My Esk8s. A journal of sorts

[rafaelinmissouri]

So the funny thing about me working on the Haero last night is that I wanted to get it ready to tow to be able to pick up the kids from school…

But they did not have school today.

I took the boys out on the trailer for the Mayden Voyage of the Tow-Haero.

And it worked.
And I tooled around on the playground riding on a bunch of bumpy grass and it did fine.

I set the Haero up for torque and the chain mostly works.
So it towed fine.

Tooling around on the playground was fun.
I didn’t fall so that is always good.

The performance of the Haero is great.
I am just not happy with the trucks or the deck and truck combo…
Maybe don’t try to ride Mountain Board decks without bindings and hope for something magical.

But it breaks my heart.
It’s such a cool looking set up.
But I think I need to do something different.

I’ll maybe give it a go with the riptide bushings.

The Gravel Flux for one I ride a ton.
But I really did something great there.
The giant platform allows me to really move around and maneuver. And I can hang on pretty well through bumps.
Bindings didn’t really seem to be the thing for me. So giant board it was.

A couple of annoyances popped up as well.
Chain came off while riding on grass…

And the freaking power button on the mini broke… So I can’t turn it off…
So I need to crack that open. I was not planning on a Z.mote from the second wave for the Haero…

Anyways.

Definitely more good than bad.
I just have some work to do.
It was fun riding and getting out with the boys.
So the Haero came in clutch while the Gravel Flux is out…

[fujio001]

Would you like to try a wider version? Maybe 80mm?

[rafaelinmissouri]

Yeppers!!!

[rafaelinmissouri]

Well fuck!!!

[fujio001]

Is the deck delaminating?

[zero_ads]

@rafaelinmissouri

Bindings didn’t really seem to be the thing for me. So giant board it was.

Have you tried just a single binding?

[rafaelinmissouri]

Yeah. The time finally came for my dear Demonseed.
The first of the giants…

[rafaelinmissouri]

not really.
I might have ran with just one before but I wasn’t trying to make it a thing.

I got somewhat used to just foot bindings.
Heel straps were used relatively little.

To be honest I just didn’t vibe with it and it always caused fear in the back of my mind.

I imagine if I dedicated time to a bindings set up I could get into it… But I worry too much breaking myself.

[fujio001]

It would be cool to see a ski binding set up that would release with enough for applied at the right angles.

[rafaelinmissouri]

Anyways the work must go on, right.

It was pretty chilly out tonight so I didn’t get out for a night ride.

I did a tiny bit of tinkering and got the Haero remote going.

I Drop some solder to short the switch.

Drill a hole on the top and put the new little switch into it and hot glue.

Then hook the switch wires to one of the battery wires.

Easy breezy.

And I like to add Jessup grip tape for better hold.

The switch works really well.
It is easy to click with gloves on. And generally turning the remote on and off on the go is super easy.

It can. Be a little sketchy in a pocket and it’s possible to click it on by accident.

[rafaelinmissouri]

I had a nice sunset ride on the GT.
Mellow vibes.
Only 3.6 miles.

Super fun. Seems like good exercise.
Lovely views.

I definitely love having the Onewheel in the mix.

With that I did almost 30 miles today.

Not bad for a Monday…

[rafaelinmissouri]

Oh yeah.
We have some exciting stuff that showed up today.

These so nice to look at and hold @Razillian

I am pumped about getting it set up.
Riptide Bushings show up on Monday.
And I need to drill out the truck clamps.

But oh man oh man, these parts are gorgeous.

[Razillian]

I hope they feel as good as they look when you test them out

[rafaelinmissouri]

Doing it right dangit.
Today I stacked almost 46 miles!!!

4.6 mile morning warm up on the GT.

Then 5.1 miles on the Tow-Haero.
Strictly towing.
It did a great job.

I had to go to the Bank and took the Khymera.
Did 11.9 miles.
I am stoked on how the Khymera runs and feels.
I expect it will only get better when I slap Radium adapters on there.
But loved every bit of the ride today.

Right as I got back I took the GT to try to go vote and did 2.3 miles
The line was long so I decided to come back later.

So a bit later I took the Flux to go vote.
No line in and out quick…
So I took the extra long way home and did 9 miles.

I continue to be giddy about the lights on the Z.mote. they always make me happy.

It was a pretty nice night with a bright moon.

So I hit Benji up and we went riding and did 13 miles.

I was really feeling the groove on the Flux.
The Green White combo continues to grow on me more each time I ride.
It’s loose but I still seem to have really good control.
I still don’t think I go over 30 though.

