Modifying prebuilt junk, in stages, to be less junk like.

[SternWake]

This thing is so fun to carve smooth asphalt on, but I still need to dial in the bushings, and the long wheelbase guppy is the much preferred option for running to the parks with Fiona.

I was trying to get used to my foot being farther back on the kicktail instead of at its very base, just behind the hardware, but it is too easy to wheelie unintentionally even on torque level 2. I’d prefer a bit of a wider stance, but I certainly do not need the length of this kicktail and my front foot is already as far forward as it can go. The kickjtail is largely ornamental and not very good at that. I mostly use it to kick it into my hand or to spin it around by foot when standing next to it.

I certainly will not be doing kickflips, and to pivot turn, which is super rare, I have no issues with my foot at the very base of the flip. With the battery in the back and ESC up front it feels unexpectedly light when pivot turning.

The Guppy with its TKP mountainboard truck, the only way I could get the full lean range and acceptable slower speed turn radius from it was by adding a 1/8”/ 3.3mm thick bushing under the upside down roadside cone cup washer atop the cone bushing, and that truck has a tall red cone that came on Caliber trucks.

Below, I tried the same concept on top of the short Blue Shorty’s doh doh’s cone bushing today, and this feels the best yet, but I find I can still want more lean, especially on toe side turns.

I can just barely spin the cup washer in my fingers. Any looser, and the washer rattles and I cannot stand rattles.

I can get the 80mm front wheel to bite on enclosure when stopped and pressing with a lot of force, but riding, hard frontside/ toeside turns my heels are leaving the deck, and I just want a bit more lean and more turn. I guess I have to try a softer boardside bushing up front next, but might be into stacking to reach the proper height.

The extra long hardware will be cut down to an acceptable length after I at least try dialing it in with the 105mm wheels and sleeves. I am starting to think as long as the guppy is functional that the Mini will keep the smaller urethane, and if I have the guppy in drydock then the mini will get the 105s for the comfort factor when heading to the parks, and where 80mm wheels will stop short in some wider deeper bridge expansion joints and sidewalk cracks annoy the shit out of me.

I’ve not tried to mount the Puaida 105mm sleeves on Meepo 540 motors yet. The meepo sleeves are worn below 103mm already, but I’ve been rolling on them since mid July.

The New ESC’s lifetime odometer is almost at 400 miles, and I installed that on November 1st.

Legs and glutes are stiff and sore as I explore how far my old abused knees can bend and for how long on the Mini.

I had a great surfing dream last night that I attribute to the Mini’s functionality. Not the usual the waves are great but I cant get into the water dream, or I get there and I have no surfboard or some other mental torture.
This dream had double overhead waves, paddling in with ease from behind the peak, standing tall in green backlit barrels and then laying down bucket throwing dropwallet roundhouses after being spit out, and just laughing with joy.

Waking up from that sucked.

I miss the ocean.

[b264]

@SternWake

I was trying to get used to my foot being farther back on the kicktail instead of at its very base

I ride with my foot on the very back edge. Just lean forward, you will become used to it really quickly, unless your remote/ESC has lag.

I recommend using the whole deck, all the way to the back of the tail.

[SternWake]

Whether long or short, surfboard or skateboard, since the early 1980’s, I have always changed my foot position, often and frequently, without thinking about it. Both feet.

The mini is forcing a certain stance, and only allowing me to move my back foot, and only a small amount, and only forwards or backwards.

It is going to take me a while for me to get used to this.kkMy icktail muscle memory that first started fading in 1988, was gone by ‘94. I did not put my back foot on a rolling shortboard’s kicktail again until late 2023, and it still feels awkward.

[SternWake]

[Pecos]

I moved the trucks, shifted the bolt pattern back to where kicktail turns still feel good but there is less leverage when my rear foot on the tail. Makes holding a manual a little easier but I can’t really hold a manual well anyway and could be off base. Still goes off curbs nicely.

Mobydeck and moved it about an inch iirc. The kick is super tame but i like it with a little less leverage

[SternWake]

I had considered moving rear truck backwards back when this deck was dual diagonal drive on narrow TKP and 70mm urethane, but decided against for some reason i cant remember at the moment.

I think it had to do with the fitting of it within the kayak hatch without any hanger removal, more than the fear of weakening the thin deck with more holes.

The front hanger removal might be a requirement now, with these wider RKP trucks. I need to check.

This tiny deck was likely not a great choice to invest so much time and effort upon.

