I’d feel a lot safer on a trampa/mountain-style board, but a lot more conspicuous.
I’ve seen one other esk8-er in WGTN.
So much this
15/36 here… I can climb all the grades
My 200lb buddy with the twin build(pshaw) can climb all the hills too so it’s not just my 130lb self lol…
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Like other have said things that are over build tend to be more reliable when using them no where near their capacity. I’ve hit 44mph top speed but only to test out top speed I rarely ride over 30mph because it requires more concentration and you really start to feel the speed after 30. I happily ride 20-25mph feeling very in control I do slow down when getting into congested places but riding at 14mph on wide open road is not fun for me I’d rather push lol.
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16/36t on 12s dual 6374 make plenty of torque I’m a heavy guy and if I’m not locked in I’ll fly off my board if I full throttle it.
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I have noticed that 30kmh is my sweet spot. My board goes +40kmh but hardly never go that fast. Sometimes i try that but only at perfect road and i always have ”brave myself” when i go faster than i enjoy.
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When it gets a bit colder and I can wear more gear (pants, jacket) then I might see what the board can do.
note: my board is a 31" deck (with kicktail) so maybe a much longer board would give more much more confidence.
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I go at speeds not fast enough for me to die when the receiver gives up on me. 
For me, if you’re using your board for commuting, time is a big factor. Why would i limit myself to 22km/h if i can go 25 by going with my bike? My topspeed is 45km/h, so i can get to school in 12 minutes instead of 20. The biggest part of my commute is along this railway, its spanking new pavement and for bikes only. I litterally fly over it, soooo fun. I do understand where you are coming from. In busy traffic i try to keep my speeds slow so i have enough time to come to a stand still. Last but not least, ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET!!!
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I am not as limited to speed as luckily I’m a fast runner. I’ve had a few falls on my board up near 35-40km/h and have been able to run out of the fall in about 4 steps.
My board that’s currently under construction is capable of 55km/h but I will almost never use that speed. The only reason I want it to go that fast is so that I can still maintain a decent speed near the end of my battery life. What happens on past boards is they peak about 40 at full charge and then near the end of the charge they drop to below 30km/h and it feels really sluggish.
Oh and also so I sound crazy when people ask me how fast it goes 
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I’m always surprised at the range of speeds of people here. Have to keep it in mind in all the gear discussions. A 20mph board needs different things than a 30mph or 40mph. Tight trucks suddenly have a lot of mobility at speed, and carving is not as much of a priority, at least to me. It’d be fearsome to have a remote dropout while leaning into a turn at 30mph.
For me, 30mph lets me blend with traffic, which feels way safer than blending with bikes and pedestrians.
I would like 35mph capability, which I think would let me keep up with the synchronized traffic lights, and give me a bit of headroom.
Of course the brakes have to match.
100w Marshall stacks suck at bedroom volumes 
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So I have a total of about 4 hours riding time on my new board, and Im not an experienced skater in any sense. My board is currently capable of around 25km/h, which feels perfect in a commuting sense.
However when cruising for fun on weekends, it does feel slow - so Im swapping out my motor for something that should get me closer to 35-40km/h. I think it all depends on what kind of riding you do… 25km/h feels plenty fast when going down a residential area footpath, not so much when cruising down a dedicated wide bike path or road.
I put a lot more stock in torque than speed (obv). Luckily when I bought the HobbyKing kit with the 5065 motor (?) I inadvertently got torque rather than speed.
Torque is a lot more useful than speed in Wellington (hills, wind)… and my commute is only about 3km.
In a few days I will probably have a better answer to this thread. I am interested to find out what @Deckoz is talking about with downhill boards how riding down hill on them is different then a powered eskate.
I tend to be riding faster than I can run off on a regular longboard every time I go out anyways, so I want to go faster than that for sure when I am done building. There are only a couple hills around me that can get me going fast enough that I feel the edge of that thrill that I used to get bombing mountains.
Riding an eskate is something I am going to have to learn for sure, but I feel like 20 years of bombing hills and never really pushing past my limits even though I’ve been clocked past 55mph more than a few times while always feeling in control for the most part, is going to serve as a good foundation for learning to control my eskate at speeds that I can really only get to on one hill near me, but instead pushing that (responsibly) elsewhere too, just not as-fast as I used to go. I think 35-40 mph on a wide open and closed off road will be enough to satisfy my need for speed initially. Past that, I think I have a real reason to pull out my leathers and fullface.
To answer your original question, I rationalize it like this: I have experience to learn from. I know it’s a ton of fun going very fast. I have had some pretty gnarly falls, but as long as you wear the right PPE, you are smart about how and where you push the limits, expect the unexpected and ride fast defensively, the falls don’t have to be as bad as they could have been… And it’s a crap ton of fun at the same time. Because the best I can do where I am at now is go maybe three times as fast as I can push for maybe a hundred feet or so, I want to be able to do that and more, but not on the same stretch of land over and over.
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I think this is what he was talking about or at least a small part of it.
That makes complete sense! Thanks for linking that… This is one of the reasons why I am building on my downhill board that I’ve been riding for 12 years… Lol. I’ve done a test ride on it with the components installed with no power, and it’s way different for sure- but at least it’s a shape and concave that I am intimately familiar with, and it felt good. The board felt like something I could easily get used to being much heavier and powered, opposed to one of my other less ridden downhill boards- some of those I just catch my feet on the wheels out of nowhere or step off the deck onto the cutouts not expecting it or just generally don’t have the feel for controlling them like the one I’ve been riding for years. It sucks, I love the other boards, and they are great boards, but I don’t even feel comfortable on them going 20mph in my neighborhood, let alone bombing anything mildly substantial.
So, I hope the addition of the battery doesn’t change the feel of my favorite board that much. At least I know it will be better starting from a known and comfortable foundation than bolting motors to one of my less ridden downhill boards that I am already nervous on without motors. If that were the case, I’d be gearing for 25mph max.
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Most healthy people can sprint at 13-17mph.
Sadly I broke my knees about 10 years ago so my top-speed for sprinting has come down a fair bit. In fact my 10km (running) time is at my new “sprinting” speed 
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I do city commuting mainly so past 22mph I start to get nervous. I don’t see myself needing to go faster than that. Possibly if I over safety gear myself I’d be willing to go faster but I haven’t hit max speed on my board yet.
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My first build has a 6S lipo setup and it is a good cruising speed as long as you don’t have any really steep hills. My next build (in progress) will have 10S because I want my board to go a little bit faster than I actually want to ride it. I agree that 15-20 MPH is plenty fast for a skateboard.
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downhill is free, down hill is gravity, esk8 is power under your feet, that power can make your board not under your feet, or put you in an uneasy position over the board. DH is all gravity, and the board never tries to leave me… if that makes sense? plus what @ROFEN13 quoted previously, its just the whole riding experience is different
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