Raptor riding experience. The good

Thought I would start a new thread on all the good stuff abouf the riding experience on the Raptor. Someone can do the reviews.

Have had the busiest week so far and its not over. Still have a deadline to get out tomorrow. Was at work from 7am to 8pm. Got home, changed, put on some safety gear, gave the remote a charge. Then grabbed the Raptor and went off for a ride.

Now it was already past dusk. No lights on skateboard and had to rely on the street lights.

After a rapid 30min sprint on the bike path, I was sweating like anything. Stress gone for the moment.

The board has so much power. I have a dual motor unit and its friken scary in a good way. I only weigh 60kg and keen to beat Onloops top speed. Still trying to find the sweet spot of this thing both in terms of riding position and acceleration. The throttle is really sensitive and just wants to go. Starting the trigger while the board is moving is best from start off. Its still really jerky as I try to feather the throttle at while at speed.

I think I’m just not going fast enough yet. Tonight was probably not a good idea as I was litterally riding blind and just waiting to hit a stick or crack that I couldnt see. Made it home un skathed.

Cant wait to get out again. But in daylight.

It’s great to hear some positive news…

The Raptor is best when travelling between 35 - 45km/h… one of it’s primary purposes is a high speed single person commuting vehicle. It loves long open stretches. Try to average 25km/h or higher to maximise range.

Of course it works well at lower speed too but the torque output will drop you on your arse in a second if you pull the trigger too hard…

I believe most people will adapt to this setup after 4 or 5 hours of riding. Maybe less.

Its a process of training your finger, brain and body to work with the Raptor timings. Of course you will pull that trigger to hard once or twice before you have your posture perfect. You might land on your arse. Eventually you will learn the subtle timings and adjust accordingly.

It won’t take too long to tame the Raptors and everyone will be ripping hard and feeling very confident.

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At first a big Thank You to Jason for making these things reality! Sadly it is raining all day in my hometown right know and I weren’t able to do a long ride. Before I describe my riding experience with the Raptor you should know that I’m not very experienced with electric skateboards. I have owned an Evolve Bamboo but it wasn’t powerfull enough to pull me up the hills where I usually like to go longboarding. Plus it had sidewinder trucks… :smiley: so I sold it. My skill level in terms of longboarding is some kind of advanced. I’m able to do slides and can ride a board pretty hard and save. Okay that’s what I would have said before my test ride. Now the ride itself… Because of the bad weather I had to find a dry spot to ride and the first thing which came to my mind: Uhh at work they have huge halls and a lot of space… Yes I need a new definition for “a lot of space” because a ran out of road pretty fast :smile: First attempt!? Well you have seen Xusias video? Exact the same what happened to me. I don´t know what I expected but for sure I wasn´t prepared for this launch.´ Second one. Pushed one or two times jumped on, got my normal riding position and hit the trigger. Again the board accelerated faster than my 70 kg meat and overtook me in a blink of an eye. Easy, no contact to pavement all good, but the dual Raptor gained my respect. Third attempt. Some dry training with the joystick before to get a feeling and on the board again. One or two Flintstone pushes, on the board and now smooth operation with the stick. Great it worked and felt amazing. So much power that I felt like a pudding on the roof of a racecar witch does a 6 min round on the Nordschleife racetrack… Important change in my riding style was to spread my feed much more. Soon I started to feel more confident and started to hit the trigger harder. Damn that thing has some serious power. It really scares me! I mean in a good way but that is just crazy. I have no worries to climb the hills I have planned. Will be a piece of cake! With more throttle I noticed pretty quick the limitation of my test track. The longest straight had maybe 200 meters and four different types of soil with dust over it. Some parts were very slippery and I got whellspin while accelerating. Maybe I´m able to shoot the first eSk8 gymkhana :smiley: I´ll post again when I have done some more testing but for now I´m more then impressed.

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I must say this thing is definitely built for advanced riders. It’s my first Eboard but I figured it out in a matter of 10 minutes or so. I’ve been hitting full throttle frequently before it fell part. (Long story I think I just got a bad one) I’ve clocked myself going 23.4 on a low charge and when it’s full charge it definitely has a bit more torque… Probably 25-26mph?

http://youtu.be/tF6TdS46s8o I clocked it after the video was taken, so I’m only going like 20mph in that. I would clock it again with a full charge and better video but, it’s currently out of commission.

@Tarzan So glad your expectations of the board have been met. I feel the same way about the experience. Now its just a matter of getting some more time on the board. I have tomorrow off work and its going ti be 29deg C. Cant wait to take it out again.

Thnks Jason. Having never been on an Eboard. Like with learning to ride a bike, you have to find the right balance and get comfortable with the speed and brakes. I feel the same way except this time on learning on a Ducati in comparison. Need to just get more time on the board.

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Second day with the raptor and I’m more than happy! I have done some rides today und feel much more confident with the board and the remote.

This was the last run I made today. This thing is freaking awesome! Very stable on high speeds and enough torque to go up any hill. Yes like advertised from enertion :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: The battery had 25% left when I came home, because I haven’t done the changes to the VESC regarding the low voltage cut off I was carful to the end. The range is greate considering that I live in a really hilly part of Germany. The first run I did today was a five km hill climb with an average of 15% so quite a lot. I hit a speed up to 40 km/h and overtook some kids on there scooters :smile: After a cigarette on the top they arrived as well and asked me where they can get one (I gave them a enertion card). The battery had 40% left and downhill I generated 8% back. In my opinion quite a lot! Maybe I’m not the usual customer by kicking these expensive fun mashine to the limit on the first day, but I do it for science :wink:

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Definatelty starting to get use to this weapon. The controller is still sensitive to use, but its set to be very responsive. Im sure in a few months the speed will just become normal and I will crave more speed. Now trying to find smoother bike paths and roads.

