Alright yall, I’ve been in the hobby for a little over a year so I figured it was time to finally make a thread related to my main DIY (officially named Chabuduo or “Good Enough” this last weekend during the DCESK8 Season Opener).
May 2023
This journey started with my acquisition of some Onsra TKP’s and Boa 100mm’s in mid 2023, got the pair for 100 dollars off Wesley, a local DC rider and the guy who introduced me to diy esk8 in the first place, and upon realizing how much I saved on the set I figured I wanted to take the plunge into a full DIY board.
Once I got the trucks and wheels I was hauling ass trying to get more DIY parts, first things first was the esc (a pair of old v1.6 focboxes) which I was able to score off Pierce (the Hoyt ambassador for DC) for about 25 bucks
Wesley also said he could send me an old meepo voyager deck if I paid the shipping, hell yeah sign me up, so I grabbed that and the build was finally taking shape
June 2023:
While the build was off to a good start, a deck and trucks a build does not make, so onto the rest of the electronics, I ended up going to Andrew Liang (coulda sworn he was on the forum but I could be mistaken) who sold me a set of maytech 170kv motors for around 50 bucks if I remember correct, even better though, he also mentioned having an old 10s6p off a lacroix prototipo that he could contribute to the project, I of course jumped at the opportunity to have the build electrically complete and shortly after I was off to the races, now I just needed an enclosure
While I waited to figure out what to do for the enclosure I also ordered a BKB voyager remote (not my favorite choice but it was cheap and got me running so whatever) This was also my first time finally seeing this thing actually work which as a first time DIY’er with so much stuff still to learn was super gratifying
I was not however, out of the woods yet, turns out that proto battery had one big reason for not being used besides its age, it was damn near 10 inches wide which was too wide for pretty much any street deck I could afford at the time, and way too wide for the voyager deck I was gonna use, it took some scouring but I finally found a deck that would work, a 10 inch wide blank deck from Warehouse Skateboards. I assembled everything on the new deck and held it together with blue painter’s tape and there it was! my board was “set up” and just needed belts to get rolling
July 2023:
With the deck situation fixed I was again able to focus on the task of finding an enclosure, it was clear I wasn’t going to find anything off the shelf so I’d need to find something else to work, it took some scouring of random items before EUREKA I found what I thought would work, a cambro fiberglass market tray measuring 9 inches across.
Alas, it was not meant to be as the one I ordered was in fact slightly too small to work, however, cambro does sell a bigger tray, which could work if I cut it down to fit, so I ordered that and got to trimming, it took another few days to get it all together with some epoxy but finally, after almost 3 months of slaving over this thing in my free time, I had a rideable DIY
(I at some point had also ordered a 3dservisas heatsink so I could keep the focboxes under control thermally)
I added some inserts and boom, my first DIY board was complete, and all for under 500 dollars
I got some grip tape on there and was finally able to take it for a spin, to this day nothing has really encapsulated how excited I was to finally have my board done
September 2023:
I had finally attended my first group ride and was enjoying cruising around DC on the board, however, it wasn’t long before I fell and smashed my treasured voyager remote, someone on the local Craigslist was selling a hoyt puck so, seeing the opportunity for a cheap piece of high end gear, I scooped that up for the low low price of 40 dollars. (I also appropriated some triple eight slide gloves to be able to hold the remote while keeping my hands protected)
It was shortly after this, about 3 days in fact, that disaster once again struck me and my board, I was enjoying a late night ride around the monuments when I hit a pothole and manhole cover in front of the White House, I fell off the board, and the board full throttled directly into a curb, snapping the nose of the deck completely off. Fuck.
October 2023:
With the deck now broken and me short on options because of my battery situation, I quickly ordered a new blank deck from warehouse skateboards, this time, to hopefully avoid the nose breaking issue in the future, I also ordered some fiberglassing tools to reinforce it
It was around this point that Propulsion Boards had also released a video on their Demon 3.0 kit and I thought I would try contouring my deck a bit to match that vibe, the deck was now trimmed and I could work on laying some fiberglass
Shortly after this I was in the local DCESK8 buy and sell chat when I saw someone giving away a free 12s4p p26a pack along with an enclosure to fit it, score! I was not only getting off of 10s voltage, I was also going to be able to avoid the hassle of making a new enclosure!
