Here’s my noobie non-comprehensive “review” (thoughts and impressions) of my newly arrived Bustin Sportster-S, written on an unskateable rainy day…
Deciding Factors
1st up, the trigger for my 1st ever purchase on an e-board (almost instantly) was based upon a few months of browsing around for a low riding height board, after hearing too much about speed wobble crashes and many various solutions behind them. a low riding height seemed to be the prevailing answer to speed wobbles (of course not the only factor). This Sportster had a nice sleek thin side profile, a low ride height formed by the drop deck and the drop through setup (double drop).
The 2nd trigger was how the board looked, it is really striking and deliberate in its design and subtle curves and somehow got a lot of things right and certainly doesn’t look like it was designed by the China copee-shops but had some serious US based engineers and design behind its creation.
The last trigger was that it had a strong NYC curbside culture vibe behind the already long established Bustin brand : I was totally suckered into that vibe - yet the price was surprisingly affordable unlike the upcoming Globe / Dot brand. US-derived unknown products seem to be well ahead in terms of pricing strategy rather than the Commonwealth countries and Europe, which to a degree, does affect buyer decision, inevitably relegating to cheaper China alternatives. The marketing team behind the brand is rock solid and so far (fingers crossed) the customer service and meeting special requests has also been spot on.
The Package
After waiting about 2months for the shipment to arrive (due to stock availability as these were selling like hotcakes)., the package came beautifully boxed within a generic outer box, comes with a well written manual and all the usual items (like the skate tool, remote, chargers, bearing lube). They even packed in perfectly the 100mm dia wheels upgrade, which I i’ll touch on later.
The wooden looking remote is a novelty but a beautiful one at that, they really paid attention to these subtle things that made the whole package stand out above many other brands. Tt has vibration feedback, 4-speed modes and 4-braking strengths and pairing-reset, and most important of all - changing mph to kph.
The board itself seems to be well-crafted along with the integration of all the usual bits. I’m not keen on dismantling the “wooden” enclosure anytime soon. But it will happen and there should be an update to this post.
Initial Ride
Kick starting requires the board to move a little quicker, a slow rotation of the wheel won’t trigger the power on.
All speed modes seem to have an abrupt kick in start point a fair way into the throttle, like 1cm before a little jolt. Not sure why it cannot be an initial smoother curve.
I only went up to the 2nd speed mode - haven’t quite found a quiet empty spot on this crowded island yet to full test its top speed, and besides, it’s my 2nd time on an e-board, and fastest speed I’ve ever gone on one.
Carving may not be the board’s strong point at the moment, but for beginners like me, it feels super stable, it truly is a stable commuter cruiser board that can handle heavy impact and motion like drops and sliding as all the videos suggest.
The board’s torque and strength is truly insane and out of this world, I don’t think I can handle belt drives as this point yet (as people keep saying they are even stronger). And so far, I’ve only tested it on cycling path concrete (some slip grit), and the ride is very smooth.
Initial dislikes
From afar, the board looks ok. Up-close, apart from some badly applied griptape which creased in some concaved corner, I am irked by this very obviously printed graphic of stripped ply layers on the top of the board, revealed in between pieces of graphically shaped griptape. It feels like a mistake trying to cover something up.
1st Mod
My attempt on trying to change my 90mm dia wheels to 100mm ended in disappointment. After painfully prying off the 2 thane sleeves off the hub motors (1 hr), discovered in horror that the 100mm thane could not fully fit… because it was missing an inner rebate ring / rim in its casting, such a serious design flaw. the only temporal solution for now is to get longer screws for the hub-caps which act to lock in the thane. I’ve contacted them for more feedback.
Maiden ride update
So I voyaged for about 5km through some wide cycling paths that contained those thickly painted speed limiter strips and speed bumps. Everytime I ran over them, it was horrible on the 81A duros - I believe this is the downside of skating longboards in general. One of the humps was too tall and thin that the board failed to get over it and hung on the enclosure (thankfully it was a temporal plastic hump). Running over expansion joints and tactile dots at road junctions on normal footpaths proved to be painful as well. Need some much softer thane to prove the difference.
This board is so stiff that it’s not at all good for riding over paved surfaces, but when the path opened up to fresh bitumen, I made my 1st attempt at maxing out the throttle at speed mode 3 of of 4. Reached 18mph / 29kmh on the straight stretch of new road, but couldn’t muster the courage to go any faster as a noob. On this first speed attempt, I think I experienced a slight bit of speed wobbles while free rolling (not accelerating), which caused me to panic a little. Upon slowing down, I practiced more carving and different positions to try to feel for the wobbles to counteract and prevent them from recurring.
In all honesty, this board is truly built for the road, the power is tremendous, I cannot begin to describe the feeling as it pulls away extremely quick, and I dont mind letting anyone in our local community who dares to gun for top speed give it a go.
One of the downsides of not having a kick tail or at least a small tail, is the inability to turn the board at tight spots, re-positioning it with the leg under is just cumbersome. It truly is a “long distance” (get the X for range) speed commuter, rather than a campus / street carver.
Maybe I should drill some holes in the 100mm hub sleeves to soften them up and run 74As on the front! Still waiting for customer service to reply though about the 100mm hub sleeves, it’s great to a forum to vent when customer service is lacking.
the front wheels I believe are really made in the USA. they’re quite squishy even at 81A (stated rating) - but they read 78A on my Durometer.
The back Hub Motor wheel sleeves however are exactly 81A on my durometer, so I guess those are poured in China.
I hope to share more as I embark on this esk8 journey and will update this post in time to come.
Thanks for reading!
I’ve cut and pasted the general specs here:
Length: 35.5"
Width: 10"
Wheelbase: 29 - 29.8"
Concave: .63"
Construction: Thermoglass (E)Core™
Hollow-Core: Yes
Trucks: Paris™ V3 50° Matte Black
Wheels: Five-O™ 90mm 81a (centerset) (claims to be USA made)
Bearings: Abec-9 Builtin
Top Speed:
27mph (Sportster-S)
30mph (Sportster-X)
Range:
10-12 miles (Sportster-S)
18-20 miles (Sportster-X)
Climb:
Up to 25% Grade (Sportster-S)
Up to 30% Grade (Sportster-X)
Battery:
158.8Wh Samsung 22P (Sportster-S) Travel Friendly
324Wh Samsung 30Q (Sportster-X)
Motors: Dualomo Push-Friendly, Whisper-Quiet Hubs
Remote: Bluetooth Shaka’mote™ V2, 4-speed modes
Other
Weight:
16.5lbs (Sportster-S)
18lbs (Sportster-X)
Warranty: 6 months full parts and labor (supposedly)
Case Update: NEW Fiber-reinforced Polycarbonate
Bluetooth: 2.4Ghz Dualomo™ Module
