Hi
i’ve been lurking in the shadows, siphoning away priceless knowledge, and i now have something that rolls and makes me smile, a lot, thank you all!
I’ve been skating for 34 years, jeez, i still skate bowls with our ol man posse pretty much each week, i had never even considered an electric board. My commute to work is under 2 miles but the traffic can be pretty lame, i spend at least 60% of it sitting on the motorbike at traffic lights, which in Texas summer is not a fun thing to do.
I considered push boarding into work but i’d be a stinky sweat mess, i saw a $400 “Electrify” your board kit and the seed was planted. I’d never ridden an electric board and had no idea what it’d be like, “can i ollie up curbs with it?” anyhoo, i started buying the parts i thought i needed and making the stuff i could, that was about 2 months ago, my wife is incredible, our spare room floor has become the tinker zone, i’ve been spending quite a while down there…
This is where i’m at so far, i’ve really enjoyed building (except enclosures, i haven’t made peace with those yet!), apologies for such a giant dump of info!
I wanted a kicktail so went for this Bamboo Craigslist Riviera deck with some Caliber V1’s at a very decent price. I was aiming to keep the wheelbase as short as possible because i wanted it to be maneuverable and feel light, was planning to drill new front truck holes and chop some nose off.
Sanded the graphics off (I don’t like reggae, i love it)
There was some concave, routed out a couple of plies where the Unity and Battery will go
2am, can’t sleep, “how do i attach the battery and Unity?” i wasn’t into the idea of them sitting in the enclosure and it taking all the weight so attaching velcro straps became the idea, next day i routed out slots to feed the velcro straps through.
“So the wires need to get from the motor to that orange controller thingy? and they don’t reach?”
Got some 12awg silicone wire, 3.5mm, 5mm bullets.
I quickly learned that i really suck at soldering, and it also makes me swear a lot.
I had some used Kaly NYC 205kv motors, chopped off the existing 5.5mm bullet connectors, soldered? on some 3.5mm bullets (i didn’t know that i could easily buy 5.5mm to 3.5mm extensions from TB), i made up some extension wires that i also thought i’d soldered well (at this point)
I spent a lot of time admiring LHB’s wiring solutions, wondering if i could route out any more ply to cleanly run the motor wires through this 7 ply deck, decided it’s probably a no go. I has some HDPE that i’d got free from Craigslist a while back “that’ll be handy one day” did i say my wife is amazing?
Cut and routed that into something vaguely resembling a tunnel riser
Ok, i need to make an enclosure, fiberglass, how hard can that be?
fill the gaps with modelling clay
cover wood in Butchers block conditioner, someone somewhere on the interwebs said resin won’t stick to it
Calmly lay everything out, breathe, proceed
first layer went well, my Zen calm approach slowly disintegrated as the corners and beautiful curves i’d shaped started lifting away, i looked like i’d been tarred and feathered but with resin and fiberglass, it was messy!
If anyone ever wants a cake decorated hit me up
walked away, came back the next day to look at the ugly lil monster i’d made, could have been worse, maybe? It was a bit thin so ran round the edges with hot glue to make a barrier then just poured a tonne of resin on top and also swirled round some dyes to really hone in my cake making skills…
Do not believe everything the internet tells you! (except this)
Butchers Block Conditioner does not stop resin sticking to wood, however many coats you put on,
i almost dislocated my shoulder trying to get this off, in the end i stood on it and pulled with all i had.
it luckily had some flex so folded it back in, there was hope?
there were still some very thin parts so ran a few strips on the inside, this was a lot easier than working on the outside, if i ever do attempt this again i may make a negative mould so you can work on the inside, a lot easier to push the corners in.
Used EZ Lock inserts to secure it.
i thought they were a great idea at the time, they are good but leave very little room for error, if your hole is slightly off or the angle of the insert isn’t inline with the deck it’s really tricky to screw each bolt in, i ended up enlarging the holes on the enclosure so i could put the bolts in at all the terrible angles i’d put the inserts…
Test flight 1, Deck 1
First time i have ever ridden an electric skateboard, holy F, not what i’d anticipated, the acceleration!
big smiles, my idea of shortening the wheelbase was put on hold, should i make this thing longer?!