I like riding it far more than my midsize kicktail though, which i spent even more time on.

[Pecos]

Ive seen (caliber 3?) narrowed by quite a bit successful. Careful cut of the aluminum then snap and finished flat with a tool of some kind on a drill. It’s something im interested in trying as I’ve got all the dyes to cut the axle thread to where it needs to be but i need to find the tool to cut the hanger flat without damaging the axle. Still have a set of neo hubs i want to adapt to the bustin sportster eventually when i give that build a real makeover

[SternWake]

When the Mini, was the 7S Diagonal Mini, with narrow 145mm ish TKP’s and 70 mm urethane, it would easily fit tail first, wheels up, into the kayak hatch.

The back wheels would hit the interior footwell, and the nose would then just barely clear the front edge of the kayak hatch. No disassembly required.

So if I were to move the rear truck backwards on the deck, the nose could not clear the hatch, and I would have to remove the front hanger and insert it nose first. Not a huge deal but it was nice to just stuff it in there and then break down the kayak cart and fit that along the sides, saved a minute or two.

The Midsize Kicktail required I remove the front hanger, insert it wheels up, nose first, and then hand lean the rear truck over to get the sleeves to fit past the hatch edges. Very tight fit After I added a roving Halo. Removal of the board caused many a curse fest when the kayak hatch seemed to be a bit smaller from being colder.

I just went to stuff the Mini in its current form into the kayak and the rear wheels would not clear the hatch inserted tail first.

Once I loosened the hanger bolt all the way I could just barely get the tail in, but when the 90mm wheels butted up against the interior obstruction of the footwells, The nose would not clear the hatch opening anyway.

I Would need to shave at least 7mm from the nose for it to clear and then the front wheels might require some heavy leaning and curses to clear the hatch opening, after loosening the rear hanger so loose the bolt would unthread by hand and likely disappear.

So basically tail first with these trucks and wheels is not happening. It could only work with the narrow TKP trucks and 70mm wheels.

I removed the front hanger and inserted it nose first and easy Peasy install and removal. This is actually better as i can then slide the board farther back. the kayak is very nose heavy with Fiona up front and the ESk8, so the mini being lighter and sliding it further back is a good thing from a weight distribution factor. It is hard to steer when it is so nose heavy. I often block off the rear well with wine corks and fill it with water to even it out.

So it seems likely I will be drilling new baseplate holes farther back on the mini, widening the wheelbase, and removing some unneeded kicktail leverage. The longer wheelbase will change the turning radius and feel a bit, but I will adapt.

At Max lean now the front wheels actually bite the enclosure before the deck, So I can slide the enclosure back to split the difference and likely gain a bit more hanger articulation, Which I do not really need.

So maybe I can remove a riser pad and have the whole board sit a bit lower.

I was trying to manual the board today and scared myself anytime I tried to give it a bit more throttle and maintain a wheelie, and get used to wheelieing under power.

The Lingyi/Puaida ESC is speed control, not current control, so even though power is limited, and I am on torque level 2 of 4, pushing throttle from 8 to 9mph is abrupt, and just sends the nose too high and freaks me out, making me reluctant to try again.

My Kicktail usage is basically for lifting the front wheels when exiting or entering the transition of my driveway to road surface, or when kicking the board into my hand to pick it up. I would not comfortable trying to jump off curves, and have seen NO curbs that I had any desire to jump off.

I would much rather not Pivot turn, as I seemed to have lost that muscle memory entirely and do not miss it, until I ride this tiny kicktail.

My right shoulder, which I would fall on if I wheelie onto my butt, I fear would dislocate again all too easily, so I am super timid regarding the falling backwards scenario. Dislocating my shoulder was by far the most Pain I have even been in. I do not wish to repeat it, and damage it even further. It’s not like Hollywood where one pops it back in slamming it against a wall, and life returns to normal.

My shoulder has stopped improving, and is way too weak still, and makes all sorts of alarming clunks and cracks and pops, and I can feel the upper Biceps tendon rolling over the humeral head during way too many normal movements, as it is no longer confined to its groove, and it is Not happy.

I don’t think healing this is within the realm of Physical therapy, and Surgery seems more and more necessary to regain the function I desire in order to paddle into a wave again at some point in the future when I live somewhere that actually gets regular swell.

Affording surgery seems unlikely, but I am going to explore the possibilities.

