It’d be tricky to mount a cradle to one to hold your controllers and battery etc, but it’d be a decent thing.
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Yesssss beercan boards are nice. I’ve only seen one electrified so far.
But, I was talking to them a few months ago and they’re also looking into electric-specific models. There whole lineup is pretty e-friendly anyways, if you ask me.
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They are. We supply them with trucks at the moment so I only came across them by chance. Never seen one in real life.
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The problem, from what I gathered, is that their machines are built specifically to bend the metal into that shape, hence the similar frame on all of them. While that frame is actually pretty ok for mounting an enclosure, it gets in the way of the electronics, useable space suffers hard.
If we’re talking about similarities the Rayne Demonseed is functionally similar to the Switchblade with a few more length options, and slightly better for electrification because of truck clearance and stuff. Could be worth looking into for ideas.
Honestly a Switchblade with the truck mounting holes an inch further out both sides and a corresponding fork reinforcement would probably solve most of the problems. We’d even be able to use our existing enclosures!
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Great to see you active on here @its.ibbo ! I personally own 4 switchblades, so I’m a huge fan of Landyachtz 
First I will add a +1 to the suggestions others mentioned for an esk8 version of the switchblade:
Esk8 Switchblade
- Truck mounting points need to be extended to help with wheelbite. + The concave of the deck is too close to the current truck mounting holes, so using a flat backing plate on the bottom doesn’t really work / the plate will bend
- Deck needs to be reinforced with fiberglass. If you were to extend the wheelbase on the current version, it flexes way too much (2nd board in this video):
Switchblade flexiness - YouTube
And as a bonus feature, a lot of esk8 specific decks actually have the sides of the board thicker (for rigidity) and the middle cut out on the bottom so that there’s more space for batteries and electronics. Here’s a picture of the Hummie deck as an example:
I personally think it makes building a lot more convenient, and allows for slimmer enclosures 
Esk8 Evo
I’ve also built and ridden a few electric Evos, and I gotta say – the standing platform on the 40" Evo is not as wide as on the Switchblade. Feels a bit cramped, which is not good for stability. I’m sure many of us would die for a 42" Evo 
Also, I really like that with gear drive setups you can forward mount the motors on an Evo and still have them high above the ground for clearance. However with belt drives you need the motor further away for good belt tension, so an Evo with an even longer tail so that there’s more room for forward facing motors would also be amazing 
(And of course, a middle cutout for more enclosure space is always awesome)
Other crazy esk8 deck ideas
- A Switchblade with angled deck ends for channel trucks / adjustable baseplates. Helps lower the standing platform for boards with really big wheels and trucks.
- A switchblade that was 2-4" longer and 1-2" wider. I’m a tall guy with big feet, I think more room for a bigger battery would be great
- A lot of people pay stupid amounts of money for this discontinued Lacroix Prototipo deck (manufactured by Zenith I believe):
If you could just shamelessly copy that (Lacroix and Zenith won’t for some reason) or just make something similar or possibly even better (a short board with angled ends), that would be greaaaaat 
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That’s a lot of information! Thanks for the education on esk8’s there.
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One important thing I forgot to mention: don’t add carbon fiber layers to the deck please! Carbon fiber blocks radio signals which we need for our remotes and bluetooth and gps 
(Of course, there are some esk8 decks that do use CF for the strength / flex they want, but just know that it comes with its downsides)
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I didn’t know carbon fiber did that! Fiberglass would be the most likely material to use anyway, it’s cheaper and easier to work with and maple/fiberglass layering is already a part of our manufacturing process for some decks such as the ATV-X models.
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Also, what would be your thoughts on a foam grip tape to help control vibrations to your feet? If you check the landyachtz website you can see it on our snowskates. It’s kind of like a foam sandpaper.
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I think it would be a good option to provide, because I know some people absolutely love foam grip for comfort and how it plants your foot to the board, but personally I feel like I lose some board control with it, so I prefer regular grip.
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Offer a no grip option so you don’t put it on just for me to take it off and toss it xD
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I’m not a huge fan of foam grip tape, it sounds like an add on solution on a less adapted deck, that’s were we need good design and correct flex amount
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That was my next question. Top gripped, just gripped at the ends, or no grip at all.
Usually people don’t dance on their electric boards, so having the middle grip-free is nice when carrying the board 
A lot of people like to skin + frit or otherwise customize the top of their boards, but the default griptape landyachtz include is pretty good IMO, and the logo in the middle is slick, so I would vote for keeping grip on it. (I’m also bad at applying my own griptape cleanly, lol)
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I personally prefer glass frit(you guys need a frit guy? Call me. Lmao). I’d offer options for no grip, full grip, and just where your feet go.
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Offering multiple grip styles would be very hard to implement from a logistical point of view. For this case, maybe shipping them upgripping but including a sheet of griptape in the box would work for someone who wants to do something special, otherwise it’d have to be one style of griptape.
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I thought you’d say something like that. Maybe it’s worth creating a poll to see what people prefer – pre-applied grip or no grip? (New grip is pretty easy to take off to be fair, but it would be interesting to hear what the majority think)
- Deck comes with griptape applied
- Deck comes without grip applied
0 voters
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From my point of view, no grip tape pre applied is better. As it saves us a step in manufacture.
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all what can get the price down is good, same thing for grafics : most of the time we get an enclosure under our deck so grafics isn’t a priority
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