My Esk8s. A journal of sorts

Oh oh!

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Let me finish talking about the Omakase before we start with the new toy…

I got the Omakase buttonned up yesterday.
So far I had gotten to where I shaved the mounts.

Another Z-mote comes to life.
This is the last one I had planned on installing and makes it 8 total.

Still love the lights.
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Then I wanted to make the motor cables a flat ribbon.

I could not really do the same thing as the Rally Cat with the cables to the front of the motors.

So I battles with going to the back and under the motor.

I have a couple layers of Tessa tape. So even if the motors rub I doubt they would rub through…

The motor cables were too long instead of cutting and resoldering I decided to turn the Unity around.
Then I decided to o elevate it and run the cables underneath.

Taping everything down. Never pretty. But everything should stay in place and is well insulated.

And finally lining up the enclosure.
I did different pieces of gasketing similar to the Rally Cat. Thicker on the front and back.

And boom.

It’s such a pretty board.
I love this enclosure.
And I love the shinny new Akashas.




The motor clearance is super good. For something like this…

I am going to go give it a try now to warm up for breaking myself on the EUC…

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I can’t believe you’re holding it on with only four screws haha the internals must be light - looks good!

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That enclosure is so solid that I didn’t feel like I needed more holes…

Now that you say that, I had meant to tape the battery down some more.

But I think I will be ok.

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And wow. It had been a long time since I last rode the Omakase.

And it felt amazing. It’s big, but it feels little.
It’s perfectly comfortable.

Power and Carving felt awesome.
I only got up to 25mph.

Akashas man!!!
Wow.

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So the bell rang at 7:11 this morning, just after we had woken up.

It was Amazon with the Inmotion V11…


It was a big ass heavy box, and I probably hurt my back just pushing it into the Garage.

Fancy box…

Good packaging though. Solid.

It took a little bit to get it going as I had to fill 4 air chambers and the tire.
And half ass tape some pads on there.

After I had gotten back from riding the Omakase I started trying to ride it

And I ended up doing 4 miles over about an hour.

Top speed 12.6…

It’s hard.
First few times trying to go were hard…

But I managed to get going.

I still don’t know what to make of it…
Some of the turning feels neat and fluid.

Accelerating is weird. I keep feeling like I am going to fall off the front.

Then I took a break.

At lunch I went out some more in front of the house with the little dude.

Racked up 3 miles.

So 7 ish miles so far today.
Didn’t fall.
Didn’t drop the wheel too much.

So, so far so good.
I was probably harder on my body than I should, so I might be hating it later

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It’s fiiiiiiiine…

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I don’t know which one makes me feel older…
The electric unicycle,
Or the hand mirror thing…

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Old age and poor habits continue to have me down feeling real rickety…

So it has been really slim pickings on the riding.

Been messing with the EUC some every day.
Getting to be less foreign.
Maybe a keeper.

The real passion burns deep and I go in the garage and stare at my babies longingly…

We had summer school pick up today and rolled deep for that.


I wonder how much longer these 2 will fit in the trailer.

After dinner I got out for a 6 miler on the Omakase and it’s pure joy.

But alas my Onewheel Buddy Drew is coming over, and I’m going to take the EUC out tonight…

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Much mono wheeling…

Ok then.

So my deal is that I have some bad bushings.

Turns out I have degenerative disc disease on my neck and a bulging disc at C6-C7, which is the base of the neck.
That hits the nerves that go down to my right arm and causes pain and discomfort.

Boo hoo…

So this cruel twist of faith is keeping me from riding to my heart’s content…

I love riding.
I crave riding.
I want to go out all the time every day.

Since I am so into it, and the nature of esk8 is so sketchy, I always had paranoia in my mind that something would happen to keep me from riding.

I used to worry about a squirrel running in front of me, sand on the road, an ESC cutout, asteroid falling from the sky…Or my knees going bad… They did often protest.

So much to my surprise it was more of a long term issue that creeped up. Somewhere on my body I did not expect.

I rode a ton last year at 4400 miles.
All looking to the right…

So this ergonomics related problem is not totally shocking, but it is a huge bummer.

I adjusted my stance to face forward more.
This is easier to do on esk8 than on the Onewheel.

I rode switch some. This is easier to do on the Onewheel than the esk8s…

And finally when I started really freaking out I bought an EUC to be able to ride facing straight…

I tried riding the Radrunner some as that also faces straight… But even the slight leaning forward made it uncomfortable on my neck.

So long story short, I have not taken the Flux on a 30 miles accross town trip in a long time.

And that is my favorite thing to do…

I keep doing little rides on the Onewheels and boards.

But I do get to feeling my neck after just a few miles…

I am going to try the non surgical route first…
Physical therapy and a steroid shot on the 27th.

I had a very similar issue back in 2015 or 2016.
I was able to get past it with PT and it held up until now.

