I ordered the @torqueboards Street pre-built pretty much the day it was announced with the blue wheels. I was having previous issues with my DIY and wasn’t satisfied with it, so was looking for a pre-built with similar characteristics. My previous DIY was also half TB parts anyways (trucks, motors, AT wheels, etc.), so the TB Street fit the bill in terms of what I was looking for.
Alternatively, I was looking at the Metroboard X (OOS) or the Hoyt boards, but what sold me on the TB Street was their claimed range (20-30 miles) and top speed (may more than I need) along with the fact I’ve purchased plenty of items from them and trust their stuff.
First ride impressions:
- The initial route was ~1000 ft elevation gain max, and ended at the starting elevation (so, zero net gain). Total ride was 19.6 miles. Had a bit of sidewalk, streets, bike trails, uphill, downhill, and pretty much everything I would want to test a board out minus gravel since these are street wheels (including some nasty bridge joints, which were killer on my Boosted but fine to hop over on the 110s)
- I started at 100% and ended with 13%. I really wish it was a 5p/6p battery just for a bit more range. I get why they didn’t do it though since the board isn’t light (for a street board), but the enclosure itself isn’t huge by any means so I definitely would have preferred an “LR” option with a thicker enclosure
- I didn’t experience any power limiting from voltage sag, but also did not push it super hard at the tail end of the ride to make sure I made it back
- It definitely has enough power for me so far. I’ve never ridden anything like a Kaly.NYC or LaCroix, but it beats my (admittedly problematic) DIY and Boosted. I imagine once I get more miles under my belt I’ll be more aggressive with the throttle and maybe want more
- Throttle curve is decent and smooth, no complaints there
- Braking took a little getting used to, there’s a small deadzone at the start that is going to take a little getting used to. Going down a hill at speed and then having to start braking is a little nerve wracking since I had to slowly ramp up braking to get through the deadzone and into the actual braking. If you smashed the brakes, I feel like you’d go flying-- it’s powerful enough
- Very low speed starting from a stop isn’t 100% smooth, there’s this clicking sort of thing the motors do. I’ve always ridden sensored boards so I imagine it’s kind of what an unsensored board would be like from a stop, but I believe there’s sensor wires so I’m not 100% certain why it does this when all of the others I’ve ridden do not. Same trying to “reverse” (which I don’t ever use, and might try and disable), where it does the clicking before it not-so-smoothly reverses.
- One of the pros of this versus a Metro/other board is that TB’s main business is really to sell parts for DIY, so the repairability of this board is pretty high. Granted, other manufacturers sell parts individually as well, but I feel good about the longevity of the board because of this.
One problem I encountered:
- The rubber motor mount guards are a great feature, but one of them was clearly not glued on sufficiently and it was dangling for half the ride and fell off at the very end. I was able to recover it so I can just glue it back on, but it’s something to watch out for.
Things I want to do with the board:
- I have the TB AT wheels, so I want to try and put those on and see how it goes. The range might disappoint moreso with the AT wheels, though
- Put in a Metr module
Overall, I’m very happy with the board. It’s pretty much what I’m looking for in terms of power and cleanliness. The only thing I’m really missing is the 5p/6p range, and maybe something like the integrated lights that the Metroboard has. But overall the range claim seems totally accurate (I’m sure I’d do a lot better if I wasn’t trying to power up hills to test the board out), and I’m looking forward to being able to actually go on some more, longer range rides.
