Hello everyone! I want to introduce my first build. It has a few revisions, not the fanciest build, but overall I am very happy with what I could achieve as a 16-17-18 year old with limited funds… Yes this build has not reached a finished state for a long time.
REVISION 1
Details
This revision of the board was made in circa August - November 2020. It didn’t last long.
Landyachtz Switchblade 40 deck
Wanted to try out a drop down deck, fell in love with the shape. Used it on my pushboard for a while, at this time it got electrified.
Single stack 12S5P P42A with LLT smart BMS
12S5P P42A, 907Wh, 150A current. It’s a beast but it’s also huge. Built by @Acido
DIY fiberglass enclosure
Turned out pretty badly. Started cracking as soon as I mounted it. I’ve ridden it for a bit and this was not my biggest issue…
2x Cheap FOCer v2 ESCs
My plan with these was that I use them for a while to get my by on 12S while I can afford something better… Things did not went according to plan to say the least. Maybe because I was a noob, maybe for other reasons, I think I bricked one of them during setup, and I broke a capacitor off of the one during the testride… I also broke off the USB ports… I didn’t really bother trying to fix them since I actually learned how to use VESC tool… Looking back now I might be able to fix them but I just don’t have the time… Might get back to them some day. Anyways, they lasted about 2km for me… With my crappy mounting and all that. They are probably a lot better if you treat them the way you should treat an ESC…
Here they are in the ugly top mounted box that I made for them.
Flipsky VX1 remote
Custom remote from @Anubis, back in summer 2020 I could order them with a few color options. Opted for red and black, the red aspects are a bit subtle and it looks super nice.
I also added magnetic charging to the remote. Credit to an old @Lee_Wright video for this
The remote I got originally was dead, but Anubis sorted me out, I absolutely recommend buying from him, great customer service!
Chargers
Originally I purchased an 8A yzpower charger from nexusboards, however it had huge sparks when plugging it into the wall. In the end, in circa 2021 summer, I ended up getting a 4A yzpower from nexusboards and while that one also sparks in my outlet along with pretty much every esk8 charger I own, the spark is much less… frightening.
The drivetrain - crappy hubs, trucks, and wheels from a wowgo 2S
Not much to say, other than they are crappy and I only planned to use them temporarily. They detect at 28A in VESC tool but they get super hot…
Shredlights SL200 front light set
Pretty much a “meh” at best.
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REVISION 2
Then came the second revision! I started ordering parts for this in November 2020. This phase lasted until around July 2021.
Most parts have changed. Only the remote, the battery, and the charger stayed (for now at least). This is already getting closer to a decent build.
Parts list
- MakerX DV6 ESC, love it, stays relatively cool and performs well, tested up to 100A.
- Earthwing Supermodel 41 deck. I actually prefer the switchblade, but I got an unbeatable deal from @Halbj613 for this with a Bigben enclosure, and I couldn’t trust the enclosure i made for the switchblade. A switchblade eboosted enclosure would have been way out of budget.
- Onsra 115 rubber wheels. They feel exceptionally comfortable and grippy for their size, but they eat through the battery like there is no tomorrow. 20Wh/km consumption is not unseen on harder rides, although if I keep it super tame I can stay at around 8Wh/km. With my average riding style I stay around 14Wh/km.
- Caliber II 50 degree trucks, 10 inch, with aftermarket Venom HPF bushings. 93A barrel boardside both front and rear, 87A barrel front roadside, 90A barrel rear roadside. Tightened quite a bit. Pretty stable setup, took it up to about 60-62 km/h (only logged 57 km/h but I was going faster than that a few times before). Doesn’t turn much.
- Flipsky 6384 battlehardened 140KV motor and 20T pulley. Pretty good motor, handles single drive suprisingly well. But, as with any high speed single drive setup, getting the motor to heat up is not too hard in the summer.
- 12S5P P42A battery, nothing changed here
- Same VX1 remote still, though I did have like 2 disconnects. Funny thing is that they both happened in the middle of nowhere, in the exact same place, when I took a 5 minute break there.
