I guess it depends on your tolerance for durability. Sure those bikes are <12lb, but they’re also really fragile. My brother broke a bike frame running over a storm drain, and it wasn’t even that light at 1500g. For a skate example, Trampa’s Vertigo trucks were lighter versions of the Infinity trucks, and they also bent far more easily. Same with Kaly’s thin ABS enclosures vs the Flux ones. Lighter motors with less iron and copper also means less power and heat tolerance.
Otherwise, the deck is probably a good place to start. You’re only standing on two spots, no need to have all the extra deck in the middle, and wood is heavy.
I’m all for reducing weight as a lighter rider, but really for a MTB where terrain makes it more difficult. Not sure about the benefits of it in street boards, where the only benefit is carrying it… Especially as they are designed to be ridden!!
Lol thats exactly why i made the TUUB. It was a 54" deck with no flex that weighed ~2.6kg using the magical power of tubularity. Not very crash resistant though, being hollow and whatnot. The carrying advantage for that deck was more about being able to shoulder hoist it rather than just the weight, tbh
The deck between your feet does create torsional stiffness though, which is another important reason for a tubular deck. If you try to cut out the middle of a plank deck, or even just make a thinner deck with CF skin, you lose that stability. The amount of bias cloth needed to make it back mostly negates the weight savings in wood.
It could shave about 40% off of things like hangers (compared to aluminum) if replicated one to one, but any place with concentrated stress like a bolt mount would need to get beefed up a bit.
Reduce the battery size. Our boards usually have overkill range. If you just build a battery for the distance you plan on riding, then that can significantly cut down your weight.
Like who tf needs 60+ km range on a board? How do your feet last that long?
Adding to this, compact, silent, fast chargers would nullify the problem of reduced battery.
Adding some more… convenient swappable batteries cut weight. They allow you to take just as many batteries, and just as much weight as you need to get to your destination. You can cut battery weight for short distances and add weight for long distances.
Batteries have to be the biggest weight reduction there is. I have heard the Lipo brick packs used for RC cars are lighter but are more tricky to charge.
Absolutely Me. There comes a point where the soles of your feet become a bit desensitised and then the board becomes an extension of your legs. It’s like achieving nirvana.
…but I’d love to be able to swap out the pack for something smaller on certain occasions. Couldn’t agree more.
Well that included the carbon fork, without it’s probably closer to 1000g, which isn’t bad for an alloy bike. Never dropped, the storm drain hit it in a way that it kinked one of the rear frame tubes, and you can’t repair alloy (or CF for that matter).
This is very complex thema . Lot of things can be done. Unfortunately more lightweight parts mostly mean most expensive.On the other side heavy mean more robust design and also inertia effect which save Your battery.
But at first:
I mean that actually companies are very less using CAE tools to calculate effective design regarding required loads. Next point is , what is required loads? To decide value mean limit for some riders or limit of usage for board.
Next what will dramatically help is new batteries, more capacity in the same package. But question is safety. Actual level for safety of battery boxes we are using is “zero”. So probably safety increasing will in future add some grams to boards.
Unification is nex point. Board should be made way that You will need minimum equipment for maintenance or solving issues on your trip.So Your back will have less grams.
And last is that You should focus also in to helmet , protectors, clothing and all other things you are taking with You.
So basically all this mean that for weight reduction ,we need designed single purpose used boards , with weights limits:)
Yeah i tend to go for about 30km range just cruising. This bit me in the arse yesterday on a high speed track tho. Got about 15km in before i was sagging to soft cutoff
This was a rarity tho. There aren’t many occasions that i would drain a pack that quick and tbh, the 30km range is enough for the vast majority of my rides.
Extended parallel packs or charge and ride packs are the way to go. On the rare occasion that i know im gonna need more, i just need to remember to take an XR pack. I’d much rather keep the boards lighter for everyday riding.
I wonder it the hanger for a PKP truck could be made from forged carbon fiber since it has no pivot? As long as the axle is placed properly to avoid galvanic corrosion, it could be incredibly strong and light.
CF deck, GF enclosure, full titanium truck and motor mount, titanium hardware, no internal connector all direct soldered wires, forged carbon wheel hub, smol tire, pump helium into tube instead of air
what else? use multi-pin connector instead of putting bms in the board
that’s all i can think of, motor is the only thing that is kinda not possible to have weight reduction? or maybe change the motor can to even lighter metal
I think the deck and enclosure could be a great place to start when it comes to weight reduction.
For the trucks and motor mounts in titanium, I think this is going to be cost prohibitive. Also, titanium is not always the lightest material for every application. Forged aluminum parts could be lighter and stronger but expensive to produce too. Cranksets in cycling are forged.
Not sure how hard it would be to make a wheel hub out of forged carbon fiber but it has the potential to be pretty light.
Hardware like screws could save a little weight but could also be really expensive to do.
Not worth it. Esk8s are ludicrously expensive as it is.
Rolling resistance is ridiculous compared to a bicycle and unlike a bicycle you can just add a few more cells to increase range/power.
As already stated batteries and motors constitute the majority of the weight and not much can be done about them.
Could you build a 2-3kg lighter esk8 that cost 10.000 euro? Sure you could, the question is would it be any quicker/have longer range compared to one that cost 1/5th of that price?
