What longboarders think about Electric Skateboards

General Discussion
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21

I apologize, I interpreted line here:

to mean that something like this is a necessity of skating with which I disagree with, especially when a huge focus on ESK8’s have been for mid-level distance travel. It’s not about price but more so about preference. Those buying boards like Boosted Boards or Meepo don’t necessarily care (or should I say fully?) care about getting the best performance (if they did they would save up and invest in a Raptor, Metro, or DIY and get a disposable ESK8 in the meantime) They just want something out of the box that works, and whether they see fit to change anything or leave things as they have no bearing shouldn’t be judged upon. If the board is okay for them as it is, nothing wrong with that.

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Its really not that much

  • Use the weight chart…I use blood orange not riptide…but the weight chart is relatively the same between them.
  • use a bushing setup for speed. Ie double barrel, wedge/eliminator/chubby board side and barrel road side -washers are cheap buy some flats and cups

Example, I’m 127, I like alot of rebound/back to center, and you should have the full action of the truck so it can’t be to stiff. More rebound requires more urethane, so I’ll pick the wedge/barrel.

From the chart it shows 45-64kg, I’m 57kg which put me in the upper 2/3 of the 65a-90a. The upper two thirds there is 80a and 85a. So now my scale is 80a-85a or higher. 80a would be loose and 85 starting to be tight for my weight.

As stated before… I ended up with 86 and 83a on standard 180mm trucks. It’s a good starting point, pick your brand, average your weight into the chart buy the medium-tighter side of your range, adjust restriction with washers. Will be almost perfect every time.

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If you intend to skate with any sort of speed, it is a necessity … unless your wreckless and don’t care about your well being… Sure slow boards ya can’t tell much difference. But go fast with trucks setup wrong for you… Tell me how it made you feel.

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Cool I will try that.

25

This idea is what got me started in Diy. My very first attempt was swapping out the deck on my Yuneec Ego 1 I think the writer has a valid point when it comes to some manufactures of complete boards but not all and certainly not Diy builders.

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26

You should not tighten your trucks too much. If they are too tight it will cause the hanger to not rebound into the center position. So like when you are turning the board with stay in that turned position.

I don’t think that it’s too big of a problem until your board runs away from you into the middle of the street. Also good rebound is important to have going fast. Keeps you going straight when going over bit rocks.

In short, it’s just better to get harder bushings instead of just tightening your trucks.

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Oh yeah, they’re not super cranked or anything. I’m running the stock bushings which are super hard imo

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Agree with a lot that has been said. Made similar remarks ages ago.

Amen, said almost the exact same thing in my thread!

But I would like to add a notion of rider improvement instead of overengineering and overspending.

I love my precision trucks, tried so many and yeah some are legit bliss. Others only a minor upgrade IMAO. BUT, I ran all events, races in the past on cast trucks, simply didn’t have the money. A cast truck can be suitable for a long ass time. Out of our group (25 riders) I think 5 are rocking precisions. Onne is a world champion, and the rest are poeple flying past on 60-70mph and competing in the world circuit. Basically if your riding skills are that good that the miniscule tolerances that precision trucks are superior are a benefit to you, then you should consider them. But honestly that is about 5% of riders who are within that skill level, I would say.

Anyway what I wanted to get across is that members of the forum should accept that gear is important, but at the end of the day its only secondary. How good you are, how much you practice and how often you train yourself has a far bigger impact. It is not the price tag that makes it formidable it is how you use it.

Ps: @Deckoz 99% of times I read something fror you I completely agree, not ment as critique. Was only an example within the thread. I cherrish poeple like you in this community who actually contribute annd put up good information. (learned from the past that poeple take my shit the wrong way :sweat_smile: )

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@michichopf That is 100% truth everything you said… especially about precisions…def not needed(but hey surf rodz are 119$ right meow!) But yea precisions feel really really good. My main point was in general people barely even setup thier trucks for themselfs to feel at home.

Gear is third I’m, safety gear seconds and rider skill first. Everyone should ride safe and gear up, we aren’t the pros. But at the same time, the cheapest piece of gear on the board (the bushings and washers) are the biggest influence of change you can have on a a board that’s already been “setup”.

Thanks for your input man

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I have a question here because this topic gather people with knowlage… What do you think about seismic G5 trucks? Are chanel trucks better? Thanks in advance.

