My Esk8s. A journal of sorts

[rafaelinmissouri]

ok.

new big idea!!!

Should I go 18S?

this would be an upgrade for the Flux.

I had bought 108 BAK cells to make a 12s9p pack for the Flux with 45AH.

so I would get more range than my current 30ah battery.

I love the Flux.
It is my favorite.
My only gripe is that I wish it had more range.

and I was fixing that.

but a bit more torque and top speed might be nice!!!
can’t hurt right…

will high voltage get me that???

this dude on Facebook got me thinking of it with his 18s Flux.

with some gasketing in can squeeze 144 cells in there look…

And I would not have to buy an insane amount of parts…
I mean, kind of.
but probably be worth it.

just 36 more cells.
a BMS.
a charger.
a Ubox
and some motors…

I mean.
if I am gonna go through the horrible trouble of building a battery I might as well go nuts right…

[Evwan]

Ubox no worki with 18s unless you get the 100v one

[rafaelinmissouri]

looks like they have it now… hope they usually have it.

I am not quite ready to pull the trigger on parts…

[BillGordon]

There’s something to be said for “it just works.”

[rafaelinmissouri]

I tell you dude. Kids are so dang lucky these days.

[rafaelinmissouri]

another one bites the dust…

another battery that is.
or looks like it anyway.

this is a BKB 10s3p pack I got used a long time ago and have put through a couple set ups.

most recenlty on the Demonseed DKP.

I have not written about this Demonseed DKP and I think it has already broken 3 times…

anyways.

battery seemed week.
I thought I forgot to charge it.
I plugged it in and the light stayed green.

so the pack is at 36 volts but the charge port only reads 31 volts.

I am really not sure if I will even try to dissect it.

there may have been an short in the charge port.
I put another battery in and plugged to the same port.
and it popped the fuse on the charge wire.

I hooked it up to another port and replaced the fuse and it was fine.

I tried a different port on the Bkb pack and still stays green…

[rafaelinmissouri]

did some dry cleaning today…

[Shadowfax]

Hi Rafael - I’m thinking about picking up a rayne crush for a street cruiser. For someone around 160lbs would you recommend the soft or the firm flex deck?

Thanks
Evan

[Evwan]

@Shadowfax

Evan

Imposter

[rafaelinmissouri]

dude.
that is a tough one…

I am inclined to say go for the soft version to enjoy the extra cushy flex.

I’m around 210 and for an esk8 set up the soft flex for me was tooooo squirly…

but then I missed the flex and bounciness when I went to the stiffer one.
it still flexes for me. but nothing like the soft one did.

so I kind of think the hard flex may feel pretty stiff to you…

[Shadowfax]

That’s good to know. I generally like flexy decks. I’ve got a flex 3 vanguard that I mash on so hard that the bottom sides have grooves in them.

Any chance you still have that soft flex deck on the shelf, and would want to part ways with it?

[Evwan]

@Shadowfax

I’ve got a flex 3 vanguard that I mash on so hard that the bottom sides have grooves in them.

once again, IMPOSTER!
I swear all Evans are the same

I'm done derailing now

[Shadowfax]

Yooo - that senderized vanguard is HOT FIRE

[rafaelinmissouri]

ok.
let me do a little bit of catching up.

I have gotten a couple different variations running recently and wanted to write about them.

1st up.

The Demonseed DKP.

Demonseed 42.
10S4P 30Q pack.
Unity.
Flipsky 6354 190kv.
Evolve DKP trucks with Riptide Bushings.
85mm Caguamas. 16/36 geared for up to 30mph.

The Evolve was my 3rd board.
I spent a lot of time on DKP before I got a hold of some RKP set ups. but that was a long time ago.
i then had DKP on a stoke type deck for a while…
but I wanted to slap them on a longboard.

DKP is a trip.
Definitely a vibe of it’s own.
But I manage to have fun with it, and this board has not tried to kill me yet…

The board seems to be running well now.

It took a few iterations to get there.

Here is about where it started.

Taking the Bamstoke apart.
and adding a couple different parts.
Flipsky 6.6 dual plus. and new 5065 200 kv motors.

turns out I could not run it with the trucks mounted drop through.

too low…

that kind of bummed me out… but oh well.
so I went top mounted and slapped the parts together and got it running…

Sweet. got it together. take it out.
It is kind of neat.

And I think on my second ride 2.5 miles from the house the remote stops responding.

