Personally I like the proto better for the thinner and wider enclosure. Can fit 12s5p in comparison to the thicker barrel enclosure that fits 12s4p. I like the stiffer feel of the barrel better than my dss60 deck. So for me I would love the proto profile with the stiffer feel of the barrel.
I’m mostly joking around because I think a decent portion of the proto’s desirability is that it was scarce.
interesting. I don’t recall if the deck was offered with different stiffness the way the lonestart/naz were. but I always thought he dss50/60 the only difference was battery pack.
I agree that for the ones i tried protos were more flexi than barrels
I consider the Prototipo to be a classic. It’s not the fastest, longest range board, but it has an amazing feel and ride quality - and it is simply beautiful to look at. I love the natural wood and carbon fiber mix.
The Nazare 12S6P is the board I ride the most. I can literally fall asleep while riding it. It is so predictable, stable, and smooth. Definitely one of my favorite decks ever.
I also have a Lonestar. I use this board for really long distance rides and adventure (exploring the city and suburbs). However, it is too heavy for being a daily commuter. It is also higher off the ground than the Nazare due to the bigger battery stack. I like the Nazare better than the Lonestar for this reason.
Lacroix built things to last and they certainly didn’t cut any corners in the production of these boards. I hope you can keep that trend alive at reasonable price points.
I seldomly use my lonestar, if the enclosure was more compact and the deck lower to the ground I’d probably use it more.
I’m not sure what other people find with these but what I found is:
Plastic bushes in the truck pivots were sloppy and only got worse quickly. I don’t know how long the bronze ones last people swap them to, I’ve just turned a bunch more plastic ones but more precise.
Battery was held together with shrink, and not securely mounted so the shrink broke and it rattled around until I packed the enclosure with foam.
Bearings in the drive pullies fell out and started clicking, loctite or spacers would have prevented.
One of the lights failed, it was the LED chip so not hard to replace.
Brass deck inserts couldn’t handle the weight of the battery. Stronger inserts and / or epoxy perhaps.
The charger constantly clicks when the batteries charged and annoys the shit out me when I’m sleeping.
Battery was 18S8P of 50E cells. I can empty it in one hour of just skating in a straight line so I assume higher discharge cells could be an improvement, perhaps the 50S would make an improvement.
Spring loaded self adjusting mounts always seemed to cause belt slip. I got some older ones with 4 bolts and they seem a lot better.
I’d like it if the front truck was a little narrower.
Also, the maytechs get way too hot, way too easily. New motors are on my shopping list.
I don’t think the brass ones are much better… they wear too. they also wear the “kingpin”
one thing that helps… but doesn’t fix some of jthe issues… is to make sure the “kingpin” nut locks down onto the shoulder bolt and does not overcompress the flange bushings. this has to be done by finicking around with shims to get the spacing right. this eliminates the nut coming lose causing slop and wear on the flanges from the slop. it prevents overcompression of the flanges which leads to slop. it does however slowly develop slop as the flanges wear out… which is faster than anyone wants.
Some friends are gonna try switching to dualities… i’m looking at my pocketbook and how little i ride the lonestar these days… and still wanting dualities. … but… holding back.
I have also noticed that needle roller bearings would fit the trucks. They don’t have an inner race, but rely on the surface of the kingpins, in this case to be hard enough. I have a spare from a bike frame rear suspension link and it measures up spot on. Would require plastic washers /shims on each side, and optionally a spacer between them just in case the press fit ever come loose. A sloppy rear end scares me on that thing at anything above 60kmh.
Damn, has everyone got one of them hats! I’ve got an enertion raptor 2.1 if that counts for anything?
I didn’t know the prototipo was rare. I gave mine a ravaging with a belt sander and threw a bunch of epoxy, glass and oak at it to double stack it with 18650’s. Got 12S10P in there and still has nice flex. Never rode it prior, picked it up used with a dead battery.
It was an odd situation where my wife’s friend didn’t have room for the embroidery machine in her house so we stored it in our craft space at home in return for access to it.
So yes, I got to make hats for a while but she has a new place now and took her machine with her so we would be working together.
She actually embroidered the Cincinnati Bengals logos on the cheerleader’s outfits this season.
