What do you think of the ride?
1 Like
I can see why you like the 8x3 more for street riding if you are after comfort. The sidewalls are super stiff on these. It feels connected to the road kinda like thane but with infinite grip, and I really like that. My consumption actually went down marginally compared to the 200x50 clevers, probably because of the sidewalls, so that’s an upside as well
I really need to tune the trucks properly. I seem to get speed wobbles every time I reach 45kph / 28mph. Maybe I should also apply balance weights to the rims to see if it helps. But I only have a couple short rides on it so far.
The weather is dry at least, but it’s super cold. My workplace is about 4 miles away, I could barely move my fingers from the cold when I got there yesterday. I love the extra control from the trigger style, but damn my fingers are cold in this weather. I will print a case for the gt2e that I can operate from my jacket’s pocket and that should fix this.
I am quite happy about the power so far, but until I manage to get the speed wobble tuned out I am not gonna push it too hard.
Also I need to figure out a way to light the track while doing t-race in the evening. The parking lot that I found that accommodates t-race is a shop’s that’s open every day. It closes quite late though and there’s not enough light for the track during weekdays right now. Should get better around april or may.
Right now the main priority is to counter that wobble at 28mph and go faster. I want stability until at least 35mph. It might actually be coming from the tyres as it’s always at the same speed, no matter what adjustments I tried so far. But it feels like it’s coming from the trucks. I suspect that for the bushings I am going to like white / green the best. But I don’t know how much preload I really need. I am not convinced regarding ride feel until I can tune this out.
3 Likes
The balance on the wheels sounds like the culprit but this is also why I’m moving way from channel trucks. They’re super awesome for lower speed stuff but a lot of us nowadays are doing everything on one board. Channels just don’t have the tunability (if that’s a word) like the apex airs or even Newbee TRKP. You can tighten them up but that’s just my experience. This is also the reason that my Dream Chaser build suffers a bit on the track.
@ShutterShock can vouch that at the beginning of practice at AVS, I was getting speed wobbles at like 33 mph. In the race, I pushed it all the way up to 44ish but my cheeks were clenched🤣. Anyways, balance those wheels and it should help a lot, if you have any questions about your setup too, I did A LOTTT of testing with different tires, trucks, drives and other goodies so just let me know!
4 Likes
Looking sweet! Do you have a link for that adhesive foam? Am keen to do the same but having issues finding the right foam
1 Like
Thanks! It’s this foam
https://amzn.eu/d/dzF8Jg3
But I only have the link for the german amazon. Should still help with finding the right search term hopefully
1 Like
For the numb trigger finger, sounds weird, but I put my whole hand inside a down camping bootie with the controller.
I didn’t balance the wheels just yet, but I’ve been t-racing yesterday.The toeside lap didn’t record, but I think it was really fast - I kept sliding around in corners. Even with the 9x3.5s. Turns out I need to have a separate “track” configured for it each direction in the racechrono app. I also crashed out a bit and broke the remote AA battery holder clips - so I had a very inconvenient dead man’s switch on the way home. lol It’s electrical taped together now.
Before that though, I could get times for my heelside.
15.16 single lap
15.16 15.17 15.41 3 lap challenge.
I felt more confident in the other direction, hopefully I can get out there today as well and time it finally. My first goal is to be under 30 sec combined - that should get me to the first page in the rankings.
Also, the board could go faster and the straight is long enough to accelerate and brake harder. I struggle a bit with the traction while braking, but once I get used to the board a bit more and sort out the balance of the tyres, I should be able to go faster on the straights that’s for sure.
I currently have the white/green setup and I like how the trucks feel right now!
2 Likes
Also I have a slight worry
Small rocks keep flying into where the cables come out of the footpad. Hopefully they are not going to cause issues…
a dab of black hot glue between the gaps?
3 Likes
It doesn’t stick the to silicone but it should stick to the heatshrink and the footpad… I will give it a try. These slicks keep throwing rocks everywhere lol
Thats perfect. It just creates a really easy to remove gap filler
1 Like
Awesome man. Put this info in T Race thread or facebook page so David can update.
Once you get comfortable times will keep dropping
1 Like
I will get it in there, I just want to have a toeside time too first
1 Like
Small update: I got the tyres balanced and hot glued the cable entry / exit at the footpad so that the rocks can’t get in.
Also finally got a toeside time today on the T-race - single lap 15.12, triple lap 15.17 15.31 15.16. Interesting how tight my lines were. I keep doing super tight lines on toeside. Not sure if that’s ideal.
I didn’t feel in the zone though and the weather was really bad. Windy and really cold, nearly freezing even. Hope I didn’t catch a cold 
The wobble is not present at 40-42 kph now. I haven’t got faster than that today though. Hopefully it’s not gonna come back at the race in Prague.
Today I could only push the tire to it’s limits once (while cornering). In this weather it’s impossible to heat up the tire to a decent temperature, but I still had enough grip, so that’s nice. However I need to practise braking - I keep losing traction while braking hard, so I have to brake too soft and early and this definitely sacrifices my speed in the straights. I can’t really predict where the limit is. Probably the tires being super cold doesn’t help with this.
The weather is not gonna be nice this week so I don’t know if I will have another session before the race in Prague. I really want to get under 30 seconds combined though. Hopefully it will happen at the next session. I definitely feel that there’s quite a bit of room for improvement.
