Update on new wheel (more comfort, speed, & grip) testing and Austin Group Ride feedback!

General Discussion
#1

2mee68

We started a small side project to develop some wheels that add comfort and ride quality, but doesn’t hurt grip. If you’re like me and your foot goes numb or worried about wiping out on big cracks in LA/SF. I use my board to commute, so this is a big problem for me (also thanks to @mmaner for really driving this point home in the last thread) . We created a video and collected some feedback from local riders. We did a lot of back to back testing to see how all the major wheels on the market compare (at least for Boosted Board, but we’re getting more wheels to try) - more on that later though.

We’re on a quest to design more comfortable wheels that have higher top speed, but don’t sacrifice stability and grip. Thanks to all that contributed in the other thread - we learned a lot: https://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/higher-top-speed-slightly-longer-range-and-minimal-impact-on-acceleration/72026/50

As the Australians would say, we made a heap load… or is it heaps? Anyway, we made 20+ of our prototype of wheels, varying diameter, width, durometer, and to understand the sensitivities of each parameter.

We spent most of the last two weeks making wheels, testing them against the best wheels on the market, and then organizing and hosting a group ride in downtown Austin, Texas. Here is a brief video of the wheels in action.

Austin group ride & feedback on our wheels

Find out what riders said about our prototype wheels (we’ll be releasing a more full fledge user testimonial - this is just a taste)

We’ll be sharing our back to back testing results of our wheels (called Momentum) against the Boa Constrictor, Orangatang Kegels, and Orangatang Caguama wheels in a new post this week. We’re testing it against grip:

2mg3l4

Comfort (we attached an accelerometer to measure vibration and also put a bowl of water to show the visual difference):

2mgema

As well as acceleration, and top speed (we’re getting 28mph on a Boosted Board V2 up from 22mph). We definitely have a lot of kinks to work out of this. Some of the issues is we’re having problems manufacturing and keeping the durometer constant, so we have to assess every wheel. We have had some interesting failures too. Some things are affecting the rolling resistance, that we’re trying to pinpoint, but we’re hopeful we’ll figure it out.

We’re looking for a third party beta tester that has a good social media following of e-skater/longboarders. We’re really confident that our wheels excel in comfort (your legs/foot will hurt less), grip, and top speed. If you think you qualify, then get in contact with us in the comment section below.

If you want to keep in touch and get a discount code when we start production, then go to our landing page and sign up: https://free-range.landinglion.com/momentumwheels/

Thanks,

Doug and Andrew

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We're designing a wheel - need feedback
#2

That’s a good looking wheel, not crazy about the color, but I’m sure that change is coming. Im pumped to try it out.

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#3

Thank you! We have a designer giving some renderings, hopefully in the next couple of days. We’re going to hold a poll to see what the popular configurations are. Thanks for your input, Mike. Going for comfort was definitely the right move. Riding around on these wheels make my feet ache a lot less and I didn’t realize it until you mentioned it.

Will definitely reach out to you and give you a pair to test when we get our manufacturing process better.

We’re in the middle of making new molds and trying to get the polyurethane durometer to be more consistent, which has been a huge challenge.

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#4

No worries, glad to help. Lots of people don’t until they ride different durometers and styles.

I appreciate that, looking forward to it.

I’ve never made wheels but everyone I’ve ever talked to that has said that durometer consistency was the holy grail :slight_smile:.

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#5

Very curious.

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#6

We’re finding the even Orangatang wheels are all over the place, much higher durometer than they say. Our manufacturers say that durometer can vary +/- 5 shore A. Actually, every wheel we have tested has a lot of variability. We do 10 measurements over the circumference of the wheel and it varies a lot.

I think a lot of the other wheels are pressure cast and we’re exploring injection molding. Maybe that will be more consistent. It’s going to be more expensive, but we’re still testing the benefit. It really comes down to the PU vendor and the manufacturing process, I think. We’re also making our own 3D printed molds and looking to use a local shop’s small injection molder. We’ll see. This has a been a really fun project so far. Wheels make a huge difference in what we have seen.