My new ESC arrived, same ESC that is inside teh Guppy. This model throttle is smoother and the brakes are way better. I need to replace the mr30’s with mr60’s and xt60 with xt90, and the MR60’s are en route.
I will likely add a parallel ESC XT90 panel mount too, but will likely just secure the panel mount on the inside of enclosure and not cut an opening for it at this point.

I’ll see how far back I can move the rear baseplate and then fill the old holes with epoxy, which I am very low on. It is nice being able to work on one board and have a back up rolling sanity device ready to go.

I went too long without a backup.

I hope the ESC on the Guppy and the Mini, being the same, don’t try and pair with the wrong remote if I were to have my 17 year old cousin come over for a ‘group’ ride.

[SternWake]

I got around to installing the new Puaida 105mm sleeves yesterday.

I did expect the Nashua Flexfix tape that I installed on motors under Meepo sleeves to be a nightmare mess of gooey adhesive and shredded tape, but it looked fine once cleaned of the black grime.

The Puaida sleeves would not fit with the tape installed for the meepo sleeves, So I peeled it off, and it came off cleanly.

I didn’t try and peel the 12mm wide strip of Nashua flexfix tape off the inner side, as the sleeve sat to full depth on the first try cleanly to my surprise.

The interior piece of flexfix tape looked to be pretty mangled though.

Puaida 105mm donut sleeve does not sit as deeply onto the Motor as do the Meepo 105mm sleeves. The sleeves are the same width but the Puaida sit about 6mm wider on each motor.

I adjusted wheel size on remote from 103 to 105mm and we took it on our regular park run this AM. Passed the radar sign and it seemed to agree closely with my remote at 22mph.

There is a faint hum from the tread pattern, but it rode super smoothly on the smooth asphalt, and was much less prone to follow road parallel warbles, with the much more rounded profile.

The first pavers we hit I was like “Damn that is way softer and quieter.

The first sidewalk cracks we hit I was like “Damn, I can only feel and hear the fatter wider gaps

The first traverse from sidewalk to grassy field with soft sandy 8 meter wide strip downhill transition section, felt really similar, but a smidge more drifty, but I exited it with plenty of speed to charge the grass faster than I needed to.

Our park walk, with Esk8 in chariot, and Fiona at the end of an 8 meter retractable leash, Post hunch, saying:

”lets goo!!! HTFU!”

On the far side of this park there is a narrow soft sandy section, that depending on when it last rained, can be impossible to traverse due to lack of power, more than traction, and I got farther than I expected to. There are 2 barriers only about 5 inches wider than the chariot’s track width,so i cant really approach it with tons of momentum and blast over and through the softest spots.

Either the 105 vs 103mm , and or the rounder donut profile floated on top of the softer stuff a bit better than the Meepo sleeves that basically have no Donut profile left.

The roll in far hood was fast and confident and I failed in listening to that voice that said slow down.

There are sections of this road with a pretty steep center road crown, and I love to straddle it carving on each side of the apex warble at speed, and this felt so much better with these sleeves. The Hum of their tread faint, but giving excellent feedback as to how hard they were loaded during the carve, and also of speed.

It was very difficult to slow down and I so just kept the hammer down. Very pleasant weather.

The roll back home, my least favorite narrow sidewalk section is right next to a strip on oncoming 50mph/8-kph traffic 2 meters away.

I never go anywhere near top speed here, as the some of the sidewalk cracks can easily have by motors bounce and skip out of line, and potentially freak out the 50mph oncoming drivers in the closest lane who then steer abruptly into the middle lane whose traffic is going 60MPH.

Happy to report the new sleeve behavior through this section was much improved in both comfort and control, and so much quieter. Some sidewalk cracks passed without notice even when trying to notice them. I was thinking I need to order another pair of these sleeves then and there.

I hammered the throttle down to 30.3 volts and a beeping ESC, benched the board and busted out the IR gun.

Typically riding this aggressively I would read 159 to 167F max on the inner bearing caps of the hub motors and 121f on the hanger, 118 to 119f on the heatsink. The outer edge of the motor was silver with Meepo sleeves and difficult to get a reading on with IR temp gun so I would finger test the heat.

Today the readings were 141 and 143 on the inner bearing caps, 121F on the hanger 121 on heatsink, and the outer bearing cap which now has a black aluminum cover was coming back at 145 and 151F and the finger test was inconclusive.

