My Esk8s. A journal of sorts

[rafaelinmissouri]

I got back on boards today.

My ankle is heading in the right direction but it may take long to feel normal…

My morning warm up on the GT ended up being 4.7 miles…

Didn’t even go a full block away from the house…
Straight loitering…

I got back on the GT a bit in the afternoon and got loosened up and decided to try a board out…

I am not really sure why. But for whatever reason in my mind Onewheeling is safer and less strain on my ankle… Than riding one of the boards…

I could be tripping…
But whatever.

After the quick 1.5 mile float warm up I grabbed the Demonseed DKP that is still rocking the MADs and rolled around the neighborhood for 4 miles.

That felt pretty good.
I went and grabbed the Gravel Flux and did another 4.3 miles just around the neighborhood again.

So a little over 14 miles today…

[rafaelinmissouri]

Weee.
I ended up riding more today than I did yesterday.

Ended up stacking 15.4 miles…
Mostly on the GT.
But the Gravel Flux came out as the tow truck.

1.8 mile morning warm up.

2 mile lunch break.

An always awesome Ken sighting… On his Metroboard.

Took the Tow Truck to pick up the kids. That was 2.1 miles.

Had a happy hour session on the GT that was 1.8 miles.

Just a bit later had a 1.7 mile session on the GT.

All of these sprinkled little GT sessions were gearless… So I am basically begging for it right now…

And finally around 10 I padded up all the way(most of the way) and went around campus on the GT for a 6 miler…

[b264]

@rafaelinmissouri

Ended up stacking 15.4 miles…

Sounds like you’re feeling better!

[EDness]

My ride last night

[rafaelinmissouri]

Yesterday was a good riding day.

A few floats sprinkled through the day on the GT.

Starting with “walking” the kids to school.

School pick up with Tow Truck.

Happy hour was extra cool.
I went to float outside with the kids and at some point someone asked to ride a skateboard…

And soon after almost all the analog boards came out and the kids all were rolling down the street.

That was super cool…

I wish this would happen every day but the moon’s don’t align like this often…

New video by Rafael Stoutz

I got tired and lazy and thought I was done for the day. But after 10 I got a second wind and went on a 12 Miles ride with the Flux.
A little rough on the ankle but it seems ok today.

[rafaelinmissouri]

Yesterday started off with rain.

So the morning warm up happened in the Garage with the Pint X that has a shinny new tire now…

There was no lunch break ride…
But I did break out the Gravel Flux to go get the kids from school.
I wonder if they will both fit in the trailer by the end of the school year…?

I went on a Happy hour ride on the GT and got pretty surly.
I both got my new life top speed of 20.5 and at some point got an over current warning…

It was a fun little 6 mile ride.

But it was later on that things got exciting.

I had shinny new wheels in the mail box.

The Ahmyo DH Akashas are here.

Getting wheels always takes me back to being a kid and it’s an extra bonus when you throw new bearings in there too…

If you are a practical person and already have Kegels you may not need to bother with getting the Akashas…
I mean. They are so similar in size…

Or maybe you are like me and you just want all the wheels…

These are officially my smallest esk8 wheels now…

I was able to use them with BN pulleys by adding some spacers between the pulley and the wheel bearing.

This does take up a bit more axle room than the Kegels…
Note where the nut ends up.

I have a high tolerance for low clearance…
So I can live with this…
I only thinky motors hit once last night.
I don’t think it will end up killing me…

It was about 11:30 when I went out in the neighborhood to try them out.

That turned into a 16 mile ride…
Which is probably longer than I have done in the Omakase in a long time…

But I was having fun.

My initial impression is that the board looked extra sexy to me.

And again.
A practical person may say these are basically the same as Kegels…

But there is more to it I think…

I like small wheels and an esk8 that resembles regular skateboards.
And these get you closer to that.

They are 100% magic on freshies…
But so are the Kegels and Caguamas…

But they seem to also do ok on rougher roads.
Middle of the way roads they also felt really good.

Where I had the most fun last night was on the brick covered plaza that was our old stomping grounds.

So dope!!!

You see here again it a very small difference…

But I had a ton of fun and I am stoked I got these…
And I would not be surprised if one or two more sets show up here at some point…

[Monkey]

What light setup have you got on the Omakase?

[rafaelinmissouri]

2 x shredlights sl-300 s

Since Shipping is free here I am a fan and like shredlights a lot…

The 300s you have to charge all the time…
I am not sure I have tried the 1000s on the Omakase…

[rafaelinmissouri]

Yesterday was a mixed bag.
We had some good stuff.
We had some bad stuff.

I rolled around in front of the house a bit on the GT, then the Omakase, and then the Dinghy.

