Revel at the "brand" new competitor in the direct drive Esk8 race!

Yeah unfortunately those probably won’t work, any kind of a drop is just problems haha

Oh so you already sent it in

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Unless I can find 4 hub motors that weigh less than 5 kg together …

This isn’t really the place for this, but why are you trying to do 4wd in the neo one deck anyway, how could you fit all that esc and battery in there. Just do 2wd lol it’s a short board

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Would like to have good torque and keep it looking as much as possible like a pushboard, since esk8 is illegal in Germany.

@BillGordon can you upgrade @aaronmjr

@aaronmjr:
That sound could be underlubricated bearings or it could be friction from the adapters. I notice the sound only happens under accelleration and braking. The first two things that I would try are as follows:

1 Lubricate inner and outer motor and wheel bearings with speed cream. Make sure the Axle nuts are not too tight. Make sure you have not omitted the bearing spacers or speed rings.
2 remount the adapters but be careful to tighten the machine screws incrementally and in an X pattern.
Tighten top. Tighten bottom, Tighten left, Tighten right, repeat about 3 times to achieve snug fit but don’t over tighten. This tightening pattern is similar to how mechanics tighten the lug nuts on a car wheel. If you crank down just one bolt all the way while leaving the others loose, then you can pull the adapter off center. That’s why the x tightening pattern is important. Don’t overtighten the machine screws or you can deform th adapter. You can also use blue loctite.

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Hey Hans:
So it looks like you preferr hub motors to direct drive because hub motors look more like manual skateboard wheels – because electirc skateboards are not legal in Germany.

I did a bit of"German Electric Skateboard Laws" research. I see that you and others have been posting in another thread about the German laws and how slow they are changing? At present, Is this still true? …

If it is, then my suggestions would be as follows:

  1. If the police are not actually enforcing the laws, then just don’t wory about it and ride whatever you want. You probably would not be looking for an undetectable eskate if the laws were not being enforced but I thought I’d ask. There are lots of places where electric skateboards are not legal but in practice the cops think they are really cool and give a thumbs up when the electric skateboards ride past.

  2. Buy a legal electric scooter, cut the back off of it and bolt a revel kit to the rear end. Then figure out how to hook up the revel kit remote to a handlebar throttle. I don’t think it would be to hard. I’ve been thinking about doing something like this with an old razor scooter that has a degraded lead acid battery.

  3. Put together any type of electric skateboard and bolt a fixed handle bar to the front. From a distance it would look exactly like a scooter but it would function exactly like a skateboard.

It turns out they actually make such a product:

http://www.maronad.com/index.php?id_category=175&controller=category&id_lang=3

The youtube reviewer hated it for use in his skate park on a short board. However, if you had a nice long electric long board and you only put your forward hand on the handlebar and you rode with a normal longboard stance, then it would not really interfere wiht your ride. You could also mount the handlebar on the rear. and rest your trailing hand on it. Either way it would save you bending over to pick up your board to cross intersections.

I’m probably going to get ridiculed for suggestion number 2 and 3. But if your objective is to blend in with something that is legal in germany, then why not try to blend in with the legal electric scooters instead of trying to disguise your electric skateboard as a manual one. The thing that really gives a way an electric skateboard is not the battery and motors, Its the fact that you are traveling 20 kph or more up hill without pushing.

Also, i suspect manual skateboards are also illegal in germany so why try to disguise an illegal electric skateboard as an illegal manual skateboard.

Technically, the Revel Kit will work with any dropdown deck if you cantilever the battery off the back end of the deck. One modification is required. You need to remove the trucks, rotate them 180 degrees , insert two risers between the trucks and the baseplate and then bolt it all back together. You can use rubber flooring instead of risers. Then there is an optional modification which is to reverse the motor wires and sensors left to right. That way when you start your revel kit, the motors are automatically in forward mode.

There is a second way to mount the revel kit on a dropdown deck that involves top mounting the battery. You can disassemble the trucks and motor wires. Drill a wire passage in the middle of the bolt holes, then pass the motor and sensor wires through the passage. You also need to drill a wire passage through the middle of the revel Kit bolt pattern. Then you assemble everything wiht the trucks below the deck and everything else top mounted and facing up. You have a choice of mounting the battery hanging off the back or facing forward. If you choose facing forward you have less standing room but you do get an effective foot hook that you could use to hold your feet to the deck. If you cantilever the battery off the back then you don’t loose any standing room. You also have the advantage of being able to turn the drive system on and off from the top of the board.

