I tried to include pictures and links but unfortunately the forum says I can’t
Anyways, it was just a few photos of what the Front and Rear Waterborne Adapters look like. As well as how they function together. Hopefully this gives you a better idea as to what @Maven and I are trying to achieve with our ESK8.
The photos of the two adapters can be found on Waterborne’s site
And a very good explanation on how they work can be found on this youtube video:
“Waterborne Surf Adapters explained”
Notice how the rear wheels are essentially locked straight while the front wheels have an increased turning ability. This allows for the sharp “pivot” motion that surfers are used to, and keeps the board nice and stable at higher speeds.
So to cantilever the Revel Kit, you would need to fabircate an aluminum plate that has 4 bolt holes for the adapter, 4 bolt holes for the revel kit and one large cutout in the center for the kingpin.
You could do most of this with a hacksaw, step drillbit and a drill press. Or you could order it from an aluminum laser cutter or water jet cutter. If you work with aluminum yourself, wear ruber gloves and professional breathing aparatus to avoid absorbing or inhaling aluminum dust.
plenty of reasons: excercise, battery manage, to go when no battery, because is fun!
one could grab the board, ride it normally and go to some skatepark/interest place, turn it off, use it to pump and stay there for hours, turn it on and go back home.
motors on a surfskate can make “the endless wave” and as I said before:
I think Rebel with the adapter a great combo bc of being direct drive you can pump with no ressistance and also can have real wheels.
Seperating the drive from the trucks would not stop wheel bite. It would keep the drive parallell to the deck. However, your picture suggests that the the revel drive might have ample room to pivot without hitting the deck.
If you cantilever off the back of a pin tale there would be no wheel bite. No “Drive Bite” either.
I’m not saying it would be a great pumper or stable at speed. I’m just saying that if someone wanted to try waterborne adapters and the revel kit together that a cantilever would avoid additional risers and resolve some potential clearance problems between the deck and the drive.
And you never know. The waterborne revel may please the people who like waterborn adapters despite the reservations of all of us who have never tried one.
Or, like @ShutterShock says, with the Revel drive bolted dirctly to the back of the deck, the weight of the drive is going to make it much less likely that one wheel would lift off the ground.
There is no right answer. Also no harm in trying different configurations.
I think the biggest risk is seperating the drive from trucks. You would have to extend the length of 18 wires with 36 solder joints. If any of those joints breaks,it could damage the drive or the rider.
So i’m advising against anthnig that requires extending the wires.
You may be greatly overestimating the degree to which a direct drive system is “resistance free”
It is less resistance than belt drive. All electric skateboards are heavy relative to manual boards. Whether you are kicking or surf pumping or tic tacking, it is hard labor to propel yourself more than a block or so without battery power.
Its amusing that you have people who have never tried a revel kit conversing with people who have never tried a waterborne adapter. There is no common reference – not until one of you waterborne dudes gives it a try and reports back.
I think my biggest solution was to just add spacers and like @Maven said, fill the gap between the board with fitted and shaped insulation foam.
The front trucks would be mounted as follows:
Waterborne Surf Adapter
1 inch riser pad (or two 1/2 inch risers)
Trucks
The rear trucks is would be mounted as follows:
Waterborne Rail Adapter
1 inch riser pad (or two 1/2 inch risers)
Entire Revel drive unit
Would this work? I was thinking then you could just fill the gap between the board and the drive unit with1.5 inches of insulation foam. Which would be quite easy considering you can buy foam at 3/4 of an inch, trace the revel drive, cut out three pieces, glue them together, optionally spray paint for aesthetic and protection, and then slide it in the gap with a little bit of non-permanent adhesive to keep it nice and sturdy while riding.
You don’t need to fill the gap. Any size gap between the drive and the deck is golden. It prevents the drive from slaping and vibrating against the deck. A revel kit that is gapped away from the deck will be quieter and better suspended than one that is in contact with the deck.
For me personally, I don’t plan to use the Waterborne Adapters as a form of propulsion. The added weight of the drive unit and motor resistance would make that less than efficient and impractical. And so, the biggest plus to having it in correlation with a Revel Kit is not needing to pump at all. It’s essentially like a never ending “wave” that doesn’t require pumping in order to keep riding it. You’re allowed the opportunity to give it some throttle, gain some speed, either coast or carve a few out, and then repeat the entire way of your trip. Or, you can just long carve and not worry so much about having to pump real tightly in order to accelerate.