Alongside this newfound battery, Wesley also gave me a care package of some miscellaneous DIY parts, those being a defective stormcore that wouldn’t run motor detection and an apex boards stormcore top box (keep an eye for those they’ll be very important later in our story)
The end of October had rolled around and I was finally ready to fiberglass my deck, I laid the glass down and trimmed the edges, once I got some grip tape on there it was ready for inserts
I installed the inserts and jammed the focboxes into the apex enclosure, and finally after a month of being down my beloved DIY was back up and running
November 2023
November was mostly uneventful, I spent most of my time learning the board and getting used to how it felt, I got some TB110 wheels for free from a legend by the name of George (also a DCESK8 local) and later in the month Wesley let me know that he had a spare 12s4p pack with p42a’s that he was selling, I decided to take the plunge in the pursuit of more range and set the pack up in a top box with a quick disconnect and its very own loop key (so I could still run the p26a pack without paralleling the packs and blowing things up) The setup wasn’t ideal, but it was “good enough” for me
December 2023
With everything that I went through to get this DIY rideable I was super excite to show my shiny new build off at the DCESK8 Invasion, which is why I was so broken up when the day before the event one of my beloved focboxes started throwing DRV faults, it seems pulling 80 amps from the poor controller was a bit too much, and it cooked itself. Rest in peace little one, you can sleep now. Fuck.
I was just about ready to give up hope and run the board as a mono drive when I had a last ditch idea…Wesley’s broken stormcore! I yanked the thing out of the box I had it sitting in and got to work, it took a lot of tinkering but somehow someway I finally got it running motor detection, at precisely 4 in the morning the day of the invasion, and much to the dismay of my girlfriend who was asleep 3 feet away at the time, the board was back up and running, just in time.
It was around this point that I figured I was done with board modifications, that was until @stan_he sent me a DM. He mentioned that he had seen my struggles with my deck and offered to sell me a tomiboi liquid sword deck and enclosure, while I thought I was finally done with everything he offered me the deck and enclosure for just 100 bucks, I would be the third owner but that was good enough for me and I scooped it up. While the onsras were a good starting off point their turning left a lot to be desired, I heard a lot of people mentioning that RKP was better for turning so I grabbed a set of BN220 trucks from @Evwan , with those new parts the DIY was reborn, this time with both batteries sitting inside the enclosure, meaning I once again had a clean top to the board
After I had the board done it was finally time for me to go on winter break from college, I of course, brought the shiny new board back with me to New Jersey, not just to look at of course, but also to ride with @stan_he and the PEVNYC crew
January 2024
With the new year came new board parts, I noticed that @Saturn_Corp was selling a for parts davega for a good price, I took the risk and it paid off, I was able to get the unit working again and now the board had a shiny new screen to let me know how speedy I was
While I was in New York I also bought some mad105’s to hopefully get some extra comfort while riding, the only downside was, those wheels left me hurting for ground clearance, and while the BN mounts were great when I was on Maytech 6374’s, I did not have enough clearance to run the set of 6384 190kv motors I had recently acquired, boom, used parts and cheap-assery to the rescue! Pierce was willing to sell me an old Haggyboard drivetrain with the belt drive mounts, I jumped on both and also bought some hoyt 5 inch tires from Pierce as apparently, those tires could fit the berg hubs I had bought earlier in the year (figured I’d keep that as a surprise since I wasn’t using the hubs at the time of initially purchasing them), score!
It was around this point that I had realized what I was really building here was a sort of “poor man’s tabor” and while some things with the build were not ideal, they were “good enough” for me.
February 2024
At this point I was more than happy with my board, however, it was not long before disaster struck again, warm weather had hit and I was finally able to enjoy some sun, I took a turn weird and went up on a curb, scratching up the board, my hand, and my beloved 40 dollar puck, killing it stone dead. Fuck. (gore sensored because it doesn’t really contribute/idk how the forum feels about that)
The worst of the crash was my pelvis, I managed to pop off the board at the perfect angle to somehow land my ass on the corner edge of a curb, seemingly cracking something that was not meant to crack and reducing me to a limping goof for the better part of a month. Double Fuck. I was now down my puck and my dignity!
While it seems I have been cursed with a perpetual loop of building and fixing this board, I have gotten lucky to find some solid deals on parts, one such deal was the Hoyt BOGO deal for the puck during Valentine’s day, so I of course ordered a pair shortly after ordering one off a forum user (my cheap ass ways still prevail)
While those bergs and hoyt 5’s were heaven on the street they were really hurting my range, and because the BN220’s were so narrow I was also getting horrible wheel bite, because of this, and against my better judgement, I swapped back to the tb110’s for the time being.
While the TB’s were great for range they were awful in other factors, the biggest one being grip, with esk8con 2024 coming up shortly, DCESK8 was running track days, and I thought it would be best to try my hand at the track while running hard thane, big mistake. Only a few short weeks after I was just back up and walking and my arm had finally healed, I stupidly ran the course without arm protection, I broke traction, fell off the board, and managed to reinjure the same arm, Fuck.