So I had to fucking push this thing home.
Not so bad to push by the way…

So after all these years I finally had a Flispky ESC crap out on me.
it seems that one side is not talking to the other side.
I did not try to trouble shoot it.
I just decided to steal the Unity off of the RallyCat because it is out of commission due to the battery.

so back on the bench…

So. the sensors seemed fine on the Flipsky.
but rhey would not come up goof on the Unity.

so somehow 3 miles or so of riding ruined them.
So I get pissed and cut them off…

And we are back on the road running HFI.
which was not perfect but it was ok.
on the rides I did it barely ever kicked in.

So cool.
It is running and it is fun.

Aaaand then it breaks…

this time it was the battery.
BKB 10S3P stopped charging…

Booooooo!!!

welp.
so I had enjoyed the DKP vibe and how different it was to ride and wanted to keep it alive.

So I decide to take the battery out of the Loaner 2.0 and while I am at it. the motors out of the Rayne Crush that is also out of commission due to a bad battery.

And that is how we got to the point where it is now.

Fun little Neighborhood carver.

[rafaelinmissouri]

Ok.
2nd up.

The Vision.

Vision Old Ghost deck 30x10 modern concave.
12S3P 30Q with smart BMS.
Unity.
Flipsky 5045 200kV motors.
BKB motor mounts.
BN 145 hanger in the back and caliber II 150 in the front.
80mm Kegels on 14/40 - geared to about 28Mph

and I almost forgot then most important part to this update. The enclosure.

Really all I did was get an enclosure made and everything slapped together for good on here.

I had the vision running a while back with the electronics just temporarily taped under.

Now it looks a smidge more legit.

I wanted a 3D printed enclosure like I have for the Dinghy and ATV Ditch life.
and my buddy at work even designed and printed one.

But it was too long.
The wheel base is really tight and I am working around a pre existing battery so I had to get into funny business.

So.
since I will never have the patience to make a proper enclosure with fiberglass I proceeded to make a little shoe box out of Abs and duck tape…

this is barely smaller than the 3d printed enclosure…

So, yeah.
I was not gonna have enough room so I had to move the wheel base out one more time.

which called for new grip tape…

I sprayed my little Showbox with 2 whole cans of truck bed liner…

So then I had it all and just needed to slap parts together.

The enclosure is not really meant to hold any weight.

So the electronics are taped to the deck

I wrapped everything in shrink wrap.

that gets taped to the deck with 3M double tape and more gorilla tape.

It is a pretty tight squeeze but I think it is ok.
I have not had wheel bite while riding

I wanted to do a dual drive with the 145mm trucks.
I am ok with the 2 little motors.
But I also think a single 6374 would be better.
maybe even a single 6354…
But really the 2 tiny 5045s can move me pretty well.
They do seem to have a bit more rolling resistance than I expected.

These tiny boars are an interesting riding platform.

it just feels like you are going so fast…

It turns ok and it is quite stable( I have not ridden it a bunch)
but it felt kind of stiff… turning wise.
So I want to mess with the bushings and make it feel more like the ATV Ditch Life that I totally love.

I Basically wanted this board to be a lot like the ATV Ditch Life but with more power.

[rafaelinmissouri]

The baby sleeping with his pet 8 inch knobby tire…

[rafaelinmissouri]

Last night I got an actual start on the new battery for the Flux.

I am leaving higher voltages alone for now mainly in an attempt to not buy any more parts.

so the original plan is in place.

BAK cells 12S9P for 45AH

got the testing and glueing and taping done.

fish paper is next up…

[rafaelinmissouri]

I try to track all my rides on relive…
even when I am just going up and down the block in front of the house.

I clocked a ton of miles in 2020. - 3649
I went down a bit in 2022 - 2900
I didn’t log all my Onewheel rides on relive… and got up to 150 on the Pint. so I am gonna tell myself I did over 3000 miles…

it has been a super mellow winter here in Missouri so this January I kicked ass at 280 miles!!!
January of last year was 97 and the year before 170…

[b264]

This guy rides.

[rafaelinmissouri]

So yeah. I get home from a short ride.

Full bindings.
Thick winter gloves.
Mini remote.
Current mode.

I accidentally give full throttle backwards as I was about to turn the remote off to bend down to take my bindings off…

I managed to remember which way to try to move my finger right as I hit the curb😁

New video by Rafael Stoutz