The reason I’m saying this is because when I first moved to SF, a colleague of mine suggested that I try his Loaded Chubby with Waterborne Adapters. I immediately fell in love with how well it emulates riding a real wave. My only concern was that it was less practical in commuting because of the lack of an additional source of propulsion. Pumping all the way to work was more of a hassle than it was fun. We had talked it over and said that it would be pretty much a perfect setup with something like a Revel Kit on it, which is why I had looked into Revel initially.
i have already tested the 'resistance-free thing" on a dual-hub-motors skateboard, and while not zero, it was enough to be pumped i think. (for reference it was a maxfind max2 i got for a week to test it)
¿do you think the revel kit will be the same more or less?
I was concerned because I’ve yet to examine a Revel Kit for myself in person, and wasn’t sure if the neck of the drive unit was sturdy enough when suspended by itself. I only mentioned filling in the gap with insulation foam to limit the amount of stress put on the neck of the drive unit, but hearing that it would actually be more beneficial leaving the gap makes this much easier for me
Revel kit is really kinda wrong for the rear waterborne rail IMHO. It’s a like bastardized hack job of things - frankenstein looking… Better off going full DIY with a separate battery enclosure and everything and some good hub motors - meepo or backfire being reputable. If only left to the front for the surf adapter, then it should be fine.
yep, i came to think the same. IMO the best is to use only the front adanter and NOT to use the rear adapter, just put a raiser there to compensate the extra height of the front adapter. that is what i said before:
but doing that will make a weird empty space between the deck and the battery, so…
So I’ll do a hard disagree with @Spade on his recommendation to go with hub motors instead of direct drive. Hub motors are crap, they last a year or less unless you are riding on perfectly smooth roads. Hub urethane feels aweful. One reason the hub motors might have less rolling resistance is that it is like rolling on steel wheels with elastic bands wrapped around them for cushioning. The harder the wheels, the lower the roling resistance.
The Revel kit is not perfect. But it does a few things really well. The battereis are small, light and swapable. That means you can travel light for short range and bring extra battereis for long range.
The remote, accelleration and braking are highly refined compared to everything else that I’ve tried. Some might disagree with that statement. I think most would agree.
You know if its the most important thing for you to have the drive seperate from the trucks and motor assembly then you could remove the trucks, cut the neck off the drive and throughbolt the drive to your deck. Then the Revel Kit would attach to any deck in the same hideous throughbolting style as the Mepo drives. The revel kit is designed so that you don’t have to drilll any extra holes. but if you really want extra holes all you need is a drill and a hacksaw to have it your way.
I’m not being sarchastic. I have cut the neck off of a landwheel drive in order to achieve a particular mouting location.
So I just realized that there is away you could use the rear surf adapter without lengthening the wires and to also have the revel kit mounted to the deck.
Step 1) Peel back the neck rubber
Step 2) Remove themachine screws that hold the truck to the drive
Step 3) Positioning the battery to the rear of the truck bolts, bolt the neck of the revel drive to the deck with the neck of the drive sanwiched between the deck and the rear surf adapter. You may or may not need to use a few risers to fill the recess in the neck.
Step 4) Now mount the trucks and drive assembly to the surf adapter in the normal orientation for rear trucks (180 degrees rotated from the original position relative to the drive). You should have about 1.5 to two inches of extra wire by running the wires direclty from the drive to the back of the trucks (instead of underneath and through the trucks.
The only problem left to solve is that your Revel kit will always start up in reverse. To fix that, disassemble the drive enclosure and reverse all of the motor and sensor wires left to right and right to left.
So to recap. Seperate the trucks form the drive. Mount the drive backwards so that the battery is to the rear of the trucks. Mount the drive and surfadapter to the board. Spin the trucks 180 degrees and run the wires straight from the drive to the trucks without assing underneath the base plate. This will give you some extra wire to work with.
Any specific reason you’re looking at a revel kit vs something like the torqueboards dd kit? Seems like the TB kit is a bit more configurable for what it seems you ultimately want the revel kit to do.
Its not the worst idea. The DIY DD hub assembly does have very flexible silicone wires and lots of length… But its a much more expensive route to travel. I think it will be $2000 USD by the time you get Vescs, batery, remote, enclosures, wheels and the drive assemble. Also, I don’t think it’s less work to do a DIY compared to seperateing the Revel Drive from it’s drive assembly.
But the silicone motor wires would be an advantage.
This sounds like a great plan. If you have the revel kit mounted properly it shouldn’t really slap very much. I put some extra insulation between mine and the deck because the stiff deck I picked had a microdrop. In addition you’ll need longer hardware, the given hardware is only just long enough for the drive on a flat deck.
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