Max even jumped on a board for a second which is a rare sighting.

Later on I went on a Bodega run with the Khymera and it was super nice out and a great feeling ride.

Here is where it goes south.
I go into the shop and I come out and I thought the board had turned off…
So I go push it around in the parking lot to turn it on.
And I’m pushing…
And I’m pushing…
And I’m kicking it …
And finally I open the app to check and it is on…

But it is not responding to the remote.

It seemed it had no ppm input…

I have not opened it up.
But I am suspicious maybe my mini remote became unpaired. I don’t know. I gotta do some troubleshooting.

Either way I didn’t get to ride home.

And that ain’t cool.

And I am also feeling some vibes like I may have to break up with my trusty mini remote…

Becoming randomly unpaired is super duper annoying… If that is what happened…

And just the other day I could not go on my lunch break ride also because of the Mini…
I was going to on take the Llama…
And the remote would not turn on…
They have crappy power buttons and I had not done my mod on that remote.

So I open it up to tinker with it.
And I wiggle it and it comes on while the trigger is mashed downn…
And since I am super smart and stuff the board was on with the wheels on the ground.

So another ghost episode…

New video by Rafael Stoutz

And thank goodness once again I get lucky.
No one in the way for me to hit.
No cars coming.
The 110s hit the curb and launched the board up so nothing seems damaged…

I feel super fortunate once again…
Because it could have been all kinds of bad.

Run away boards are bad.
Kids.
Remember. When troubleshooting your remote get your dang wheels off the ground.

So long story short…
Two unpleasant experiences have me feeling some bad vibes about the Mini.

I ordered a Z-mote to try out.

Z.mote Trigger Style Electric Skateboard Remote - Etsy

I have really had a lot of luck with the minis and I totally love the way they feel.

But the build quality leaves a lot to be desired.
So I may need to embrace something new…

I am glad there seems to be a viable trigger choice.

I am willing to convert to thumb if I absolutely have to for solid signal and a solid build …
But that will be a tough transition…

[b264]

In a pinch, a pushpin can turn on/off those power switches — usually even after they are broken.

[rafaelinmissouri]

Today was a cool esk8 day…

I tooled around in front of the house on the GT quote a bit.

At one point the neighbor boy who is almost 10 asked if he could ride a skateboard.

The little dude rode around some too…

The neighbor kid has been getting pretty good at rolling down the street on the longboards.

And the I asked if he wanted to try one of the electric boards.

So I broke out the Demonseed DKP.

And the kid got I pretty much right away.
Turning is tricky… But he was going up and down the block like he did it all the time…

I also got the ATV Ditch Life out for him to try and he got down on that pretty good.

So that is super cool.
I hope my kids will be pumped to see him do it and want to ride more…

While playing in front of the house it became apparent we weren’t going to leave the house,
And I decided to o tackle organizing the garage…

Which is a task …

So everything goes on the floor…

And I start with a blank canvas.

And I start putting boards up…

And eventually get to this…

I still have 80 % of the garage to put back together but I am pretty stoked.

My Onewheel stand is extra legit…
Combining basic elements such as hot glue, the floor and the wall…

As I am staring at a giant pile of stuff my daughter says they wanna ride their bikes up to the school…

So I say yey.
Hop on the GT.
The neighbor boy gets on the Demonseed and off we go…

It was super cool.

New video by Rafael Stoutz

[rafaelinmissouri]

So off I go at 10:30 at night for a ride on the Flux…

After a couple miles I am hearing this weird noise…
I could not place it and it kid of sounded like I was rolling on a flat. But all the tires were good…

I go a bit more get more weirded out and stop and look again.

And one of the bearings of the front left Hellcat wide had popped the spacer…

So I limp back home…

I had never opened or cleaned these bearings or anything… And they were already used when I got these wheels…

I sure do appreciate the kind failure mode that gives me an audio cue before a catastrophic failure…

but man.

It has been boom, boom, boom…
Just like that all the three boards I have with tires that I ride have gone out of commission…

Silly simple stuff. But still all 3 will need to go on the bench.

The Khymera probably needs a new remote.

The Flux new bearings now…

And yesterday while moving the Gravel Flux I noticed noticed the battery box is now loose on one side … I need to open that up…

[rafaelinmissouri]

I suppose I could have used the bike for school pick up today…

But that is kinda boring…

So I classed up the Gravel Flux a bit more with a dash of gorilla tape…

Which you know… It’s fine
…
Might be a bit before I get into that enclosure…

And the Gravel Flux never disappoints…
I think it could have easily gone all the way here…

I parent good…

New video by Rafael Stoutz

[rafaelinmissouri]

Little bits showed up.