4 Likes
@Swol_Moon I’ve been testing a bit today and the wobble is still there. 27-28mph. The wheels are balanced pretty much perfectly now - certainly much better balanced then before. I have managed to push over the wobble once reaching 31 mph, and the wobble didn’t come back but I was scared as heck so didn’t push it further than that. Also tried adjusting the bushings but didn’t help.
1 Like
This my friend is the issue I’ve found with channel trucks. I’m afraid short of changing your trucks, you will just have to learn how to be more stable at speed which sucks on a track. Every day riding isn’t as bad because you can hold a straight line longer and learn the pavement but like I said, track racing is tough.
1 Like
I couldn’t go over 27-28 mph in a straight line even. Not talking about track there…
Holy shit I just it figured out. Now I could push 33 mph in a straight line and there was no sign of a wobble. It was the tightness of the kingpin. And not that I didn’t tighten it properly - I did.
The issue was bad thread engagement at the kingpin. Only one metal tread was engaged and ~3 nylon threads. It wasn’t enough…
I added 4x washers on each side and tightened the kingpin again. Suddenly the board is stable… 33mph was no problem in a straight line, couldn’t try on the track yet though.
4 Likes
Been racing the board over the weekend. Took a trip to Prague with two friends
On Friday we were out at an outdoor gokart track
I was doing really well until the end. Managed to get a time of 55.60 sec, I think the best lap ever recorded on that track on esk8 is 51.20.
Then I got a wobble at 53kph / 33mph during the last lap before closing time. Don’t know where it came from. Maybe bad weight distribution, or too hard acceleration. In many laps I did 55kph/35mph in that straight without issue. Couldn’t correct it. Broke the gt2e case in half (it’s held together by hot glue now), smashed 2 of the rims into the ground so those run a little out of true now. Bruised my stomach but it’s not bad at all. And because I didn’t use a glove on my remote hand, I lost a lot of skin from there 
My knox action pro crash pants along with a tsg dhp kneepad saved my lower half. I ripped my jeans with like a 15cm / 6 inch tear and slid on the crash pant underneath - it shows zero sign of the whole incident. Also smashed my other thigh pretty hard into the asphalt, the side protection in the crash pant took the impact well. Don’t think I would have been able to do the race the day after if I didn’t have that crash pant on. I am planning to get an abrasion and impact resistant shirt from knox after this fall. Also my new alpinestar sm5 motocross helmet saved my head. Don’t think I would have a chin if I didn’t wear a full face… And I was out for a few seconds. So probably getting a motocross helmet was a good call. Didn’t get a concussion, felt completely fine afterwards (other than the missing skin and ruined confidence).
I’ll cut down my slide glove’s finger so that I can use the remote with the glove, and get used to it. Don’t want to repeat this injury in the future…
After the fall there was a group ride in the evening, managed to piece together the remote by then
And then came race day. I played it safe, didn’t want to take a fall again. I was already holding the remote in a bandaid afterall… And also didn’t really trust the grip of the painted indoor surface, and definitely didn’t want to exceed the grip limit. In qualifying I got 8th out of 32, so just about managed to get into the best category. In the first heat someone crashed right in front of me at the start line so I lost a few seconds there and I also took it easy, dropped right down to the 3rd category. There I just catched up with the people ahead and took two overtakes, and ended up with a time that took me into the 2nd category. Then there was a direction change on the track, and I felt much more natural in that direction, but always got held up by someone without a good opportunity to overtake (even though I was just cruising basically). Ended up 13th out of 32. If I didn’t fall the day before I probably could have gotten like 6th or 7th place.
Fabi was chasing me for a bit during practise and took a video
The evening after the race there was a small group ride with a few beers
The 9x3.5s stiff sidewalls feel awful on cubblestone, so definitely not the ideal tire for a group ride in Prague 
Had great fun over the weekend, hopefully my hand will heal up soon! Can’t wait to get used to the board completely and go to more races!
5 Likes
Damn, that hole in your hand is no joke. Props to you for getting back on the board so quickly after a spill like that. It’s easy to get spooked for a little bit.
I also agree that the @Boardnamics kingpin needs to either be a few mm shorter so you get full thread engagement, or more spacers/washers are needed like you ran. I think I put a couple extra washers on mine too.
Also as we were travelling to Prague, we had to emergency brake on the highway and the battery moved a bit, breaking the on off switch into pieces
I’ve sent makerx a pm asking if it’s possible to order an extra one, I need a dv4s for my summerboard anyways. In the meantime I need to hold the switch together by hand and it’s still working, but kinda annoying having to take the battery out everytime I want to turn the board on
And today I’ve been out riding with some friends
And as we were nearly home, I jumped a speed bump, and the motor moved in the gear drive.
Also somehow the shaft of the motor managed to scratched the gear drive casing
I have no idea how that could’ve happened as the shaft is still in its place (doesn’t look like it moved in the motor) and if I have the casing on its not scratching it at the moment - and also it wasn’t scratching it when I assembled it.
I’ve also full throttled quite a few times today, but somehow the metr log only shows 135-140A max per side? I managed to log 175A or so before, so kinda strange that I don’t see the full amps on the log. Now that I am getting used to the power, it’s not super hard to launch it at full throttle. And I will never use the top speed. So I’ll definitely need to make a 1:8 gear drive or something.
Anyways I’ll throw together the drive tomorrow, I am too tired to fix it today.
4 Likes