DIY Wheels - Hollow Wheels - Very Comfy

RDs · June 29, 2022, 8:12am

Depending on how brocracy is done it can be cheaper or more expensive. But in nutshell, when I import something from non euro zone countries I have to pay customs import tax for both, the cost of the product and shipping price. If product is shipped from US to UK then taxes get payed there, then I pay more taxes when I order from UK. I believe something can be done to make order reverse taxed or something but I’m not smart enough on UK tax law.

I potentially have other option of using specialized USA to Latvia order and delivery services like shipzee or similar and avoid middleman alltogether.

TheGoodMomentum · July 1, 2022, 10:29am

I don’t know how it is possible but as soon as someone mentions tax my eyes immediately glaze over and I collapse to the floor and start simultaneously twitching and foaming from the mouth. Single handedly the thing I absolutely detest the most.

@RDs do you do that often? Can I pick your brain offline?

Anyway, here are some pictures from last week that I thought were kinda cool.

Linesflag · July 1, 2022, 11:34am

Such a vibe, I feel it.

TheGoodMomentum · July 13, 2022, 4:04am

Just doing some photo content and realized that I never sent the pictures of the inserts inside the wheels.

The wheels have the suspension inserts in there which allows you to adjust inertia and help affect grip of the wheel.

sleepless · July 13, 2022, 4:08am

That’s beautiful man. Really really nicely done.

Kai · July 13, 2022, 4:24am

There is now a 100 percent chance im removing your branding, sorry. But theyll look so fresh, everyone will ask, and i will tell.

ShutterShock · July 13, 2022, 5:13am

Your branding looks amazing Doug! The colors all go together so nicely

/spite @Kai

But for real I think they look awesome

Kai · July 13, 2022, 5:15am

inhales

Booooooiiiiiiiii

Fr tho the color scheme is good shit; its actually some of my favorite colors. But its a lot easier to match with less colors, ya know?

ShutterShock · July 13, 2022, 5:31am

Yeah definitely easier to match with less, but I usually don’t mind wheels standing out a bit

ablairlamb · July 13, 2022, 4:10pm

Can’t wait to get my hands on them.

DeuceDos · July 22, 2022, 9:25pm

@TheGoodMomentum Is there a new time line or are we just getting a very anticipated surprise in the mail?

TheGoodMomentum · July 28, 2022, 8:25am

Hey all,

The wheels are on the boat and are in route in a shipping container. I’m expecting them in mid August but the tracking doesn’t really update very often. In addition, after receiving the wheels, it could take us a week or a couple to finish shipping all the orders due to the sheer volume. Furthermore, I want to inspect every wheel and package to make sure they’re dimensionally good since this is the first batch.

Manufacturing Pictures

I realized that I didn’t send pictures of all the fun at the factory before they boarded the boat. Sorry about that.

Suspension inserts:
I really love the color and I hope you to too.

The inserts really make the wheels pop. The inserts will be installed in the wheels (for those that ordered). They’re a tight fit but with some will power, you can remove the inserts from the wheels.

Here you can see the metal weights that can be inserted in the suspension inserts so that you can change the inertia and as a result change the coastability. They will change the way the wheel feels and you can adjust it however you like!

Mass Packaging
It’s really fulfilling to see all of it come together.

The guy in the purple looks cool.

One of a ton of pallets. Lets goooooooo!

INVENTORY STATUS: ALMOST OUT OF STOCK

In this first batch, nearly all Hollow Wheels are out of stock. It may be another 4-6 months before I can get another batch to arrive. It requires that I have to upfront significant capital as I have to meet the minimum order quantity for the vendor to start production. If you want to get a set of Hollow Wheels this year, now is your best chance while I have inventory. Prices will also be increasing as soon as I receive notice that the wheels have reached the USA shipping port.

HOLLOW WHEELS VS. HOLLOW WHEELS PRO

I’ll have more content to display in another blog post, but here is a quick comparison between regular and PRO. PRO is $20 more expensive due to higher manufacturing cost - it is imported (high shipping & duty fee), only produced in low volume, and the material is automotive grade (designed specifically for the auto industry which has much higher performance characteristics). It costs me $20 more and so I pass off the cost to you.

Hollow Wheels (regular) was designed for all-around superb comfort and grip while providing minimal range loss.