March 2024
March rolled around and Esk8 Con passed, and I was once again back home in Jersey, now on spring break and free to work on my board, I decided to go back to the Berg’s so they would better match the board.
To get rid of the wheel bite while keeping my beloved RKP turning, I finally broke down and ordered some BN270 hangers, after almost 10 months into the hobby, I had finally purchased my first new board part.
The hangers arrived shortly after and I installed them, I was absolutely in love
By this point Cherry Blossom Season had rolled around and I was finally healed up enough to go back to enjoying riding, I went on a cruise with Wesley to some local spots in DC and he brought his camera, resulting in some of my favorite photos ever.
April 2024
April rolled around and I was finally just enjoying the board, it was around this time when Wesley came to me with an incredible proposition, he had a spare set of hoyt 5 inch rims he was no longer using, and he was fine with me taking them. Hell. Yes.
May 2024
HIGH VOLTAGE BABYYYY, I had been bitten by the bug after seeing some 18s boards in action along with Pierce’s recently acquired Hoyt Dadbod and I was convinced I had to follow in suit. So, against my wallet’s better protesting, I dropped 930 dollars getting an 18s5p pack built by @Takachi14
The new parts train however does not end there, I was gonna need a high voltage esc to go with that new battery, so, being that Tomiboi had maker d100s’s for sale for 20 bucks cheaper than makerx themselves, I thought it only best to buy one
That shiny new ESC coupled with the pair of 6384 140kv motors I bought from @KaramQ marked the end for this stint of irresponsible spending, all in all, I was about a grand and change poorer, and itching like a crack fiend to get these parts installed
Unfortunately, with the middle of May also came the end of my year at college, unfortunately while I was able to get every part installed the weather and the time didn’t cooperate and I was unable to give my shiny new 18s board its maiden voyage in DC.
No matter, that just meant that the board’s maiden voyage would instead be with @stan_he and the PEVNYC Crew, I got over there early in the day, and we rode until late into the night, holy shit this thing moves
June 2024
It seems I have a habit of always calling this build done right before I acquire new parts for it, and sure enough, when I finally thought the build was complete, Wesley again came to me with extra parts, this time being a set of Hoyt Rosa hangers, albeit without baseplates but I was able to get them running on the set of BN Split angles I originally purchased from @Evwan ,
I had everything I needed for the trucks except for one thing: axle nuts, unfortunately I got the thread for the axles wrong (m10x1.25 not m10x1.5) and absolutely wrecked the axles, not to worry, @jack.luis was able to get me a new set of Rosa axles in just the nick of time
I finally got the trucks fully installed, and it was finally time for the DCESK8 Season opener.
While opener was a really good time, unfortunately I spent more time with my board on a bench than on the road, unbeknownst to me, the Rosas had a mismatched set of hardware that wasn’t sufficient for maintaining tension under how much torque I had my board pushing, leading to me thinking that my beloved 18s diy was cutting out. On top of this, when I was able to get the board rideable, it wasn’t long before more disaster struck, I had apparently used the wrong screws to hold the motors onto the Rosa mounts and my poor new motor ripped itself from the mount while I was riding, smashing the exterior of the can and causing the motor to drag for about 20 feet. (Credit to @hoytkid for managing to get the entire incident on his 360 cam)
Thankfully, while the motor was beat to all hell, it was only cosmetic damage, and the motor itself was still functional, on top of this, I did not walk away from the Opener empty handed, @stan_he blessed me with some BKB v2 tubes and tires which paired nicely with some Evolve Surge carbon fiber hubs (also provided by Stan, such an amazing dude)
It was during this eventful weekend that we settled on the perfect name for my DIY (previously just referred to as the 18s Liquid Sword), Stan mentioned “Chabuduo” (chinese for “good enough”, a phrase that I think perfectly encapsulates everything about this board)
Opener weekend ended and we said out goodbyes, and I headed back home, ready to pretty up the damaged motor and install my shiny new wheels (thanks again Stan).
I sanded the cans down and installed the new wheels and here we are today, with 750 newtons and 40+ miles of range all Chabuduo needs now is a custom nameplate and some new belts for those bigger pulleys.
An Epilogue of Sorts?
There are so many people I wanna thank when it comes to this board and my journey into PEV’s as a whole, mainly just everyone in the PEVNYC and DCESK8 telegram chats, in barely a year these guys had me going from a mere sidewalker and rental scooter rider to a DIY fiend with a kick ass board to call my own. Not just that, they gave me some fantastic memories and some friendships that I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life.
Holy shit this ended up being a long ass post, a lot changed in the last year man, it’s been a crazy ass journey.