I forgot to test the urethane sleeve itself, but since these are aluminum, and fit tighter to the motor exterior, they have to be helping dissipate motor heat to a higher degree than the Meepo sleeves. perhaps this is a contributing factor as to why that one section of sidewalk, some of the cracks seemed to have disappeared since my last roll over them, as the urethane was warmer and softer.

I really hope these new Sleeves do not chunk and fall apart quickly, and I might really order another pair just to have as backups and fear of future unobtanium status, and since they arrived at 30% less $ than Meepo sleeves, and tarriff free too.

I did move the rear truck baseplate of the Mini backwards by about 20mm, with the expected results.

I am considering moving the front truck forward by perhaps 15mm as my front foot is all the way forward and I have nose dove it a few times stepping onto it when the wheels were inside a paver gap.

My MR60’s have arrived and the Mini will be getting the New smoother ESC with far battery brakes.

I also want to play with the 103mm Meepo sleeves and 105mm wheels on it, see how it feels compared to worn 87mm sleeves on hub motors and 80MM urethane up front.

The Mini with a fully charged Eve 10s1P 40PL and speed level 4 will out accelerate The guppy, and likely could go faster too. The tendency to unintentionally wheelie with rear baseplate 20mm farther back is very much reduced, but It still feels sketch at 20mph.
I am considering dewedging the rear truck a smidge. Doing that to guppy did not have the degree detriment to the turning radius effect, that I expected.

[SternWake]

On the Mini, I moved front baseplate forward by a about an equal amount as I moved the rear baseplate backwards.

To position it< i installed the 105’s on the hanger, removed roadside bushing and leaned the truck over all the way, and tried to get the wheels to sit Mid wheel recess, Used a straight edge between the two baseplates, clamped it in place firmly and drilled trying to hold drill at 90 degrees.

To my surprise I could not get wheel bite or enclosure bite with the 105’s, At max lean the turning radius is so tight, that I cannot really notice that it can’t be AS tight as with a narrower wheelbase. It didn’t really feel like I needed to go back to the Inboard 80mm wheels up front when doing high amplitude carves. I was not pushing it quite as hard as the wheels need to be broken in and are not as soft as the 80mm urethane, but I felt no squirrlishness, and smoothness on the driveway pavers was noticeably better.

The Unintended wheelie factor is reduced even further with the front truck further forward and with heavier larger wheels up there.

The Meepo 105mm wheels have the noisy tread, but that will lessen as they wear in, and already has a bit after just 6 or 7 miles. I actually rode it pretty hard on torque level 4 towing Fiona round the hood, until 2022 ESC started beeping at me with one flashing battery bar.

I felt the massively oversized heatsink, and it felt barely warm.

The heatsink is partially obscured with a velcro cinch strap but the fins are so deep.

Anyway, I am getting really fired up on this thing now, and I like the looks of it with the 105’s up front and the wider wheelbase.

I need to try the worn to103mm Meepo sleeves on these motors, once I install the 2024 ESC with better brakes.

[SternWake]

Yesterday, for the first time, We crossed the north bridge to the key, and left via the south bridge.

I did bring the portable charger and used all of its watt hours to recharge when we took breaks.

I avoided the touristy sections, and the bayside route was not busy, and pretty smooth and it was hammer down.

I was both wanting more speed, and glad I had no more speed available.

It was easily the longest I had held the throttle flat, at top speed, Shoulders squared with Fiona at my Side this was toggling between 24 and 25mph. Slightly tucked with Fiona behind me, we were toggling between 26 and 27mph with a light tailwind.

Today, I was planning on crossing south bridge and exiting north, but Fiona absolutely insisted we head back towards the north bridge first. She refused to get in the chariot and just started pulling me and the chariot towards the north out of the driveway and then stopped and demand I tilt it so shoe could get in.

We really lucked out traffic wise and was able to make it to the small North facing beach on the road, not sidewalk and at 25mph, most of the way with very little traffic interaction.

We took the beachside touristy laden route instead of the bayside, and got to the main westerly facing beach above, where I plugged into charge and the BAK45D 10s2P was gobbling up 310 watts, and was still at 175 watts when it was time to go. I had brought the 7s1P battery and had that plugged into the charge port of the 7s2P for a bit more juice to charge with. The heatsink in direct sun, got super hot and I called it good enough, and off we rolled.

I have not even bothered to drive these roads since my moving here 3 years ago.

I only have very faded memories of them from long ago.

