My mistake, I read it wrong.
1 Like
I would be down for a rolling chassisā¦ If you could make the rolling chassis just deck, enclosure thingy, and steering bars for front/back
1 Like
On a motorcycle, you will counter-steer to initiate the lean - I wonder how you would do that on this board. Or is this not needed here, because you have enough leverage over the board with your body weight?
Further, I am trying to understand, how the front wheel āknowsā how much to turn. I assume it is a function of the lean and spring tension. Does that work for all people of different weight, or might extremely light or heavy people need a different spring?
Edit: I skipped mentioning this:
I have been thinking about building a vehicle just like this, and I must say, @speedboard you just nailed it and created an awesome board! Thank you for doing this! I would like to buy one to support you, but I like to build my own stuff and the price tag is a bit high for a ātoken of appreciationā. If you decide to sell your raw rolling chasis, Iād be willing to pay 500 for that (even if it does not include wheels).
1 Like
Some thoughts (I am coming here from the perspective of this being a micro-motorcycle):
-
Traction:
As you accelerate, more force is applied to rear wheel than front wheel, so you can apply more torque in the back. Front wheel might skid. -
Front wheel skids:
These are real bad on a motorcycle (unlike four wheeled vehicles). Most riders will know how to handle rear wheel skids (or even play with them), but front wheel skids most often lead to a fall. -
Understeering (not all certain here):
Front wheel driven vehicles tend to understeer, making it harder to do tight turns when applying torque to front wheels. -
Braking:
Having a brake (speak motor) in the front would be great, as more pressure is applied to the front wheels when decelerating. Hitting the breaks hard and losing traction in the front wheel will likely lead to skids, followed by a faceplant.
just my 2 cents.
Fair enough - here it comes down to preference IMO.
2 Likes
In that diagram, youāre approaching the turn on the brakes, and you do a quick tilt to the left with your feet which starts causing your body to lean right. As your body begins leaning, your feet start tilting right so the wheel steers to the right to create a stable turn. As you reach the end of the turn, roll on the throttle, and your feet tilt the board further to the right to tilt your body from its leaned position back upright.
The amount the front wheel turns is dependent on the difference between the direction of your gravitational and centripetal forces combined and the actual lean angle of the board. The difference creates a force component that tries to turn the front wheel, which is predictably resisted by the spring. We plan on either making the spring tension adjustable or including additional springs with different spring rates so you can tune the board.
Alternatively, adjusting the spacing at the front axle changes the steering geometry to make it more or less sensitive, which may be more than enough to not have to swap out the spring. Weāll be doing more testing to determine what the best solution is. Both me (190 lbs) and my girlfriend (125 lbs) are able to ride the same board without issue, so it is very versatile.
7 Likes
Thank you, Iām glad you like it. Weāre definitely considering a rolling chassis, but need to prioritize complete boards at this point. I do think a spec chassis speedboard racing series would be fun though.
10 Likes
SPEEDBOX coming soon, hopefully!
8 Likes
The wheelbase at this point is driven by stance width. The spring is more about providing tension, but Iād like to test out dampening to see if it improves steering feel. It works amazingly well as is, though. Weāve got a bunch of future iterations to test out.
2 Likes
There are packaging considerations that could make two motors on the rear wheel better than a single large motor. Thatās something Iāll be playing with in the future. I do like the motorcycle parallel, having only the rear wheel powered, possibly with a disk brake on the front wheel.
1 Like
Iām considering creating some stretch goals for Kickstarter. What are some additional features youād like to see on a SPEEBOARD? What would shift you from wanting to build your own to wanting to buy a complete board?
1 Like
Bigger range, torque, and speed is what most people will say I think 
1 Like
If you knew there was a secret upgrade option under development with, say, 6 kW power, 24-36 miles range, and 40 mph top speed, would that be enticing?
9 Likes
Heheā¦ Yeah, probablyā¦ Bound up with build atm but that seems like a very very nice ideaā¦
1 Like
thats cool
Weird choice and questionable constructionā¦
something a little premium would be niceā¦
I feel like a lot of your development and production plan is focused on prototyping and experimenting with suppliers.
Wouldnāt make sense to have a kickstarter for a semi-finished product with a solid selection of factories to make your product?
1 Like
some simple stretch goals:
- foot straps
- all-terrain knobby tires
- set of different sprockets to gear for hill-climbing or speed
more complicated:
- even bigger tires
- front wheel disc brake controlled by same remote in tandem with rear tire
7 Likes
Thank you for the clarifications! I would love to see one IRL to understand the dynamics better.
TBH, a starting price tag of 1000-1500. And even then I would want to mod it, but then it is a more reasonable starting point.
But I think the DIY crowd might not be the ideal target customer for complete decks. I would target the motorcycle crowd, particularly with the upgraded version. if you can come up with something that is reliable and can go 50mph you might get people to sell their bikes. But that needs some serious safety upgrades and redundancy (like backup brakes if drivetrain/electronics break).
2 Likes
High end remote
2 Likes
+1
I think your target market for completes would love to see a remote with a slick digital display, and/or a display mounted on the board, like a DaveGA
Iām stoked to see your innovative product so well recieved by this bunch of scallywags
8 Likes
I donāt think you will have issues hitting high erpm values using v4+ HW, its about how smooth of a sinusoidal curve your motor phases get at higher speeds, directly dependent on the current sampling of the shunts.
1 Like