RE - Visiting Lou: Integrated short board

Smallest build challenge inspired me to take a swing at bringing back to life my most favourite board ever - Lou.

As you can see I had the board running in 1Wd configuration with Board dynamics gear drive and truck system. I had a single Makers vesc running it from a 10s2P battery with no BMS.

Functionality wise It would be stupid to reduce this set up even more, but I also just bought the MK 1 Pro, so I can alow myself to have the Lou as a novelty item, but a working one

So I wanna drop some weight from it. I am probably keeping the 10s2p, but would like to change my transmission.

Gear drive to a plastic pulley and a belt.

BN truck to a more narrow one and the Paris truck to the Alu one.

The wheels I had are crazy heavy, not sure on size / style for now.

So I have a few questions:

The lightest motor mount is the carbon one from exertion? That is unabtotinium?

What’s the second lightest?

Thought of going single hub, but probably no single hub actually worth it?

Should I go for an even smaller motor and just gear it crazy high?

How’s the compatibility of components these days?

Any other suggestions you would have?

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For reducing weight your primary concern should be the weight of the wheels, as there’s 4 of them and they are probably the heaviest part to begin with. I suggest looking into either some ~80mm LDP wheels or Ahmyo Akasha wheels (76mm, kegel core, and suprisingly good comfort with similar or perhaps just a tiny bit better grip to orange orangatangs)

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These are magical.

I don’t think you can buy them anymore. If you see some let me know.

I think the next best small wheel in comfort will be the blue Orangatangs.

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If you can get hold of 1 Loaded hub, that will work well. Then use Caguamas for the other 3 wheels

This was what i did with a Lou build as well, but a bit more weird.

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Good tips so far, thank you guys. Now I am a bit sad I sold my blue kabinamas, they where very light. I should probably do a bit more research, since the board is fairly stealth l looking I’m thinking of going a single hub way, I doubt I would find a loaded hub setup. The meepo single hub board is in my mind.

Could someone in general recommend a light hub and a light rear truck? Probably aluminium.

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Chatgtp Found a listing on a German site from a local guy selling Lou 2.0. So this miracle arrived today. I can’t believe I fitted a 10s2p battery seeing how small the original is.

Battery is good for probably 2km. But never the less I love it. Not really sure on the game plan here, parts are not really selling and I don’t wanna buy something while putting something to collect dust.

I think the Gen 1 version will be converted back to It’s “original” form with a gear drive, 10s2p battery and makers vesc, so I only need to make a battery pack and the thing is moving. I forgot how hard these ride on cobble stones tho..

Probably putting blue caguamas back on it, price and weight vise.

On the Gen 2 I am definitely keeping the original hub motor, but the original battery capacity wise is not cutting it, would love to keep it as much as possible in an original form, but that esc will probably be gutted and I probably will need another one of those tiny makers X vescs to fit another 10s2pack. Not sure on the future wheels still.

I am actually after another Gen 1 board, which if bought would change the plans a bit. I need to re check if the carbon decks are actually just a bit beeper and 20700 battery might fit.

But nothings unfortunately decided/bought. I am very interested in a single belt drive configuration with venoms and 50** size motor with a 15mm setup.

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It’s amazing that a hub drive is heavier than a gear or belt drive.

Lou has a smaller hub motor. I will weight all the components separately, but I believe my single BN steel gear drive with 6355 seems heavier actually.

I did managed to buy one more Gen 1 board.

So the current plan would be the one with geardrive stays with geardrive, the carbon one will get a second hub motor from the one just bought, and some small vesc, and the one just bought will be made as light one as possible.

If you want light weight, look into the HW motors used by Exway Ripple, or the ones on the Backfire Nalu, or the ones on that meepo crusier board that also has a 75mm dia. Those 2WD 75mm could probably get you some better weight and performance compromises than just running a 90mm 1WD.

I will keep the original hubs on one board, and the other will get a caliber truck with trammpa carbon mount and pulley system, and probably maytech 5065 motor.