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Wow! Even more fun than I imagined. Hope I don’t jinx myself, cause so far I’m extremely pleased with my raptor dual. Only put a few miles on my board, but so far no dropped remote signals, nothing coming loose, no battery issues. I wouldn’t mind a more linear acceleration profile with the remote and may change my settings with BLDC, but even as is it isn’t terrible. I suspect I’d be comfortable after a few days even if changing the settings weren’t an option. Took it easy today and other than a couple accidental wheelies, had no issues controlling speed up or down hills. I actually felt more limited by the soft bushings than anything else…gonna swap those out this weekend. The torque really is amazing, I’m about 210lbs and could easily accelerate from 5ish mph to 15ish mph while going up a 15+% hill. So much fun!

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Glad you finally got to see it in action, really sorry for the extra long wait on the battery.

Appreciate that. Tough to stare an awesome looking board you can’t ride, but definitely worth the wait in the end. Also part of the deal with small scale business/manufacturing and I knew that going in. Product speaks for itself and your service and support will make me a repeat customer.

Took the board out for a late ride after work to test our range and enjoy the clear Melbourne evening. Travelled around the bay in Elwood and SkKilda beach foreshore.

2hrs ride with 18% charge left. The regenerative breaking is really good. Distance about 24km. Trying to get that magical 30km thats been stated in spec. Still that is some great riding time and distance.

Had many rubber neckers as I pasted and alot of comments. @onloop should be happy because I got pulled over by a few people who wanted to know what it was and the details. Had some really good comments. Their all amazed as most people havent really seen eboards around Melbourne.

Some older guys were really impressed with the whole thing. Commented on the design and it looked great and alot of design had gone into into it.

Another guy looking for an eboard- boostered, stary, & evolve. Had done alot of research, but hadnt hear about the Enertion or Raptor. Let Him have a go. Told him to just get one. He wanted one with a good design. He didnt like the Evolve shape. so @onloop may have another order come his way.

Really enjoyed the ride last night as clear paths for the most part. Hammering fast in sections, so finally getting really comfortable with it.

Note. ppl and runners that you pass from behind even when slow shit. themselves and give you the look. Whats with that. Bike riders do it all the time. Need a horn on the controller tomwarn them. Like a full on 100db horn should do it.

I’m in Melbourne too. We should go for a ride some time.

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This is nice news… it helps me get through each day…

releasing this product has been a roller coaster of emotions… so i am glad yours if working well…

the trick is to ride extremely fast and never stop until you hit 30km

Yes, riding around is definitely the best advertisement. People are amazed and curious every time I venture out on an e-board. I didn’t know there was anyone in Melbourne with a Raptor. We should definitely organize a group skate, I’d love to try one out! I have a Boosted Dual Plus and several Evolve boards that I could bring along to compare.

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Tried it again with more consistant fast speed and got around 20km range. There was alot more head wind on the return trip. Still excellent distance in my opinion. Down to 0%, but still some back up to get to a little more distance with regen braking. 10%.

It’s great to read all these positives.

This is a pretty costly product. I just want it to work w/o any issues or tinkering with settings. I’m an average consumer, not a DIY e-skate builder. 2 questions.

  1. who are your US representatives for customer support? I’ve heard you have one on the east and west coast, I’m on east coast.
  2. What is the guaranteed delivery date if you order the raptor dual in April?

I’m thinking of buying one and doing a detailed review on my youtube channel (and a comparison to the very popular boosted dual plus that I own).

Great skate into the G and city today with @Mickyboy. Need to now build up a group to check out alot more of this City now. Had a go at all MB’s eboards. Nice collection there and all different. Very impresed by the Boosted duals riding dynamic. Just needs more juice to bomb up those hills, and extra milage. Look forward to catching up again one day.

About 22.5km today. Battery down to 0%. Oddly when I let it settle it went back to 2% and then as soon as charger went on it was 18%. So theres still some mileage there to get home. From station to home 3.5km. 10min ride. This last bit was on 0% and regen braking. 1 half hours to charge to 100% with fast charger.

Hey @photorph

Use my @onloop to get my attention faster… this forum is getting very active and becoming hard to keep on top of all the new replys.

To be honest… the Raptor is not a consumer grade product like a boosted board currently is… It’s best described as a prebuilt DIY board. Over time it will become polished and perfected… The difference between enertion & boosted is they took 12 months+ to finally release their products and had over 1 million worth of investment capital. They did the development behind closed doors.

The enertion raptor in some ways is a work in progress, however it will continue to be sold to early adopters and reiterated and refined over time. Same business model that tesla used with the model S. It was continuously evolving and being sold at the same time.

Some changes will be subtle some more obvious. None of the changes will directly disadvantage the early adopters, in most cases they will be sent new parts. Especially if it is a critical change. For example the newly developed lid that allows better RF signal.

My agents are members of this community. What info about them did you need exactly?

Let me know if you have other questions.

@onloop, I do have a 3 questions.

  1. What’s the expected delivery date to US for orders placed in April for the raptor dual? (let’s say order is placed this upcoming week)
  2. Another forum member here recommended the larger 10S4P space cell for more range, is this included with the new raptor dual or something additional? If so what’s the cost?
  3. Did you have any of your customers reporting damage to motors? My boosted dual plus has metal covers that protect the motors, those get scratched up quite a bit. The raptor’s motors seem to be totally exposed to the elements from the pictures shown.