Picture this, a beautiful, sunny day with a bit of wind and big fluffy clouds. A 9 mile trail full of curves, little climbs and descents; paved smooth and beautiful and almost completely empty. That’s how it started.
I was 8 miles into the ride when the hailstorm hit. It came in hard and fast and as soon as I felt the rain I turned around, but it wasn’t a half a mile before I was riding into drenching rain. water was streaming across the trail and as I headed deeper into the cold and dark there were hailstones on sections on the trail.
Still, the board kept running. But then about 6 miles back suddenly it wouldn’t accelerate anymore. Weirdly it would still brake. If I gave it full throttle I could feel maybe 5 amps of power going to the wheels, but no more - just barely enough to keep it rolling on the flat.
But then, just as quick as it failed, it recovered and I was able to ride another mile and a half when suddenly I lost all power. It dropped out so fast that I got tossed off the front of the board, but luckily I had been climbing a slight grade so I was able to run it off.
Amazingly, I was no more than a half mile from the parking lot! I kicked the rest of the way back and drove home soaked.
I have zero waterproofing on this board - all the components are under a little plastic plate that is open around the edges, so everything was getting splashed the whole way. I’m truly amazed that it kept running as long as it did. He was a good soldier that one.
I know the feeling lol… few miles through the forest. I am water proofed, but never ride in the rain lol. I was worries, It was certainly a surprise… And my Evo handled it better then me… I had wet socks and was being a little bitch about my squishy wet feet in my shoes…
Yep, that’s exactly the rain, now just cover the trail in hail and you’ve got it.
By the time I got back to the car my fingers wouldn’t move. Fortunately I have one of those door handles that automatically unlocks when you grab it. But I couldn’t get my shirt unbuttoned to put on a dry one until the car warmed me back up.
So by way of forensics the anti-spark switch was completely destroyed - one of the FETS got so hot it unsoldered itself. I haven’t looked at the rest of the components yet. I put a heater on the whole thing for an hour and am able to spin the motor freely by hand.
It was a calculated risk. The storm came in so fast that I was more concerned about getting excessively cold than I was about saving the board. It was sunny when I left, so I only had a t-shirt. The particular trail is sufficiently remote that hiking out and waiting for an Uber would have taken more time than trying to ride back.
If the board had died 5 miles out it would have been a different story. I have Ubered a couple of times when boards died mid-run.
Now whether it’s reliable or not remains to be seen.