I was happy with everything except there was quite a bit of flex if i put any weight on the kicktail, it would probably hold up but the idea of that snapping at speed got me straight back onto Craigslist.
Lesson 1 Don’t remove too much wood! More ply = more strength, less ply = less strength, dah
Deck 2 (apparently Rasta graphics are a thing)
$25 complete Sector 9 Bamboo, 9 ply, nice and stiff, no kicktail
Make a quick jig for the velcro slots (i may be doing this more than once again…)
It rode really well, no flex, though it has some camber and i wasn’t totally into my rear foot being on a slope towards oblivion, i need a kicktail, i really do…
Deck 3…
Ebay - Kicktail longboard - 39.5” x 9.5” - $23 delivered
Make an even better jig (i’m definitely going to be doing more of this)
this jig bolts to the truck holes so it’ll always be the straight along the board, cut slots so i can use it for different wheelbases.
Deck 3 interlude…
My soldering, was not as good as i’d thought… i was getting bad motor readings when running the Unity motor calibration, after removing the shrink tube on the motors i had 3 or 4 weak joints, i easily pulled the 5.5mm bullets off, “Learn to solder”
Plus i think i maybe messed up the motors as after i’d re-soldered the phase wires securely i was still getting bad motor readings, i ordered some TB 190kv’s as i wanted to trust this thing at 20+mph.
Modified the Boardnamics motor mounts;
I really like these, they fit very securely and square to the hanger.
i’m using a 265mm belts with 16T 36T pulleys, this brings the motor very close to the mount clamp.
i didn’t like the raw end of the bolt being right next to the phase wires
Flipped the bolt around (Could have sawn of the excess but would still be a bit too tight on the wires)
Not enough ground clearance with 80mm wheels (imo)
I had some 6mm Time-Serts, didn’t need to drill out the hole, the tap threaded straight on in there, hoorah
Made a new rear riser, idea was to run the wires protected all the way to the enclosure
Back to deck tres
Sand, make velcro and enclosure holes…
copy Earthwing Mini Glider tail
back street nose job
a little off the sides sir?
eyeball sand a bit of shape
bolt it all up for test flight
Feels solid and really like having the kicktail back, the enclosure was bugging me as i’d made it a little too snug inside so fitting the Unity, wires and receiver felt a bit sketchy, plus trying to line up the enclosure bolts with the inserts wasn’t quick.
I looked at the MBoards 1023p enclosure but that looked too much like a mega sized take out container, ordered one from UnikBoards in France
I’d got a Verreal board from Craigslist for $20, his dad had ridden it into a lake and one of the motors didn’t work, the esc was only driving one motor so i got 2 hub motors and 10s2p (i think?) battery for $20 
Whilst i waited for the enclosure from France i bolted together “The Grasshopper” to feel out what commuting would be like.
that was fun, really like how clean hub motors are, i had no issues with speed or steep hills, but going over Texas size pavement cracks wasn’t that great.
Enclosure arrives;
must remember to convert mm to " and not just assume it’ll fit, it didn’t fit… ordered take out enclosure from MBoards, it fits, i still suck at putting inserts in so took them out and filled all holes with resin, again…
(I was calling the board Stubb-e as i’d lopped the nose off, i think it’s now going to be Holey Rolla as it has so many holes in it)
is anyone still here? jeez i ramble on, sorry!
I’ve been commuting to and from work for the last 2 weeks, the 80mm Kegels ride smooth but i really need to be super aware when cracks or steps confront me, i got some used 100mm MBS wheels, quickly shipped, thank you @ZachTetra!, they’re a little bit hard but i can relax more and hit cracks and chasms with speed, much fun!
I like how easy it is to swap the Unity from one board to another while it’s in the Pelican case, i’m half tempted to cover the battery in a resin shell so they can both just be strapped onto whatever deck i “need” to try out, started making a cleaner enclosure for the Unity just in case i go that route, i mean what do you do once you’ve finished your build? got to keep busy…