They were wide, smooth with a decent sized bike lane that adjoined a sidewalk with little transition. So when there was following traffic I could hit the sidewalk, slow and let them pass, and then hit throttle and follow them back onto the smooth asphalt. We passed a lot of Ebikes and a scooter or two, but one scooter guy had a similar top speed to myself and We could not overtake.

We crossed back over to mainland via south bridge and got to our regular walking park and plugged into recharge again, (285 watts were flowing) even though I did not need to as it is only a mile from home and the remote was reading 35.9v which is more like 36.3v actual. Plenty, but It only takes 10 extra seconds to plug in and charge, so why not?

When we walked the full length of the park, and I went to disconnect charger, I saw No current flowing and BAK battery was 37.4ish volts iirc. We rolled about 4.5 extra miles in our neighborhood, until the ESC was beeping at me.

On the bench the battery was 30.7v actual, hub motors were less than 155f, the ESC heatsink was 121f, the hanger was 112f.

The enclosure away from battery was 85.5f, the enclosure right atop the battery was 94.5f, and when I loosened a velcro cinch strap to read the enclosure under it, , which was somewhat protected from direct airflow, it was 96.5f, So the fiberglass enclosure is definitely sinking some heat from the battery which is resting on foam.

I pulled out the 7s2p portable charger and disconnected the 7s1P from its charge port, and the 1P read 25.3v, Hmmm, should be lower, WTF?

The 7s2p’s BMS will not allow voltage to be read on charge port, so I lowered my Vbooster to 25.2v, and plugged it in to charge, and dialed up voltage until current started to flow.

Current never started to flow.

I must have blown the soldered inline 5 amp charge port fuse, so at some point, the 7s1p had to be feeding the 7s2p, and the Booster together well over 5 amps for some period of time.

Or the BMS has failed. Will investigate another time.

Overall, today was our longest single outing yet, and likely at the highest average speed of any of our rolls to date.

The new ESC now says it has propelled us 485 miles, since Halloween.

The new Puaida 105mm motor sleeves are very much appreciated.

Crossing the ribbed drawbridge sidewalks they are noticeably quieter( still loud AF!) and smoother, and they cross sidewalk cracks at least 30% smoother and quieter, than the Meepo sleeves( worn to 103mm).

When there are road warbles parallel to the direction of travel, they do not catch and get all funky as they seem equilibrium. I feel much more in control at speed, and it is way more comfortable.

The portable charger setup has been very effective, convenient, and made yesterday and today’s longer exploratory journeys possible.

I can and should, and will, top mount and parallel my DMEGC-25E 102sP to the Dedicated XT90 parallel esc input, and not have to charge when stopped, but it is nice leaving a rest area with 4.0+ volts per cell and full available torque. I cannot really start noticing sag until it gets below about 38.5v, unless the battery is much cooler on the rare cooler days.

This Esk8 has been a loyal trusty steed which makes life much more enjoyable.

[SternWake]

I ordered some Bike handlebar rear view mirrors, to try on my remote, and so far my impression is positive. Looking into the mirror at arms length over left shoulder, I can see pretty well behind me. Looking over right shoulder is less intuitive, so far.

My 7s2p portable charger Did blow its charge port fuse with the 7s1P plugged into it. I am not sure of the voltage Delta at the time, but they had been in parallel, unloaded, booster off, for a several miles when I took it back out, pressed the button to power the booster, and plugged it into my depleted BAK45D 10s2P charge port 285 watts were flowing when I started walking.

I thought it was a 5 amp fuse, but it was a 7.5 amp. 58vDC rated.

I still have difficulty believing that 5 amps were flowing, much less 7.5 amps.

At 285 watts output from booster, the 2 batteries in parallel are having to provide 11.4 amps out of the booster, and at 90% efficiency this should be 12.5 amps into the booster.

The 7s1P is now 25.30v t, the 7s2p is now 23.36v, and I do not know how long the 7s2P had to carry the booster load solo after the fuse blew.

I wonder if my soldering the 7.5 amp fuse weakened it and reduced its rating, or somehow there was actually 7.5+ amps flowing from 7s1P into charge port of 7s2P.

I have 10 more 10 amp 58v rated LP mini Bussman/Eaton fuses ordered, as I seem to be really good at blowing charge port fuses.

I think I am going to return another 7.5 amp fuse into this and just turn booster down to ~250 watts output, or just not plug in the 7s1p to charge port.