Here is an example of top mounted and cantilevered off the back.

image

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That looks super cool but its way above my level of expertise lol. Maybe one day I’ll do something like that. For now I’ll stick to just mounting on flat decks I guess. Thank you for the detailed instructions tho! Saved for the future.

Gonna drop this here just to help spread the word, now i know some people dont think there is nothing wrong with the revel kit performance wise but me as well as other users who bought this not only for its uniqueness and modularity but also for good performance. Again some of you may not agree with me but im looking at this from a competitive price to performance standpoint so take what i said in this long video with a grain of salt.And i dont hate revel kit or revelboards i really love the product and the company i just want them to improve and become better as well as the current kits and future kits be mid to high tier performing esk8 products that alot of people would consider riding!!

@Takachi14

I do most of my group rides with friends that have Lacroix, High performance DIY and other Revel Kit 4WD. None of us are uniimpressed with the capabiliites of the other riders machines. However, the 4WD revel kit riders do carry spare batteries and we do ride on Speed 3 for most of the ride and we switch up to Speed 4 for the sprints and races. None of the Revel Kit riders rely on standard range batteries. Those stay at home for the day we need to hop on an airplane.

So I could not make it all the way through your 30 minute video. I made it 15 minutes in and then I stopped because I was hearing the same thing in a loop. So maybe you had more to say but I could not get there.

What you did say was factually true but I feel the message was tainted by expectations. I’m not saying there is no value in what you say. Everyone has different expectations. Here is my take on the gap between your expectations and the product.

  1. You talk about riding on speed 4. I think most riders eventually learn to do most of their riding on Speed 3 and to switch to speed 4 when you want to race or show off what your revel kit can do. If you ride around in Speed 4 all the time,then you are burning fuel for no purpose. So take advantage of the ability to change speed levels and you may be more satisfied. Switching speed levels during a ride is something that experienced riders do regardless of which brand they ride.

  2. The standard range battery is sized to get on an airplane. The expectation when you plane lands should be basic low performance, short range transportation from the hotel to somewhere close by. That’s all you can get from an airline sized battery. However, if you stay on speed 3, then your will be surprised how far your travel battery can take you. Switch to speed 2 and you will go even further. The speed settings are not there to limit your top speed, they are there to allow you to control your range. On speed 4, with a 2WD Revek Kit, a travel battery can only take me 2 - 4 kilometers. On Speed 2 & 3, It can take me 8 km. So it can be a useful battery depending on how you use it.

  3. You look to be over 6 feet and over 200 pounds. In my opinion, you should be a 4WD candidate. i don’t think you would be disappointed with the 4WD Revel Kit performance. In my riding group, the only machines that can beat it are extremely well built DIY boards with very large batteries and $5000 boards like the Lacroix. The same could not be said of the 2WD kit carrying a 200 pound rider.

  4. The acceleration characteristics of the Revel Kit favor a very soft start. Most boards will beat the Revel Kit off the start for the first second or two. However a 4WD Revel Kit catches up and passes most of them. There are two advantages to the power curve. Firstly, it extends range to far beyond what batteries of this capacity would normally get. Secondly, It allows any rider to accelerate with the confidence that they are not going to be thrown off the back if they are clumbsey with the remote. So in practice, I see Revel Kit riders doing much better in drag races compared to machines that are theoretically capable of easily beating the Revel Kit. The Revel Kit Braking characteristics also lend it to beating machines that are theoretically much faster. And the ability to customize the deck and wheels also lends the Revel Kit to much better high speed stability compared to equivalently priced prebuilt systems.

  5. It is unfortunate that your XR battery is not functioning. Broken nickle strips is a problem. They do get replaced under warranty and Revel Kit is working on improving/preventing the fault. So what you say is true and your expectations of a battery not breaking are reasonable.

  6. On the topic of Group rides, a Revel Kit rider needs multiple batteries. If you only have one XR battery then you just don’t have enough capacity for most group rides. The solution is more batteries. The Travel batteries are not much use on group rides.

  7. Your desire for a super sized battery is 50/50 on the line of reasonable/impractical expectations.
    Large swappable batteries create dimensional problems. If they are thicker, they scrape on the ground. If they are longer they pivot down and get caught in pot holes or smash against curbs. The Revel Kit XR battery has the right dimensions in my opinion. If you want higher performance, or are a heavy rider then the simple solution is 4WD. The alternate solution is to get creative and parallell in a second battery. Its not hard.