Benji has Evolve 7 inch tires on the Zeus and he super sent it down a hill by the school that has a radar sign thing and hit 35mph on that!!!

He was booking…

[rafaelinmissouri]

Rolling down the block on the Dinghy.

Fun to be had for sure.

New video by Rafael Stoutz

[rafaelinmissouri]

Something pretty special came together today.

The 76mm Ahmyo Akashas FR went onto the Rally Cat.

Not too long ago I got the DH Akashas that you can still get direct from Ahmyo.
And I had them on the Omakase and then the Demonseed DKP.

And they are nothing short of magical.

@Razillian hooked me up with the FR ones that are narrower and unobtanium.

And they are officially my smallest esk8 wheels.

Here they are next to the Caguamas.
That up until recently I thought were the most magical wheels.

I decided to slap these on the Rally Cat because it did not quite feel right.

I wanted a more plush ride with it and used Caguamas instead of Kegels… But that made it too clunky.

I also loosened up the bushing set up.

It looks amazing to me.

And I got to take it out after work.

And yeah.
This is what this board needed.

These tiny wheels were such a big change for this set up and it just turned out so good.

I didn’t leave the neighborhood and go on really rough routes…

But this is another set up to go and chase freshies with and for that it’s glorious.

Here is me riding it up the street over to the neighborhood freshies.

New video by Rafael Stoutz

[rafaelinmissouri]

There really was quite of bit of esk8 action today.

I ended up stacking up 35 miles.

Did some tinkering.

Got some cool stuff put together.
May have broken some stuff…

But the esk8 vibe is about to change.
Today was the last of the glorious days of fall.
And temperatures are about to tank.
And it is not super helpful that it is dark at 5…

But at least I got a lot of action in these recent nice days.

I took the boys on and adventure at lunch on the Tow-Haero.
Took the long way home.
Did 9.5 miles.

Little dude was out out.

I got out a bit later again on the Tow-Haero for school pick up. But I didn’t meander too much.

The after work ride was the real excitement getting out on the updated Rally Cat.
Although I only did 4.4 miles they were super enjoyable.

A bit later the little dude needed a distraction so we went over to the bench.

I got new trucks for the Rayne Crush ( I plan on doing a little write up of putting the Crush together)

Had Blue Paris 2 50s and I got Green ones because that seemed like an important upgrade…

So then I go and take the Crush out and it is a super cool concept.

Not much power.
But man it sure resembles a regular longboard…

About 3 Miles into the ride I notice a loss of power…
And sure enough one of the motors had come unplugged. Happened once before.

I had a hard time plugging it back in so I just pushed it home. I was close and it was mostly mellow downhill.

And yeah apparently there was ab arc between two of the phases.

I am not sure if bad things happened or if I just clean it up and plug it in and run motor detection everything will be fine.

I hope it’s fine.
I love this board.

Time passed… Kids went to bed… Temperature tanked dowb to 40…

But I decided I wanted to go out.
And I decided to slap the 7 inch tires from the Khymera on the Flux.

You guys know I love the Flux. And I have been quite happy with Kendas.
I have had some wobbly ones here and there, but the ones on here now are good.

But I have been wanting to try new tires.
I want to try the Trampa 9 inch roadies Skyart had on the board he was selling.
I love the 9inch mbs on the Gravel Flux…
But that is a bunch of money…
I have long pondered 7s. And today I just took them out of the Khymera and slapped them on.

Took only 6 minutes to get the 7s on the Flux.

And then I went out in the cold and did 8 miles.

And there was nothing I did not like.

I think the 7s ran smoother than the 8s.

I liked how the board behaved turning wise.

But what I liked the best was the added torque going from 200 to 175 takes off 4-5 miles of theoretical top speed, but it was a delightful added punch in torque.

And I think I will enjoy the torque more than the top end.

I gotta give this concept some more action and see if I stick with the 7s.

[glyphiks]

@rafaelinmissouri

arc between two of the phases.

I’m not sure they could arc that far dude. I would be more inclined to think that the connector worked itself loose and the arcing occurred just because it had come undone so far

This is the main reason i dislike panel mounting the amass connectors.

If you put a tiny bit of hot glue on the plastic/plastic connection it holds pretty good, but still, not ideal.

[xsynatic]

Really love your dedication of having that many boards and actually riding them.

[EDness]

@xsynatic

Really love your dedication of having that many boards and actually riding them.

it’s amazing how he rides all his boards. I don’t ride enough and thinking of selling a couple of my boards.