I was unsure what channel to put this post on, so plz don’t flame me if this isn’t the right spot:skull:
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About 2 years ago, I started my diy eskate journey when I bought 1 singular motor. Because I was 14, had no efficient way to earn money for the board so it ended up taking a year just to buy parts for a board. The total cost running about $2000. Shortly after buying the board, my MakerX DV6 pro started having issues with acceleration; it would cut out randomly or blip the throttle uncontrollably(I still have the esc but am unable to fix it). So I had to replace that with a dv6s. Then, my brand new bustin sportster deck cracked on the truck mounting holes, so I had to get a new deck. Then, spot welds on my poorly made battery began snapping, so I had to order a better spot welder and redo them. After that, the threaded inserts I epoxed into my new sportster kept breaking the adhesive, leaving me to cut them out over and over again. Over the past year my board has had a plethora of problems, but the straw that really broke the camel’s back was my new MakerX dv6s popping due to me repeatedly slamming on the brakes. Right now I’m in the middle of my junior year of high school and I have no free time to get a job to buy a new esc. I’m aware that all of these problems are induced by me, but I’m still rly upset about them.
Honestly, the only reason I’m posting this is to bitch about an inherent feature of DIY eskate. However, all these problems have been forcing me to really consider selling my board. I absolutely love the feeling that eskate brings, and for the past 2 years, this thing has been my primarily mode of transport. But the cons are slowly starting to outweigh the pros.
What should I do?
if you really love it, why even consider stopping?
love isn’t just about the good times. it’s about appreciating the bad times and getting through them.
eventually, you’ll just be getting new parts and learning how to avoid issues in the future.
and if riding is the main draw for you, why not just get out of DIY and get prebuilts or custom built? you’d get all the fun of a well-made board without the hassle of messing something up in the build. plus if anything goes wrong you have support to count on.
Using [and repairing] prebuilts is the way forward
The lowest of lows in this hobby almost always come when you cant ride. The only way to avoid those pits of despair is to always be able to ride something. Have a second board, such as a little $500 prebuilt that you never modify or break, just for times like this. Wear lots of good gear so you never hurt yourself bad enough to stop riding for long.
None of that helps with your money troubles, but it would help with your “i-cant-ride” blues. We’ve all been there. It gets better.
I am in this situation right now.
Main board blown waiting on parts
Backup board I have had for 7+ years that’s a prebuilt and has never been modified (for now)
As terrible as it is, its a lot better than walking, and shows a light at the end of the tunnel for something that I have been missing
you should be focusing on school. come back to esk8 when i have time. this is an important time for you keep your long term goals in persective.
I’m gonna level with you, I’m in a pretty similar situation in terms of boards, I’ve got 3 DIYs and 1 pre built and the pre built is the only rideable one at the moment. All 3 boards are out of commission due to me lacking the skill to complete these builds reliably (or cannibalizing the 3rd DIY to fix one of the others lol)
I’ve made some decent progress but my experience of “learning DIY” has taken me a couple years and several thousand dollars already and I expect it to take more time and money before I can truly do it well.
It sounds like the DIY portion is just too expensive for you right now. It’s an awesome skill to learn but shit man, mistakes out here aren’t cheap.
The only board I do have running is my backfire zealot which
Having a decently reliable pre built has been a godsend.
Gotta get to school though
This. Though I will add that there will always be some pain that isn’t mitigated by having an alternate board. The thing is most of us build, buy, and mod boards until you get an emotional attachment. On the surface that sounds silly, but think about it – all the good moments you have riding around, hitting that new top speed without even realizing it because you’ve tuned it so well, or hitting those perfect carves on a pristine stretch of asphalt, or the breathtaking view that opened up on that long-range ride you took one weekend – that all gets associated with the board you’re riding. So when it’s out of commission, you think “fuck, this would be so much better on THAT board.”
We’ve all been there. I just finished some upgrades on a board that had been sitting idle due to a power issue for most of the summer and when I finally got it all ready with the new hardware, I blew the ESC on the first real ride. 
You just gotta roll with it.
The trick is to acknowledge that it sucks, know that you’ll get it back in working order, and that in the meantime, you can make some cool memories with your alternate boards.
A bicycle was my alternative vehicle when my boards were all busted. It was nice because the workout was good for me and helped dissipate the frustration.
Those days make me appreciate having my current fleet and always having at least 2 DIYs to ride.
I’m personally waiting on a new VESC to get my daily driver back running. This’ll be about my 12th VESC in 5 years of doing diy.
Planning to get another dual in the future to get an eMTB rolling, and I still need a new 10s battery to get my hub board on the road again. Just in time for the rainy season too.
You either deal with the BS out of love, or you cut your losses and focus on what brings you value in life. For some of us that’s fixing and building the shit, for some of us it’s just riding.
I was basically you when I was in high school except I was building robots. I wish someone gave me this advice but I just had to learn it over time.
First, you have have not wasted time and money because you have learned a lot. Making things is hard and to make a quality product the devil really is in the details as you have learned. Many different things can go wrong and you have to be prepared with the time and money to sort it out. That said, if you keep building it gets easier and your build quality gets better.
As others have said, don’t quit if you are having fun, but it is OK to take a break and focus on other things. You are young you should try many different hobbies because you never know where it can lead. Finally, please wear safety gear when building, particularly eye protection.
Tysm for the advice. I think I’ll take a break and focus on school and downhill skating. Do u have any tips on discharging the battery without a discharger? It’s still at 48.9v
You can get a power resistor and connect it to the ± of the battery, then remove it when it gets to storage voltage.
An alternative option to a discharge resistor is to get a big non-conductive (ex. Plastic) tub of water and put two metals rods on either side connected to the battery ± . Add salt until you reach the desired current flow.
Can confirm. I’ve done this and it works great.
Prebuilts break too. I built my DIY to commute. So, I go conservative on all settings, throttle and brake. Me thinks you should CALM your ass down and be mellow, till you can afford to hot rod again. Tell your parents that you use this for the last mile, and can you borrow the money till you are more solvent.
There is no real need to slam the throttle or brakes. A DIY that is set up conservative, and ridden conservative, should last for MANY years.
My parents aren’t up for lending money 
. I’ll prly just storage it till and take a break from eskate
yOU HAVE TOO MUCH INVESTMENT TO LET IT ROT. Fix it right, treat it well and as I have stated elsewhere, great last mile solution.
sunk cost fallacy