I got a bunch of tinkering to do.

bearings from Kaly for the street Flux.
They got here quick… And they were cheap.
Unmarked…
Makes me wonder if I should try to find a nicer brand bearing…

Anyone hip to good affordable bearings…
3201-2RS Angular Contact Ball Bearing 12x32x15.9mm Sealed Bearing

And some 12mm washers…
I need to mess with the wheels spacing for the Gravel Flux…
See if I can get cleaner engagement with the BN gear drives…

And both Fluxes and the Khymera need tires rotated front to back…

And it Is super nice out… So really I should go ride…
I wanted to experiment with the thane wheels today…

I still need to try the MAD wheels on the Llama…

And then try the 111s and Akashas on the DKP…

[rafaelinmissouri]

I got to spend a couple hours yesterday afternoon riding and trying different wheels on the Demonseed DKP.

The last variation of this board had Blue Caguamas on it. But recently I had put the MAD wheels on there.

Which have been pretty good for this set up.

Yesterday I wanted to compare the MAD to the TB 100s. Which I find to be pretty good wheels.

First I went out with the MADs.

The time I have spent on the MADs I have already gotten used to the grip and I trust it fully.
The grip is epic.
That makes them good for me in this DKP set up.

I wanted to slap the TB 100s because they are super similar in size.

And again I think the TB 100s do a good job.
But on rougher roads like this they pail in comparison to the MADs.

So I would have to say between TB 100 and Mad there is an obvious winner and it’s the MADs…

But then I put the Abec 111s on there.

This is my first ride on them…

And that gets trickier. We are obviously jumping in size a whole lot.

I still remember first getting the Abec 107s for my Evolve GT back in the day and what a game changer that was coming from the Abec 97s…

So here we are again with giant wheels on the DKP.

And yeah.
These 111s are giant and plush and gummy.

The grip seemed really good.
They roll over everything…
But here is where they stand out compared to the MAD wheels…
The feeling on freshies…
It is perfect and glassy. And you feel so connected to the road…

So on this round I would have to say the 111s win overall.

But man.
They are giant.

What I really need to do is ride the 111s back to back with the 110s.

I may get to do that today.
I want to slap the Mads on the Llama.

Turns out the 111s feel great on the road but I don’t love them on the DKP set up.
They are too big and change the way the board feels too much…

I like the MADs on there a lot.
They are the right size as far as giving lots of comfort but not being so big and heavy that it changes the whole board.

But then I have the height issues.
Currently I have the board mounted drop through.
And it feels great with the MADs
But the clearance is sketchy and it may kill me when I leave the neighborhood.

The DKP may end up back on Caguamas top mounted.
Or maybe Kegels… Or even the Akashas…

It is fun trying all these variations.

[DavidF]

Nice review, thanks
Those MAD wheels definitely look good

[rafaelinmissouri]

The MAD wheels are really interesting dude.
I would definitely recommend trying them out.

The grip is really something. If that is a priority then these are it.

The cushion is also really good.

They are awesome on mid to bad roads.

But on super good roads there is are some harmonics at lower speeds that can seem a little weird.
It is not really an issue for me. But it is something you notice and it stands out to me bet I had not experienced it before.

[rusins]

+1 got to try the mad wheels on an analogue setup the other day, the grip really surprised and impressed me. Slight vibrations at low speeds due to the holes, but it’s hardly worth mentioning.

[rafaelinmissouri]

Welp.
It happened.
Just like that…

I went for a ride and it felt cold…

I went out for my morning warm up on the GT and did 3 miles around the neighborhood.

It is 55f / 13c…

And yep. Felt pretty brisk…
I wish I had my ears covered and full gloves on…

[rafaelinmissouri]

Yesterday I ended up getting some good action in.

I did not get around to any tinkering and I did not experiment with urethane wheels…

But I got some riding in on the Gravel Flux and it was awesome.

We had a birthday party to go to at a park that is relatively close so I took the boys in the trailer.

At the park I ripped around and did quite a bit of grass surfing.

It is really like a giant skate park with banks every where.

The weird thing is that I rarely leave the house to go ride planning on hitting the grass banks…
So it just kind of happened yesterday and it is a blast.

Especially since I got lucky and dodged the major pot holes…

Riding on the grass is demanding… Quite a work out.

One of my old skateboard buddies got on the board to try it around the park and did it pretty well without breaking himself. So that was also cool.

The Gravel Flux is such a tank… I love that board.

Yesterday ended up being 11 miles.
It was sweet to both use it to get to the party and as entertaiment while hanging out.

After getting home it was still super nice out, and I was feeling the groove still. So I took the GT for a 3 mile rip.