Off course back then I wasn’t putting down 360 miles a month…

So.
I need to chill out some.
Do my PT.
Hope it gets better.
And be more mindful of my posture when I ride.

And I am getting into riding the EUC.
Which is not as cool of a sensation for me as esk8.

But provides pretty good ergonomics.

We had a group ride last night with 5 of us… Which is epic around here.
3 EUCs. A Onewheel and 1 ESK8.

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Hope you get better soon!

Please keep on doing whatever feels right for you.
Reading about your dedication to this sport is inspiring man.

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Wow.
So I feel like a dumb ass and a bad parent…

I went to a kids birthday party at a gymnastics place the other day. And we know the owners a little bit and it’s a set up that is just let the kids do whatever.

Super cool.

So I take the Pint Vesc( I loaned out my GT)

And the owner has been looking at Onewheels and was interested.
So I got to ride around a bunch in there!!!

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It was super cool. The padded carpet surface had perfect grip!!!
And a few dad’s and a couple kids tried riding it.

But the point of this story is that kids were flying around on 2 hoverboards… And having the best time.
I had really notwitnessed that to this level before.

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So I ordered one for the kids with the little cart attachment.

And it’s so cool, and I wish I had gotten them one a long time ago!!!

We have only had it one afternoon, so no one has broken themselves yet!!!

I think they say top speed is 9 mph…
But wow. It really looks like those kids were flying…

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My middle boy really got into it and that is super sweet, because he is not really into his bike, and I can’t get him on the boards.

But this thing was so was to manage!!!

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My daughter was super into it too!!!

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The little dude didn’t try it, but that will come soon.
My daughter put her feet down when moving pretty quickly and got served really good.
Feet got stuck. Swallowed up under it, and she was trapped under it screaminng…
So it may be a couple days before she gets back on… Pretty good knew scrapes…

But aside from the fall, she was soooo into it.

I kinda hope I end up with two of these and the kids fly around in front of the house with me all the time.

Stoked!!!

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New Dad level unlocked! Love it.

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So last week I had to go out of town for a business trip and was in St. Petersburg Florida for a few days visiting one of the factories I work with.

And I rented a Onewheel for the 3 days there from Friendwitha.com

And obviously it was awesome!!!

I tried to rent a GT, but that fell through, so instead I got a shinny stock XR with only 165 miles on it.

I love the lower center of gravity on the XR.
But that Vega tire was a little rough.

But I was taking it easy anyway.
My neck was certainly feeling it if I rode on my normal stance.
So I rode switch as much as I could.

And I am always scared to overpower the XR and it dump me, that I really took it easy…

I May not even have cracked 15mph…

But it was such a cool way to explore.

I have lots of really nice places to ride around here.
But 95% of my rides are in know territory.
Very little braving new paths…

So riding around in an unknown place was very exciting.

Flying in, driving, and riding I was amazed by the fact that it’s totally flat.

Just like, 100 totally flat.

That is really, really freaky to me.

I wonder if any of the Florida riders on here have hills to ride.

Just totally flat… Off course I only saw a tiny bit right…

But getting the Onewheel was such a cool idea. I had to Uber to o cool places to ride, but made every evening very entertaining.

I rode, 10, 8 , and 7 miles each night.

Riding a Onewheel in an elevator is really weird.

The folks at the front desk of the Hilton didn’t know what to make of me riding through the lobby.

Riding around was so cool.
So many people out.

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The first night I ever got to ride around the pier a bunch. But got asked to leave politely on the second night.

I saw a ton of ebikes out.
Only saw 2 other dudes Onewheeling, and 1 dude on a EUC…

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St Pete’s my home stomping grounds and it is very flat. You don’t get hills in Florida until you travel up I75 North of Webster.

Gainesville, where I live now, has plenty of hills. I still prefer riding downtown St Pete. It is just more pev friendly.

You’ll have to let me know next time you are in the neighborhood, I am constantly making the drive down to St Pete

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It’s a pretty rare occasion. But I did look you up knowing you are in Florida … But then I saw Gainesville…

Downtown was fun to ride.

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Those kids look like real life Mario Kart characters. For Halloween you should tie 3 balloons to them and tie a big turtle shell on the back

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We did a Mario theme last year… But we can really level up this year.

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Oh.
The glory of esk8 dudes!!!

This morning I took the kids to school on the Gravel Flux.

Carving there felt so good I decided to take the Flux out for a minute.

And hot damn!!! It is so fire!!!

It has been a minute and seems like forever.

But it’s no wonder the Flux is my favorite.

The power is so much I almost fell back a couple times.

And blasting up hill on a street carver is the best sensation.
Man, that shit is awesome.

These dudes were also pumped to see the Flux.
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Ended up doing 9 miles.
Felt great.

I love the Flux and I love Esk8.

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