31

Channel trucks are mountain board spring trucks

Seismic g5s are RKP spring trucks for a street board to be used as AT

Both of which I would only use on an off roading/AT build… depending on the deck(mtb or street deck).

I personally wouldn’t use any spring truck for any type of street build for speed.

Not to discredit them, they do have a purpose…just thier purpose is for off roading.

32

Hmmmm I didn’t saw them to be advertised as AT truck so I’m even more confused now.

33

What’s interesting is that what he’s saying is 100% true. Having skated for 13 years now, I came into electric skateboarding and said, why would you want any of the longboards on the market already? The deck shapes suck, have little to no concave, ect. Then don’t get me started with enclosures…

I asked a good friend of mine who grew up in SF and now lives in NYC who has been skating the street almost as long as me.

And what he told me is real skaters there hate electric skateboard riders. Why? Because most of the riders have no interest in skateboarding what so ever… He said they feel like it bites on the culture of skateboarding, because people generally lump the too together now a days. But since so many of them barely can even ride their boosted boards, and have no interest in learning more about skateboarding, it annoys them and as a result, they publicly heckle people on eboards and are un interested in it as a result. Basically, it’s not cool… My response to him though, is what’s not cool about launching 0-35 mph in a matter of 4 seconds? The masses of skaters only know what they see, and since my target audience for my completes will be skaters, I have an uphill battle to convince them that they want a powerful electric skateboard.

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34

@evoheyax , not directed towards you at all :slight_smile: , but somehow it is a trend on here lately, that poeple proclaim themself as experts of the highest caliber and spew hate and disbelief on others if they don’t agree with them or don’t show as much ambition as them.

I mean, heckling poeple only based on your dislike of their disinterest is ridicoulus. Following that logic I would have to heckle pretty mucht the whole forum. E.G:“Why the F*** aren’t you learning toeside predrifts at 60 mp/h you imbacile, you noob, shame on you you filfthy casual” I mean common, projection much ?

What skaters forget is the risk. As a park skater or freeride/DH you WILL get hurt. I haven’t met a park skater who hasn’t broken their arm, pelvis or ankle at one point (poeple pushing their limits). Or a freerider without some serious road rash or a trip to the ER. It is because we want to progress, daily if possible. We push ourselfs and our limits.

That being said, there a longboarders who go for a short ride in a park, once a month, on flatground and for them it is pure bliss. Awesome right? There a freeriders who ride 5 times a week during holidays, eatch session over 6 hours, having road rash as their companion for the whole saison. Allways searching the next best spot, the next thrill and enjoying nature on those beautiful early morings while throwing down a mountainside at crazy speeds. Aswesome right ?

There are esk8’ters who just want a fun toy, go for joyrides after work before they go back to their regular family diner. Awesome right ? There are poeple who push the agenda of esk8 and go for 4wd builds, crazy speeds and serious riding skills. Awesome right ?

Could go on ad on and on… Basically to eatch their own. If a qeustion is not asked, don’t force the answer on them. We live in the time of the internet, making innformation so easily avaivable. So IF somone has not chaged their bushigs or once touched their skatetool to adjust the trucks, it is just not in their intrest, or at least they don’t have enough passion for it to spend 30 seconds on google, meaning they don’t really give a damn about that. They just want to relax, clear their heads and have some innocent fun.

It happened way to often that poeple who become ambitious in skating (esk8,dh,fr,etc) also become an elitist with it. Forcing your ideals, ambitions and ideas on others is disgusting, truely truely unsavory.

Let the guy on his yunec 2 have fun. Let the beginner at 35 have fun. Help if help is wanted, give a hand if it is accepted. But don’t go forcing your shit on others and try to project yourself on aynone.

Sorry rant over :slight_smile: To often lately there are poeple talking out of their ass withh bad information or pseudo-knowledge and force their shit on others on here.

Once In a while you will see me loose my shit, if the losing my shit is granted. A blast from the past

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35

Can’t agree with you more. I can understand some of the frustration, but my point to him also is, does motorized bikes bite the bmx culture and thus, bmx riders will think it is uncool? I see more of the opposite. I think the skate culture is weird, in the sense that people are always judging you. You can’t go to the skate park, with out many people judging the way you throw your board down when your running, or how you pop your board up into your hands when you get to the top of a ramp. I think they judge electric skateboarders from a place of ignorance.