  8. You have compared the 2WD Revel Kit performance with that of boards that have both a price and a battery that is twice as large. That’s not an apples to apples comparison. Trade up to 4WD and then both the price and the battery capacity will favor the Revel Kit.

So i’m not saying you are wrong. I just think your expectations of a 2WD kit with a single swappable XR battery seem to be too high for your weight. I think the same is true of your travel battery expectations.

I did enjoy the first 15 minutes of your video. It makes me want to do some head to head performance comparisons between the 4WD Revel Kit and some equivalently priced systems.

You might want to think about editing the repetition out of your video or starting fresh with a script that covers the points in a single pass.

I would encourage you to consider 4WD with a total of four XR batteries. That should satisfy you if you want a high performance long range system for group rides. Or consider parallell wiring in any large capacity battery if you want something lighter than 4WD.

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Yeah i do broken record the same thing but i dont think that 2wd comparison price to performance vs. a meepo nls pro or zealot is a bad really apples to apples since both those boards has lower watt motors and just slightly higher capacity packs at 288wh and 311wh but i definitely agree with you on using the XR battery solely for the best performance its just the amount of money sink to get the best performance can be the main turn away in alot of peoples view; 4wd with 2 xr batteries being $1.2k and then adding another $500 for two more xr batteries for a total of 1.7k is a steep price imo but ya know that really falls to the individual and im happily waiting for the slow arrival of my 2nd kit for 4wd so i can see the real best performance that the current kit has to offer.And im not over 200 pounds im 170 pound range but height you got right. And i do see what your saying regarding ST is meant to be a airplane pack. And ive done tons of rides and speeds test and changed different components with my kit to get the most out of it like this is my day to day board, has been for a while now. And i usually ride in speed mode 4 to really get a good measurement on how much range a battery can do because i personally feel that its to easy and giving the board a advantage by cruising in a lower speed mode. Lastly ill hit up Revel indefinitely to get them to check up on my XR battery pack and get it fixed when i get my other kit because currently dont want to lose the extra range even if its is random what range i get on my XR battery currently for when i go out to work or group rides.

I mean the main point of the Revel kit is that it can go on any non-drop deck, easily. I think you’re overlooking that fact when you compare it to the nls or the zealot. It’s a significant selling point. Not necessarily perfect value, range or acceleration, but the fact that you could put it onto a different deck in 5 minutes, or switch the wheels in 5 minutes is the selling point in my opinion.

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Yeah thats apart of the selling points of the revel kit but thats not what im looking at when im comparing it to other products i look at hot swappable batteries, interchangable deck swaps and a spring loaded remote as just the features that this product provides over others.

Personally yes features play a role in me buying it but performance is more so what im after outside of what i want feature wise from the product.

Make sure the wheel adapter is very tight. Mine was making not an unsimilar noise and it was because the adapter was loose. It kept becoming loose until I added an additional spacer.

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The exact reason I got the Revel kit. I can do easy deck swaps, wheel changes and just buy extra batteries if and when I want more range. And I don’t have to worry about belts. For the most bang for buck I got myself a Meepo V3 ER.

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So if you have ordered a second Kit you should contact them ASAP to see if they can send you a replacement battery in the same shipment. Shipping cost of single batteries is very expensive so asking for the replacement now might save money for everyone and get you your replacement faster. I recommend that you send them a very short 30 second (not minutes :wink:) video that illustrates that the batery is not functioning or not taking a charge.

So I wrote a massive response to your video and in that massive response its easy to overlook one item or another.

So I wanted to repeat that most riders who go on long group rides learn to operate in a lower speed mode for most of the journey and to shift into speed 4 only for the sprints. This technique is applicable across all brands from boosted boards to Evolves, to entry level chinese econo boards.

The top speed mode provides maximum acceleration response so every time you wiggle the remote, you are throwing away range. If you ride at a constant 20 kph for 15 minutes on Speed 4, you will consume much more battery capacity than if you travel the same speed for 15 minutes on Speed 3.

This simple technique can help you to get alot more enjoyment out of your purchase.

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I was thinking about this yesterday on my ride after you posted it. Some rides for me i’d way rather just blast it and consume as much power as i can get and go for pure performance. But for a lot of other rides speed 3 would be enough and would lessen my range anxiety i have for those last couple miles, especially climbing hills to get back home. Definitely a good thought to consider the economy of it.

I always thought , “oh, i want full control and full options available to me.” but it makes sense to balance with a limiter such as speed modes to aid you in achieving how and where you want to ride that day.

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