- Motor mount, belts, 44T kegel pulley (bolt on & pressfit, run in bolt-on config) are from Dickyho. Also got the X brackets from him. Highly recommended.
- Flipsky BT module
Safety gear
It was at this point in time that I also bought a ton of safety gear - I already had the helmet before, no worries there. It is absolutely needed to gear up well for 60km/h runs.
I wear the following gear:
- Oneal Backflip RL2 helmet (full face required for this board)
- Sunglasses or ski goggles depending on wheather
- Loaded Advanced Freeride slide gloves, moved one puck down a bit to have place to hold the remote
- TSG SK8 DHP knee pads
- cheapo elbow pads, will probably upgrade later but good enough for now
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REVISION 3
The third revision was finished in 2022 June, took about an year as I was super busy during my last year at high school. Basically the TLDR is I hugely improved the truck feel and converted to dual drive. Also cleaned up the rear enclosure a bit, although still looks messy.
Updates done
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Dual drive is the main thing. Now rocking 2x Flipsky Battlehardened 6384 140KV motors, still same wheels (115mm Onsra) and same gearing (20:44). Dickyho mounts with a bash guard. Using BN270 hangers.
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Truck feel was very important to me. I am coming from some cast Ronin trucks, which feel way nicer than caliber 2 to ride. Thankfully I managed to get close enough with truck feel with the BN270 hangers. Ronins use tall bushings, are 42.5 degrees, have a slop stopping system, an open bushing seat, and a lot of rake.
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I am using a 44 degree caliber 3 baseplate up front, and a 44 degree caliber 3 baseplate in the rear dewedged by 14 degrees, so 30 degree effective angle. The reason why I am using caliber 3 plates, is that I can use tall bushings boardside. To be able to use tall bushings roadside too, I needed to swap to longer kingpins. I bought Skoa kingpins, which are a not ideal because they are slightly too long. But hey, at least they fit 2x tall bushings.
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In place of the Ronin’s slop stopping system (queen pin / support pin) I am using Riot Plugs - a slop stopping bushing that goes in between of the two regular bushings. It’s the green thing on the picture below. Bought it in 90A, middle ground kinda because I had no idea which duro I need. As visible on picture, I also took a dremel to my front BN270 hanger to open up the roadside bushing seat slightly more (gave it a chamfer).
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As for bushings, I choose Riptides. On the rear truck I am running Krank formula on both bushings. 96A tall fatcone bushing boardside with a flat washer, 93A tall barrel roadside with a cupped but not super tight washer. For the front I am using the APS formula which is more lively, 90A tall barrel boardside, 85A tall barrel roadside. Both with cupped washers, though the roadside washer is not super tight.
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I get a lot of lean with this setup and can still turn tightly. Which is needed, as i am taking this board to the Onsra open race which takes place on the 2nd of July (2022) in Germany.
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Leaving the ugly thing last. The ESC enclosure still isn’t nowhere near elegant. At least it’s not a chopped up furniture though. The reason why I gone for this enclosure is that I wanted to make it swappable between my (TBD) mountainboard and this board in about 15 minutes. 4 screws and nuts, connectors, programming.
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The ESC enclosure has a built in Davega - the OG davega running open source firmware, this is running Roxie OS. However, this feature made it way taller than it should be.
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Running panel mounted connectors for modularity. Sensors are not yet panel mounted, but I will convert those to panel mounted MR30 or MT30 connectors too.
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Also the ESC enclosure has a nice handle cut from aluminium that also handles as a huge heatsink. Though the board is super heavy, even just pulling it by the handle is tiring.
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On the front and the rear, the alu plates allow attaching half bindings, and even without bindings they serve as footstops.
In the future I plan to get a real Davega X, and make a slimmer ESC enclosure. Also might glass and even skin the deck. A more trustworthy remote would also be nice.
So I did a test ride. Lets say things did not went according to plan 
I will definietly go with gears when I have the money.
Hopefully they take the same route for you too