NewBee: The Neverending DIY Nightmare

Product Warnings
,
1

Hi everyone, I’d like to share my experience with NewBee. Maybe it’ll help you decide whether to order from them or not. Fair warning: this will be a bit of a long ride.

June 18, 2023 – The Dream Begins

Placed my first order: a Gear Drive (ratio 11/38) and Trampa Vertigo clamps.

As soon as the package arrived, I noticed something was off. The clamps were wrong. Completely different from what I ordered.

No biggie, I just wanted to ride again since my board was out of commission. So I sanded the clamps down to make them fit my Trampa IR trucks.

Then I noticed something odd during the install—some parts were already pre-assembled. The big gear was already bolted to the hub adapter. Cool, less work for me! I assembled everything, and it was awesome. Love at first ride.

But… after just a few rides, something started grinding.

Took the gear drive apart and surprise! The pre-assembled parts had zero threadlock. Nada. All the screws had come loose and started rubbing against things. To top it off, a few teeth on the small plastic gears broke.


July 23, 2023 – Hello? Anyone There?

Wrote to NewBee to claim warranty. No response.

So on July 28, 2023, I tried Facebook. Bingo! They responded. We agreed they’d send replacement parts for what broke. All went smoothly, although I had to pay shipping and customs. Fine.

Installed everything, and it was running great again. I didn’t even need to use the replacement big gears—they were still okay.

October 7, 2023 – Not Again

Three months later, the small plastic gears broke. Again.
Mind you, no jumping, just riding roads on a Flux Motion board.

Response?


:smiley:

Asked how much new gears would cost. Answer: $60.
Yeah, no thanks. Not for something that’s failed twice already.

Asked if they could make them from metal. Answer: Too expensive.
Okay… maybe they could at least send me the 3D file so I can get them CNC’d?

Shockingly—they said yes! Big respect for that. Not many companies would do this.

Late 2023 – The DIY Era

Tried printing the gears at home. Nope. Not precise enough.

Asked a friend to do SLS printing—better quality. Worked… up to around 3000W, then they exploded again.

In November 2023, I discovered PCBWay does metal 3D printing. Bit pricey, but cheaper than buying a whole new gear drive. Worth a shot?


They arrived and looked fantastic. I had hope again!

Then This Happened…

A few months later, NewBee announces:
They’re now selling metal gears.

Are you kidding me?!

Few months later, my 3D printed gears fall apart anyway, damaging the motor gears too.

Great. Now I’ve got nothing to ride. And no other gear drive fits my needs for hear ratio.

July 2024 – Let’s Try Again (Because I Never Learn)

Ordered the correct clamps (maybe I’ll get the right ones this time?)

And all-metal gears!

They arrived. The clamps were correct… kinda. But again, they didn’t fit. Had to sand them down. Again.

Yay! It rides!
Hope it lasts…

September 28, 2024 - It Didn’t last

So here we go again.
Wrote to NewBee asking if they sell the large gear.
Nope. Not in stock, and won’t be again.

Asked if they could at least send me the 3D model.
Radio silence. Wrote several times—no reply.

That’s it. I’m done. Goodbye gear drive. Hello chain drive.

Bonus: a friend of mine who knows the NewBee guy personally tried to ask for the model.
Apparently… NewBee doesn’t even have it anymore. :joy:

June 17, 2025 – Final Gamble

Looking for a MakerX GO-FOC DV6S ESC. Can’t get it in Europe. Shipping from the US costs half the ESC’s price. I need a heatsink too.
Hey—NewBee has it in stock!
Should I risk it?

Well, there’s no warranty on ESCs anyway, so… what could go wrong?

July 8, 2025 – TODAY – You Guessed It

Package arrived. Nicely packed. I do a dry fit and… surprise!




The ESC doesn’t fit the heatsink. Screw holes are drilled in the wrong spots.

Everything was ordered according to their product page!



Wrote to NewBee.

Think they’ll reply? :slight_smile:

Final Thoughts

Yes, I made some mistakes—like not checking the threadlock or not contacting them immediately about the wrong clamps. My urge to ride outweighed my common sense. That’s on me.

But still—not a single order went right.
And even though there was some effort from NewBee to handle the issues, it all ended in silence.

I’m out. :skateboard:

8 Likes
2

Sorry about your unfortunate experience. Hopefully it sheds light for others to make their decisions upon.

5 Likes
3

What type of metal and method of printing did PCBway use for your printed metal gears? I’ve been using SLM 316 stainless herringbone gears in one drive and SLM 704ph stainless in another without issue so far.

2 Likes
4

Honestly, I can’t find any order confirmation in my email, which is why I didn’t mention it in my original post—I just don’t remember. I think it was aluminum, and that’s where the problem started, but I don’t want to lie.
Anyway, how long have you been using 3D printed gears? I’d love to hear about a solution that actually works in such cases. After all, I still have a gear drive at home with all the parts—except for the large gears. :smiley:

5

Did you installed the drive in the correct orientation? Ik that Newbee drives are directional and you have to install them on the right side.

1 Like
6

Do you think that would cause his gear issues? ive never seen anyone break so many gears

7

Yep, it was the right direction.

1 Like
8

By the way, I’m not the only one. My friend also had the first version of the gear drive from Newbee, just with a higher gear ratio. The exact same thing happened to him—I think twice. I’m not sure if he’ll speak up here, so I don’t want to speak on his behalf.

1 Like
9

Bummer you had a rough go. Newbee stuff has always treated me well (couple sets of 4GS, etc). I know he’s been pretty wrapped up in the launch of the new board line (Rev Phantom X). I didn’t even know he had released a 38/11 drive, I thought 44/11 was the smallest.

2 Likes
10

That’s why I don’t like POM gears, you kinda have to baby them.

7 Likes
11

Found your problem.

If it’s not steel, it’s not worth having.

3 Likes
12

minor counter point. I ran a long time on the last iteration of Moon’s pom gears. on my proto. (i broke some and he modified them) I did not baby them.

mostly 3.666:1 gearing (44/12) on 150mm wheels.

3 Likes
13

Only for a couple months. I’ve got about 400 miles on the 316 gears in my Double Agent build, but they’re pretty rough miles. Inspected the gears last weekend and everything looks great. Made the gears mod 1.1 at a reduction of 5.

The better 17-4ph gears are installed in an Apex Jump Drive. Not a fan of this board though so they don’t have too many miles. Need a better ESC and better motors. Everything I’ve read says they’ll last longer than the 316 gears.

1 Like
14

Been running for 5 years now and only broke 3 gears. 2 were from bad crashes, 1 was my fault. They just chew up when they break. I’ll keep using them.

2 Likes
15

Yep. As frustrating/expensive as broken plastic gears are, I’d prefer their failure mode than the failure mode of steel on steel :skull_and_crossbones:

1 Like
16

Have you had a steel gear failure?

2 Likes
17

I’ve had a bolt lock up my steel gears, similar to what was described in the original post. Came from the manufacturer without loctite. It locked up for a second then was able to somehow chew through it. Luckily this was on dirt so that tire just slid. Even after that the steel teeth looked fine. Are steel teeth failures common? Used to break POM all the time but have never had a gear tooth issue since using steel.

2 Likes
18

No, but i’ve had a motor failure with steel gears that resulted in an exploded heel. It sucked.

5 Likes
19

I memba those feet pics :eyes::rofl:

5 Likes
20

Who could forget :skull_and_crossbones: i would have preferred broken gears

1 Like