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#7

These do look interesting. I’ve always been on the hunt for a comfortable wheel that will actually last a good amount of time.

Good luck and I hope that you have cracked it!

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#8

What is the diameter of these wheels? What is the contact patch? Width? What durometer are they? What is the core made from? How much do they weigh?

#9

We’re doing an experiment of:

Diameter: 90 to 110mm Contact: 40mm to 60mm Variable durometer from 60A to 75A Core: We’re currently on the hardest urethane to get some dampening and a mixture of stiffness, but looking at other materials with glass fill to reduce weight even more Each wheel weighs 197.

That said, we did arrive on a configuration based on a lot of testing to understand the sensitivities of each parameter. We’re designing for Comfort, but with no sacrifice to grip, and trying our best to not have a huge impact on acceleration but increasing top speed. All assumptions made based on a system where we are not changing anything else but the wheels. We’re basing all our designs on Boosted Board, but I think it a lot of these performance enhancements will carry over to any other e-board.

This is designed specifically for a powered skateboard/longboard. Not designed for downhill.

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#10

Why not testing any contact patch over 60mm?

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#11

All: I’m trying to figure out how to get most viewership, so I’m currently experimenting with a couple of channels - Do I post here? Make another thread? Post on the original toppic?. We got a ton of email sign ups from this post, but I am going to be posting in the original thread here since that has nearly 2,000 views and a lot of engagement to see if I get more engagement and email sign ups. Sorry to management if I’m making a mess.

I posted our latest blog post in the original thread and you can find that post here: https://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/new-wheel-development-comfort-grip-speed-with-hopefully-minimal-impact-on-acceleration/72026/199?u=dth2m5

EDIT: OH YEAH! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Thanks, all!

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#12

We started to see huge diminishing returns from getting closer to 60mm. Just more weight. Less nimble board. More expensive molds. Way shittier acceleration. You’re not even at the grip limit at 60mm and there isn’t much improvement at all in comfort. It’s like putting a 500mm wide tire on a car, just don’t need that and it comes at the expense at so many other performance metrics.

We’re designing for comfort, grip, speed, but trying to not completely throw away acceleration (gearing/battery/etc. constant)

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#13

Until your wheel falls into a railroad channel because it’s not wide enough, then all your fancy mathematical formulas go out the window :stuck_out_tongue:

There are many other aspects going on here and most esk8 are not used on a smooth oval racetrack.

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#14

For sure. This definitely isn’t designed for a smooth oval race track. Thanks for the feedback!

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#15

IMG_20181122_135840

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#16

So you’re looking for an advertiser, not a tester.

Because if it was wheel testing you needed, you wouldn’t care about social media followers, you’d care about climate, terrain, and use-case.

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#17

I don’t know what y’all did to piss off @b264, but maybe send him some flowers or a box of chocolates :grinning:.

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#18

Man period maybe?

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#19

They are clearly putting the “pushing the sales as hard as possible” ahead of the actual science, and they are clearly backed by venture captial. They don’t care about skateboarding or skateboarders and just want to extract money from Boosted riders.

They are try to backport the science to match their sales goals. It’s supposed to be the other way around.

They are phonies. Don’t take their bait.

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#20

Ok, I can see how this would appear to be the case. But when you’ve got guys that worked for Fortune 500 companies, this is just how business is done. I’m not a fan either, I’m just used to it.

I look at it like this. If the wheels are junk, we will know within minutes of the first test ride by someone who’s been here for awhile.

If there good we have more options.

Either way, it doesn’t cost us anything and who cares if they make a decent profit if the gear is useful.

I mean, I’m not trying to argue with you about the wheels, it’s just we are friends and I don’t wanna see you be angry over something that at this point has literally zero impact on what we do.

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