Hill climb
Correct. But I’m saying that longer boards will take longer to turn as a direct consequence of being longer.
Turning Radius also has a huge number of variables…that you’d want to adjust for. Even trying to get something as simple as max turn angle on a 150lbs rider will vary greatly with different duros.
Motorcycles have similar issues and they just don’t list line by line metrics like you’re trying to list.
What you have devised is more a test of riders than their boards.
For this to be useful data it has to be repeatable.
Like if I was going to make a test for turning radius for an entire board I’d standardize duro on the wheels/bushings then put a 150lbs block on the board and move it around to get a certain lean angle… Lets say 5% and measure the radius of a full circle then I’d continue moving the block to it’s max lean angle and measure the radius again.
There won’t be a single test that will have all of the answers. The key is to design a few that we think hit on key components of an effective esk8. While a longer board may give you difficulties taking a turn, it may also give you an advantage of stability in the straights and increased acceleration. Rider skill will definitely play a role, but isn’t that the case in most performance tests? When someone sets the record at Nurburgring, it’s still about the car.
If anything, this will put esk8 riders with skill in greater demand from the board producers. They will want the right person riding their product for these types of tests.
