speak for yourself 
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For me, the biggest problem is traction. With 10kw under my feet, even with 78a urethane and 4wd, I can break traction. Now I do get decent tractionā¦ I was the only one to make it to the finals in the last evolve k1 race on urethane, and I blew away all of the pnuematics in the semi final race. Itās just I couldnāt ride the way I can on stooge wheels with 40 duro nitrile.
Batteriesā¦ well put together the right lipo pack like I did and youāll have 1200 wh, 1250 amps at 50.4v peak power draw. Itās very doable and it doesnāt have to be insanely heavy. With this battery, 4 focboxes, a bms, and 4 beefy hub motors, my board is still only 35 lbā¦ Now I know youāll say thatās a lot, but 20 lb is pretty normal for a 5 mile, tiny dual motor drive board. Compare that to derricks 50 lb trampa setupā¦ Itās reasonable and it can still be carried like a skateboard.
I agree that the major bottlenecks are battery/traction/safety. To me, traction and safety can mostly be overcome with better firmware in the motor controllers. There is no reason for any wheelslip with 4 sensored motors. The current traction control firmware is very simple because it works decently, but improvements could be made to it that would significantly increase racing speed with 0 wheel slip.
@b264 I second that. Which is why Iām building it bigger and better, to get it wetter . Although I have to rethink my new prototype cuz last check was over 50lbs without the battery soā¦ Yeah weight also. Although once I convert the design over to carbon fiber it should lighten up a lot. Which makes me want to ask thisā¦ Just how heavy is everyones batteries?
You guys know that boards are meant to be ridden and not carried right?
If you have a longboard you can drag your board (unless you have a pintail 
) cause the tail wonāt scrape and that essentially eliminates the weight
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Put it in to eco, and you can do 100 miles on a single charge. Put in in to max mode and you can still do 25 miles and ride faster than anyone other than moe or @Lucifer, who are nuts lol.
When you consider the power and range and overkill in parts so things last, itās not really that much. Thereās only a handful of boards in the world with this kind of power and most are heavier than this.
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Yes, but you canāt go shopping with it at a place that doesnāt have grocery carts LoLz
So how useful is it really?
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I do all of the timeā¦ lol. I run to corner store to pick up rolling papers, luckys to get milk or eggs or toilet paperā¦ or to hardware stores cause I ran out of hot glue. I can also use it to get to work downtown and back on a single chargeā¦ None of this ālast mileā bullshitā¦
Whatās not practical is having cars aggressively ride your ass cause you canāt accelerate as fast as they canā¦ Or keep up with their speed on side roads, which is generally speaking the safest place for us to ride if you donāt have trailsā¦ Having to go 25 mph on a 35 mph road where cars are doing 45 mphā¦ That shit is dangerous. Going 35 mph behind the last car in the train is a lot safer.
You mention a grocery storeā¦ Well you can only carry so much in your hands anyways, since you need one hand to operate the remote. So it should always be a short shopping spree anywaysā¦
Whatās interesting is everyone has a different outlook on practicality. Maybe if I were 120 lb guy, they yes, 35 lb is a lot. Iām notā¦ Iām a 200 lb guy and 35 lb is not a heavy weight to me. I curl 45 lb in each arm in the gym lol. Not trying to brag or anything (cause 45 lb is still not much, lol), but just put things in to perspective. Different people have different uses and whatās fast one is slow to another, whats heavy to one is not to another. To bring weight to down to 20 lb would mean putting a lot of weak sauce into my board which is a big no no to me.
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Biggest pet peeve of mine when riding. Happens to me on this road maybe 25-35 zone (what speed I assume people usually go compared to me going full throttle) It has a pedestrian cross in the first 1/5th then a stop sign shortly after at 2/5ths then the last open 3/5ths of the road until a stop light. Where the stop sign is I have seen multiple people just run straight through it. When riding on the small stretch (first 2/5ths maybe) to the stop sign and through the pedestrian crossing some cars get up close behind me and just ride my ass since I am stopping them from speeding through the zone (since there is a stop sign up ahead it literally would only make like a 5-10 second difference in getting there if they sped without me in their way). It has me scared eventually someone behind me isnāt going to be paying attention and slam into me. Hopefully one day Iāll build a board that can keep them off my ass.
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Ride it around in the store. Easy solution.
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Thatās the exact procedure to make people hate esk8, and, consequently, get them banned.
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Weight matters a lot if you seriously into e mtb. To jump with a 12kg board or a 17kg board is a huge difference. Even one more p group with 500-600g already makes a big difference.
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20lbs and 35lbs, your boards are pretty heavy guys ! Now for a 4wd I totally get it thoughā¦
A 12s4p of 18650 can be worth approx 5 to 6.5lbs by itself excluding cables, when you try to shave weight down thatās already a handicap.
Iād vote for both traction, reliability, weight as bottlenecks and add wobblity.
Wobbles still are a thing and counter is done mostly by the riderās skill (which isnāt a bad thing) + tweaking truck angles (very clever indeed).
Still that might not stop people to eat shit occasionally : wobbles + limited traction (read : random no traction) is likely to bring a fall.
I cannot say if thereās a way to improve on the wobble area with trucks as they are, since the pivot and pu wheels are core parts in the āfeelingā. But it would be nice to have a little unintrusive help on that area.
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Youāre fucking my mind 
edit : No really, there are boards as heavy ?
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For the heavy one of mine 
Edit: and thatās with the small battery. Add up 3.6kg for a bit more range.
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Thatās an absolute unit ! How much range do you get with it ?
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12-15km or 24-30km depending on the battery. For mtb 12kg is pretty light. As soon as you go with a LiIon pack you easy at 4-5kg only from battery.
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For me it would component compatability and warranty related things. Coming from a former bike rider, I am used to lifetime warranty or 2 year no questions ask warranty. The first time I had to deal with esk8 parts warranty, I just could not believe it. also the second and the third time. Now, (itās only my opinion) if you have 3+ grand to spend, you can build a board with out any bottlenecks, a board that you will not gas out in one day and probably will not reach the max speed it can. I personally think, that if you have some money to spend, all of the majority of mentioned bottlenecks can be avoided. This is a means of motorized transportation, weight I think, should not even be a question. if a motor brakes after hitting a rock, well itās just regular wear and tier.
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None, because you can only ride in circles and canāt go anywhere unless you want to park it outside like a car, so it can get stolen in about 2 minutes flat 
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