Our sad situation in this neck of the woods has essentially outright banned ESK8s across the country. They basically need this lametard requirement of UL2272 (which would can a capital outlay of $30,000 up-front for each production batch to certify at the point of manufacture), and no importer would want to take that risk if they knew that this is a rather niche market.
It can be circumvented, however, through a revival of a stalled or abandoned product called “Hyve E-paddle”. If only, and one could dream. I’d sign up as one of the 1st customers if it were possible, basically because I have no choice, and longboarding has quite a large take up in this country.
An alternative could be created, and because of its versatility (such as in-line or roller skating), I see a possible niche market for it… hoping that someone could take it up one day as it is tiresome trying to play dodgeball with an esk8.
This looks like a lot of fun and a good design. About a decade ago, a friend and I used an electric golf-bag carrier to do something simular, but it only went 3 mph This is a hell of an upgrade.
I think its possible to make a speed board a “scooter” legally. All you have to do is add handlebars, but literally make them 1cm tall. There is no legal definition as to the way they can control the scooter, just that they have to be there. make them foldable and speedboard is practically just legal outwright with almost no modifacations
Maybe make the handlebar telescoping so its actually usable?
Also depends on the country and the cop i guess. UK Police are pretty chill, German ones aren’t etc etc
I made a similar thing and i call it REM (paddle in my local language),
We are launching on January 14th on Kickstarter, here are the instagram page if you want to check it at: @rem_limitlesspropulsions
Also, believe me, seems simple to attach a motor to a stick with some batteries, but is a bit more difficult than that… 3 years developing this thing, and now it works, but it hasn’t been that easy.