At the same time, I see this culture of eskaters who don’t know anything about skateboarding being an issue for the future of this industry. Why are skaters kicked out of everywhere you go? Cause someone somewhere’s didn’t know how to skate or measure their ability level, got hurt, and sued, when it was their own damn fault. So security will tell you to leave because your a liability in their mind. If these eboard riders don’t take the time to learn to ride a skateboard properly, they will get hurt, and it will push places to ban them out of the fear of public safety. If you fall and squeeze the trigger (which is a natural reaction for some), you have a missile that could seriously injure someone, especially in a city.

Theres a lot of danger in eboarding that the people my friend is referring to don’t understand.

It’s like a car. If you don’t spend the time to understand how you car works, and how to drive it properly in different conditions, you are a danger to the entire public.

The same logic applies to eboarding. If you fall and cause an accident because you didn’t understand side winder trucks are not stable at 25 mph, this is a problem for the entire industry. If your riding around in a controlled environment and want to have some fun without endangering the public, ok, don’t learn anything. But if you want to ride on public roads with pedestrians and cars, you should know some things about your board besides up means brake and down means gas… Otherwise, you are creating a risk not only to yourself, but the public at large. And my fear is this risk will limit the legality of higher power boards, if not eboards all together.

Just my 2 cents…

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36

www.psychotiller.com

If you want gear that makes sense and works.

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37

Yup. It is sad but so true.

Gehting worse though, since equipment allways improves but overal athletics and skill of the populus declines. My favourite analagy if asked to try or buy an esk8 is this (using their child/relativs to take advantage of their sense of protection and common sense). “Do you let your daughter ride a motorcycle if she cannot ride a bike? Then why do you want to ride a motorized skateboard if a normal one gives you so much trouble?”

But your point is exactly why we are organised as a club with a fee for our freeride trips and sessions. So we can impose rules and etiquette that have to be uphold to participate.

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38

I don’t find in group rides the people who are likely to be problematic. Here in SF, we have a lot of techies (I will soon be one of them, lol). And anything new tech is cool to them. Electric skateboards are in this category, so many are getting them because why not, and they can help them get to the bus or train. But many have no concern to learn anything about skateboarding. Failing is an important skill in skateboarding. It’s even more important if your riding an electric skateboard. How can you learn to fall at 20 mph on an eboard? You can’t, you’ll get hurt.

I think to the point where you heckle is stupid, but I share their frustration in the sense that the rider who knows nothing about skateboarding is a danger to themselves and everyone else on the roads.

And please, stop riding your boosted board on the sidewalk at 5 mph. If you don’t feel comfortable going faster, do so on your own property. Pedestrians on the sidewalk hate it, cops hate, and it gives us all a bad image.

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39

While I understand what you’re saying, riding a bike isn’t necessary for riding a motorcycle. You can perfectly learn to ride a motorcycle without ever having touched a bike ever in your lifetime. Sure It would probably be easier , but easier=\neccesity. They’re two different machines that operation different enough that one isn’t dependent on the other.

On this hand, electric skateboards are similar enough to skateboards to work with your previous logic, except EK8’s are easier to ride (and to which I mean to move from point A to B) than skateboards. If they weren’t , then people wouldn’t ride them simply because they couldn’t. Should a person that doesn’t like to kick push not take up an ESK8 skateboard even though the entire way ESK8 works without It? I’m all for people to at least acknowledging the importance of skateboarding is to ESK8 and how the sport has the ability to make ESK8ting immensely better, but ESK8’s developed enough into its own thing that one does not need to know how to perfectly skateboard in order to get in a board and push a button. There’s a lot more to it of course and I understand everyone’s sentiments and opinions in his matter. But if someone can ESK8 brilliantly, foot brake an all, but is an absolute shit skateboarder, should he be barred from eve picking up an ESK8?

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Falling isn’t something exclusive to skateboarding, you can fall from a lot of things , bikes, scooters, hell even walking involves falling. And it’s not just something you can’t teach and learn from others. It’s a basic of how to fall and not how to fall and fully teachable when you get down to the grit of I.T.

I’m quite guilty of this of my self and i won’t justify It simply because I do It for reasons do my own devices and reasons. Truth be told, these things will be hated whether your on the street sidewalk , or where ever eyes can see It was hated upon the moment It was a skateboard in the minimalist terms. Some pleases sidewalks are the only legal place to ride so a statement such as this isn’t fair to those individuals. Bottom line: ride responsible.