Part of me was kind of hoping that the fuse did not blow and the BMS disconnected after finding one Pgroup out of whack, as then I would feel better about ordering 14 EVE 35V or perhaps EVE 30P and building a new 7s2P for inside the portable charger with a common port BMS, and 0.2mm copper.

[SternWake]

I didn’t have the new fuse soldered into the 7s2p portable charger’s charge port, and wanted to roll, with a backup charging source.

I took just one Ridgid 4.0ah 72 wh 5s2P battery and my white ‘600’ watt booster instead and was beach charging at 170 watts, until the Ridgid BMS did its job. This was really clunky to set up and put away with 2 inline wattmeters and connector adapters and such. The portable 7s2p enclosure charger is much more ergonomic, and capable.

Got to the beach and back home with volts to spare. Could probably have made it without destination charging, if I went slower and clenched harder.

Just soldered the new charge port LP mini fuse, and even remembered to slide the heatshrink over it beforehand. It’s now charging it at 51.7 watts.

My 6s1p Samsung 50E battery is a better choice than the Ridgid 5s2p 18650 battery( with Eve 20P cells?) for portable charging, but I could not wait for it to fully charge.

The 0.2mm Nickel steel busbars below, came with my 10 cell 21700 Makita 5s2p kit.

I scanned them and emailed them to Nelvick @DIY500AMP.COM and he did some magic and had his laser cut them out in 0.2 and 0.3mm copper

I am going to use 10 BAK45D to build a 9.0AH Makita 18v nominal battery for my leaf blower. I only have 4, 4.0Ah stock Makita batteries, and they get super hot and do not last nearly long enough in the blower, so this should be a HUGE improvement.

Nelvick is going to be carrying the Makita kits in his store, so this will likely be the first of several Makita battery builds, as my stock Makita batteries degrade further.

I have not yet welded a single layer of 0.3mm copper, only dual 0.15mm stacked, or 0.2+0.1mm, to accrue that thickness. I expect a single layer of 0.3mm to require more power, but time will tell.

I have ordered 14 more Eve 35V to rebuild the 7s2p inside the portable charger.

I already have a common port 7s BMS, and this should significantly increase the actual watt hours that my portable charger can deliver. On paper, there will be ~73 more watt hours, 176.4 vs 103.7.

The prebuilt 7s2p looks like it was built with 0.1mm nickel plated steel and some of the sharp edges of those strips was smushed up against the tangled balance leads near the BMS. I tried to get some fishpaper separation in there, but Should likely not have trusted this battery this far.

I will cut the heatshrink and inspect, when the Eve 35v 7s2p is ready to be built.

I need to R&R mr30 with 60’s on my new ESC, install it and re button up the enclosure for the Mini. Then install the 103mm worn Meepo hub motor sleeves and see how she rides.

[SternWake]

My first 2024 Puaida/Lingyi ESC now has 520 miles on it. It just works, and works pretty well IMO.

Last night, I got the second recently purchased 2024 Puaida/Lingyi ESC mr60’d and installed onto the mini’s heatsink, and everything buttoned up, installed the 103mm sleeves on the motor, and took her for a tentative spin.

No brakes.

It farts for a second and then will just power forward at 3 or 4 mph.

On the bench, if I hold the brake down, and touch either wheel give it the most minimal spinning input, it will fire up in that direction immediately to 20mph. The opposite wheel might stay put, or spinning slowly the opposite direction.

I checked sensor connectors closely, played with a few different settings on remote. tried factory reset of remote. No difference.

This morning I tried sensorless mode on the remote, and on the bench / with enclosure opened, it appeared to have brakes, and was significantly louder.

I went for a ride on the guppy with Fiona, and put that remote to Sensorless for a short section, and quickly turned it back to sensored after a few hundred meters.
It sounded, and felt, like fine tooth gears grinding themselves to pieces at slow speeds, but got smoother with some speed. The throttle was incredibly touchy and imprecise. I was afraid to hit the brakes and just coasted to a standstill, and switched it back.

At home I didn’t even bother trying to ride the mini with the remote set to sensorless. Removed ESC from heatsink and plugged it into sensor and phase wires bypassing the extensions, and same exact behavior.

I guess the potentially good news is I bought it from Amazon, and can likely get refunded after returning it.

But I have removed the original XT60 replaced with dual XT90’s.

I have removed the MR30’s and replaced with MR60’s.

I also opened up the mounting holes to fit my heatsink studs as I did not get those perfect.

