For those who like surfing, those “Hamboard” Surf-Training-Trucks provide a quite similar feeling.
The heavy lean and tight turn may feel similar to some surf manoevers.
An alternative is the “Originals S” Trucks. They work similar but have different hanger shape.
I was searching for motor mounts for these trucks but didnt find any.
Also researched about Hub motors, but mostly found motors with an axle coming out and the wires in the middle of the axle. Or motors with a square shaped port, which need to be an exact fit.
Then I found the drivetrain kit from Loaded called “Ultimate”.
The hub motors they use work with round-shaped hangers like the “Paris” trucks.
A conical shaped spacer sits between the axle and the motor. This spacer then gets pressed against the axle when tighting the wheel nut.
So its quite universal principe for all hanger types.
For the “Hamboard” Trucks, there is just a minor file job to do and the motors fit perfectly.
If you are interested in this exotic and unusual esk8 ride, here is my video about the full process:
After doing my first test ride, I can add the following:
The “Ultimate” drivetrain kit is quite smooth and powerful. Fair enough for this setup. 42 kmh reached.
The “Hamboard” Trucks are so much fun, especially on low speed, the tight turn with much lean add a unique feeling to the ride.
At higher speeds 25kmh+, you need attention and focus to your feet. any wrong movement can lead to crazy turns.
Carving also needs more attention but feels supercool. strong kick.
The complete board is very lightweight and handy.
So if you are also searching for the perfect wave, you may give this a try
Hell yes! I haven’t tried the hamboards but have tried the bowery surf skate adapters and love the surf feel to them. I was actually considering throwing my unlimited hubs on there but thought they’d be too quick for it. I have a cheaper set of hubs I want to toss on that board though. Only thing I’m missing is a nice big pinny!
Hub motors and surf parts? Join the club I honestly hate hub motors for how uncomfortable they can be, but when built right they are stupidly durable and easy to set up and use.
The fit on mine aren’t as perfect as you’d think it would need to be. the plate that holds it inside the truck actually has a small indent on it from the peg being slightly taller than the hole. I’ve had 0 issues with the way they are held in place in case you ever decide to try them out/ if anyone else is curious about them.
Another way is to buy good quality trucks and just pick up a surf adapter from waterbourne which includes a lifetime warranty for defects or it breaking (consumables like the bearings or bushings are on you to replace tho)
This is not an issue with the surf adapter and they actually feel more stable at higher speeds. When completely stopped they can be a bit harder to stay balanced without leaning too far to either side. I only ever have issues when stuck at long lights on windy days though.
Full disclaimer: I’ve never been surfing before and I’ve not tried the hamboard trucks before. From their site I see they use a spring which I’m not a huge fan of. They also wrongfully claim that said springs make it to where you have consistent rotations which is false as no spring is able to maintain the same spring constant indefinitely. It changes greatly with wear and so how the trucks turn will also change over time. They will probably work fine so long as you replace the springs often, but I just know too much on the physics of springs to ever consider touching those.
This is awesome! I used to surf and wanted to make a build with a similar goal, but with an obnoxious 56in deck. I couldn’t get my hands on a loaded unlimited kit, but I did have a Revel Kit lying around. So the plan was to put a surf adapter on the front and see how it felt. But before I got around to doing that, I tried a dkp truck in the front and really loved the ride feel, so I kept it.
thanks for explaing this. When I get my hands on this kind of motor I will definitely try.
Yes, this waterborne trucks are very amazing. They ride very stable at speed, I fully confirm that. Seems like they are self-stabilizing because of the pivot offset…
I have a waterborne set on another short board:
(share the same “Unlimited” drivetrain for both boards.)
The Waterborne feels even more like water to me on medium speed. And its more compatible to many trucks.
I also use it on my 59" board. Great feeling with that long length and heavy weight:
I will make a seperate thread about this board. because its such a funny build
But the hamboards have that endless lean on supertight turns. similar to turning a surfboard on a wave with a surfboard in the water. But for that lean you need very high 1" riser…
(in the water on “real” surfboards, you mostly do not use straps. So to stay on the deck in sharp turns, you have to synchronize your speed with your board-lean. so you always have 90° body->board gravity thing, to not slip from the deck. hope that makes sense…)
I can’t tell if Waterborne or Hambords are “better”. But I can tell that they are very different in feel.
If you like one of them, you will like the other also
Wow. Love that board! Very beautiful. Strong “want to have” feelings here… how many inch is it?
I also like to make a similar build. but somehow never did.
These direct drives you use, what brand are they? I think DD are a good decision for surfboards, because they have that soft feeling and noiseless ride. I used onsra DD and they felt very good to me. now I use tb dd but not like them so much for this surf thing.
To make it more surfy, I recomend you to get a “Hamboards 200mm” or a “Originals S8/10” for the front axis. You will love that. promise.
