The Fantom | ESK8 x Downhill

[Chema]

Hi I’m Chema, you may remember me from such posts as when I introduced myself in the introduction thread.

So I’ve been talked out of buying the Miles Phantom. I’m going to start focusing on my first build instead.

But I LOVE the look and specs of the Phantom, so I’m building a… wait for it… FANTOM!

INSPIRATION PICS:

SPECS

LOOK HOW MUCH SEXY

The purpose of this build is to fulfill of my dream of having a downhill board that can quickly take me back up to the top of the next hill!

I’d like to be able to bomb hills with just gravity, so I’m going for either hub motors or direct drive. I’m leaning strongly toward direct drive because of the wheel selection/extra urethane.

I need to be able to do a lot of slides and pre-drifts to slow down when bombing hills, so swapping out wheels will be more common than on other builds.

I’d also love to be able to get near hill bombing speeds on flat ground. So, like the Phantom, 30 MPH is the goal, and let’s just say 30 miles of range too, although I’ve heard the phantom is more like 26-30 in real life. Apparently it suffers from battery sag, so it might not be fair to count the last couple miles that you’re crawling along.

I am a little surprised that I haven’t seen any electric downhill boards out there, so I’m concerned that maybe I’m missing something here that makes this a bad idea. Perhaps the extra weight makes it not responsive when bombing down hills? IDK.

I think I also wanna stay away from DKP trucks for downhill stability. As far as I know @torqueboards is the only company making a quality RKP direct drive. I’d also like to run a lower angle in back than front for less turn per degree of lean compared to the front.

This is another thing I’ve been very surprised to not see much of in the eskate world. Why? Wouldn’t it massively help with stability when cruising at the crazy speeds these things go?

I’ll probably solve that problem with an angled riser pad in back, and a flat riser in front to match the ride height.

Please share your thoughts and ideas!

Thanks!

More inspiration from my favorite DH photographer:

[Crisfell]

omen barfight. Downhill as fuck. Working on a rayne also.

[Crisfell]

Adjustable baseplates is what a lot of people are running. I personally prefer a fixed baseplate and riser, rather than relying on another piece of hardware. Highly unlikely that it would brake or adjust while riding but I’d rather take my chances without that added moving part.

[Chema]

Dude, that thing looks awesome! The belt drive means you can’t really bomb hills without power right? I suppose it might be just as fun to bomb a hill with electric power anyway… What do you think?

How hard is it to slide when riding with electric propulsion (as opposed to gravity)? It seems like it would be kinda sketchy, but what do I know… I guess you just slow down with the brakes, but what the fun in that.

What truck angle split do you (and/or most experienced eskaters) like to ride?

[Crisfell]

I’ve never had the equipment to bomb a hill. There’s a reason for it, equipment means I’m going to the hospital again. I’ll ride my board 40 mph all day, that down hill shit is fucked up crazy. That’s why the erace guys race back up the hill. The omen freerolls pretty good down moderate hills. Sliding, is stupid easy on it, especially with a little brake tap.

[Chema]

@Crisfell

The omen freerolls pretty good down moderate hills. Sliding, is stupid easy on it, especially with a little brake tap.

AWESOME…

[Chema]

K, I just bought this as a base to jump start this project with a fully working board I can make changes to over time. Complete build landyachtz evo deck-torqueboards direct drive 75kv motors-12s7p battery- $1000

[Chema]

For the Fantom deck. I think the Prism Reaver (picture below) might be most aesthetically similar to the Miles Phantom while not being excessively small for my 6’ frame, and not having the huge drop and short riding platform of the phantom.

The reaver is still pretty small though.
L: 34.5" W: 9.25" WB: 25.25"-26.25”
(Phantom for comparison:
L: 31.5" W: 9.5" WB: 24.5")

They both have a dropped platform of about 19,” but the reaver has a very subtle 1/2” drop that I could probably encroach out of quite comfortably.(maybe?) It also has a great looking subtle w concave.

Another great contender is the Prism Theory V2. According to prism it’s not actually a drop deck, it just kinda looks that way because of the deep rocker and large wheel flares. IDK, in some pictures it looks like a drop, and in some it doesn’t. I don’t love the look as much, but the length might be better for me, and the larger wheel flares might help accommodate the TB110s.

L: 36" W: 10" WB: 26"-27"

[Chema]

Welp, after this incident plans changed a bit…

@Crisfell reached out and was like, “yo, I have another Evo deck, and I know how to make things beautiful, why don’t you send that POS over here and I fix it up real good. Besides I wanna try out them TorqueBoards Direct Drives.”

And like any good kid being lured into a van with candy. I jumped right in!

I realized that the 50° trucks on the Evo deck are actually pretty unstable at speed. The Evo was designed for 38° trucks or so I’ve read.

So @Crisfell was kind enough to adjust the baseplate angle on the deck by glueing wedges on and fiberglassing the whole thing together. It looks super well done. Very happy with the quality.

He also upgraded the ESC from the cheap TB pair, to Maytech Supers.

And traded the black TB110s for the blue ones! So fly! And matches all the space magic from She-Ra’s glory!

I think I’ll have to name it The Power Princess!

[Chema]

Unfortunately one of the motors is making very weird noises and power cuts out randomly at top speed which has also gone down from 35MPH+ to a meager 17mph, so regretfully I have to pull it apart and figure out what’s going on…

[Skitzor]

Awesome to read this, Well done @Crisfell.

And I’m afraid you’ll find the culprit in the DD.

[Crisfell]

Tripping me out. Cause it was good. I’m sure after running motor detection it will be fine. I ran it with sensors to.

Thanks @Skitzor

[Chema]

How do we get this beauty onto the “featured builds” section?

I can take some better pictures and write you some more praise if it’ll please the poobahs…

[Crisfell]

I think you just gotta say “Hey @onloop, feature this build or I’ll kick your dog!” If that doesn’t work, I have no clue. Out of options.

[Chema]

Should I make a new build thread for it and call it The Power Princess?