None these actions can be responsible for the lack of brakes. I did test the ESC with 70mm hub motors and they spun up fine, but I must not have hit the brakes on the bench and noticed they did not exist.

I am unsure whether Amazon will open it up and inspect it and say ‘hey! this is modified!’, or just throw it in a pile and refund my 105.96$.

I would still like to have better brakes, and a trip odometer, and be able to discharge down to 30v.

I really like the 2024 ESC’s, behavior on the guppy. 500+ problem free miles so far in less than 2 months

I wonder if it is worth the effort of returning the mr30’s and xt60 and using a black sharpie to try and hide the widened mounting holes.

I reinstalled my 2022 Lingyi/Puaida with the weaker than desired brakes, and the Mini is now fully functional again.

The loss of torque going from worn 90mm to worn 105mm motor sleeves is not really a factor.

On speed level 4 it feels faster than it really needs to be, at least solo, and the brakes are OK too, solo, but towing Fiona adds close to 90 Lbs of extra mass to move.

The Meepo 105mm front wheels still have some noisy ‘tread’ which needs to wear flatter, before I really push it hard when high amplitude carving.

I am not sure this board really needs 105mm wheels for what I am going to use it for, but going back to 80mm up front and worn 90mm motor sleeves, is a pretty quick process. I do have new 90mm sleeves too.

I do like the stance with the wider wheelbase and the 105’s.

I should drill the holes for inserts and paint the enclosure, If I really cared about anything other than function.

The loopkey is certainly tucked high and tight.

Can barely see it here.

[b264]

What is the total length of that deck, and what is the distance from the rear axle to the tip of the tail?

[b264]

Good thing you had a fuse there. Imagine if it was just overcurrent without one, what kind of far worse things could happen.

[SternWake]

It is 28 3/8 inches / 72 centimeters tip to tail on the deck.

The tip of the tail is now 7 9/16 inches / 19.21 CM from axle center.

With 105mm wheels and sleeves, it now weighs 18lbs 13 oz / 8.53321 KG.

I got it upto 27mph and was still accelerating, but this felt sketchy AF, and I have no plans on ever getting this thing going that fast ever again.

It does roll over pavers pretty nicely with the big wheels and sleeves, but I’d love the Puaida softer 105mm more rounded sleeves as they just ride so so much better all around/.

I want to try dewedging rear truck and maybe adding wedge to the front.

I am currently stacking rubber and plastic risers and want to make new Bubinga risers no taller than they have to be.

The rear truck definitely feels more turny than the front and gets super twitchy at speed even tightened way more than I like.

Once I dial in the wedge/ dewedge I will drill and add the inserts to get rid of the velcro cinch straps.
The enclosure’s double gasket can be thinned and fit to the shape of the deck and with the wheelbase opened up I can slide enclosure fore or aft.

The 105mm wheels seem bite the centered enclosure, and deck at same time, at such a hard lean angle, that it is going so slow as to not be dangerous.

It is a really fun little board.

I’d still like the better brakes of the 2024 esc in it.

Will return this one and if successful will try ordering another and hope it works as well as my 525 mile one does.

[b264]

If you stand on the nose and the tip of the tail and lightly bounce on it, does the back axle have like a suspension effect where the deck is flexing under you?

[SternWake]

Yes, It is a pretty thin deck, and does soak up some road irregularities with back foot all the way back on kicktail. I added a lot of fiberglass. It is encased within fiberglass. and the perimeter has at least 9mm of roving and the roadside has 1 layer of 24oz/ 800 GSM woven roving, and 2 layers of 7.5oz cloth.

It’s just my back foot prefers to be at the base of the kicktail, and unconsciously finds itself there.

Hitting road warbles at higher speeds with my foot farther back, just has the ass end super twitchy and somewhat alarming so.

The torque wheelie tendency is much reduced with the back baseplate moved backwards(and front forwards), and the turn radius at slow speeds is still excellent.

I do want to try dewedging rear baseplate. An ~ 10 degree dewedge did not seem to negatively affect the Guppy’s turning radius as much as expected and I have grown to love how the guppy handles both slow and fast, and they have the same rear truck, and both have JBweld boardside bushing hanger cradles mimicking a cup washer, Which really helped bumpsteer.

I need to figure out which riptide bushings to order, once I get it closer to what I am imagining.

Good thing the experimentation is fun and rewarding.

[b264]

Try leaning on your front foot, with your front foot on top of the front truck.