And/Or you get this waterborne front adapter, and use it with that DKP truck you are now using. but remove the DKP middlepart and make it TKP.
Both options will make it so different to ride. like flowing on water.
When using waterborne, you may have issues with you backwheels coming up in sharp turns. in this case I advice you to use a angeled riser in the back. and if that doenst help you can use that waterborne backtruck adapter. but that is even more unconventional ride. (also cool)
there are some bushing from Riptide specially for the waterborne. I’m still evaluating them on my setups.
personally, I tighten the trucks below the waterborne strongly. I use hard bushings for the trucks and soft bushings for the waterborne.
My finding is, that the waterbornes react very sensitive on:
deckshape
decklenght
truck width
truck type
riser height
riser angle
wheel size
bushings
(same for rear truck)
if you change one parameter, everything changes.
So there is a lot to explore
This direct drive kit is from a brand called Revel. Only down side is the kit is fixed to the back truck, so it makes adding a waterborn rail adapter hard to use.
I will try this. I have the waterborn front adapter, just never got around to trying it.
no wheelbite very important to me after some crashes…
btw its a 59" deck, not 56", my mistake… “Kahuna Bombora”
the good thing with hamboards is, that they have a real metal-to-metal limit, 100% reliable. so you can easely find the right risers.
the waterborne has also hard limit, but the truck below mostly has rubber bushings, so you never know how much it can bend. Thats why i use very hard bushings on the truck and leave some extra space. also, using a stiff deck avoids bending into the wheels.
the 59" deck has 2x 1/2" + 1x 1/16" risers with 85mm wheels, evolve dkp->tkp truck.
I am not against going higher now that I have more wire to extend phase wires and sensor wires. Just haven’t bothered to try it yet
I have the rail adapter (that back piece) and have never used it on my board. At first it was because the limited instructions on the box were super unclear and my motor wires might have been too short, but now that neither are an issue I still don’t use it.
As for back wheels coming off the ground, I almost never have it happen when riding unless completely stopped. Then there was one or two times it might have briefly happened in a slow left turn, but I still had control and I only knew it happened because I heard the hub motor hit the ground again.
The surf adapter should be compatible with all standard trucks, and might even work with some of the weird mountain board style trucks if you are creative enough. All you need is an extension bracket of some sort to ensure that you can run whatever size truck and wheel you want with standard trucks (rkp,tkp, and probably dkp should work).
See here on how far their bracket extends the adapter:
Other people on here make and sell other options that would work but they’re all made in thick metal which is going to add a lot of weight. The waterbourne one is carbon fiber + epoxy so it is super light weight but very strong.
I didn’t even know there were other options tbh. Might have to look into them since my 2nd board is currently lacking a raked or psuedo raked via being bent front truck so it is already going to feel worse than my hub motor set up. Reverse raked rkp + surf adapter is so much fun
hehe… that is amazing, that you use those high risers also for your non-surf boards!
Im also tending to do risers an all boards, but I’m littly shy to talk about that
You may give it a try, now that your wires are ok. It gives more lean and an even more watery feeling. strong difference in ride.
what i discovered is that when you activate “traction control” in vesc tool, its much more forgiving to lift one wheel because the power gets still evently distributet on both wheels…
this looks interesting to me. didn know that they have that. do you use it because of clearance or because you like longer wheelbase?
thats too much for my understanding… what is a “reverse raked rkp”?
btw: Today I was riding a summerboard sbx for the first time. that is really mindblowing. little hard to learn but rewarding
What non-surf boards? My manual long board doesn’t have one but that is because I don’t use it and I’m not even supposed to use it if I want to follow the guidance of my physical therapist.
My battery enclosure would get in the way without it and my deck does have some flex in the very middle so it wouldn’t be a great idea to move the battery enclosure closer to the center to make room for the wheels.
What does rakeless or no rake mean?
No rake means the axle are inline or centred in the actual line of the pivot. In the image above you can see the rakeless truck has the drawn line going through the centre of the axle.
What is the difference between rake and rakeless?
It is all in the turn or lean of a truck. A rake truck has a divey feel. When you initiate a turn on a rake truck the turn is slower, but the more you lean the quickier and diver the turn feels. The truck feels more lively and lighter to skate.
A rakeless truck has a more linear turn. The feeling of the turn is the same from start to finish. The turn feels faster to start but has this gradual predictable lean that continues until the bottom of the turn.
Mine is not made to be raked but thanks to being run over by a car the axles are offset similar to how they’d be in a raked hanger. it is just slightly asymmetrical though.
RKP: reverse king pin so standard long board truck configuration/ base plate style
I honestly hate hub motors for how uncomfortable they can be, but when built right they are stupidly durable and easy to set up and use.
Reverse raked rkp + surf adapter is so much fun