Super Comfortable: 50% increase.*
High Cornering Grip
Adjustable Suspension: tweak the wheels with suspension inserts to get your perfect ride.
Top Speed: Increases over smaller wheels*
Great Battery Range: minimal impact compared to 110mm wheels**
Low Noise: reduced due to Hollow design.
1 order comes with 4 individual wheels

Tech Specs:

Max Rider + Board Weight: 240lbs (108.8kg)
Variable Diameter: 105mm x 95mm
Contact Width: 65mm
Weight: 284g (as light as an 85mm Caguama wheel)
80A durometer
Patent Pending

*Compared to 85mm Caguama Wheels

Hollow Wheels PRO was designed for maximum grip. This compound allows for predictable riding-at-the-limit of grip, allowing you to dance around the limit of grip and seamlessly transition into board drifts (if you possess excellent board control skills). Like any high grip tire, it will wear faster than regular Hollow Wheels. The rate of wear is dependent on your weight and riding style.

Comfortable: 20% increase.*
High Cornering Grip: 20% increase over standard Hollow Wheels
Adjustable Suspension: tweak the wheels with suspension inserts to get your perfect ride.
Top Speed: Increases over smaller wheels*
Great Battery Range: minimal impact compared to 110mm wheels**
Low Noise: reduced due to Hollow design.
1 order comes with 4 individual wheels

Tech Specs:

Max Rider + Board Weight: 210lbs (95kg)
Variable Diameter: 105mm x 95mm
Contact Width: 65mm
Weight: 299g
80A durometer
Patent Pending

*Compared to 85mm Caguama Wheels

Thanks!
Doug

JeffyJ · July 28, 2022, 3:04pm

Weight limit on Pro version worries me a bit. I’m around 95kgs fully geared up without my board weight. We’ll see what happens I guess haha

sleepless · July 28, 2022, 5:16pm

I was going to say similar. This is an AWESOME fact sheet; always appreciate seeing specs.

That said

I doubt there’s many diy boards out there under ~30lbs. Safety gear around 10lbs. That means rider limit is 200lbs at best. Guys with serious batteries with have to be lighter.

For the PRO version, rider max is effectively 170lb at best.

What dictates this load rating? A bit surprising

zero_ads · July 28, 2022, 5:52pm

Yeah curious as well, maybe the insert will crack under too much weight? Or the “hollow” wheels will lose its shape under too much weight?

Either way I’m really flirting with the edge weight wise, might need to eat less donuts .

TheGoodMomentum · July 28, 2022, 6:02pm

@JeffyJ

I have a lot of lab data and a good amount of rider data, but I need to get more before I can safely increase the rider weight + board weight limit. I am putting a pretty hefty factor of safety to completely avoid warranty claims.

I have been testing with 250lb riders and they survive (on the regular compound. The PRO is a different compound and has a little bit less weight capacity and I have a little bit less test rig* data on it), but I don’t want the launch to go badly like Cloud Wheels. I also have hundreds of hours of simulating 250lb riders on my test rig; the simulated results correlate pretty well. I am confident I can increase the limit, but there are always unknowns. However, the thing I do know is that if I get a bunch of wheel breaks for some reason, I have to give full refunds to people and it isn’t a risk worth taking at this stage in the game.

I am shipping thousands of wheels and I would not be able to swallow a big financial mess of a CloudWheel type breaking event.

Moreover, you still see people posting pictures of the CloudWheels breaking. Not because of the core cracking issue, but because of core to tread delamination. They need to add a weight limit. Every time someone posts of a cloud wheel delaminating, it is because the rider is heavy and also likes to carve a lot.

I’ve designed and manufactured a lot of products in my career and infant mortality can kill a company or in my case my personal savings.

*Test rig is this thing: Hollow Wheel Durability Testing: Broke a motor mount and corner testing - YouTube

Fosterqc · July 28, 2022, 6:10pm

The cloudwheels launch went perfectly idk what you mean. I use toothpaste as bearing lubricant and loctite now and I am very good at falling.

TheGoodMomentum · July 28, 2022, 6:18pm

I have never had any inserts break or any core breaks ever and the test rig made sure of it. On the test rig, I could get 96,000 bumps (basically hitting .5" bumps at 35mph [56kph]) in a matter of minutes. I designed a lot of high accelerated lifecycle testing.

The main way the Hollow Wheel or any wheel can lose it’s shape is due to flat spotting, like locking up the wheels during a break.

In the blog post you can go back and see how they failed and it was usually due to the tread reaching fatigue.

In my tests, I made sure to hold the Hollow Wheels at 165F under hours of testing.

SeeTheBridges · July 28, 2022, 10:00pm

looks like I moved too slow 0 interest in the high wear pro version for myself, but some still left according to the site. If anyone ends up not liking their regular model wheels, lmk. I’ll take 'em.

xsynatic · July 28, 2022, 10:02pm

Great news. Now i don’t have to buy new wheels and build a new board that can use them.