Backfire Zealot X/S2 Thread

Those built in LEDs and new rubber wheels looks glitzy but mini-boards just dont do it for me and im only 5’9 160lbs.

zealot x/s2 is a mini board? ok

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We tend to like decks that are longer than that on here but it’s definitely not a mini board by any stretch of the imagination

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Screenshot 2023-04-20 9.48.26 PM

fuck cast trucks lol.
wait, what?
Screenshot 2023-04-20 9.48.46 PM
so are they cast or CNC’d or forged?

more questions than answers:
Screenshot 2023-04-20 9.54.00 PM

and do they even know what rake is?
Screenshot 2023-04-20 9.55.11 PM

it’s a longboard not a mini

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Its a mini board and its pink

To me, thats still too small

i must be fucking blind


both boards are 39.2inch long, that’s more than half ur height, what u trying to do? a split?

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Are you looking to do street luge or something?

Certainly not a mini-board. Specs don’t really impress me but for a prebuilt board they are a good beginner board to get into the sport/hobby. I always liked the size of my old zealot deck.

Those are the colors for the LEDs because paying the extra $5 to make them multicolor LEDs was too expensive.

Also the colors do work/match with the decks as well. Ice blue is likely a very unsaturated blue and would match well with the white IMO. If I had to guess they chose that version of blue so they wouldn’t have to worry about any laws against blue LEDs on vehicles. Which wouldn’t be an issue for esk8 but :person_shrugging: Their lawyers probably told them they can’t use it so they never have to deal with issues.

Blue-red lights are only illegal when used to impersonate a cop car/officer. No cops are using esk8 to pull people over or get around so it is a non issue for boards but also the laws against lights aren’t written to apply to us anyway. Except for some states that are dumb and blanket ban the color when used anywhere. Had to double check that bit since apparently some states hate pretty lights.

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On other parts I have seen coming from China, they cast THEN machined. A good example of this are the Meepo tubeless wheels. I think if properly designed, this method of making parts is fine. Bacfkfire has a long history of misleading advertising.

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Jeez, these boards only have 28 cells total???

34 miles range… doubt

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I guess Ecomobl didnt get that memo. It has the bluiest blue body light on it

First person getting the zealot x off the production line, camped at their office to make sure of this. Had about 500km on it already, I think I’m qualified to talk about it a little bit.

The Good

  • really nice aesthetics, looks like a proper product
  • impressive construction quality, survived my abuse just fine
  • cells sourced from Samsung, not some random Chinese cell

that’s about it

The BAD

  • way too large of a motor. You do NOT need a 6358 for merely 1800w of max sustained power.
  • too little clearance. The motor mount is even thicker than the zealot s one, which meant riding even 85mm wheels on this board a misery. Every single crack and bump it will catch on. I used to run 80mm wheels on my zealot s and it worked great.
  • proprietary pulley bearing seats. You only get to use their own pulleys, which really limits the amount of drivetrain setup you can do.
  • bad CHOICE of cell. Although Samsung is good, not everything samsung makes is good, especially the 50s cell used on a power vehicle. each cell need to share a load of 30 amps when accelerating and riding uphill, the poor 50S cell can barely output 3c without overheating, not to mention 6c. P42A or even the 40T would be more suited for this board.
  • TOO stiff of a deck. If you wanna go split enclosure, don’t make your board 99% stiff. This board only flexes when I jump hard onto it, during rides it stays COMPLETELY stiff. And this is coming from a 220lbs rider, imagine lighter people’s experiences.
  • The T logo upfront is completely dogshit looking and I don’t want it GLUED and BOLTED on my deck
  • their 120mm MO wheel copies the boosted 105’s UV print, and the holes drilled from the inner side, however the ride is completely dogshit and it doesn’t work on wet ground as they advertised. BUY THE MAD105 IF YOU WANT THE OG BOOSTED FEEL.

Feel free to ask me more about this board. I’ll try my best to answer (I’m not that active though so it might take a while)

lmfao

also i’d rather consider a 40 inch 5kg board “mini” than a 25 inch 10kg board "mini

the zealot x weighs 10.8kg. that’s heavy as fuck.

I know the zealot x and the previous zealot s trucks are forged then CNCed, but idk if they’re properly forged or just what they call “liquid forge” (which doesn’t make the molecules squeeze tighter therefore resulting in a higher desity and higher strength). Most things cast stays cast, very little gets CNC treated. The hub core of Meepo’s tubeless wheels are made with an extrusion mould then machined to get the bearing seat/taper, and the walls of the hub are lathed. I think you guys should consider actually coming to china and visiting their factories before speculating about the processes online.

more like unable to use proper terminology, not like most esk8 companies based in China do. Beyond that, almost every company marks their wattage and range way higher than they could actually achieve.

and no, it doesn’t fucking go 34 miles. The 50S cell is NOT meant for high discharge, it’s a capacity cell that fakes it could do 9c discharge, but even at 4c discharge the actual delivered energy is 2600mAh, not the advertised 5000mAh, so I only got about 25km of range while riding regularly in city traffic. I’m 220lbs though so your mileage may vary

extremely difficult. The deck, although made stiff as fuck and doesn’t flex like a good boosted board stealth does, still flexes a little bit, which makes building a light bar into its sides extremely difficult, not to mention embedding them behind impact resistant materials and still illuminate bright enough to be visible in daylight. As far as I’m aware these decks cost at least $100 in materials, before taxes, labour, R&D and all that.

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It’s time to take a tour of the Backfire factory!

I liked your wheel factory, I’d choose the same place if I was into making street wheels. They knew their shit.

I know exway made the nasa edition boards at lower margin since the deck was insanely expensive to manufacture compared to their normal decks. I think the wave had similar lights to this.

That’s why I had my wheels made there. Backfire and Onsra are now making wheels with holes in them. Meepo did do a really small run of about 300 wheels at the same factory I used about 2 years ago and are selling them now.

The word on the street is Meepo is using a different factory to make pretty much the same wheel. I’m flattered!

I think one thing many companies do not understand is the characteristics of the urethane makes all the difference. It’s not just about durometer. Both Brad from Momentum and I realize this.

Get ready for serious piles of “dogshit” hitting the markets!

Version 2.0 of the MAD Wheelz should be ready sometime late this summer. Wider, larger contact patch. More grip with the same level of comfort.

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