It’s not vaporware! I’ve seen them and the first batch is ready for shipping, after long delays.
I had the opportunity to visit the Hunterboard factory in Portugal and to test the board. Here’s my first impressions.
TL;DR: it’s the perfect commuter/travel board and a lot of fun to ride once you get the hang of it. It rides very differently to anything I tried before.
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it’s been many months (… years!) in development and there’s a few things that really impressed me
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really well put together with all mechanical bits produced in-house in their Portuguese factory, and assembled with an eye for detail.
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the deck is made of a single block of aerospace grade aluminum and is incredibly light. Check the live I did on Carve UK to see how the prototype bends and retains its structure. The whole assembled board weighs around 9kg.
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the battery is 10s3p. It isn’t made for mega miles, but is hot-swappable in under a minute. The whole assembly is very well designed and feels solid. Together with the travel case is a brilliant piece of kit to travel with to your holiday destination (fun fact: the case was originally designed to house M16 rifles!).
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the motors are 2x 1600w and pack enough punch to lug you confortably around. I whizzed through a tarmac incline that was 20-25 degrees. Apart from that climb test I was always riding at 80% power, as that was more than enough for me to cruise around
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the remote was totally developed in-house and it is a solid piece of engineering. You can fully customise your vesc curves via the remote. It’s not, however the most ergonomic piece of kit, especially if you are wearing gloves. I guess a 3D printed skin could easily solve this issue.
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the ride was surprisingly comfortable for a hub motor. This is due to the suspension, which takes away a lot of the tarmac imperfections. The urethane, also made in-house, seemed solid an can take a lot of beating even in off road conditions. On that note I watched someone else climbing a really steep off road incline, which I thought it would be impossible on that board.
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the carving was something I haven’t experienced before. The board is incredibly carvy and fun to ride, but it takes a few minutes to get used to. Due to board’s suspension / turning system, you may feel a bit off balance when you first try it. The wheels actually turn!
All in all it’s a board for someone that wants to commute during the week and have carving fun at the weekend or travel with it to a holiday destination. It can go quite fast, but personally it wasn’t the thing I had most fun doing with it. It’s also capable of going off roading, but it won’t throw any shade at boards specifically designed for that end. On that note, Hunterboards are developing a pneumatic alternative to the urethane (which, btw, is really easy to swap).
Will I buy one? That’s a definite yes, as I want to use it mainly as a travel board and something to go to the shops with. Apologies for the long review, and let me know if you have any questions.
I’m in no way affiliated to Hunterboards, and I’ll never be affiliated with any brand.
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